Status of Ratification
As of 19 August 2010, there were 44 Parties to the Convention, 26 Parties to the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) and 26 Parties to the amendment on public participation in decisions on the deliberate release into the environment and placing on the market of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
With the seventeenth submission of a ratification to the Protocol on 10 July 2009 – 16 by States which count toward entry into force – the Protocol has reached the minimum number of ratifications needed to trigger its entry into force. The Protocol entered into force on 8 October 2009, the 90th day after deposit of the sixteenth State's ratification, acceptance, approval or accession to the instrument.
The amendment to the Convention will enter into force for Parties having ratified, approved or accepted
the amendment on the 90th day after the receipt by the Depositary of notification of their ratification, approval or acceptance by at least three-fourths of these Parties. Thereafter, it will enter into force for any other Party on the 90th day after that Party deposits its instrument of ratification, approval or acceptance of the amendment.
"Three-fourths of these Parties" refers to those States which were Parties to the Convention at the time of adoption of the GMO amendment – 27 May 2005. Twenty-seven
(27) ratifications by these Parties are needed to trigger the amendment's entry into force.