COP Decisions and Recommendations

The Conference of the Parties,
[...] 1. Agrees to initiate arrangements to provide itself with comparable monitoring data on which to base its evaluation of the effectiveness of the Convention analysing among other possibilities the proposed annex II to the note by the Secretariat on effectiveness evaluation;

2. Requests the Secretariat to make use of existing monitoring programmes and datasets where possible in providing the Conference of the Parties with comparable monitoring data;

3. Invites relevant organizations to collaborate in the above arrangements with a view to making monitoring data available for evaluation of the effectiveness of the Convention;

4. Requests the Secretariat to field test the arrangements set out in paragraph 1 above on a national or regional basis subject to available funding, and report the results of the field test to the Conference of the Parties at its third meeting;

5. Requests the Secretariat to develop a background scoping paper for a global monitoring plan for consideration by the Conference of the Parties at its second meeting, which includes the following elements:
Assessment of existing human health and environmental datasets;
Identification of regional data gaps;
Assessment of the applicability of existing monitoring programmes within regions as a platform for the global programme;
Priorities to implement the plan;
Cost estimates for options to implement recommended priorities.

1. Takes note of the report of the meeting of the coordination group and encourages Parties when implementing activities under the global monitoring plan to consider the recommendations put forward in the report of the co-chairs of the coordination group;
2. Welcomes the regional monitoring reports and the global monitoring report and concludes that there are data on air and human milk or blood available in all five United Nations regions that can be used as a baseline for future evaluations, noting that not all data were available in time to be included in the monitoring reports;
3. Acknowledges the additional information on human tissue data presented at the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties and requests the Secretariat in cooperation with the regional organization groups to include those data in annexes to the first regional monitoring reports;
4. Adopts the global monitoring plan for persistent organic pollutants that was provisionally adopted at its third meeting and requests the Secretariat to make non substantive changes as necessary;
5. Also adopts the terms of reference and mandate of the regional organization groups and the global coordination group set forth in the annex to the present decision;

[...]Annex to decision SC-4/31
Terms of reference and mandate of the regional organization groups and the global coordination group

The Conference of the Parties

1. Takes note of the report of the meeting of the global coordination group and encourages parties, when implementing activities under the global monitoring plan, to consider the recommendations put forward in the report of the co-chairs of the coordination group;
2. Welcomes the revisions made to the guidance on the global monitoring plan;
3. Requests the Secretariat to continue to support the continuing process of revising and updating that guidance, subject to the availability of resources;

Note by the Secretariat

1. By its decision SC-4/31 the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants:
(a) Adopted the global monitoring plan for persistent organic pollutants that it had provisionally adopted at its third meeting;

Note by the Secretariat

1. By its decision SC-4/31 the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants adopted the terms of reference and mandate of the regional organization groups and the global coordination group and requested the Secretariat to support the global coordination group in updating the guidance document for the global monitoring plan with additional chapters on long-range transport, specimen banking and the impact of listing new chemicals in the Convention.

Note by the Secretariat

1. By its decision SC-4/31, the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants adopted the global monitoring plan for persistent organic pollutants that was provisionally adopted at its third meeting and the terms of reference and mandate of the regional organization groups and the global coordination group for the global monitoring plan set forth in the annex to the decision.

Note by the Secretariat

1. By its decision SC-4/31 the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants adopted the terms of reference and mandate of the regional organization groups and the global coordination group and requested the Secretariat to support the global coordination group in updating the guidance document for the global monitoring plan with additional chapters on long-range transport, specimen banking and the impact of listing new chemicals in the Convention.

Note by the Secretariat

1. By its decision SC-4/31, the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants adopted the global monitoring plan for persistent organic pollutants that it had provisionally adopted at its third meeting, welcomed the regional monitoring reports and the global monitoring report that had been prepared pursuant to decision SC-3/19 and concluded that there were data on air and human milk or blood available in all five United Nations regions that could be used as a baseline for future evaluations, noting that not all data were available in time to be included in the monitoring reports. It also acknowledged the additional information on human tissue data presented at the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties and requested the Secretariat in cooperation with the regional organization groups to include those data in annexes to the first regional monitoring reports.

Note by the Secretariat

1. By its decision SC-4/31, on the global monitoring plan for effectiveness evaluation, the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants welcomed the regional monitoring reports (UNEP/POPS/COP.4/INF/19) and the global monitoring report (UNEP/POPS/COP.4/33) that had been prepared pursuant to decision SC-3/19 and concluded that there were data on air and human milk or blood available in all five United Nations regions that could be used as a baseline for future evaluations, noting that not all data had been available in time to be included in the monitoring reports. It also acknowledged the additional information on human tissue data that had been presented and requested the Secretariat in cooperation with the regional organization groups to include those data in annexes to the regional monitoring reports.