The Executive Secretary may, with the approval of all CCSBT Members, invite the following States, entities or organisations to send observers to attend meetings of the CCSBT:
- any State or entity not party to the Convention, whose nationals, residents or fishing vessels harvest southern bluefin tuna, and any coastal State through whose exclusive economic or fishery zone southern bluefin tuna migrates; and
- any inter-governmental or, on request, non-governmental organisations having special competence concerning southern bluefin tuna or competent to contribute to the attainment of the objectives of the Convention.
The CCSBT may also approve long-term observer status to specific States, entities, inter-governmental (IGO) and, on request, non-governmental organisations (NGO) to attend specific meetings of the CCSBT. Five IGOs and five NGOs have been granted with long-term observer status as shown in the table below.
| Observers organisations provided with long-term observer status for CCSBT Meetings | |||||
| Strategy and Fisheries Management Working Group | Ecologically Related Species Working Group1 | Extended Scientific Committee | Compliance Committee2 | Extended Commission | |
| Inter-Governmental Organisations | |||||
| ACAP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| CCAMLR | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| ICCAT | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| IOTC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| WCPFC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Non-Governmental Organisations/networks | |||||
| Birdlife Int. | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| HSI Int. | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Pew Charitable Trusts | Yes | Yes | |||
| TRAFFIC Int. | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| WWF Aust. | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Tuna Compliance Network | Yes | ||||
1 States, entities and organisations that have been granted observer status to and attended the ERSWG meeting immediately prior to ERSTech will automatically be granted observer status to the ERSTech unless the Extended Commission decides otherwise.
2 States, entities and organisations that have been granted observer status to a Compliance Committee meeting will automatically be granted observer status to the preceding Technical Compliance Working Group unless the Extended Commission decides otherwise.
Further details on the attendance and participation by observers can be found at Rule 3 of the CCSBT Rules of Procedure. It is important to note that:
- Any requests for attendance as an observer to a CCSBT meeting must be advised to Members by the Executive Secretary at least 50 days before the respective meeting. Requests for observer status must therefore be received by the Executive Secretary in sufficient time to meet this timeframe.
- Papers submitted by observers and other external parties which include possible non-compliance of CCSBT Members, must indicate this content to the Secretariat and these papers must be received by the Secretariat at least 45 days prior to the relevant meeting. These papers will be subjected to CCSBT’s “Process for Review of External Documents including possible non-compliance of Members”.
