FIRST MEETING

PREMIERE SEANCE

PRIMERA SESION

(18 November 1993)

The First Meeting was opened at 10.15 hours
Mr Algirdas Zemaitis, Chairman of Commission III, presiding

La première séance est ouverte à 10 h 15
sous la présidence de M. Algirdas Zemaitis. Président de la Commission III

Se abre la primera sesión a las 10.15 horas
baio la presidencia del Sr. Algirdas Zemaitis. Presidente de la Comisión III

CHAIRMAN: The meeting is called to order. I would like to welcome distinguished delegates to this first meeting of Commission III and to remind them that Commission III of the Conference deals with constitutional and administrative matters. Seven meetings have been scheduled if required. The Commission must conclude its work on Monday 22 November.

At this point, I would like to introduce the two Vice-chairmen of this Commission. They are His Excellency Michael Kima Tabong, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Cameroon to FAO, and Mr Jean-Paul Rivaud, in charge of the Mission to the United Nations and International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France. The Rapporteur for Commission III is Mr Neil Magedaragamage, Alternate Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to FAO.

I would like to draw the attention of delegates to Document C 93/12, which sets out arrangements for the 27th Session of the Conference. This document also deals with Conference Resolutions, and I would like to remind distinguished delegates that the Council has recommended that the number of resolutions be kept to a minimum and that they should deal only with matters requiring a formal decision by the Conference.

For the criteria for the formulation of resolutions, please refer to Appendix D of C 93/12.

A tentative timetable for Commission III is given in Appendix A of document C 93/12. The provisional checklist of required documents is in C 93/LIM/13 Rev. 1. The Journal of the Conference Order of the Day also indicates which documents are required for particular items.

The Commission's working hours normally will be from 09.30 to 12.30 and from 14.30 to 17.30. As I have already mentioned, provision has been made for a total of seven meetings, if required, with five allocated to discussions and two for the adoption of the report. The Commission has to have its work completed and the report adopted by Monday, 22 November. This will require the full cooperation of delegates being on time to enable the work to be finished. This meeting should have started at 09.30 and it is now 10.15. I would therefore appreciate it if the delegates realize that the meeting will start on time; unfortunately I have to have a quorum.

In order to save time for everybody concerned, please do not congratulate me on my election as the Chairman. Many people have congratulated me privately and so on. Everybody knows that I am in the chair. It will save time if you do not congratulate me on my election as Chairman.

I should like to request Mr Richard M. Stein, Chief, General Legal Affairs Service, and Secretary of the Commission, to explain briefly the practical arrangements for our meeting.

Richard M. STEIN (Secretary, Commission III): Thank you very much, Mr Chairman, for giving me the opportunity to present very briefly some of the administrative arrangements for this meeting.

As you were kind enough to say, I am the Secretary. The Assistant Secretary Mr Flood, is here, so that you will know who he is, if you do not know him already, and he is from the Personnel Division. We also have two secretaries, Ms Calcagni and Ms Blaylock. If you require any assistance you know that they are part of the staff.

I would also recall - it has appeared in the Journal - that the Chairman's office is in Room A-375. If you go out of this corridor, his office is at the end of the corridor in Building A. We shall try, to the extent possible during the meetings, to have someone there in case you require any information or help.

As to the administrative arrangements for the meeting, as you have pointed out in particular, in the document which was circulated in July 1993 entitled "Arrangements for the 27th Session of the Conference", there was a schedule for Commission III as for the other Commissions. Since that time, of course, we have lost a half day yesterday because one of the other Commissions had to continue with its meetings. In any case, as you know, Mr Chairman, because it was also in consultation with you, we reviewed very carefully, in consultation with the Assistant Secretary, the various documents before us and we came to the conclusion - and I shall briefly tell you why in just a moment - that it might be possible to move ahead more rapidly than had first been envisaged when the first scheduled was established in July. At that time, of course, it was done on a theoretical basis. However, since the original schedule was established, a number of things have happened which give us good reason to believe that we can move ahead quickly.

Many of these items have been under review by various bodies of this Organization for some time. Some of the items have been before the Council at least once, many of them twice, and some of them even three or four times. In addition - and much of this has taken place since the meeting of the Council in June - there have been additional, intense consultations on many of these points. We believe that through these consultations both during the Council meeting, the discussions at the CCLM and the discussions at the Council itself, there should remain on the majority of the items no outstanding problems. Consequently, perhaps we are being optimistic, but that is in fact a philosophy of the Secretariat of this Commission, and we think there is good reason to be optimistic.

Naturally this does not imply in any way that the items are not important. On the contrary, it is because these items are of great importance and it is customary for this Commission to have items of extreme importance, as has been the case in the past and is the case now, that they were vetted and reviewed many many times before they came to the Commission. We therefore believe that there has been a consensus reached. However, this is not an attempt to restrain the possibility for delegations to intervene here; that is not what I am saying - simply that there has been a great deal of agreement on it.

Therefore, from the schedule which appears in the document that one received each day (the Journal of the Conference for today, C 93/DJ/10), you will note that what we have suggested on the agenda today is that if possible we may be able to deal with all the constitutional and legal matters this morning and then begin in the afternoon with some of the financial matters. With your help and with some luck, we may be able to do that. Anyway, that is what we have proposed for the reasons that I have just stated.

CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much, Mr Stein. The first Agenda item is number 16, "Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Director-General (Status as at 30 June 1993)". The document reference are C 93/21 and C 93/21-Sup.1. This item will be introduced by Mr Gerald Moore, the Legal Counsel.