A/AC.237/59
[located on Vol. 1]

Title
Procedural and legal matters. Consideration of the establishment of a multilateral consultative process for the resolution of questions regarding implementation (Article 13). Note by the interim secretariat.

Full text (PDF)
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Notes
Item 5 (b) of the provisional agenda

Abstract
During the third, fourth and fifth sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, discussions took place in Working Group II with regard to the establishment of a procedure under the Convention whereby questions regarding implementation could be resolved amongst the Parties to the Convention. Owing to the heavy workload of the Committee and time constraints, completion of a procedure for inclusion in the Convention was not feasible. It was, therefore, decided that Article 13 would provide for the possibility of establishing such a process once the Convention entered into force.

Sections II - VII of the present note cover the following points:
- Section II briefly reports on the discussions that took place during the negotiations of the Committee at its third and fourth sessions;
- Section III attempts to describe the rationale behind a multilateral consultative process;
- Section IV examines the scope of application of such a process in relation to the provisions of the Convention;
- Section V looks at the relationship between a multilateral consultative process, the review of national communications within the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), and the dispute settlement regime established pursuant to Article 14 of the Convention;
- Section VI enumerates elements that could be considered in the design of a multilateral consultative process;
- Section VII concludes by presenting possible options to the Committee for recommendation to the Conference of the Parties at its first session (COP 1), to enable it to undertake the work relating to this issue.

The interim secretariat has reviewed several non-compliance, dispute resolution and implementation review procedures, for example, the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Second Sulphur Emissions Protocol to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) dispute resolution panels, and international labour and human rights conventions. The secretariat is at present preparing a review of these procedures which will be issued as an addendum to this note in due course. This material is intended to serve as an initial background document for discussion by the Committee and for future discussions on this issue by the Conference of the Parties (COP). The note does not attempt to design a multilateral consultative process

Meeting
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), Tenth session, 22 August - 2 September 1994, Geneva, Switzerland

Keywords
conference papers
dispute settlement
legal aspects
multilateral consultative process

Content

Publication date
26/07/1994
© UNFCCC

A/AC.237/59 [located on Vol. 1]

A/AC.237/59
[located on Vol. 1]