(from "Chairman's Report of the Fifty-Second Annual Meeting")

Opening Statements may be submitted by Observer organisations which will be included in the official documentation of the Annual or other Meeting concerned. They shall be presented in the format and the quantities determined by the Secretariat for meeting documentation.

The content of the Opening Statements shall be relevant to matters under consideration by the Commission, and shall be in the form of views and comments made to the Commission in general rather than directed to any individual or group of Contracting Governments.

on the understanding that: (1) there is no intention that the Secretariat should conduct advance or ex-antereviews of such statements, and (2) these new requirements do not preclude remarks about individual countries in Opening Statements provided the statement is still addressed to the Commission as a whole.

The Commission endorsed this recommendation together with the associated understandings.

20.2 Communications
The F&A Committee viewed communication by electronic means, preferably e-mail, as very desirable but recognised that there are still situations where this is not feasible. It recommended that the Secretariat should communicate with Contracting Governments by the best electronic means available (e-mail or fax) when that is possible, but should also provide hard copies to those governments requesting them. Member governments should be encouraged to submit materials to the Secretariat in a manner that can be re-transmitted electronically.

The Commission accepted these recommendations.

20.3 Annual Meeting arrangements
20.3.1 Need for Annual Meetings
The Commission noted that the F&A Committee had accepted the view of its Chairman that there appeared to be broad support for the continuation of Annual Meetings.

20.3.2 Press
The Chairman of the F&A Committee noted that there was widespread support for the presence of the media at IWC meetings but pointed out that a consequence will be increased expenditure since larger venues will be required. This could preclude some countries from being hosts in the future. He noted that some concern had been expressed at the direct cost of providing copies of materials to the media that resulted in a suggestion that the charge to the media should be more in line with that made to NGOs. Nonetheless, the F&A Committee considered that the experiment to allow the press in should be continued. Obviously, the decision would continue to be subject to review.

The Commission agreed.

20.3.3 Verbatim record
The Administrative Review in 1998 recommended that consideration be given to discontinuing the Verbatim Record of Annual Meetings. The discussion in 1999 was inconclusive and was deferred for review this year. In the F&A Committee, Australia supported the discontinuation of the verbatim record. However, the Committee accepted the suggestion of its Chairman that it would be appropriate to maintain it for this year at least in view of the appointment of a new Secretary. The Commission concurred and agreed to review the question again at the Annual Meeting in 2001.

20.3.4 Technical Committee
The F&A Committee met prior to what would normally have been the Technical Committee and thus was not in a position to comment on the experiment of not having a Technical Committee Meeting at this meeting.

In the Commission, the UK pointed out that the absence of a Technical Committee meant that some issues did not have the benefit of any preliminary discussion and came straight to Plenary. It considered that to overcome this drawback would not necessarily require a meeting of a Technical Committee as presently constituted but possibly special working groups to deal with important issues which would benefit from preliminary discussion.

The Commission agreed to refer the matter to the Advisory Committee for consideration before the next Annual Meeting.

20.3.5 Amendment to the Rules of Procedure
Japan had proposed an amendment to Rule of Procedure E.3.d concerning the use of secret ballots. It elected to raise the matter in Plenary rather than in the F&A Committee, commenting that the secret ballot has been adopted by a number of international organisations and international fora. Japan suggested that its use in all voting would improve the functioning of the Commission. It did not pursue the matter this year but stated its intention of raising the proposal again at the next Annual Meeting.

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