The 73rd meeting of the CITES Standing Committee was scheduled to take place from 5 to 9 October, in Geneva, Switzerland but the meeting will not be taking place on those dates.
However, as was the case for the meetings of the Animals and Plants Committees, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic has led the CITES Secretariat and the Members of the Standing Committee to discuss the circumstances in which the meeting should be held.
In the coming weeks, the Standing Committee Chair will begin consultations with members and the Secretariat to review the workplan given to the Committee by the eighteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP18), in August 2019.
CITES Parties have been officially informed of these developments through Notification to the Parties No.2020/051. The Secretariat will be announcing any arrangements to move the work of the Standing Committee forward in due course.
The Standing Committee provides policy guidance to the Secretariat on the implementation of the Convention, oversees the management of the Secretariat’s budget, and it oversees and coordinates the work of other committees and working groups.
It is made up of members from each of the six major geographical regions (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Central and South America and the Caribbean, and Oceania) and meets only once a year, though it does also meet just before and after each meeting of the Conference of the Parties.