Providing for compliance measures within the terms and structure of an MEA may further its implementation. Such provisions can involve a variety of measures, including:
- seeking to ensure that the terms of the MEA are set forth in clear and unambiguous language so that lack of understanding does not hinder compliance;
- requiring Parties to report on and monitor compliance;
- setting terms for mechanisms to address and remedy non-compliance; and
- empowering the MEA’s Secretariat (the body responsible for administering the MEA) to periodically assess and evaluate compliance with the MEA and to consider measures aimed at improving compliance.
Such measures may be spelled out in the MEA, or the MEA may simply direct and empower the Conference of the Parties (COP) to develop such measures and mechanisms by a certain date or as soon as feasible. This latter approach may be followed in instances where the need for compliance measures and mechanisms has been recognised, but the specifics have yet to be studied or agreed upon. The structure and scope of the resulting measures and mechanisms will then later be adopted by an official COP decision.