“Happy to announce that India has won the seat on World Heritage Committee from the Asia Pacific region. I thank all our supporters for leading us to this historic win,” Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi said in a tweet on Thursday.

India to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) tweeted that “India gets elected to the World Heritage Committee with 142 votes for a four year term from 2021-25!” On Nov 17, India won the re-election to the executive board of the UNESCO for the 2021-25 term.

The Committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States parties.

“It has the final say on whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List. It examines reports on the state of conservation of inscribed properties and asks States Parties to take action when properties are not being properly managed. It also decides on the inscription or deletion of properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger,” UNESCO said.

The World Heritage Committee meets once a year, and consists of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention elected by their General Assembly.

Last week, India won re-election to the Executive Board of the UN cultural organization for the 2021-25 term with 164 votes.

The UNESCO Executive Board is one of the three constitutional organs of the UN agency (the others being the General Conference and the Secretariat) and it is elected by the General Conference. Acting under the authority of the General Conference, the Board examines the programme of work for the organisation and corresponding budget estimates submitted to it by the Director-General. It consists of 58 member states each with a four-year term of office, according to the UNESCO website.