The General Assembly,

1. Having examined document LHE/20/8.GA/11 with its Annex, as well as document LHE/19/14.COM/14,
2. Recalling Decisions 13.COM 6, 13.COM 10 and 14.COM 14,
3. Reaffirms the need for a global reflection on the listing and follow-up mechanisms of the 2003 Convention;
4. Further reaffirms the need for further increasing efforts in order to reach geographically more representative, balanced and culturally diversified lists;
5. Renews its gratitude to the Government of Japan for its contribution to support the global reflection on the listing mechanisms of the 2003 Convention;
6. Takes note of the alternative modality for conducting the category VI preliminary experts’ meeting and the intention to update the fifteenth session of the Committee on these changes;
7. Further takes note of Decision 13.COM.15 of the Committee to determine the number of files that can be treated in the course of the 2020 and 2021 cycles by 50 files per cycle and welcomes the efforts of the Secretariat to increase this number to 60 for the 2021 cycle;
8. Recommends to the Committee, in line with the reflection process on the listing mechanisms, to consider the possibility of increasing this number to include all files submitted by States Parties for the 2022-2023 cycles;
9. Also takes note of the revised provisional timeline for the reflection on the listing mechanisms of the 2003 Convention, as contained in the Annex to this Resolution, including the open-ended intergovernmental working group scheduled for June 2021;
10. Requests the Secretariat to take full advantage of online consultations enabling more experts to participate in order to collect as widely as possible comments and suggestions;
11. Recalls paragraph 11 of Decision 14.COM 14 which emphasizes that a revision of the Operational Directives is necessary in order to establish clear and specific procedures and criteria for the removal of an element from a list and the transfer of an element from one list to another;
12. Further requests that the Secretariat report to the sixteenth session of the Committee on the progress achieved in the reflection process, in particular on the results of the aforementioned working group.