Additional procedures or institutional mechanisms to assist in the review of the implementation of the Convention

By its decision 1/COP.5, the Conference of the Parties (COP) decided that the mandate and functions of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC), as contained in paragraph 1 (b) of its terms of reference, shall be subject to renewal at the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 7), in the light of lessons learned during the overall review of the Committee. By the same decision, the COP decided to review, no later than at its seventh ordinary session, the terms of reference of the Committee, its operations and its schedule of meetings, with a view to making any necessary modifications, including reconsidering the need for and modalities of the Committee as a subsidiary body.

In its decision 7/COP.6, the COP set forth the criteria against which the terms of reference, operations and schedule of meetings of the CRIC will be reviewed at COP 7, and invited Parties to submit their views on that review before 1 January 2005, but not later than six months before COP 7. In order to facilitate such review, the COP also requested the secretariat to prepare a report based on views submitted and to present it for consideration at COP 7.

Ten submissions have been forwarded by Parties to the secretariat as at 15 July 2005. The full texts of these submissions are available below. Syntheses and analyses of these contributions are contained in document ICCD/COP(7)/3