Mr. Chairman,
Members of the Council,
In order to meet the needs of the Second Phase of the Council and after consulting with the Canadian Secretariat, the Head Office has made some individual revisions and reorganization of the existing Rules of Procedure (ROP), and has redrafted the Terms of Reference (TOR). I would like to take this opportunity to explain briefly our main thoughts.
The experiences in the past five years have proven that the ROP formulated by the Council in the First Phase was, on the whole, practical. Some individual parts and provisions however, were not suitable for the actual situation. In addition , the Second Phase brings with it a number of new changes. Therefore it is necessary to adjust the ROP.
The mandate of the Council and the major rules of procedure remain the same. The improvement of certain provisions are to make them more operational and pertinent.
The changes are as follows:
1. The original ROP says that the term of office of the Chairman and Vice Chairmen should normally be 3 years (see original ROP para 3.0). This has now been changed to five years, on the consideration that the Chairman and Vice Chairmen should have the same length of office as the phase-life Council itself to ensure continuation and integrated work.
2. There is an addition to the item on "The Council's Secretary General and Deputy Secretary Generals". Since the routine affairs of the Council are basically the responsibility of the Secretary General and Deputy Secretary Generals, there is a need to clarify the division of labour between the two positions.
3. The Secretary General is added as a member to the Bureau, simply because of the practical needs of Bureaus meetings and the work of the Council.
4. To distinguish the two secretariats, the Canadian Support Office has changed its name to CCICED Canadian Secretariat, and the Council's Secretariat has changed its name to CCICED Secretariat Head Office.
5. The original item of "Subsidiary Committees" (see original para 11.0) is deleted, since no such committees were set up in the First Phase and there is no consideration for any such committees at present. Apart from the above-mentioned, the wording of some other items is also improved to make them more accurate.
Concerning the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Second Phase, it is being drafted based on the TOR of the First Phase. However, items such as Background, The Nature of the Council, and The Main Purposes of the Council are not restated in the new TOR, which includes only revised items of Organization and Procedure, Financial Arrangements, and so forth. As a result, the TOR has been shortened from 41 items to 28 items. These items cover the following areas:
(1) Evaluation of the First Phase of the Council.
(2) Readjustment of the Council and Working Groups in the Second Phase.
(3) Guiding principles, objectives, mandate and requirements of the Council in t he Second Phase.
(4) Organization and procedure.
(5) Supportive and service systems.
(6) Financial arrangements.
Before the meeting we sent copies of the revised ROP and TOR to the Canadian Secretariat for their opinion, as well as to all members for their comments. We will follow decisions by the Council and will make further improvements and additions to the two documents after the meeting.
This is all for the members to review