There are now more than 1,100 ‘world heritage sites’ on the World Heritage List. With this recognition, Belgium now has 16 registrations. The aim of the 1972 World Heritage Convention is to better preserve heritage that is of unique and universal value to humanity for future generations.
In a response, Flemish Minister of Immovable Heritage Matthias Diependaele (N-VA) says that the commemoration in Flanders is “a living tradition that is now part of our identity”, referring to the Last Post that takes place every evening at the Menin Gate in Ypres. resounds. “It is so important that we continue to tell the story of the First World War: a story that connects people from all over the world with each other and with our region. The large number of memorial tourists who visit the Westhoek every year shows that we tell a universal story. Flanders is putting itself on the map with this message of peace,” the minister said in a press release.
France, Wallonia and Flanders have been working on the proposal for more than fifteen years. It was submitted to the World Heritage Committee for the first time in 2018, but it was deemed not to be ripe at the time. Commemorating war remains a sensitive matter and the committee insisted that there should first be an extensive reflection and vision on the world heritage recognition of places linked to recent conflicts, according to the Diependaele cabinet. But at the beginning of this year, the World Heritage Committee gave the green light and the file was allowed to be re-examined.
One of the 27 Flemish locations is the Menin Gate in Ypres, one of the memorials for the missing of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
