ABSTRACT
The Intergovernmental Committee for the Cartagena Protocol (ICCP) is a principal player among the many players involved in the process. With Decision EM-I/3, the Conference of the Parties adopted the biosafety protocol and some interim arrangements at the resumed session of its extraordinary meeting in Montreal on 24–29 January 2000. The stakeholders include parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, states, regional economic integration organizations, the biotechnology industry, nongovernmental organizations and any other private- or public-sector organization interested in the implementation of the protocol. The ICCP is as open-ended as the Biosafety Working Group which negotiated the protocol. States and regional economic integration organizations are also encouraged to provide the ICCP, via the Executive Secretary, with information on their existing programmes for regulating living modified organisms. International organizations are free to help the ICCP in its mission of encouraging the signing, ratification and implementation of the protocol.
