The World Heritage Committee routinely receives information about the state of conservation of WH properties from State Parties or ICOMOS or IUCN mission reports. While State Party Reports are often incomplete, outdated or even incorrect, Advisory Missions suffer from being too short and understaffed in order to fully grasp the local situation. The author will show that the observations of civil society must be brought in as checks and balances to let the WH Committee have a full understanding of the dynamics that affect World Heritage Properties. For many years, UNESCO has been requiring the participation of local communities in all procedures of the World Heritage Convention - from tentative lists and nominations to management and monitoring. However, State Parties remain reluctant to implement this - both on the site level and on the Convention level. In response to this situation, World Heritage Watch has been founded as a global network of civil society actors whose goal is to contribute to the safeguarding of World Heritage Sites by bringing information to the attention of the WH Committee, and to strengthen the role of civil society in the proceedings of the World Heritage Convention. Based on practical experience from the field and four years of activity within the organization, the presentation will explain what civil society has achieved, suggest where the challenges are and how they can be met, and provide an unvarnished outlook on the future of the World Heritage Convention.