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23 February 

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26 February 

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FIRST MEETING OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES SERVING AS THE MEETING OF THE PARTIES TO THE CARTAGENA PROTOCOL ON BIOSAFETY (COP-MOP1)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 23-27 February 2004

 
Daily Web Coverage |Mon 23| |Tue 24| |Wed 25| |Thu 26| |Fri 27|

Highlights for Thursday 26 February 2004


On Thursday, delegates to the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP/MOP-1) convened in working group sessions. Working Group I (WG-I) continued discussing a conference room paper (CRP) on handling, transport, packaging and identification of living modified organisms (LMOs) (Article 18). Working Group II (WG-II) considered CRPs on liability and redress, and on compliance. A brief Plenary was held in the afternoon to review progress and consider draft decisions on procedures and mechanisms to facilitate decision making by Parties of import, and on the medium-term programme of work. The contact group on compliance met briefly to hear a progress report on the Friends of the co-Chairs group. The contact group on the budget also met. 

Above photo L-R: Hamdallah Zedan, CBD Executive Secretary and COP-7 President Dato' Seri Law 

 



Working Group I : Handling, Transport, Packaging and Identification  (HTPI)


CANADA proposed to refer to unique identifiers for transgenic plants, "which have been approved for commercialization".

AUSTRALIA asked to refer to a unique identification system which "is yet to be developed".


LMOs for food, feed or processing (Article 18.2(a)):


Contact group co-Chair Schoonejans (France) (above) reported on progress of the contact group on documentation requirements for LMO-FFPs.

IRAN welcomed the participation of non-parties and civil society in the technical expert group, but asked that it only consider Parties' views. Above photo: Behad Gharyazi (Iran)



The EC suggested that the technical expert group prioritize work on type, content, and the extent and modality of using unique identifiers. Above photo: Jill Hanna (EC) conferring with Christophe Bail (EC).

Above photo: Kirsty Galloway McLean (CBD) and WG-I Chair François Pythoud (Switzerland).


Working Group II: Compliance

During a night session, WG-II Chair Amb. Philémon Yang (Cameroon) (center) introduced a text on draft procedures and mechanisms on compliance prepared by a Friends of the Chair group. Stressing that the text represents a delicate balance taking all interests into consideration, he noted the establishment of a fifteen-member compliance committee to work under COP/MOP guidance. Parties adopted the text on Thursday at 22:55 with no amendments. The Secretariat explained that the committee's members would be nominated by regional groups and elected by the COP/MOP in Friday's closing Plenary. 

Above photo: WG-II dais Chaired by Amb. Philémon Yang with assistance from (from left) Erie Tamale, Dan Ogolla, Xueman Wang and Camilla Mathiessen of the CBD.

Liability and redress


Above photo: David Hafashimana (Uganda) (center) coordinating with other African coucntries.

René Lefeber (Netherlands) reported on the outcome of the Friends of the Chair group on liability and redress, noting that, inter alia, a paragraph on the clarification of Article 27 (liability and redress) of the Protocol had been deleted.


The US requested Parties to reintegrate references to the evaluation of national and international rules of procedure on liability and redress and gap analysis as basis for the work of the expert group.

WG-II Chair Amb. Philémon Yang said that all the concerns of the Parties to the Protocol had been taken into account and that requests of non-parties would not be considered at this point.

Plenary:




WG-I Chair François Pythoud (Switzerland) (right) reported on progress made on handling, packaging, transport and identification of LMOs. WG-II Chair Amb. Philémon Yang (Cameroon) reported on progress made on liability and redress, and compliance.



COP/MOP-1 President Dato' Seri Law (above) proposed that delegates adopt decisions on procedures and mechanism for facilitating decision-making by Parties of import, and the revised medium term programme of work for COP/MOP-2 to COP/MOP-5.


John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda) (above) reported that the budget group had concluded its work and approved a draft decision on the budget. 


Above photo: Li Ching Lim (Third World Network). 


Beth Burrows (the Edmonds Institute) thanked delegates, on behalf of participating NGOs, for their work, and underlined that decisions taken by COP/MOP should reflect the consensus of the Parties and those willing to ratify. 


Links


ENB Coverage and Summary (HTML, PDF, TEXT) of CBD COP-6
ENB Coverage and Summary (HTML, PDF, TEXT) of ICCP-3
ENB archives of CBD meetings
CBD web site
CBD BS-COP-MOP1 official meeting documents 
ENB Coverage and Summary (HTML, PDF, TEXT) of SBSTTA-9
ENB Coverage and Summary (HTML, PDF, TEXT) of ABS-WG2  
ENB Coverage and Summary (HTML, PDF, TEXT) of Article 8(j)-WG3
Global Biodiversity Forum web site