President of the OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration (CCA) Emmanuel Decaux, Vice-President Erkki Kourula, Justice Mats Melin as well as Professors Christian Tomuschat, Vasilka Sancin, Verica Trstenjak, and Anne Ramberg held an information meeting with Representatives of States parties to the Convention on 10 March in Vienna.
The purpose of the meeting was for members of the Bureau of the Court to provide first-hand information to representatives of States Parties to the Stockholm Convention. The meeting addressed the timely institutional topic of the election of the next President and other members of the Bureau in September this year. The meeting also provided an opportunity for participants to become acquainted with the specific features of each of the procedures provided for under the Convention on Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE.
Ambassador Anna Olsson Vrang opened the meeting with a welcome on behalf of the Depositary State of the 1992 Stockholm Convention. In his opening remarks, President Decaux noted the dual nature of the Court, created "within the OSCE", as its name suggests, but with a life of its own as a multilateral treaty with 34 States parties today. He recalled that the preamble to the Convention referred to OSCE commitments and principles. Its procedures were consequently open to other participating States on a voluntary basis, at any time, he underscored.
"We have endeavoured to raise the profile of the Court within the OSCE and to make it part of the Chairmanship-in-Office's toolbox. We must therefore insist on the complementarity of institutions and mechanisms within the OSCE," President Decaux concluded.
With regard to the specific features of conciliation, Professor Tomuschat, former President of the Court and member of the Bureau, spoke of its flexibility and the straightforward process for setting up of a conciliation commission.
"The parties enjoy almost complete freedom as to the choice of the members of any such Commission. There is no predetermined bench like in the case of the permanent international tribunals operating on the European level," he said.
Professor Sancin, member of the Bureau, talked about the function of an arbitral tribunal, the outcome of which is legally binding on the parties. The meeting concluded with an overview of the various stages of the election procedure for the President of the Court and the members of the Bureau that will be launched in September this year. It was presented by the Registry of the Court by Christa Allot, who emphasized that the conciliators and arbitrators eligible to vote were acting in their individual capacity.
