From 17 to 18 March 2014, the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam hosted a Subregional Workshop on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage at the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (VARANS) in Hanoi, Viet Nam.

Organized by the IAEA, the workshop was an outreach activity of the International Expert Group on Nuclear Liability (INLEX), an advisory body established by the IAEA Director General in September 2003. INLEX is a forum of expertise to advise on issues related to nuclear liability. One of its functions is to enhance global adherence to the international instruments adopted under the auspices of the IAEA, including, the Protocol to Amend the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage and the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage. It also assists in the development of national implementing legislation to reflect the principles of the international instruments.

Ms. Peri Lynne Johnson, Legal Adviser and Director of the IAEA Office of Legal Affairs, highlighted the importance of the workshop post-Fukushima, in light of growing requests from IAEA Member States for INLEX to recommend actions to facilitate achievement of a global nuclear liability regime.

"The workshop is an opportunity to reach out to Member States, advise them on the nuclear liability regime and explain the benefits of joining the international nuclear liability instruments as a step toward achieving a global nuclear liability regime," Ms. Johnson said.

Similar workshops were conducted between 2005 and 2011, focusing respectively on Asia and the Pacific Region, Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and embarking countries.