Nomination process

The extraordinary story and cultural heritage of the Colonies of Benevolence must never be lost. Several different partners (three provinces, eight municipalities and numerous other organisations and authorities in Belgium and the Netherlands) have been working together since 2012 to nominate the Colonies of Benevolence for inscription on the World Heritage List.

DECISION BY THE WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE, 2021

On the annual international convention in Fuzhou (China) (due to Covid-19 pandemic postponed in 2020 an in 2021 organised in the form of an online meeting), the World Heritage Committee (21 delegates from the countries that signed the World Heritage Convenion) decided to follow the advice ('inscribe') of ICOMOS. The Colonies of Benevolence were recognised for their unique value at an international level and were thus inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

SUBMISSION OF ADAPTED NOMINATION FILE, 2020

On Monday 20 January 2020, Flemish Minister Matthias Diependaele and Dutch Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven signed the adapted voluminous nomination file for the Colonies of Benevolence at the former Wortel Colony farm in Belgium. Flanders will submit the file on behalf of both the Flemish and Dutch partners. The assesment of the nominationfile was scheduled at the World Heritage Committee in Fuzhou (China) in the summer of 2020. However, the corona pandemic also has an impact on this decision-making process. Due to the worldwide outbreak of Covid-19, the members of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee have decided to move the annual meeting to a - yet to be determined - later date.  

On Monday 20 January, Flemish Minister Matthias Diependaele, Dutch Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven, Drenthe Provincial Vice-governor Cees Bijl and Antwerp Provincial Vice-governors Kathleen Helsen and Jan De Haes explored the Wortel Colony by bicycle. For more information, see the news item on the submission of the adapted nomination file to the two ministers.

What will happen if the Colonies of Benevolence become a World Heritage Site?

What will happen if the Colonies of Benevolence become a World Heritage Site? For the sites themselves, it will be a boost. They will acquire star status, so to speak. A World Heritage listing may well attract more tourists, business activity and investors to the sites and expand their international networks. It will also offer them something of a guarantee that they will be ‘protected’.

But World Heritage status is not meant to preserve the sites under glass. They will not become open air museums that can never be changed. Their outstanding universal value must be safeguarded, however. Any new development must be consistent with the character and capacity of the colony in question. If the Colonies of Benevolence were to be protected as a World Heritage Site, it would be the crowning achievement of years of dedicated effort by many local residents, organisations and authorities.

The seven Colonies of Benevolence will continue cooperating in the future to tell their shared story of poverty relief through farming and social elevation. They will do so with their many active partners. There are now four visitor centres that tell their story: the experimental colony  in Frederiksoord, Ommerschans, Colony 5-7 Visitor Centre in Merksplas, and the National Prison Museum in Veenhuizen.

ICOMOS Advisory Process 2019 part I

ICOMOS Advisory Process 2019 part II

ICOMOS Advisory Process 2019 part III

DECISION BY THE WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE, 2018

At its annual session in Manama, Bahrain, the World Heritage Committee (21 delegates from countries that have signed the World Heritage Convention) decided to reject ICOMOS’s recommendation to defer the nomination. Instead, the Committee referred the nomination back to the parties for adaptation and invited them to resubmit within three years.

ASSISTANCE FROM ICOMOS

At its 2018 session, the World Heritage Committee decided that the Colonies of Benevolence potentially merited World Heritage inscription. By issuing a ‘referral’ decision, the Committee invited the Netherlands and Belgium to adapt and resubmit the nomination file within three years. One of the recommendations in the decision was to allow ICOMOS to assist in improving the nomination. Cooperation with ICOMOS commenced in January 2019. The intensive exchange of views and advisory sessions were followed by additional research, knowledge-sharing between various experts, and an advisory mission to the seven original sites. This culminated in an advisory report by ICOMOS in which it expressed its conviction that the free and unfree colonies are part of a single system of poverty relief by means of domestic colonisation. The system was widely imitated internationally and formed the basis for a unique social experiment. ICOMOS remains critical about the integrity of the landscape, however, and has asked the Netherlands and Belgium to adapt the nomination on this point. The landscape is intact at those sites where the original colony landscape and its function as an agricultural settlement are visible and any buildings that were added later reinforce this integrity. Specifically, this means that only the colonies of Frederiksoord (NL), Wilhelminaoord/Vierdeparten (NL), Wortel (B) and Veenhuizen (NL) will be nominated.

NOMINATION FILE SUBMITTED, 2017

The nomination file was presented to the World Heritage Committee in Paris on 20 January 2017. Experts at the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) examined the file, visited the various colonies and recommended that the World Heritage Committee defer the nomination (in other words, ask the parties to completely revise the nomination).

NOMINATION BY DUTCH AND FLEMISH GOVERNMENTS, 2016

On 2 December 2016, Flemish Prime Minister Geert Bourgeois, who was also responsible for Foreign Policy and Immovable Cultural Heritage, announced his Government’s decision to submit the nomination file for the Colonies of Benevolence for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. During an event in Veenhuizen on 21 December 2016, Dutch Minister of Culture Jet Bussemaker announced that she would be submitting the nomination file on behalf of the Netherlands.

ASSEMBLING THE NOMINATION FILE, 2015-2016

A team began assembling the nomination file in May 2015 and worked straight through to the January 2017 submission deadline. After several visits by and advisory meetings with international experts, the nomination file began to take shape. The team began to formulate answers to some key questions, for example: What makes the Colonies of Benevolence unique? How does this uniqueness manifest itself physically in the landscape? Where are the precise boundaries of the World Heritage sites? How will the partners preserve the outstanding universal value of the colonies in the future? All this and more formed the basis for the nomination file, which can be found here.

INSCRIPTION ON DUTCH AND FLEMISH TENATIVE LISTS, 2015

To qualify for World Heritage status, the Colonies of Benevolence first had to be included on the Tentative Lists of both the Netherlands and Belgium. Because it had faith in the file, the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency placed the Colonies of Benevolence at the top of the Netherlands’ list of potential World Heritage properties in May 2015. Belgium followed suit in the same year.

STUDIES BY EXPERTS AND STAKEHOLDERS, 2012-2015

Various expert groups and consultative bodies investigated whether the Colonies of Benevolence are in fact unique in the world, and in what way. People who live or operate businesses on the sites were involved in this process. Several dedicated liaison groups were founded to keep local residents and businesses up to date and to represent their interests.

LAUNCH, 2012

July 2012 saw the signing of the Merksplas Charter, in which all stakeholders – fourteen partners in all – committed to preparing the nomination file as a group.