THE PROCESS NOW
In advance of the second round of negotiations (IGC2), President Rena Lee released the Aid to Negotiation. This is not formal or ‘zero draft’ text for a treaty but a means of identifying where there is convergence, or where further discussion is needed, towards the development of draft treaty text.
After opening statements on March 25, (reported on the Tracker), we have now moved into a process of commenting on the Aid under each of the five key areas of focus in this session and in Working Groups. These are Marine Genetic Resources; Area Based Management Tools including MPAs; Environmental Impact Assessments, Capacity Building and Transfer of Marine Technology, and Cross Cutting Issues.
For those joining us from outside the UN, the process in Working Group is very similar to being in full plenary but each Group has its own Facilitator and is ‘informal’. Interventions (and our reporting) are made in the following order: Regional groups; States statutory bodies; and intergovernmental and non governmental organisations.
OUR COVERAGE
The discussions around any particular option, sub-option and sub-sub-option in the Aid, are highly nuanced at this point and the intent of the Tracker is not to provide line by line detail on the options text. Thus, we will not be reflecting statements in this phase. Instead, the Tracker will provide our experts’ analysis of what is happening. In addition, all discussions taking place throughout this session can be viewed on UN TV Webcast, with daily links provided by the Tracker.