Kyoto Protocol
Article 18 of the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC required the COP, serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol(COP/MOP), to approve at its first session “procedures and mechanisms” to determine and address cases of non-compliance with the Protocol. Considerable progress was made at COP7 in Marrakech, 2001, and the procedures were adopted.
Montreal Protocol
Article 8 of this MEA called on the Parties at their first meeting to “consider and approve procedures and institutional mechanisms for determining non-compliance with the provisions of this Protocol and for treatment of Parties to be in non-compliance.” A mechanism to monitor and assist States in non-compliance (the “Implementation Committee”) was subsequently established by the Parties and has operated effectively for over a decade.
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
The text of CITES goes further than a general enabling provision and expressly contains – in Article XII on International measures – cooperative procedures and institutional mechanisms for dealing with possible non-compliance. This text is further elaborated by resolution adopted by the Conference of the Parties [e.g., Resolution Conf. 11.3 (g[Rev.] COP13) and Resolution Conf. 12.8 (Rev. COP13)] as well as related CoP decisions and specific cases of application.
Following a decision taken at the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2002, work began on a draft set of Guidelines on Compliance with the Convention. A Working Group on Compliance, established by the Standing Committee in 2004 to finalize the Guidelines, met several times on the margins of CoP13 (2004) and SC53 (2005) and will next report at SC54 (2006). The draft Guidelines address: objectives; general principles; various bodies and their tasks; general promotion, monitoring, and reporting of compliance; Party-specific facilitation of compliance; identification and addressing of non-compliance and restoring of compliance; and a review of overall compliance.
For more information, see http://www.cites.org/ or contact cites@unep.ch
Convention on Biological Diversity
At the 2002 Conference of the Parties to the CBD, the COP, as part of its regular review of overall implementation of the CBD’s obligations, examined special difficulties of compliance faced by Parties. It emerged with a Strategic Plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity to guide its further implementation at the national, regional, and global levels.
Two years later, at its seventh meeting (February, 2004), the Conference of the Parties to the CBD established an Ad Hoc g[Open-ended] Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention with the following mandate:
- a) to consider progress in the implementation of the Convention and the Strategic Plan and achievements leading up to the 2010 target of reducing the rate of biodiversity loss in line with the multi-year programme of work for the Conference of the Parties;
- b) to review the impacts and effectiveness of existing processes under the Convention as part of the overall process for improving the operations of the Convention and implementation of the Strategic Plan; and
- c) to consider ways and means of identifying and overcoming obstacles to the effective implementation of the Convention (decision VII/30, paragraph 24).
For more information, see http://www.biodiv.org or contact secretariat@biodiv.org
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
Article 34 of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity provides that the Conference of the Parties to the Convention serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (COP-MOP) shall, at its first meeting, consider and approve cooperative procedures and institutional mechanisms to promote compliance with the provisions of the Protocol and to address cases of non-compliance. The procedures and institutional mechanisms on compliance were adopted at the first meeting of COP-MOP, held from 23-27 February 2004, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Decision I/7 established a Compliance Committee, pursuant to Article 34.
For more information, see http://www.biodiv.org or contact secretariat@biodiv.org