- 192. The delegation of Ireland supported the work with NGOs in general, as well as the principles behind this amendment. It agreed with the Philippines that, from the Secretariat's intervention, a more general statement would be more appropriate along the lines that the General Assembly supported the ongoing consultations with the NGO Forum.
- 193. The delegation of Denmark supported the proposal by Sweden along with Iceland, Estonia, Finland and Norway.
- 194. The delegation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines congratulated the Chairperson on her election, as well as the Bureau members. It supported the remarks by Algeria, Serbia, Senegal and Turkey, and the explanation given by the Secretary. It was noted that the process was under consultation, while the importance of the work done by the NGOs could be mentioned in the oral report.
- 195. The delegation of Portugal agreed that it was time to move to the next agenda item. While it fully supported NGOsas instrumental and effective practitioners of this Convention, it felt that the proposal by the Philippines summed up well the Secretariat 's clarification and the point that these discussions were ongoing within the informal working group that would no doubt make steady progress in this regard. The delegation therefore supported the compromise proposal put forward by the Philippines, as mentioned by Ireland.
- 196. From a procedural point of view, the delegation of Algeria noted that only the delegations supporting Sweden's proposal were projected on the screen, whereas the majority of delegations supported the deletion of the paragraph. It was comfortable with the proposal by the Philippines, should Sweden agree. The delegation proposed suspending the adoption of the decision so as to listen to the NGO report and then to later return to the decision with the addition of a paragraph, which would read, 'Takes note of the report presented by the NGOs. '
- 197. The Chairperson wondered whether the proposed solution would be acceptable to Sweden as a reflection process was already underway, and thus paragraph 11 could read, 'takes note of the reflection carried out by the Secretariat and the ad hoc informal working group, in consultation with accredited NGOs, on the participation of NGOs in the 2003 Convention'.
- 198. The delegation of Palestine remarked that its original amendment sought to reach a consensus. However, acknowledging the proposal by the Philippines, it suggested 'takes note of the ongoing process ', followed by the wordin g suggested by the Philippines.
- 199. The Secretary noted that the idea was to include the possibility of having an item within the ongoing NGO consultation. Moreover, the discussion would not only take place within the informal ad hoc working group but also among the NGOs as they consult among themselves and with the Secretariat. The results of these discussions would be brought together to the Committee and then on to the General Assembly in 2020. Thus, the proposal put forward by the Philippines and expressed by Ireland was to include wording in terms of the ongoing NGO consultation with the Secretariat, the Committee and the informal ad hoc working group. The Secretary reminded the Assembly that this consultation would be taken note of, and the Committee would be asked to report on it under agenda item 11 of the present General Assembly on the accreditation of NGOs. Thus, there was already a reference under agenda item 11 , which read, 'Takes note of the ongoing reflection undertaken by the Secretariat and the informal ad hoc working group in consultation with the accredited NGOs' .
- 200. The delegation of the Philippines suggested adding to the Secretary's remarks by proposing the following, ' takes note of the ongoing reflection process on possible ways in which the participation of NGOs under the 2003 Convention could be further enhanced ', followed by the proposal by Palestine, which should embrace all the viewpoints.
- 201. The delegation of Palestine read out the paragraph, ' takes note of the ongoing reflection process on possible ways in which the participation of NGOs under the 2003 Convention could be further enhanced, as well as the discussion during the seventh General Assembly ' , which would replace the original proposal in paragraph 11.
- 202. The delegation of Sweden agreed to the new paragraph 11.