The Eleventh Session of the FAO Conference (November 1961), by Resolution 9/61, requested the Director-General to examine the steps which would be necessary to set up an international locust commission for that region.
In pursuance of the above-mentioned Resolution and action on the recommendation of FAO committees concerned with desert locust control in the Near East, the Director-General convened a meeting in Beirut in March 1965. This meeting considered and approved a draft agreement for the establishment of a commission for controlling the desert locust in the Near East. The Agreement was approved by the FAO Council at its Forty-fourth Session (July 1965) and submitted to Member Nations for acceptance.
In accordance with paragraph 1, Article XIX, the Agreement entered into force on 21 February 1967, date of receipt of the third instrument of acceptance. The Agreement was registered with the Secretariat of the United Nations on 17 March 1967 under No. 8575.
At its Seventh Session (October 1976), the Commission adopted amendments to the Agreement which were approved by the Seventy-second Session of the FAO Council (November 1977). These amendments entered into force for all the parties to the Agreement.
At its Twentieth Session (December 1994), the Commission adopted further amendments to the Agreement which were approved by the FAO Council at its Hundred and Eighth Session (June 1995). These amendments entered into force for all the parties to the Agreement.
The following participants deposited their instruments of acceptance on the corresponding date indicated:
|
Participant |
Acceptance |
|
Bahrain |
24 February 1969 |
|
Djibouti |
20 July 2001 |
|
Egypt |
6 July 1967 |
|
Eritrea |
24 June 2005 |
|
Ethiopia |
13 January 2004 |
|
Iraq |
9 January 1970 |
|
Jordan |
14 November 1966 |
|
Kuwait |
10 August 1967 |
|
Lebanon |
22 August 1966 |
|
Oman |
9 October 1972 |
|
Qatar |
31 December 1968 |
|
Saudi Arabia |
17 October 1972 |
|
Sudan |
21 February 1967 |
|
Syrian Arab Republic |
3 December 1968 |
|
United Arab Emirates |
31 May 1974 |
|
Yemen1 |
20 March 1969 |
Saudi Arabia
(Reservations made upon acceptance):
"(1) With regard to the provision of Article XV of the Agreement, the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wishes to reserve the right to specify, as cases may arise, areas to be excluded from activities.
(2) That the seat of the proposed Regional Body for Controlling the Desert Locust be established in a country other than the Kingdom.
(3) That acceptance by the Kingdom of this Agreement will not make it mandatory to establish a specialized full-time agency for locust control.
(4) The Kingdom proposes that Arabic be regarded as one of the official languages of the Agreement, and the language of correspondence between the Commission and FAO.
(5) That the question of establishing reserve warehouses in Jedda (to store pesticides and equipment necessary for locust control activities, in order to provide aid, in cases of emergency, to member countries prone to locust invasion) be postponed until the Kingdom becomes a member of the Commission."