An institutional structure to support the implementation process

In 1990, Stephen McCaffrey, Special Rapporteur to the International Law Commission (ILC) on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, proposed that the ILC Draft Articles that preceded the UNWC include an Annex related to Implementation of the Articles. ¹ A key provision of this proposed Annex was Article 7 — Conference of the Parties. Pursuant to Article 7, states would be obliged, ‘not later than two years after the entry into force of the present articles’, to convene a meeting of the Conference of the Parties, and to hold regular meetings at least once every two years, to: (i) consider and adopt amendments to the articles; (ii) receive and consider any reports presented by any party or by any panel, commission or other body established by the articles; and, where appropriate, (iii) make recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the articles. ² The inclusion of such a provision was justified by the Special Rapporteur on the grounds that, ‘several recent conventions relating to the environment or transboundary harm contain provisions for regular meetings of a “conference of the parties”’. ³