Disarmament in Review
Detailed information on individual meeting arrangements and previous meetings, including all official documents, can be found on the ODA Meetings Place.
Meeting Arrangements
CCW meetings are convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations by a note verbale addressed to all States and are usually held in Geneva. They are open to all States Parties to the Convention and signatories. All other States and relevant international and non-governmental organizations may participate as observers.
Due to the Convention’s unique structure, the CCW as well as Amended Protocol II and Protocol V have their own implementation processes which function in parallel:
- All CCW States parties meet annually at the Meeting of the High Contracting Parties, or every five years at the Review Conference, to:
- review the status and operation of the Convention and its protocols;
- consider the work done by the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE), established in 2001;
- decide on the mandate of the GGE and its Meetings of military and technical experts, which may be to negotiate a new Protocol or to study a specific problem or weapon.
- Amended Protocol II has its own implementation structure consisting of Annual Conferences and a Group of Experts to consider the Protocol’s implementation or a specific related issue.
- Protocol V also established an implementation mechanism consisting of Annual Conferences and Meetings of Experts to discuss specific problems of the implementation of the Protocol.
The CCW Implementation Support Unit (ISU) housed under the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Geneva branch is responsible for the administration of the CCW meetings.
