Disarmament in Review
On the margins of the 2022 Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW), the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) in Geneva organized a workshop on national reporting.
The aim of the workshop was to facilitate an exchange of good practices and challenges experienced by High Contracting Parties in preparing CCW national annual reports and identify ways for UNODA to better support their reporting. Over 40 delegates representing 23 High Contracting Parties took part, both in person and virtually, in the informal discussions, which provided a valuable insight into theirexperience with the CCW reporting requirements.
Delegates shared detailed information on the reporting process within their national administrations, with a focus on identifying challenges and good practices. With regard to the former, some mentioned the overlap with reporting obligations under other conventional disarmament regimesand the difficulty of coordinating the information gathering process with multiple agencies. In relation to good practices,participants stressed the importance of ensuring regular and clear lines of communication within and among the different entities, as well as ensuring detailed handover of information to new or incoming focal points.
UNODA Geneva informed delegations that it is currently developing guidelines on CCW national annual compliance reports and on Amended Protocol II and Protocol V reporting obligations. The guidelines seek to provide a comprehensiveyet practical reference document to assist High Contracting Parties in preparing the reports, with the aim of contributing to timely and high-quality submissions. Delegates were invited to provide feedback on the draft guidelines and share further ideas to improve the analysis, dissemination and use of the information contained in the annual reports.
This activity forms part of the EU funded project in support of the universalization, implementation, and strengthening of the CCW.
Comments or questions regarding the workshop or the CCW national annual reports may be sent to ccw@un.org.
Submitted annual reports are available at:
- CCW Compliance annual reports database
- Amended Protocol II Database (2006 – present)
- Protocol V Database (2008 – present)
Drafted by Jessica Louise Henn.
