Rules of Procedure

Rules of Procedure

A. Representation

A Government party to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, 1946 (hereafter referred to as the Convention) shall have the right to appoint one Commissioner and shall furnish the Secretary of the Commission with the name of its Commissioner and his designation and notify him promptly of any changes in the appointment. The Secretary shall inform other Commissioners of such appointment.

B. Meetings

The Commission shall hold a regular Annual Meeting in such place as the Commission may determine. Any Contracting Government desiring to extend an invitation to the Commission to meet in that country shall give formal notice thereof in advance of the preceding Meeting. Attendance by a majority of the members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum. Special Meetings of the Commission may be called at the direction of the Chairman after consultation with the Contracting Governments.

C. Observers

1.	(a)	Any Government not a party to the Convention or any intergovernmental organisation may be represented at meetings of the Commission by an observer or observers, if such non-party government or intergovernmental organisation has previously attended any meeting of the Commission, or if it submits its request in writing to the Commission 60 days prior to the start of the meeting, or if the Commission issues an invitation to attend.
	(b)	Any international organisation with offices in more than three countries may be represented at meetings of the Commission by an observer, if such international organisation has previously attended any meeting of the Commission, or if it submits its request in writing to the Commission 60 days prior to the start of the meeting and the Commission issues an invitation with respect to such request. The Commission shall levy a registration fee and determine rules of conduct, and may define other conditions for the attendance of such observers.

D. Credentials

1.	(a)	The names and status of all participants, advisers and observers to any meeting of the Commission or committees, as specified in the Rules of Procedure of the Commission, Technical and Scientific Committees, shall be notified to the Secretary in writing before their participation and/or attendance at each meeting. The written notification shall be made by governments or the authority appointed by them or the heads of organisations as the case may be.
	(b)	In the case of members of delegations who will attend the Annual Commission Meeting and its associated meetings, the notification may be made en bloc by submitting a list of the members who will attend any of these meetings.
	(c)	The Secretary, or his representative, shall report on the received notifications at the beginning of a meeting.
	(d)	In case of any doubt as to the authenticity of notification or in case of apparent delay in their delivery, the chairman of the meeting shall convene an ad hoc group of no more than one representative from any Contracting Government present to decide upon the question of participation in the meeting.

E. Voting

Each Commissioner shall have the right to vote at Plenary Meetings of the Commission and in his absence his deputy or alternate shall have such right. Experts and advisers may address Plenary Meetings of the Commission but shall not be entitled to vote. They may vote at the meetings of any committee to which they have been appointed, provided that when such vote is taken, representatives of any Contracting Government shall only exercise one vote.

The right to vote of representatives of any Contracting Government whose annual payments including any interest due have not been received by the Commission within 3 months of the due date prescribed in Regulation E.2 of the Financial Regulations, shall be automatically suspended until payment is received by the Commission, unless the Commission decides otherwise.

(a)	Where a vote is taken on any matter before the Commission, a simple majority of those casting an affirmative or negative vote shall be decisive, except that a three-fourths majority of those casting an affirmative or negative vote shall be required for action in pursuance of Article V of the Convention.
(b)	Action in pursuance of Article V shall contain the text of the regulations proposed to amend the Schedule. A proposal that does not contain such regulatory text does not constitute an amendment to the Schedule and therefore requires only a simple majority vote. A proposal that does not contain such regulatory text to revise the Schedule but would commit the Commission to amend the Schedule in the future can neither be put to a vote nor adopted.
(c)	At meetings of committees appointed by the Commission, a simple majority of those casting an affirmative or negative vote shall also be decisive. The committee shall report to the Commission if the decision has been arrived at as a result of the vote.
(d)	Votes shall be taken by show of hands, or by roll call, as in the opinion of the Chairman, appears to be most suitable.

Between meetings of the Commission or in the case of emergency, a vote of the Commissioners may be taken by post, or other means of communication in which case the necessary simple, or where required three-fourths majority, shall be of the total number of Contracting Governments whose right to vote has not been suspended under paragraph 2.

F. Chairman

The Chairman of the Commission shall be elected from time to time from among the Commissioners and shall take office at the conclusion of the Annual Meeting at which he is elected. He shall serve for a period of three years and shall not be eligible for re-election as Chairman until a further period of three years has elapsed. He shall, however, remain in office until his successor is elected.

The duties of the Chairman shall be:

(a)	to preside at all meetings of the Commission;
(b)	to decide all questions of order raised at meetings of the Commission, subject to the right of any Commissioner to request that any ruling by the Chairman shall be submitted to the Commission for decision by vote;
(c)	to call for votes and to announce the result of the vote to the Commission;
(d)	to determine after consultation with the Commissioners and the Secretary the provisional order of business so that the Secretary may despatch it by airmail not less than 100 days in advance of the meeting;
(e)	to sign, on behalf of the Commission, a report of the proceedings of each annual or other meeting of the Commission, for transmission to Contracting Governments and others concerned as an authoritative record of what transpired;
(f)	generally, to make such decisions and give such directions to the Secretary as will ensure, especially in the interval between the meetings of the Commission, that the business of the Commission is carried out efficiently and in accordance with its decision.

G. Vice-Chairman

The Vice-Chairman of the Commission shall be elected from time to time from among the Commissioners and shall preside at meetings of the Commission, or between them, in the absence or in the event of the Chairman being unable to act. He shall on those occasions exercise the powers and duties prescribed for the Chairman. The Vice-Chairman shall be elected for a period of three years and shall not be eligible for re-election as Vice-Chairman until a further period of three years has elapsed. He shall, however, remain in office until his successor is elected.

H. Secretary

The Commission shall appoint a Secretary and shall designate staff positions to be filled through appointments made by the Secretary. The Commission shall fix the terms of employment, rate of remuneration including tax assessment and superannuation and travelling expenses for the members of the Secretariat.

The Secretary is the executive officer of the Commission and shall:

(a)

be responsible to the Commission for the control and supervision of the staff and management of its office and for the receipt and disbursement of all monies received by the Commission;

(b)

make arrangements for all meetings of the Commission and its committees and provide necessary secretarial assistance;

(c)

prepare and submit to the Chairman a draft of the Commission's budget for each year and shall subsequently submit the budget to all Contracting Governments and Commissioners as early as possible before the Annual Meeting;

(d)

despatch by airmail:

(i)	a draft agenda for the Annual Commission Meeting to all Contracting Governments and Commissioners 100 days in advance of the meeting for comment and any additions with annotations they wish to propose;
(ii)	an annotated provisional agenda to all Contracting Governments and Commissioners not less than 60 days in advance of the Annual Commission Meeting. Included in the annotations should be a brief description of each item, and in so far as possible, documentation relevant to agenda items should be referred to in the annotation and sent to member nations at the earliest possible date;

(e)

receive, tabulate and publish notifications and other information required by the Convention in such form and manner as may be prescribed by the Commission;

(f)

perform such other functions as may be assigned to him by the Commission or its Chairman;

(g)

where appropriate, provide copies or availability to a copy of reports of the Commission including reports of Observers under the International Observer Scheme, upon request after such reports have been considered by the Commission.

I. Chairman of Scientific Committee

1.	The Chairman of the Scientific Committee may attend meetings of the Commission and Technical Committee in an ex officio capacity without vote, at the invitation of the Chairman of the Commission or Technical Committee respectively in order to represent the views of the Scientific Committee.

J. Order of Business

No order of business which involves amendment of the Schedule to the Convention, or recommendations under Article VI of the Convention, shall be the subject of decisive action by the Commission unless the subject matter has been included in the provisional order of business which has been despatched by airmail to the Commissioners at least 60 days in advance of the meeting at which the matter is to be discussed.

K. Financial

1.	The financial year of the Commission shall be from 1st September to 31st August.
2.	Any request to Contracting Governments for financial contributions shall be accompanied by a statement of the Commission's expenditure for the appropriate year, actual or estimated.
3.	Annual payments and other financial contributions by Contracting Governments shall be made payable to the Commission and shall be in pounds sterling.

L. Offices

1.	The seat of the Commission shall be located in the United Kingdom.

M. Committees

The Commission shall establish a Scientific Committee, a Technical Committee and a Finance and Administration Committee. Commissioners shall notify their desire to be represented on the Scientific, Technical and Finance and Administration Committees 28 days prior to the meetings, and shall designate the approximate size of their delegations.

The Chairman may constitute such ad hoc committees as may be necessary from time to time, with similar arrangements for notification of the numbers of participants as in paragraph 1 above where appropriate. Each committee shall elect its Chairman. The Secretary shall furnish appropriate secretarial services to each committee.

Sub-committees and working groups may be designated by the Commission to consider technical issues as appropriate, and each will report to the Technical Committee or the plenary session of the Commission as the Commission may decide.

The Scientific Committee shall review the current scientific and statistical information with respect to whales and whaling, shall review current scientific research programmes of Governments, other international organisations or of private organisations, shall review the scientific permits and scientific programmes for which Contracting Governments plan to issue scientific permits, shall consider such additional matters as may be referred to it by the Commission or by the Chairman of the Commission, and shall submit reports and recommendations to the Commission.

The preliminary report of the Scientific Committee should be completed and available to all Commissioners by the opening date of the Annual Commission Meeting.

The Secretary shall be an ex officio member of the Scientific Committee without vote.

The Technical Committee shall, as directed by the Commission or the Chairman of the Commission, prepare reports and make recommendations on:

(a)	Management principles, categories, criteria and definitions, taking into account the recommendations of the Scientific Committee, as a means of helping the Commission to deal with management issues as they arise;
(b)	technical and practical options for implementation of conservation measures based on Scientific Committee advice;
(c)	the implementation of decisions taken by the Commission through resolutions and through Schedule provisions;
(d)	Commission agenda items assigned to it;
(e)	any other matters.

The Finance and Administration Committee shall advise the Commission on expenditure, budgets, scale of contributions, financial regulations, staff questions, and such other matters as the Commission may refer to it from time to time.

N. Language of the Commission

English shall be the official and working language of the Commission but Commissioners may speak in any other language, if desired, it being understood that Commissioners doing so will provide their own interpreters. All official publications and communications of the Commission shall be in English.

O. Records of Meetings

1.	The proceedings of the meetings of the Commission and those of its committees shall be recorded in summary form.

P. Reports

1.	Commissioners should arrange for reports on the subject of whaling published in their own countries to be sent to the Commission for record purposes.
2.	The Chairman's Report of the most recent Annual Commission Meeting shall be published in the Annual Report of the year just completed.

Q. Commission Documents

1.	Reports of all committees, sub-committees and working groups of the Commission are strictly confidential until the opening plenary session of the Commission meeting to which they are submitted. Procedures applying to the Scientific Committee are contained in its Rules of Procedure E.6.1 and 6.2.
2.	Reports of intersessional meetings are similarly confidential until they have been distributed by post to Commissioners and Contracting Governments.
3.	Any document submitted to the Commission for distribution to Commissioners, Contracting Governments or members of the Scientific Committee is considered to be in the public domain unless it is designated by the author or government submitting it to be restricted. Such restriction is automatically lifted when the report of the meeting to which it is submitted becomes publicly available under 1. above.
4.	All meeting documents shall be included in the Commission's archives in the form in which they were considered at the meeting.

R. Amendment of Rules

These Rules of Procedure may be amended from time to time by a simple majority of the Commissioners voting, but notice of any proposed amendment shall be despatched by airmail to the Commissioners by the Secretary to the Commission not less than 60 days in advance of the meeting at which the matter is to be discussed.