International Council on Monuments and Sites

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The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) (French: Conseil international des monuments et des sites) is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the world. ICOMOS was founded in 1965 as a result of the Venice Charter of 1964 and offers advice to UNESCO on World Heritage Sites.

The idea behind ICOMOS dates to the Athens Conference on the restoration of historic buildings in 1931, organized by the International Museums Office. The Athens Charter of 1931 introduced the concept of international heritage. In 1964, the Second Congress of Architects and Specialists of Historic Buildings, meeting in Venice, adopted 13 resolutions. The first created the International Charter on the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites, better known as Venice Charter; the second, put forward by UNESCO, created ICOMOS to carry out this charter.

ICOMOS currently has over 7500 members. With rare exceptions, each member must be qualified in the field of conservation, and a practicing landscape architect, architect, archaeologist, town planner, engineer, administrator of heritage, art historian or archivist. Its international headquarters are in Paris. The UK headquarters of ICOMOS are in London. The Australian branch was formed in 1976.^[1]

[edit] National Committees

National Committees are subsidiary organizations created in the countries which are members of UNESCO. They bring together individual and institutional members and offer them a framework for discussion and an exchange of information. ICOMOS currently has over 110 National Committees. Each National Committee adopts its own rules of procedure and elaborates its own program according to the goals and aims of ICOMOS.

ICOMOS National Committees have been formed in the following countries:

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• ICOMOS
• ICOMOS-UK
• Australia ICOMOS
• US/ICOMOS
• ICOMOS Norway
• ICOMOS Aotearoa/New Zealand
• Friends of World Heritage Non-profit organization that identifies projects that support local tourism enterprises that can help alleviate poverty and conserve World Heritage sites.