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In accordance with the Lisbon Recognition Convention, the Committee of the Convention shall oversee its implementation and guide the competent authorities in implementing the convention and in their consideration of applications for the recognition of foreign qualifications. The Rules of procedure (adopted by the Committee in Vilnius in 1999) reiterate this role – the function of the Committee is to promote the application of the convention and oversee its implementation.

Article II. of the convention states that where the central authorities of a party are competent to make decisions in recognition cases, that party shall be immediately bound by the provisions of the convention and shall take the necessary measures to ensure the implementation of its provisions on its territory. Where the competence to make decisions in recognition matters lies with individual higher education institutions or other entities, each party, according to its constitutional situation or structure, shall transmit the text of this convention to those institutions or entities and shall take all possible steps to encourage the favourable consideration and application of its provisions. The provisions of Article II. are central to determining the obligations of the parties to the convention. This article places upon these parties an obligation to make sure that information on the provisions is disseminated to all competent recognition authorities, and that these institutions are encouraged to abide by the convention (Explanatory report to the convention).

The objective of this monitoring exercise has been to oversee the implementation of the main provisions of the convention and to report to parties on the outcome of this monitoring, presenting the main findings and recommendations. This monitoring report is also a contribution to the commitment set out in the Yerevan Communiqué (2015) to review national legislation to ensure full compliance with the convention, and to ask the Convention Committee, in co-operation with the ENIC (Council of Europe and UNESCO European Network of National Information Centres on academic recognition and mobility) and NARIC (EU Network of National Academic Recognition Information Centres) networks, to prepare an analysis of the national legislation reports by the end of 2017, taking due account of this monitoring report.

This is the first monitoring of implementation of the Lisbon Recognition Convention (LRC) since its signature in 1997. The questionnaire used for the monitoring exercise was drawn up by the Bureau of the Convention Committee, namely Gunnar Vaht, President of the Committee, Gayane Harutyunyan, Vice-President, Allan Bruun Pedersen, Vice-President, and Baiba Ramina, Rapporteur, together with the joint Council of Europe/UNESCO Secretariat. The monitoring covers the 10 main provisions of the convention and comprises 22 questions relating to implementation of the main principles. The questions focus primarily on how the convention requirements are regulated at national level and to what extent the rules are reflected in national legislation. In cases where some or all of the provisions are not regulated at national level and where the higher education institutions have total autonomy in establishing the principles of the convention, the aim has been to discover how national authorities oversee implementation of the principles of the convention at institutional level. As stated above, the objective of this monitoring report is to monitor implementation of the convention by the parties to the convention. The executive summary focuses on the key findings and the conclusions focus on the recommendations made by the Convention Committee Bureau, which will require political decisions from the Convention Committee and from national authorities for follow-up action. The various chapters of the report elaborate further on both the key findings and the recommendations.

The questionnaire was sent to 53 states parties to the LRC, and replies were received from 50 countries. The initial deadline given was 15 February 2015, but this was extended to June 2015. The analysis by the members of the Convention Committee Bureau took place from June to November 2015 and was assisted and reviewed by the Council of Europe and UNESCO, the joint Secretariat of the LRCC Bureau.