 |
|
Part I: The Negotiating Context 4. The Rules of Procedure Why are rules of procedure important? / The Rules of Procedure / Key issues in the Rules of Procedure / Outstanding issues in the Rules of Procedure / Consensus is not unanimity / Role of President or Chairman / The nomenclature of documents / Tips and tricks 4.7 The nomenclature of documents During the negotiations, a substantial number of documents are circulated. Making sense of these documents is usually a challenge. A key first step is to understand the nomenclature of the documents (see Table 2). All key negotiation documents such as the agenda, the COP reports and the amendments to the Convention and Protocol are available in all UN languages. Other support material is usually only available in English. However, sometimes even if a document is meant to be in all UN languages, if there is a shortage of time, the document may temporarily be made available only in English. This has been a source of some concern to many negotiators. A visit to the FCCC web site revealed that there is some degree of variation in the number of languages in which documents are prepared; and possibly there is a backlog in translation. The Secretariat is trying its best to translate but there are resource limitations.
Table 2. The nomenclature of documents
Source: Boyer 2000; the information on languages is based on existing practice; see FCCC web site.
|
