CYIL 2014

140

KAROLINA ŽÁKOVSKÁ

CYIL 5 ȍ2014Ȏ

opatrnosti při zařazovaní druhů do příloh a posilování vazeb k ostatním relevantním

mezinárodním fórům.

Key words:

CITES, trade sanctions, marine species

On the Author:

JUDr. Karolina Žákovská, Ph.D. is a senior lecturer at the Faculty

of Law, Charles University, in Prague. She graduated there in 2001 and obtained the

Ph.D. degree in 2007 with her thesis focused on international protection of marine

biodiversity. She also holds the D.E.A. degree (former French equivalent of the LL.M.

degree) in ocean and maritime law from the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences,

University of Nantes, France. She is a member of the Environmental Law Department

and cooperates closely with the International Public Law Department. Her main fields

of interest include air, climate and biodiversity protection and the relationship between

environmental degradation and human rights. She teaches several courses focused on

Czech, European and international environmental law and policy.

Introduction

The

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

(hereafter the ‘CITES’ or ‘convention’) was adopted on 3 March 1973 in Washington,

D.C., United States and entered into force two years later, on 1 July 1975. Its adoption

has been the apogee of a long process of international negotiations launched by the IUCN

in the beginning of the 1960s.

At the beginning of its fifth decade, the CITES belongs

with its 180 contracting parties

– still excluding the European Union, but probably not

for long

– to those conservation agreements with the largest membership. At the same

time, it is one of the most successful ones, at least as far as its implementation is

Cf.

Resolution No. 14 of the 7th IUCN General Assembly:

“The Seventh General Assembly

–

believing that a major threat to the existence of some rare animals is their illegal exportation from the

country of origin, followed by their legal importation into other countries;

–

warmly approves the action of those countries which have restricted the importation of such animals;

–

now resolves that the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources should urge

all governments who do not yet restrict the importation of rare animals in harmony with the export laws

of the countries of origin, do so now and thereby support the efforts of those countries to preserve animals in

danger of extermination.”

(IUCN,

Seventh General Assembly. Warsaw – June 1960. Proceedings

, IUCN

1960, p. 154). See also the Report on the Survival Service Commission’s Meetings held during the

8th IUCN General Assembly meeting in September 1963 that calls for

“International Control of the

trade in wild animals”

(IUCN,

Eighth General Assembly. Nairobi – Kenya – September 1963. Proceedings

IUCN Publications New Series, Supplementary Papers No. 1, 1964, p. 111)

As of June 2014. The last State joining the CITES was Iraq, for whom it entered into force on 6May 2014.

The European Union could not accede to the CITES until very recently due to the wording of

article XXI that limited the membership to States only. However, this obstacle ceased to exist after

the entry into force on 29 November 2013 of the so-called Gaborone Amendment to the CITES,

adopted at the second extraordinary meeting of the Conference of Parties held in Gaborone, Botswana,

in April 1983. The European Commission has already submitted a proposal for a Council decision on

the accession of the European Union to the CITES. See EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Proposal for

a Council Decision on the Accession of the European Union to the Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

, Brussels, 6. 12. 2013, COM(2013) 867 final.