International Ocean Institute Training Programme

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June 1994, that a Technical Consultation on the Code of Conduct for Responsible
Fishing be organized, open to all FAO Members, interested non-members,
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, in order to provide an
opportunity for the widest involvement of all concerned parties at an early stage of
its elaboration.
11. This Technical Consultation took place in Rome from 26 September to 5
October 1994 and a draft for the entire Code and a first draft of technical guidelines
to support most of the Thematic Articles of the Code were presented. Following a
thorough review of all the Articles of the complete draft Code of Conduct, an
Alternative Secretariat Draft was then prepared on the basis of comments made
during the discussions in plenary and specific drafting changes submitted in writing
during the Consultation.
12. The Consultation was able to review also in detail an alternative draft for
three of the six Thematic Articles of the Code, i.e., Article 9 "Integration of
Fisheries into Coastal Area Management", Article 6 "Fisheries Management",
Article 7 "Fishing Operations", except for those principles which were likely to be
affected by the outcome of the ongoing UN Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks
and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks. A short Administrative Report was prepared and
presented to the FAO Council and to COFI.
13. The Technical Consultation proposed to the Council at its Hundred and
Seventh Session, 15-24 November 1994, that the final wording of those principles
dealing mainly with high seas issues be left in abeyance pending the outcome of the
UN Conference. The Council generally endorsed the proposed procedure, noting
that following discussions at the next session of COFI, a final draft of the Code
would be submitted to the FAO Council in June 1995 which would then decide upon
the necessity for a Technical Committee to meet in parallel to that Session of the
Council in order to elaborate further the detailed provisions of the Code if required.
14. Based upon the substantial comments and detailed suggestions received at
the Technical Consultation, the Secretariat elaborated a revised draft of the Code of
Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, which was submitted to the Twenty-first Session
of the Committee on Fisheries, held from 10 to 15 March 1995.
15. The Committee on Fisheries was also informed that the UN
Conference was expected to conclude its work in August 1995. It was proposed
that principles left in abeyance in the draft text of the Code could then be
reconciled with the language agreed upon at the UN Conference in accordance
with a mechanism to be decided upon by the Committee and the Council, before