# UNESCO World Heritage in Danger list reaches 56 sites as war in Gaza threatens Palestinian heritage and the Sudan civil war devastates Meroe > The UNESCO World Heritage in Danger list expanded to 56 sites in 2024, following the addition of Ukrainian properties under Russian bombardment, Palestinian sites in Gaza including the Church of the Nativity and Old City of Bethlehem, and reports of severe damage to the Meroe pyramids and old Khartoum in Sudan's civil war; climate change, armed conflict, and development pressure were identified as the three primary threats driving new entries, with coral reef World Heritage sites under acute bleaching pressure from 2023-2024 ocean temperatures **Meta:** type: story · date: 2024-07-25 · heads: 暮らしはどう変わるか, 長期戦 · 7 takes · 5 lenses · 2 regions ## Summary The UNESCO World Heritage in Danger list stood at 56 sites as of the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee held in New Delhi in June-July 2024. The Committee reviewed emergency situations affecting World Heritage properties in Ukraine (two sites inscribed on the Danger List in 2023 following Russian bombardment), Palestine (sites in Gaza, including heritage in Bethlehem, under threat from Israeli military operations), and Sudan (Meroe pyramids and Omdurman historic district damaged and inaccessible due to the civil war since April 2023). The Committee also addressed the climate threat to coral reef World Heritage sites, following the 2023-2024 global marine heatwave that produced unprecedented bleaching across the Great Barrier Reef, the Caribbean, and the Red Sea. New inscriptions at the New Delhi session added 24 new properties to the World Heritage List, bringing the total to 1,223 sites in 168 countries. ## The split UNESCO's management of politically sensitive cases, particularly the Gaza situation, required navigating member state divisions: Arab League member states and the Palestinian Authority called for immediate inscription of Gaza heritage sites on the Danger List and condemnation of attacks on cultural property; Israel contested the framing and argued that Hamas's use of civilian infrastructure complicated the application of international humanitarian law. On the climate front, Australia's continued lobbying to keep the Great Barrier Reef off the Danger List despite repeated severe bleaching events was criticised by environmental scientists and international conservation organisations as a political distortion of a scientific assessment process. ICOMOS's independent assessments of both the conflict and climate situations were more alarming than the Committee's formal resolutions. ## By the numbers - 56: sites on the World Heritage in Danger list as of 2024 - 1,223: total World Heritage sites in 168 countries (after 2024 additions) - 24: new inscriptions at the 2024 New Delhi session - 2: Ukrainian sites on the Danger List (inscribed 2023) - ~80%: proportion of Great Barrier Reef surveyed reefs that experienced bleaching in 2024 - 2023: year Sudan's civil war began, cutting access to Meroe and Omdurman heritage ## Why it matters The [World Heritage](/ja/entity/world-heritage) Danger List's expansion to 56 sites reflects a convergence of three accelerating threats: armed conflict in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and Ethiopia; climate change driving bleaching, desertification, and sea-level rise affecting natural and coastal heritage sites; and development pressure from infrastructure, tourism, and urbanisation. The List functions as an international accountability mechanism, but its political management, where states with contested sites often lobby successfully to avoid inscription, means it systematically underrepresents the actual scale of endangered heritage. The simultaneous destruction of Palestinian and Ukrainian heritage by Russian and Israeli military operations in 2023-2024 tested the international community's capacity to apply consistent heritage protection standards across politically divergent conflicts. ## What to watch - Whether the 2025 WHC session (Sofia, Bulgaria) inscribes any Palestinian heritage sites from Gaza on the Danger List - Whether Sudan's Meroe pyramids and Omdurman sites are formally inscribed on the Danger List following ICOMOS damage documentation - Great Barrier Reef bleaching assessment for 2025 and whether UNESCO revisits the Danger List question under Australian political pressure - Whether the Hague Convention on cultural property in armed conflict produces any prosecutorial action related to heritage destruction in Gaza or Ukraine ## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens) ### UN cultural organisation; operates the World Heritage programme and maintains the official Danger List - **UNESCO World Heritage Committee** (International, en) — UNESCO's World Heritage Committee at its 46th session in New Delhi (June-July 2024) maintained the World Heritage in Danger list at 56 sites, including two Ukrainian properties added in 2023 following Russian bombardment. The Committee received emergency reports on damage to Palestinian heritage sites in Gaza, including sites listed under the State of Palestine, and noted preliminary reports of damage to Sudan's World Heritage sites including Gebel Barkal and the Meroe pyramids. The Committee also renewed its warning that coral reef World Heritage sites globally were under acute threat from the 2023-2024 marine heatwave, which produced unprecedented bleaching across the Great Barrier Reef, the Caribbean, and the Red Sea. > "UNESCO WHC 2024: Danger List at 56 sites; Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan heritage under active threat; coral reef WHC sites facing unprecedented 2023-2024 bleaching." Source: https://whc.unesco.org/en/danger/ ### International specialist art and cultural heritage press; detailed coverage of the WHC session decisions, endangered site assessments, and new inscriptions - **The Art Newspaper** (United Kingdom, en) — The Art Newspaper reported from the New Delhi WHC session, documenting that the Committee received satellite imagery assessment of damage to Gaza's heritage sites including the historic centre of Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity, inscribed under Palestine in 2012, following Israeli military operations. UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay called for respect for cultural heritage under international humanitarian law. The Art Newspaper also reported on the Sudan situation, where the civil war that broke out in April 2023 had severely damaged Omdurman's historic district and created access constraints preventing documentation of damage to Meroe's pyramids. > "Art Newspaper: Gaza Church of the Nativity site under threat; Sudan civil war damages Omdurman historic district; Meroe access prevented by conflict." Source: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/07/25/unesco-world-heritage-list-endangered-sites-2024 ### UNESCO's advisory body on built heritage and monuments; technical assessment of heritage sites in conflict zones and advice to the World Heritage Committee - **ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites)** (International, en) — ICOMOS's Heritage and Conflicts programme documented that 2024 was the most damaging year for World Heritage sites since the programme began systematic conflict monitoring. ICOMOS noted that Ukraine's Kyiv UNESCO sites (the Saint-Sophia Cathedral and related monastic buildings, inscribed in 1990) had sustained blast damage and vibration damage from Russian aerial attacks, and that ICOMOS had deployed emergency technical teams to assess and advise on stabilisation. ICOMOS also published a preliminary damage assessment for Gaza's built heritage based on satellite imagery, finding that several historically significant sites in Rafah, Gaza City, and Bethlehem had been heavily damaged or destroyed. > "ICOMOS: 2024 most damaging year for WHC sites from conflict; Ukraine's Kyiv sites sustained blast damage; satellite imagery shows Gaza historic sites heavily damaged." Source: https://www.icomos.org/en/what-we-do/focus/heritage-and-conflicts ### Leading science journal; reported on the unprecedented 2024 coral bleaching event affecting the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage site and global coral reef heritage - **Nature (Great Barrier Reef bleaching 2024)** (International, en) — Nature reported that the Great Barrier Reef experienced its fifth mass bleaching event in 2024, driven by ocean temperatures that exceeded the 2016 bleaching record in some zones. The bleaching affected approximately 80% of reefs surveyed by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the highest proportion in the monitoring record. UNESCO's 2022 decision not to inscribe the Great Barrier Reef on the World Heritage in Danger list, under Australian government lobbying, was renewed as a point of controversy following the 2024 bleaching data. > "Nature: Great Barrier Reef 2024 bleaching affected ~80% of surveyed reefs, the highest on record; UNESCO's Danger List exclusion renewed as controversy." Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01095-2 ### unlabelled - **World Heritage Outlook (IUCN)** (International, en) — Source: https://worldheritageoutlook.iucn.org/ - **UNESCO World Heritage List statistics** (International, en) — Source: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/stat - **Blue Shield International (cultural heritage in armed conflict)** (International, en) — Source: https://www.blueshieldchampion.org/ ## Across the graph - Entities: World Heritage --- Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/ja/n/world-heritage-danger-list-2024