Conf. 4.6 (Rev. CoP12)*

Submission of draft resolutions and other documents for meetings
of the Conference of the Parties

CONSIDERING the volume of work involved in the preparation of documents to be submitted to the Conference of the Parties at its regular meetings;

AFFIRMING the obligation of the Parties to collaborate closely with the Secretariat in the organization of meetings of the Conference of the Parties;

RECOGNIZING the necessity that the Parties be informed in advance of the draft resolutions and other documents submitted by other Parties;

THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE CONVENTION

AGREES that the term "the text of the proposed amendment" in Article XV, paragraph 1, of the Convention includes the substantially complete supporting statement accompanying it, and this interpretation is extended to certain amendment proposals, draft resolutions and other documents submitted for consideration at meetings of the Conference of the Parties, for which deadlines for submission are established under Resolutions of the Conference;

RECOMMENDS that:

a) the text of any draft resolutions to be submitted to a meeting of the Conference of the Parties be communicated to the Secretariat at least 150 days before the meeting;

b) the text of any documents submitted for consideration at a meeting of the Conference of the Parties be communicated to the Secretariat at least 150 days before the meeting;

c) the Secretariat be authorized to accept draft resolutions and documents (other than proposals for amendment of Appendices I and II) after the time limit of 150 days has expired only in exceptional circumstances, when it is established, to the satisfaction of the Secretariat, that the draft resolutions or documents could not be communicated before the expiration date;

d) when drafting a resolution that is intended to be exhaustive, or to treat a subject comprehensively, or to make significant changes in the way in which a subject is dealt with, a Party should prepare the draft so that, if adopted, it will replace and repeal all existing Resolutions (or, as appropriate, the relevant paragraphs) on the same subject;

e) unless practical considerations dictate otherwise, draft resolutions should not include:

i) instructions or requests to Committees, Working Groups or the Secretariat, unless they are part of a long-term procedure;

ii)) decisions on the presentation of the Appendices; and

iii) recommendations (or other forms of decision) that will be implemented soon after their adoption and will then be obsolete; and

f) as a general rule, documents submitted for consideration at a meeting of the Conference of the Parties be no more than 12 pages in length;

DECIDES that any draft resolutions or decisions submitted for consideration at a meeting of the Conference of the Parties that have budgetary and workload implications for the Secretariat must contain or be accompanied by a budget for the work involved and an indication of the source of funding; and

DECIDES FURTHER that the recommendations contained in Resolutions and Decisions adopted by the Conference of the Parties shall be effective from the date on which they are sent by Notification to the Parties at the latest, unless otherwise specified in the recommendation concerned.

* Amended at the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties.