First launched in 1997, the Register is a list of documentary heritage of world significance. It aims to raise awareness among the public, memory institutions, governmental, non-governmental and other stakeholders of the need to create a supportive policy environment for the protection, promotion, access and utilization of documentary heritage as a whole.
The call for nominations for the cycle will be published on the Memory of the World website on 30 July 2021, with nominations needing to be received by 30 November 2021 for consideration as part of this cycle.
An online platform will be made available for the submission of nominations as part of the call. Alternatively, nominators may fill out and submit either electronically or in hard copy, beginning on 30 July, the nomination form.
In line with the revised General Guidelines, nominations must be submitted by Member States of UNESCO through their National Commission for UNESCO or, in the absence of a National Commission, the relevant government body in charge of relations with UNESCO, involving, if one exists, the relevant national Memory of the World committee. They may also be submitted by international organizations as set out in the General Guidelines. For practical reasons, nominations are limited to two per country in each two-year cycle, not including nominations submitted by multiple countries.
Nominations will be evaluated on a set of criteria, including authenticity, integrity and world significance, and must be accompanied by a 'statement of significance' that outlines the impact and importance of the documents to the memory of the world. Further information on the nomination process and inscription criteria is available in the General Guidelines.
In order to ensure representation of all regions for inscriptions on the Register, the Secretariat will support Member States in their efforts to identify items of documentary heritage for possible inscription on the Register. It will also provide technical advice on preparing and submitting nominations, in close collaboration with the Memory of the World Programme's network of national and regional committees, as well as offer regional consultations on possible informal tentative lists as part of national reporting on the implementation of the UNESCO 2015 Recommendation concerning the preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage including in digital form.
