The European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes was done at Strasbourg on 18 March 1986. Two equally authentic languages: English and French, in a single copy in the archives of the Council of Europe. Depositary: the Secretary General. ETS No. 123. Open for signature by member States and by the European Communities. It entered into force on the first day of the month following six months after four member States had consented to be bound — 1 January 1991. Directive 86/609/EEC is a distinct Community instrument, drawn up in parallel.

The preamble recognises a moral obligation towards animals and, at the same time, a need to use them where there is a reasonable expectation of knowledge or of overall benefit to man or animal; the aim is to replace such use wherever practical and to keep pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm to a minimum. Article 1 applies to any animal used or intended for use in an experimental or other scientific procedure that may cause those effects; it does not apply to non-experimental agricultural or clinical veterinary practice. Animal, in the Convention, means any live non-human vertebrate, including free-living or reproducing larval forms, but excluding other foetal or embryonic forms.

Article 2 confines procedures, at the level of principle, to the prevention and diagnosis of disease, physiology, environmental protection, scientific research, education and forensic inquiries. Article 4 leaves Parties free to adopt stricter measures. Article 6: a procedure shall not be performed if another scientifically satisfactory method not entailing the use of an animal is reasonably and practicably available. Article 7: the minimum number of animals and the least pain compatible with satisfactory results. Article 13: authorisation of competent persons. This is not a laboratory protocol.

Article 5: accommodation, food, water and care, with daily checks of conditions. Articles 14–18: breeding, supplying and user establishments shall be registered or approved. Article 21, at the level of principle: animals intended for procedures come from registered establishments; straying animals of a domesticated species shall not be used. Articles 27–28: annual statistics to the Secretary General, without reproducing the tables. Article 30: multilateral consultations five years after entry into force.

The Protocol of Amendment, ETS No. 170, adopted on 22 June 1998 and in force from 2 December 2005, added an amendment procedure for the appendices and renumbered the final clauses; it is not part of the 1986 text. Reservations may not be made in respect of Articles 1 to 14 or 18 to 20.

Cover: the Palais de l Europe in Strasbourg, seat of the Council of Europe, depositary of the Convention. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes; European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes (ETS No. 123).