The issue of compliance was discussed at all meetings of the Conference of the Parties until the adoption of the Procedures and mechanisms on compliance with the Rotterdam Convention at the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2019, as Annex VII to the Convention. The first meeting of the Conference of the Parties convened an Open-ended Ad-Hoc Working Group on Article 17 that met in 2005 and subsequently the matter was considered during the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth meetings of the Conference of the Parties. In addition and as part of the negotiations, comments were sought from Parties at the invitation of the Bureau during the intersessional period between the seventh and eighth meetings of the Conference of the Parties.