The South Pacific Regional Environment Programme is to promote cooperation in the South Pacific islands region and to provide assistance in order to protect and improve the environment and to ensure sustainable development

Albright, Madeleine Korbel

United States. President (1993-2001 : Clinton)

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U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICEWASHINGTON : 159–118SENATE" !105TH CONGRESS1st SessionTREATY DOC.1997105–32SOUTH PACIFIC REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTPROGRAMME AGREEMENTMESSAGEFROMTHE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATESTRANSMITTINGAGREEMENT ESTABLISHING THE SOUTH PACIFIC REGIONALENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME, DONE AT APIA ON JUNE 16, 1993NOVEMBER 7, 1997.—Agreement was read the first time and, togetherwith the accompanying papers, referred to the Committee on ForeignRelations and ordered to be printed for the use of the Senate(III)LETTER OF TRANSMITTALTHE WHITE HOUSE, November 7, 1997.To the Senate of the United States:I transmit herewith, for the advice and consent of the Senate toratification, the Agreement Establishing the South Pacific RegionalEnvironment Programme, done at Apia on June 16, 1993 (‘‘theAgreement’’). The report of the Department of State with respectto the Agreement is attached for the information of the Senate.The South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)has existed for almost 15 years to promote cooperation in the SouthPacific region, to protect and improve the South Pacific environ-ment and to ensure sustainable development in that region. Priorto the Agreement, SPREP had the status of an informal institutionhoused within the South Pacific Commission. When this institu-tional arrangement began to prove inefficient, the United Statesand the nations of the region negotiated the Agreement to allowSPREP to become an intergovernmental organization in its ownright and enhance its ability to promote cooperation among itsmembers.The Agreement was concluded in June 1993 and entered intoforce in August 1995. Nearly every nation—except the UnitedStates—that has participated in SPREP and in the negotiation ofthe Agreement is now party to the Agreement. As a result, SPREPnow enjoys a formal institutional status that allows it to deal moreeffectively with the pressing environmental concerns of the region.The United States and its territories can only participate in its ac-tivities as official observers.The Agreement improves the ability of SPREP to serve the inter-ests of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mari-ana Islands, and Guam. Its ratification is supported by our terri-tories and will demonstrate continued United States commitmentto, and concern for, the South Pacific region.Under its terms, the Agreement entered into force on August 31,1995. To date, Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micro-nesia, Fiji, France, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zea-land, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and West-ern Samoa have become parties to the Agreement.I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consider-ation to the Agreement and give its advice and consent to ratifica-tion.WILLIAM J. CLINTON.(V)LETTER OF SUBMITTALDEPARTMENT OF STATE,Washington, October 21, 1997.The PRESIDENT,The White House.THE PRESIDENT: I have the honor to submit to you the Agree-ment Establishing the South Pacific Regional Environment Pro-gramme (‘‘the Agreement’’), done at Apia, Western Samoa, on June16, 1993, and signed by the United States on that day.The Agreement, which entered into force on August 31, 1995,provides for increased cooperation among the United States, Aus-tralia, New Zealand, France and twenty-two island States and ter-ritories of the South Pacific region in addressing issues affectingenvironment and development in the region. The Agreement ac-cords the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)formal status as an intergovernmental organization. SPREP origi-nated at the Conference on the Human Environment in the SouthPacific held at Rarotonga, Cook Islands, March 1982, as an infor-mal institution housed within the South Pacific Commission (SPC).As such, it was tied to the Regional Seas Program of the UnitedNations Environment Program, and was supported by the UnitedNations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific,as well as by the South Pacific Forum and the South Pacific Con-ference.In July 1991, the members of SPREP agreed to negotiate a trea-ty establishing SPREP as an autonomous intergovernmental orga-nization. Autonomy was viewed as an important step in maintain-ing and improving SPREP’s ability to serve its members, particu-larly in light of serious logistical constraints that had emerged asa result of SPREP’s co-location with the SPC in Noumea, New Cal-edonia. The Agreement was concluded at a Plenipotentiary Con-ference held in Apia, Western Samoa, June 14–16, 1993.The United States and its insular areas now participate inSPREP as observers. It is the view of the interested Departmentsand Agencies of the United States Government, as well as of Amer-ican Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mari-ana Islands, that United States’ interests would be best served bymoving rapidly to become a Party to the Agreement, which enteredinto force on August 31, 1995.The Agreement provides for cooperative activities of direct andpositive benefits to American Samoa, Commonwealth of the North-ern Mariana Islands, and Guam. By becoming a Party, the UnitedStates will promote more effective participation in regional activi-ties by United States insular areas, who share both the culture andVIthe concerns of many of the island States and territories of the re-gion. It will also demonstrate the continued commitment of theUnited States to the South Pacific and to working with the regionto protect and conserve the marine environment that we share.Article 1 of the Agreement establishes SPREP as an intergovern-mental organization, with a regular conference of participants (‘‘theSPREP Meeting’’) and a secretariat located in Apia, WesternSamoa. Prior to the Agreement, participants in SPREP met on anannual basis at locations that rotated among them. As a result ofthe Agreement, participants have agreed, as a way to reduce costs,to meet instead on a biennial basis, with alternate meetings to beheld at the Secretariat in Apia.The purposes of SPREP, as set forth in Article 2 of the Agree-ment, include the promotion of cooperation in the South Pacific re-gion, the provision of assistance to protect and improve the envi-ronment, and the ensurance of sustainable development for presentand future generations. SPREP is to achieve these purposesthrough Action Plans to be adopted from time to time by theSPREP Meeting. Article 2 enumerates several broad componentswhich are to be included in these Action Plans.The Agreement designates the SPREP Meeting as the forum forconsultations on matters of common concern, for overseeing SPREPactivities and for the adoption and review of the Action Plan. Arti-cle 3 of the Agreement provides that membership in the SPREPMeeting is open to Parties to the Agreement and, with the appro-priate authorization of the Party responsible for their internationalrelations, to American Samoa, French Polynesia, Guam, New Cal-edonia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Toke-lau and Wallis and Futuna. (Although Article 3 includes Palau inthe list of these entities, Palau has since become a sovereign Statewith responsibility for its own international relations, in accord-ance with the Compact of Free Association between Palau and theUnited States.)In accordance with Article 4, the Parties to the Agreement un-dertake to ensure the full involvement of all Members in the workof the SPREP Meeting, which is to be conducted on the basis ofconsensus of all SPREP Members, taking into account the practicesand procedures of the South Pacific region. If a decision is requiredin the SPREP Meeting, that decision is to be taken by a consensusof the Parties to the Agreement, with the Parties obligated to con-sider and take into account the views of all Members.Articles 3 and 4 of the Agreement represent a compromise thatresolved difficult issues relating to the role and participation of ter-ritories and entities in the region that are not responsible for theirown foreign relations. Prior to the negotiation of the Agreement,the informal legal status of SPREP obviated the need to distinguishbetween independent States and such territories and entities in un-dertaking SPREP activities. The effort to establish SPREP as a for-mal intergovernmental organization on the basis of the Agreementraised complicated and sensitive issues of participation and deci-sion-making.Articles 3 and 4, reached after extensive negotiation, reflect thetraditions and practices of the South Pacific region, which placegreat emphasis upon cooperation and consensus. While permittingVIIfull participation of territories in the region that are not respon-sible for their own foreign relations in the SPREP Meeting and inthe work of the SPREP Meeting, they comport with generally ac-cepted principles of international law and practice regarding whichmembers of the international community may become parties totreaties and which may exercise rights to participate in decision-making.Article 5 addresses SPREP’s budget. The article tasks the Direc-tor of the SPREP Secretariat with preparing an estimated budget,provides for consensus adoption of the budget and related budg-etary questions, and empowers the SPREP Meeting to adopt finan-cial regulations for the administration of SPREP. As envisioned inArticle 5, SPREP financial regulations authorize the organizationto accept contributions from private and public sources, but do notimpose assessed contributions on Parties to the Agreement. TheUnited States has been involved with SPREP since its inception in1982. Since that time, we have made regular contributions to theupkeep of SPREP and to specific projects implemented under itsauspices. All such contributions have been voluntary in nature andsubject to fluctuation according to our satisfaction with the activi-ties in question and our ability to contribute.Article 6 makes the SPREP Director the head of the SPREP Sec-retariat and assigns to the Director certain administrative andmanagerial tasks. Since the entry into force of the Agreement, theSPREP Meeting has adopted Rules of Procedure which limit theterm of SPREP Directors to no more than two consecutive three-year terms. New Directors are appointed upon the recommendationof a SPREP subcommittee. Unless the United States becomes aparty to the Agreement, we cannot participate on that subcommit-tee.Article 7 sets out that the SPREP Secretariat will implement thegeneral activities of SPREP. Among the general responsibilities en-trusted to the Secretariat are: implementing the SPREP ActionPlan, reporting on progress to SPREP members, carrying out re-search and studies required to implement the SPREP Action Plan,advising and assisting members with implementation, coordinatingwith organizations active in the region, gathering and disseminat-ing relevant information, facilitating personnel development andpublic education, assisting in the use of scientific and technicaldata, and seeking financial and technical resources for SPREP.Article 8 of the Agreement grants SPREP legal personality withauthority necessary to discharge its functions and responsibilities,in particular the capacity to enter into contracts to acquire and dis-pose of property and to sue and be sued. Privileges and immunitiesfor the officers and employees of SPREP, as well as for representa-tives to the SPREP Meeting, are to be those agreed upon betweenSPREP and the Party in whose territory the Secretariat is located(Western Samoa) and as may be extended by other Parties to theAgreement.Article 9 ensures that nothing in the Agreement may be inter-preted as prejudicing the sovereignty of the States over their re-spective territories, territorial seas, internal or archipelagic waters,or their sovereign rights regarding their respective exclusive eco-nomic zones and continental shelves.VIIIPursuant to Article 10, the Agreement was open for signaturefrom June 16, 1993, until June 16, 1994, subject to ratification, ac-ceptance, or approval and thereafter remains open to accession byStates either located in the South Pacific Region or having terri-tories in that area. The following are party to the Agreement atthis time: Western Samoa, the Republic of Fiji, New Zealand, theRepublic of Nauru, the Republic of Kiribati, Australia, Papua NewGuinea, Tuvalu, the Federated States of Micronesia, Niue, theCook Islands, Tonga, the Solomon Islands and France. Article 10further designates the Government of Western Samoa as Deposi-tary for the Agreement. Reservations to the Agreement are not per-mitted.Article 11 provides that any Party may propose amendments tothe Agreement. Amendments enter into force only after their adop-tion by consensus of the Parties at the SPREP Meeting and receiptby the Depositary of instruments of ratification, acceptance or ap-proval by all Parties. A Party may withdraw from the Agreementupon one year’s notice.I recommend, therefore, that the Agreement Establishing theSouth Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) be trans-mitted to the Senate as soon as possible for its advice and consentto ratification.Respectfully submitted.MADELEINE ALBRIGHT.(1)23456789101112131415161718

South Pacific Regional Environment Programme Agreement (1993)

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South Pacific Regional Environment Programme Agreement (1993)

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