Second meeting of Compliance Committee
The second meeting of the Compliance Committee took place from 6 to 8 February 2006. The meeting discussed several issues relating to the rules of procedure of its meeting and adopted recommendations for submission to COP-MOP/3.
The meeting also analyzed the interim national reports and identified issues that need due attention in order to ensure a good start in the effective implementation of its requirements and the achievement of its objective. The Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH) was another source of information in which the Committee identified some general issues that affect compliance with the requirements of making various types of information available to the BCH.
The Committee submitted all its recommendations to the third meeting of the COP-MOP. The latter considered the recommendations and adopted decision BS-III/1. Several other recommendations were also considered and integrated in other decisions of COP-MOP/3 taking into account their relevance.
Third meeting of Compliance Committee
The
third meeting of the Compliance Committee took place from 5 to 7 March 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Compliance Committee reviewed information compiled by the Secretariat on experience of other multilateral environmental agreements regarding measures concerning cases of repeated non-compliance. It requested the Secretariat to revise the document in accordance with the comments and submit it to the next meeting of the Committee. The Committee followed up on issues arising from its second meeting including the issue of conflict of interest under rule 11 of the rules of procedure, and reviewing general issues of compliance and possible lessons learned from analyzing the interim national reports. It also considered how the Committee might contribute to the upcoming review process of the effectiveness of the Protocol in general and the procedures and mechanisms on compliance, in particular in the context of Article 35 of the Protocol and decision BS-III/15 of the third meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol. For details see
the report of the meeting contained in document UNEP/CBD/BS/CC/3/3.
Fourth meeting of Compliance Committee
The
fourth meeting of the Compliance Committee took place from 21 to 23 November 2007 in Montreal. The Committee reviewed general issues of compliance on the basis of the information made available by Parties through their first national reports submitted four years after the entry into force of the Protocol. The Committee also refined further its
report on experiences of other multilateral environmental agreements regarding measures concerning repeated cases of non-compliance. It decided to submit to the upcoming fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol a
report that consolidates the work and recommendations of its third and fourth meetings.
COP-MOP 4 considered the
report of the Compliance Committee as well as the Committee’s document on ‘Further Information and Experience Regarding Cases of Repeated Non-Compliance under the Compliance Mechanisms of Other Multilateral Environmental Agreements’ (document
UNEP/CBD/BS/COP-MOP/4/2/Add.1). COP-MOP integrated many of the recommendations of the Committee into its
BS-IV/1 as well as other decisions as relevant. Among other things,
decision BS-IV/1 reminded each Party of its obligation to adopt domestic measures to address illegal transboundary movements of living modified organisms and to report the occurrence of such movements to the BCH. The Parties also decided to postpone consideration or, as appropriate, adoption of measures on repeated cases of non-compliance and encouraged the Committee to meet less than twice a year, within the budget adopted in
BS-IV/7. The decision on compliance also invited Parties to submit to the Secretariat, prior to the fifth meeting of COP-MOP, views on how the supportive role of the Compliance Committee could be improved.
Fifth meeting of the Compliance Committee
The
Compliance Committee held its fifth meeting from 19 to 21 November 2008 in, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Committee considered a review prepared by the Chairperson of the Committee on the outcomes of the fourth meeting of the COP-MOP regarding compliance
(UNEP/CBD/BS/CC/5/INF/2). It reviewed, among other things, the extent to which the recommendations from its two last meetings had been considered and adopted by the Parties to the Protocol at their fourth meeting. The Committee also agreed upon a work plan for its meetings that may be held prior to COP-MOP 5. It further reviewed general issues of compliance based on a revised analysis of the first national reports conducted by the Secretariat three months after COP-MOP 4. The Committee recognized the increase in the number of national reports received by the Secretariat. However, it still expressed its concern on the low reporting rate of Parties to the Protocol and requested the Secretariat to seek information from Parties that had not yet submitted their first national reports on the reasons on why they did not do so and to make that information available at a later stage. For details see the report of the meeting in document
UNEP/CBD/BS/CC/5/4.
Sixth meeting of the Compliance Committee
The
Compliance Committee held its sixth meeting from 4 to 6 November 2009 in Montreal, Canada. The Committee considered issues related with reporting obligation on the basis of a document on reporting rates under other multilateral environmental agreements. It also considered general issues of compliance with the obligation of Parties to make information available to the Biosafety Clearing-House. The Committee agreed, on a preliminary basis, to a number of points for further consideration and recommendations for possible submission for the fifth meeting of the Parties to the Protocol. The Committee also considered whether it had a mandate to receive and consider a submission made by a non-governmental organization alleging non-compliance of a Party with its obligations under the Protocol. It concluded that it has no mandate to consider the submission because section IV of the compliance procedures adopted in the annex to decision
BS-I/7 permits only a Party to trigger the procedures with respect to itself or with respect to another Party. For details see the report of the meeting in document
UNEP/CBD/BS/CC/6/4.