Several provisions of the Convention deal with technical matters under treaty law, including signature, ratification and accession to the Convention, entry into force, denunciation of the Convention, the role of the Secretary-General as depositary of the treaty, and revision of the treaty. There is no provision for reservations but they have been deemed to be acceptable to the extent that they are not contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention. The official languages of the Convention are Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The Chinese language version has been changed due to dissatisfaction to the original text, prompting protests from Lemkin and others. The status of the official Chinese text remains somewhat uncertain. The Convention also contains a ’colonial clause’, something that is today an anachronism but one that apparently permits States to avoid the application of the Convention in non-self-governing territories over which they exercise control.

an investigation has been initiated in accordance with the provisions of Article 5, a public notice has been given to that effect and interested parties have been given adequate opportunities to submit information and make comments;