Well, Richard Guthrie is the only NGO representative left, and even though he’s lonely, we’re glad he’s there to update us on the late-night proceedings. Here is his latest informal email update:

“We have just had a procedural plenary to stop the clock as the mandate of
the Review Conference ends at midnight. Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Thailand asked questions about when it would be that the document would
see the light of day, but no answer was forthcoming other than “soon”.

There are some outstanding issues remaining in the side negotiations,
although indications are these will be complete relatively quickly. As
those negotiations have now gone on for about 32 hours, “relatively” is a
difficult term to have some sense of.

The document will be circulated to the Committee of the Whole which will
then examine it before it is forwarded to a new plenary session.

It is a slightly peculiar experience to be sitting inside the meeting room
for the plenary, having been outside of meeting rooms for most of the last
ten days. The last plenary meeting included a long line of NGOs along the
back of the room. As the only NGO left — the line looks a little empty …”

Awwwww, I wish I was still sitting in the NGO line at the back of the room as well.