Hundreds of lawmakers trained
Peri Lynne Johnson, Legal Advisor and Director of the IAEA Office of Legal Affairs said “For more than a decade now, the NLI has been the go to course on legislative drafting for officials from IAEA Member States. More than 600 lawmakers, ranging from decision-makers and legislative drafters, to lawyers, regulators, parliamentarians, and other stakeholders, have been trained, with many going on to provide the much needed technical and legal support during the national law-making process.”
Pitambar Bhandari of the Ministry of Education in Nepal said he decided to attend the NLI to build upon the work of an IAEA Legislative Assistance mission to Nepal in March 2023.
“The mission provided an opportunity for a wide range of government officials to have a view on international and national nuclear law, focusing on the relevant international instruments adopted by, and under, the auspices of the IAEA to which Nepal is not yet party,” he said. “To enable nuclear technology to play a vital role in addressing some of the world’s biggest challenges, we need a legal framework that carefully weighs its risks and benefits – which is the primary role of national nuclear law.”
Bernardino Etoriaga Sayo, an Undersecretary in the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office of the Philippines, said the NLI’s course on drafting nuclear law had proved useful in preparing the country’s draft comprehensive nuclear bill which is expected to soon go before the Senate. “My participation at the NLI has provided me with the knowledge needed to help me support the Senate’s consideration of our draft Bill and the relevant international nuclear legal instruments including the 1997 Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage,” she said.
Saabesele Somda, from the Ministry of Environment in Burkina Faso, said: “Our draft law was sent for IAEA review in October 2022 with a bilateral review meeting and an awareness mission being held in December 2022 to support our goal of tabling the law in the Parliament at the March 2023 session. My participation in this year’s NLI has been very helpful to my role as the head of the drafting committee and will enable me to effectively support the law-making process.”
At the end of the course, groups of participants presented their drafts of a national nuclear law prepared during the course under a hypothetical country profile, explaining each article in the law, followed by a plenary session of questions from all participants and experts.
