1. The secretariat has the honour to circulate herewith, for the information of participants in the second session of the Criteria Expert Group for Persistent Organic Pollutants, the terms of reference of the Group (annex I), together with the decisions of relevance to the Group adopted at the first and second sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for an International Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants (annex II).

2. The terms of reference of the Criteria Expert Group were originally circulated as annex II to the report of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on the work of its first session (UNEP/POPS/INC.1/7), while the relevant decisions are taken from in paragraphs 64-73 of that report and paragraphs 24-33 of the Committee's report on the work of its second session (UNEP/POPS/INC.2/6).

1. The Criteria Expert Group for Persistent Organic Pollutants is an open-ended technical working group established by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for an International Legally Binding Instrument for Implementing International Action on Certain Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), in accordance with UNEP Governing Council decision 19/13 C, paragraph 9, to prepare and present to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee proposals for science-based criteria and a procedure for identifying additional POPs as candidates for future international action.

2. The Criteria Expert Group shall work expeditiously, proceeding concurrently with the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee process, to develop criteria for consideration by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in the negotiation of a legally binding instrument. The process should incorporate criteria pertaining to persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity and exposure in different regions and should take into account the potential for regional and global transport including dispersion mechanisms for the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, migratory species and the need to reflect possible influences of marine transport and tropical climates.

3. The Criteria Expert Group shall complete its work on the draft criteria and procedure referred to in paragraph 1 above to be submitted for consideration by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee at or before its fourth session.

4. Criteria Expert Group meetings shall be fully open to government-designated experts. Governments may designate more than one expert. Representation of all regions should be encouraged. The Criteria Expert Group shall allow for regional representation should the regions so propose.

5. Intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations may participate as observers.

6. Participants should have technical expertise in chemicals assessment and management, and knowledge of socio-economic factors. Regional networking should be encouraged to ensure the input of a broad representation of views and to offset differences in expertise available to countries at varying stages of development.

7. The scheduling of meetings of the Criteria Expert Group shall be decided upon by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee. Subject to the availability of funds, it is expected that the Criteria Expert Group will meet prior to the second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee.

8. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee shall elect, from among the Government representatives, officers consisting of two Co-Chairs and a Rapporteur. The officers form the Bureau of the Criteria Expert Group.

9. The Executive Director of UNEP will provide the Secretariat for the Criteria Expert Group.

10. In accordance with its mandate, the Criteria Expert Group shall make every effort to reach agreement by consensus among participating Governments on recommendations to be submitted to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee. If consensus cannot be reached, all proposals by participating Governments shall be reflected in a report to be submitted to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee.

11. The Criteria Expert Group shall apply, mutatis mutandis, the rules of procedure of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee.

12. The Secretariat, in consultation with the officers of the Criteria Expert Group, shall prepare a provisional agenda for each meeting of the Group. The provisional agenda shall be communicated to all participants of the International Negotiating Committee at least six weeks before the opening of the Criteria Expert Group meeting.

13. The Criteria Expert Group shall consider and adopt a report at each meeting to inform the International Negotiating Committee concerning the results of its discussions, including the proposals and recommendations according to paragraph 10 above. The reports will be circulated to all participants in the Criteria Expert Group and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee.

14. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish shall be the working languages of the Criteria Expert Group.

Committee on the work of its first session

64. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee decided to set up an open-ended informal contact group, coordinated by Ms. Fatoumata Jallow Ndoye (Gambia), with a mandate to draw up terms of reference for an expert group to develop science-based criteria and a procedure for identifying additional persistent organic pollutants as candidates for future international action. It was agreed that the contact group on criteria would meet concurrently with the plenary session.

65. The chair of the contact group reported to plenary on the work of the group and presented a conference room paper containing draft terms of reference for a Criteria Expert Group for Persistent Organic Pollutants. She described the discussions held and the reasoning behind the content of the group's paper, and concluded by thanking all those who had participated in the work of the contact group.

66. In connection with the participation in meetings of the Criteria Expert Group, the spokesperson for the Asia and Pacific group asked that UNEP be requested to consider funding the participation of at least one expert from each developing country.

67. After a detailed exchange of views on the paper submitted by the contact group, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee at its 6th and 7th plenary meetings, on 2 July 1998, adopted paragraphs 1-13 of the terms of reference for the Criteria Expert Group for Persistent Organic Pollutants, as orally amended. The sections adopted comprised: mandate; participation; meetings; officers; secretariat; proposals and recommendations to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee; administrative and procedural matters; agenda; and reports.

68. After an extensive debate, in which many representatives participated, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, at its 8th plenary meeting, on 3 July 1998, adopted paragraph 14 of the terms of reference of the Criteria Expert Group, dealing with languages to be used at its meetings. The text of the terms of reference is contained in annex II to the present report./

69. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee noted that, to function most effectively, the Criteria Expert Group should, preferably, be a small-sized body (e.g., with 40-60 participants).

70. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee further noted that participation in the Criteria Expert Group might be limited by budgetary constraints. A number of representatives requested UNEP to encourage donors to provide supplemental funding for experts from all regions to participate in the meetings. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee noted, however, that it might not be possible for the Secretariat financially to support the participation of one expert from each developing country or country with economy in transition.

71. In accordance with paragraph 8 of the terms of reference of the Criteria Expert Group, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee elected, by acclamation, the following officers to serve in the Group:

72. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee noted with pleasure the generous offer of the representative of the United States of America, who said that his country was willing to provide funds to support the first meeting of the Criteria Expert Group if the meeting were held in October 1998.

73. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee decided to schedule the first meeting of the Criteria Expert Group in October 1998, with the precise dates and location to be finalized by the Bureau, in consultation with the Secretariat.

of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on the work

of its second session

24. The two Co-Chairs of the Criteria Expert Group, Ms. Fatoumata Jallow Ndoye (Gambia) and Mr. Reiner Arndt (Germany), reported on the work of the first session of the Criteria Expert Group, held in Bangkok from 26 to 30 October 1998.

25. Mr. Arndt drew attention to the report on the work of the first session, contained in document UNEP/POPS/INC/CEG.1/3. He thanked the Government of Thailand for hosting the meeting and all donors who had helped to fund it. The information requirements and criteria for the nomination and screening stage and the evaluation stage, as prepared by the respective contact groups, were contained in annex I of the report of the Criteria Expert Group.

26. The Group wished to refer two issues to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for its consideration. First, it had decided to request the Committee to gather information from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on its work with regard to tributyl tin (UNEP/POPS/INC/CEG.1/3, paragraph 25). Second, it recommended that the Committee might wish to consider enunciating a provision, within its principles and objectives, to encourage countries to include, within their national or regional chemicals regulatory and assessment schemes for new substances, criteria and processes that would provide protection against health and environmental risks arising from the long-range environmental transport of substances, or their associated by-products, that exhibited the characteristics of POPs (UNEP/POPS/INC/CEG.1/3, paragraph 27).

27. Ms. Jallow Ndoye drew attention to the tables in annex II of the Criteria Expert Group's report, listing the tasks to be carried out by various bodies under the Conference of the Parties. The Group had agreed to request the secretariat, in consultation with the Bureau, to draft a more fully elaborated proposal on procedure, based on the text in annex II, for consideration by the Group at its second session, also bringing the text contained in annex I into line with that proposal.

28. The findings of the contact group on socio-economic considerations were contained in annex III to the report. In addition, the Group had discussed a proposed plan for its future work, contained in annex IV to its report. On the subject of the availability of test data for the purpose of preparing nominations or more detailed evaluations of substances, she was gratified to report that experts from a number of countries had expressed an interest in providing an evaluation of test data availability to the Criteria Expert Group at its second session.

29. The representative of the secretariat noted that contact had been established with IMO. Several documents on the issue of tributyl tin and the plans to phase out its use had been received and a short information document on the issue was distributed.

30. During the discussion on the report of the Criteria Expert Group, representatives stressed the importance of applying the precautionary approach with regard to substances coming under the procedure and supported the move to obtain more information on organo-tin compounds. The wish was also expressed that that session should be held before July 1999.

31. Other points raised in the discussion, in which a number of representatives participated, included: the important need for the Criteria Expert Group to highlight social and economic factors; the need for greater consideration of possible trade aspects of new candidates for POPs listing; the need to consider how alternatives could be made available to the developing countries; and the need for the criteria and the procedure to be flexible and science-based.

32. It was agreed that the request passed to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee by the Criteria Expert Group with respect to new chemicals (as contained in paragraph 27 of document UNEP/POPS/INC/CEG.1/3) could be raised under the discussion of agenda item 5.

33. Finally, Governments were invited to submit contributions for consideration by the Criteria Expert Group at its next session. Such contributions were to be sent, in writing, to the secretariat by 31 March 1999.