Article II

Purpose and Conservation Measures

1. Parties shall take co-ordinated measures to achieve and maintain a favourable conservation status for cetaceans. To this end, Parties shall prohibit and take all necessary measures to eliminate, where this is not already done, any deliberate taking of cetaceans and shall co-operate to create and maintain a network of specially protected areas to conserve cetaceans.

2. Any Party may grant an exception to the prohibition set out in the preceding paragraph only in emergency situations as provided for in Annex 2, paragraph 6, or, after having obtained the advice of the Scientific Committee, for the purpose of non-lethal in situ research aimed at maintaining a favourable conservation status for cetaceans. The Party concerned shall immediately inform the Bureau and the Scientific Committee, through the Agreement secretariat, of any such exception that has been granted. The Agreement secretariat shall inform all Parties of the exception without delay by the most appropriate means.

3. In addition, Parties shall apply, within the limits of their sovereignty and/or jurisdiction and in accordance with their international obligations, the conservation, research and management measures prescribed in Annex 2 to this Agreement, which shall address the following matters:

a) adoption and enforcement of national legislation;

b) assessment and management of human-cetacean interactions;

c) habitat protection;

d) research and monitoring;

e) capacity building, collection and dissemination of information, training and education; and

f) responses to emergency situations.

Measures concerning fisheries activities shall be applied in all waters under their sovereignty and/or jurisdiction and outside these waters in respect of any vessel under their flag or registered within their territory.

4. In implementing the measures prescribed above, the Parties shall apply the precautionary principle.

Article III

Meeting of the Parties

1. The Meeting of the Parties shall be the decision-making body of this Agreement.

2. The Depositary shall convene, in consultation with the Secretariat of the Convention, a session of the Meeting of the Parties to this Agreement not later than one year after the date of its entry into force. Thereafter, the Agreement secretariat shall convene, in consultation with the Secretariat of the Convention, ordinary sessions of the Meeting of the Parties at intervals of not more than three years, unless the Meeting of the Parties decides otherwise.

3. The Agreement secretariat shall convene an extraordinary session of the Meeting of the Parties on the written request of at least two thirds of the Parties.

4. The United Nations, its Specialized Agencies, the International Atomic Energy Agency, any State not a Party to this Agreement, secretariats of other global and regional conventions or agreements concerned inter alia with the conservation of cetaceans, and regional or subregional fisheries management organizations with competence for species found temporarily or permanently resident in the Agreement area may be represented by observers in sessions of the Meeting of the Parties. Any other agency or body technically qualified in the conservation of cetaceans may be represented at sessions of the Meeting of the Parties by observers, unless at least one third of the Parties present object. Once admitted to a session of the Meeting of the Parties, an observer shall continue to be entitled to participate in future sessions unless one third of the Parties object at least thirty days before the start of the session.

5. Only Parties have the right to vote. Each Party shall have one vote. Regional economic integration organizations which are Parties to this Agreement shall exercise, in matters within their competence, their right to vote with a number of votes equal to the number of their member States which are Parties to the Agreement. A regional economic integration organization shall not exercise its right to vote if its member States exercise theirs and vice versa.

6. All decisions of the Meeting of the Parties shall be adopted by consensus except as otherwise provided in Article X of this Agreement. However, if consensus cannot be achieved in respect of matters covered by the annexes to the Agreement, a decision may be adopted by a two thirds majority of the Parties present and voting. In the event of a vote, any Party may, within one hundred and fifty days, notify the Depositary in writing of its intention not to apply the said decision.

7. At its first session, the Meeting of the Parties shall:

a) adopt its rules of procedure;

b) establish an Agreement secretariat to perform the secretariat functions listed in Article IV of this Agreement;

c) designate in each subregion, within an existing institution, a Co-ordination unit to facilitate implementation of the measures prescribed in Annex 2 to this Agreement;

d) elect a Bureau as provided for in Article VI;

e) establish a Scientific Committee, as provided for in Article VII; and

f) decide on the format and content of Party reports on the implementation of the Agreement, as provided for in Article VIII.

8. At each of its ordinary sessions, the Meeting of the Parties shall:

a) review scientific assessments of the conservation status of cetaceans of the Agreement area and the habitats which are important to their survival, as well as the factors which may affect them unfavourably;

b) review the progress made and any difficulties encountered in the implementation of this Agreement on the basis of the reports of the Parties and of the Agreement secretariat;

c) make recommendations to the Parties as it deems necessary or appropriate and adopt specific actions to improve the effectiveness of this Agreement;

d) examine and decide upon any proposals to amend, as may be necessary, this Agreement;

e) adopt a budget for the next financial period and decide upon any matters relating to the financial arrangements for this Agreement;

f) review the arrangements for the Agreement secretariat, the Co-ordination units and the Scientific Committee;

g) adopt a report for communication to the Parties to this Agreement and to the Conference of the Parties of the Convention;

h) agree on the provisional time and venue of the next meeting; and

i) deal with any other matter relating to implementation of this Agreement.