OPCW	Working Group for the Preparation of the First Review Conference
WGRC-1/S/1
28 February 2002
Original: ENGLISH
(Unofficial electronic version)

NOTE BY THE SECRETARIAT ATTENDANCE BY NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS AT THE FIRST REVIEW CONFERENCE

1.                  At its fourth meeting on 18 February 2002, the open-ended working group on the First Review Conference requested the Technical Secretariat (hereinafter “the Secretariat”) to prepare a paper on attendance by non-governmental organisations (hereinafter “NGOs”) at the First Review Conference, taking into account the rules of procedure adopted by the Conference of the States Parties (hereinafter “the Conference”), as well as past attendance at the sessions of the Conference, precedents from other relevant review conferences, and the views of Member States as expressed in the meetings of the above-mentioned open-ended working group.  This Note has been prepared in response to this request.

2.                  The rules of procedure adopted by the Conference state the following with respect to attendance by NGOs (C-I/3, dated12 May 1997):

“Rule 33         Non-governmental organisations

Representatives of non-governmental organisations may be invited to attend the plenary meetings of the Conference in accordance with such rules as the Conference has approved.”

It should be noted that these rules of procedure also apply to special sessions of the Conference, including the special sessions convened pursuant to paragraph 22 of Article VIII of the Convention.

3.                  No further rules of procedure have been adopted by the Conference.  In practice, the Conference receives notice that international organisations, specialised agencies, other international bodies, and non-governmental organisations wish to attend its sessions in the form of draft Conference decisions (in the sessions subsequent to the Second Session, these issues have been dealt with in separate decisions).  The draft decisions on NGOs have contained lists of the NGOs that had requested accreditation for the session of the Conference in question.  Since the Second Session of the Conference, the draft decisions on attendance by NGOs have also contained brief information on the NGOs in question, including on their status.  These modalities for NGO attendance, as well as the draft list of NGOs to be invited by the Conference to attend the session in question, became effective when the relevant decision was adopted by the Conference.

4.                  The Conference at its most recent session adopted the following text in relation to the modalities for NGO attendance (see C‑VI/DEC.3, dated 14 May 2001):

“(a)      NGOs will be responsible for all expenses relating to their attendance at the Sixth Session of the Conference;

(b)       representatives of NGOs will be invited (subject to the decision of the Conference) to attend public meetings of the plenary sessions of the Conference;

(c)        NGOs will be issued with name tags, which must be worn within the Netherlands Congress Centre (NCC);

(d)       the names of NGOs will not appear on desks/tables in the conference rooms;

(e)        NGOs will not have the right to address meetings of the Conference;

(f)        NGOs may place literature for distribution only at designated places outside the conference rooms in the NCC;  and

(g)        NGOs may have access to all documents mentioned in the annotated agenda and distributed during the Sixth Session of the Conference except for the following: documents marked “Member States Only”; conference room papers, or other draft documentation; unofficial documents; and all Executive Council documents, unless mentioned in the annotated agenda.”

5.                  Precedents from other comparable review conferences vary considerably.  Detailed information on the practices and rules for such conferences has already been submitted to Member States in a previous Secretariat information paper, dated 4 February 2002.  Notwithstanding certain differences, these rules appear to have in common the following features:

(a)           NGOs are generally allowed to attend review conferences, on the basis of an explicit decision by the conference itself, and at their own cost.  That generally includes attendance at public meetings of the conference and the receipt of the conference documents;

(b)          although NGOs are generally not allowed to take part in the formal proceedings of review conferences, or to address their meetings, they are sometimes granted an opportunity to address the conferences in the conference hall, either individually or collectively,  at a time specifically set aside for that purpose; and

(c)           NGOs are generally allowed to circulate documents outside the hall for the review conference, at their own expense.

6.         In the view of the Secretariat, the practice outlined in paragraph 5 above is compatible with the rules of procedure adopted by the Conference for itself.  If Member States decide to invite certain NGOs to attend the review conference, the Conference itself would have to take a decision to that effect.  Any such decision would also have to stipulate the modalities for attendance by these NGOs at the review conference.  The Conference could also, if it wanted to, grant standing accreditation to certain NGOs, while also stipulating the modalities for their attendance, in order to avoid having to re-address the question of their attendance at each and every future session of the Conference.

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