Final Provisions of International Legal Instruments

The document examines the legal mechanisms of treaty amendments, annex modifications, adjustments, protocols, entry into force, and reservations within multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) to inform the development of the future plastics treaty. It highlights that while treaty text amendments are infrequent and slow, annex amendments are common and more agile. The brief notes that the current 'Compilation Draft' for the plastics treaty proposes a three-fourths majority for amendment ratification and a 50-state threshold for entry into force, while advising the INC to consider 'hard majority' adjustments and the potential for protocols if a framework convention is pursued.

• Amendments to the main text of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) are relatively rare and slow to implement, often taking many years from adoption to entry into force. For example, the Basel Convention, Kyoto Protocol, and Ramsar Convention have each been amended only once, with entry into force taking between seven and twenty-four years.
• Amendments to annexes are more frequent than treaty text amendments and typically require only one step for entry into force. Once adopted by the Conference of the Parties (COP), they usually enter into force automatically within a set timeframe, although Parties may have an opt-out mechanism.
• The requirement for consensus to amend specific annexes can lead to deadlock. In the Rotterdam Convention, the consensus requirement for Annex III has allowed a small number of States to block the addition of recommended substances for many years, despite scientific recommendations.
• Adjustments are a faster form of amendment for scientific and technical annexes that do not typically allow for opt-outs. The Montreal Protocol has successfully used adjustments to accelerate the phaseout of controlled substances, a mechanism not currently included in the plastics treaty's Compilation Draft.
• While protocols provide flexibility for framework conventions to establish specific obligations, they can cause significant delays. The Kyoto Protocol, for instance, was adopted in 1997 but did not enter into force until 2005.
• The Compilation Draft for the plastics treaty proposes that the instrument enter into force ninety days after ratification by fifty States, a threshold shared by the UNFCCC, CCD, and the Minamata, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions.
• Most multilateral environmental agreements do not permit reservations to treaty articles to avoid undermining the instrument's core purpose. The Compilation Draft for the plastics treaty follows this trend by stating that no reservations may be made.

APA

Sky, M. B. (2024). Final Provisions of International Legal Instruments. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Final-Provisions-of-International-Legal-Instruments-Key-Considerations-for-the-Future-Plastics-Treaty.pdf

Chicago

Sky, Melissa Blue. Final Provisions of International Legal Instruments. Center for International Environmental Law, 2024. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Final-Provisions-of-International-Legal-Instruments-Key-Considerations-for-the-Future-Plastics-Treaty.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Sky |first1=Melissa Blue |title=Final Provisions of International Legal Instruments |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=October 2024 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Final-Provisions-of-International-Legal-Instruments-Key-Considerations-for-the-Future-Plastics-Treaty.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sky2024final, author = {Sky, Melissa Blue}, title = {{Final Provisions of International Legal Instruments}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2024}, month = oct, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Final-Provisions-of-International-Legal-Instruments-Key-Considerations-for-the-Future-Plastics-Treaty.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }