Text of the Standing Orders (1), (2)
Composition of the Conference
1. The Conference consists of all the delegates duly appointed by the Members of the International Labour Organisation.
2. Each delegate may be accompanied by advisers who shall not exceed two in number for each item on the agenda of the meeting.
3. (1) In accordance with article 3 of the Constitution of the Organisation a delegate may by notice in writing addressed to the President appoint one of his advisers to act as his substitute.
(2) Such notice must be addressed to the President before the sitting, unless a new question comes up for discussion in the course of the sitting.
(3) The notice shall specify the sitting or sittings at which the substitute will act.
(4) Substitutes may take part in the debates and may vote under the same conditions as delegates. Const. 3, 2-7
Right of admission to sittings of the Conference
1. The sittings of the Conference shall be public except in cases in which it has been expressly decided to the contrary.
2. Seats in the Conference hall shall be assigned to the delegates and their advisers by the Secretary-General.
3. Apart from delegates and advisers the only persons permitted to enter the body of the hall shall be:
(a) ministers whose departments deal with the questions discussed by the Conference and who are not delegates or advisers;
(b) representatives of official international organisations which have been invited by the Conference or the Governing Body to be represented at the Conference;
(c) members of the Governing Body who are not delegates or advisers;
(d) representatives of a state or province of a federal State who have been appointed to accompany a delegation by the Government of a Member of the Organisation;
(e) persons appointed as observers by a State invited to attend the Conference;
(f) the Director-General of the International Labour Office and the officials of the Secretariat of the Conference;
(g) one secretary or interpreter for each delegation;
(h) the secretaries of the Employers' and Workers' groups;
(I) persons appointed by Members of the Organisation to occupy advisers' posts which may fall vacant in their delegations;
(j) representatives of non-governmental international organisations with which it has been decided to establish consultative relationships and with which standing arrangements for such representation have been made and representatives of other non-governmental international organisations which have been invited by the Governing Body to be represented at the Conference;
(k) representatives of liberation movements recognised by the Organisation of African Unity or the League of Arab States which have been invited by the Conference or the Governing Body to be represented at the Conference.
4. Requests from non-governmental international organizations for an invitation to be represented at the Conference shall be made in writing to the Director-General of the International Labour Office and shall reach him at least one month before the opening of the session of the Governing Body preceding the session of the Conference. Such requests shall be referred to the Governing Body for decision in accordance with criteria established by the Governing Body.
5. Arrangements shall be made by the Secretary-General for the accommodation at public sittings of distinguished strangers and the press.
Officers of the Conference
1. The Conference shall elect as Officers a President and three Vice-Presidents, who shall all be of different nationalities and any of whom may be women.
2. The Government, Employers' and Workers' groups shall each nominate one of their number for election by the Conference as Vice-President. Const. 17,1
Selection Committee
1. The Conference shall appoint a Selection Committee consisting of twenty-eight members nominated by the Government group, fourteen members nominated by the Employers' group and fourteen members nominated by the Workers' group. In none of these categories shall a country have more than one member.
2. It shall be the duty of the Selection Committee to arrange the programme of the Conference, to fix the time and agenda for the plenary sittings, to act on behalf of the Conference with respect to decisions on non-controversial questions of a routine nature and to report to the Conference on any other questions requiring a decision for the proper conduct of its business, in accordance with the Conference Standing Orders. Where appropriate, the Committee may delegate any of these functions to its Officers.
Credentials Committee
1. The Conference shall, on the nomination of the Selection Committee, appoint a Credentials Committee consisting of one Government delegate, one Employers' delegate and one Workers' delegate.
2. The Credentials Committee shall examine the credentials of delegates and their advisers, and any objection relating thereto, in accordance with the provisions of Section B of Part II. Within the limits laid down in the said Section B, the Committee may also consider any complaints of non-observance of paragraph 2(a) of article 13 of the Constitution.
Conference Drafting Committee
1. The Conference shall appoint on the nomination of the Selection Committee a Conference Drafting Committee consisting of at least three persons who need not be either delegates or advisers.
2. The Committee Drafting Committee appointed by each committee under article 59(1) of these Standing Orders shall form part of the Conference Drafting Committee when any proposed Convention or Recommendation is submitted to the Conference by the committee concerned.
3. The Conference Drafting Committee shall have the functions entrusted to it by the rules concerning Convention and Recommendation procedure (Section E) and the rules concerning the procedure for the amendment of the Constitution of the Organisation (Section F) and shall, in general, be responsible for expressing in the form of Conventions and Recommendations the decisions adopted by the Conference and for ensuring agreement between the English and French versions of the texts of all formal instruments submitted to the Conference for adoption.
Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations
1. The Conference shall, as soon as possible, appoint a Committee to consider:
(a) the measures taken by Members to give effect to the provisions of Conventions to which they are parties and the information furnished by Members concerning the results of inspections;
(b) the information and reports concerning Conventions and Recommendations communicated by Members in accordance with article 19 of the Constitution, except for information requested under paragraph 5 (e) of that article where the Governing Body has decided upon a different procedure for its consideration;
(c) the measures taken by Members in accordance with article 35 of the Constitution.
2. The Committee shall submit a report to the Conference.
Finance Committee of Government Representatives
1. The Conference shall, as soon as possible, appoint a Finance Committee consisting of one Government delegate from each Member of the Organisation represented at the Conference.
2. The Finance Committee shall consider:
(a) the arrangements for the approval, allocation and collection of the budget of the Organisation, including:
(i) the budget estimates;
(ii) the arrangements for the allocation of expenses among Members of the Organisation;
(b) the audited financial statements of the Organisation, together with the Auditor's report thereon;
(c) any request or proposal that the Conference should permit a Member which is in arrears in the payment of its contribution to vote in accordance with article 13, paragraph 4, of the Constitution;
(d) any other matter referred to it by the Conference.
3. The Committee shall elect a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman.
4. The Director-General, accompanied by a tripartite delegation from the Governing Body, shall be entitled to attend the meetings of the Committee.
5. The decisions of the Committee shall be taken by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast by the members of the Committee present at the meeting.
6. The Committee shall submit a report, or reports, to the Conference.
Other committees
The Conference may appoint a committee to consider and report on any matter. Const. 17, 1
Adjustments to the membership of committees
The following rules shall apply to all committees appointed by the Conference with the exception of the Selection Committee, the Credentials Committee, the Finance Committee of Government Representatives and the Drafting Committee:
(a) once the various committees have been established and their initial membership appointed by the Conference, it shall be for the groups to determine subsequent changes in the composition of such committees;
(b) if a delegate has not been nominated by his group to sit on any committee, he may bring the matter to the notice of the Selection Committee which shall have power to place him on one or more committees, enlarging the number of members of such committee or committees accordingly. Any such request shall be made to the Chairman of the Selection Committee;
(c) in accordance with article 18 of the Constitution of the Organisation, the Conference may add to any committee to which these rules apply technical experts who shall have the right to take part in the discussions but not to vote.
General provisions concerning committees
The work of the committees of the Conference, with the exception of the Credentials Committee and the Drafting Committee, shall be governed by the Standing Orders for the committees of the Conference set forth in Section H of Part II.
Procedure for the adoption, abrogation or withdrawal of Conventions and Recommendations,
and the consideration of proposed amendments to the Constitution
1. The procedure for the consideration of proposed Conventions and Recommendations, as well as the procedure applicable to the abrogation(3) of a Convention in force or to the withdrawal of a Convention that is not in force or of a Recommendation, shall be governed by the rules concerning Convention and Recommendation procedure set forth in Section E of Part II.
2. The procedure for the consideration of proposed amendments to the Constitution of the Organisation shall be governed by the rules concerning the procedure for the amendment of the Constitution of the Organisation set forth in Section F of Part II.
Procedure for the consideration of the Programme and Budget
1. At its session preceding the beginning of each biennial financial period, the Conference shall, without prejudice to the provisions of article 13 of the Constitution and of the Financial Regulations concerning the approval of the budget and the allocation of expenses amongst Members, and prior to the approval of the budget by the Finance Committee of Government Representatives and its adoption by the Conference, examine the Programme and Budget of the ensuing financial period.
2. For this purpose, the Conference may as appropriate appoint a tripartite committee to report to it.
Procedure for the consideration of items placed on the agenda for general discussion
1. When a question has been placed on the agenda for general discussion, the International Labour Office shall communicate a report upon the question to the governments, so as to reach them not less than two months before the opening of the session of the Conference at which the question is to be discussed.
2. The question shall be referred by the Conference to a committee for report.
Reports of the Chairman of the Governing Body and the Director-General
1. During the session at the times fixed by the Selection Committee, the Conference shall discuss the report of the Chairman of the Governing Body on its work and the Report of the Director-General of the International Labour Office on the subjects specified in paragraph 2 below.
2. At each session of the Conference in the first year of a biennial financial period, the Director-General shall report on programme implementation and the activities of the Organisation during the preceding financial period, together with proposals for advance planning as well as information on the steps taken by the Governing Body and the Director-General to give effect to the decisions of the Conference at its previous sessions and the results achieved. At each session preceding the beginning of a financial period, the said report shall be devoted to a social policy theme of current interest chosen by the Director-General, without prejudice to other questions on which the Conference may have requested the Director-General to report to it on an annual basis.
3. One delegate representing the Government, one delegate representing the Employers and one representing the Workers may participate in the discussion in respect of each member State, provided that a visiting minister may speak in addition to the Government delegate. No speaker may intervene in the discussion more than once.
Duties of the President
1. The President shall declare the opening and close of the sittings. Before proceeding to the agenda, he shall bring before the Conference any communication which may concern it.
2. He shall direct the debates, maintain order, ensure the observance of the Standing Orders by such means as circumstances may demand, accord or withdraw the right to address the Conference, put questions to the vote and announce the result of the vote.
3. The President shall not take part in the debates and shall not vote. If he is himself a delegate he may appoint a substitute in accordance with the provisions of article 1, paragraph 3.
4. In the absence of the President during a sitting or any part thereof one of the Vice-Presidents, taken in rotation, shall preside.
5. In the absence of the President during a sitting or any part thereof one of the Vice-Presidents, taken in rotation, shall preside.
Right to address the Conference
1. No delegate shall address the Conference without having asked and obtained permission of the President.
2. Speakers shall be called upon in the order in which they have signified their desire to speak.
3. No delegate shall speak more than once upon the same motion, resolution or amendment, without the special permission of the Conference, provided that the mover of a motion, resolution or amendment shall have the right to speak twice unless the closure has been adopted in accordance with article 16.
4. The President may require a speaker to resume his seat if his remarks are not relevant to the subject under discussion.
5. A delegate may at any time rise to a point of order, which shall be decided forthwith by the President.
6. Except with the special consent of the Conference, no speech, whether by a delegate, a visiting minister, an observer or a representative of an international organization, shall exceed ten minutes exclusive of the time for translation, and no speech concerning the reports of the Chairperson of the Governing Body and the Director-General referred to in article 12, paragraphs 1 and 2, shall exceed five minutes exclusive of the time for translation. The President may, after consultation with the Vice-Presidents, submit to the Conference for decision without debate a proposal to reduce the time limit for speeches on a specific topic before the opening of the discussion thereof.
7. Interruptions and audible conversations are not permitted.
8. Ministers whose departments deal with the questions discussed by the Conference and who are not delegates or advisers, members of the Governing Body who are not delegates or advisers at the Conference, and the Director-General of the International Labour Office or his representative may address the Conference if invited to do so by the President.
9. Representatives of official international organisations which have been invited to be represented at the Conference may participate, without vote, in the discussions.
10. The President may, in agreement with the Vice-Presidents, permit representatives of non-governmental international organisations with which the International Labour Organisation has established consultative relationships and with which standing arrangements for representation at the Conference have been made, and representatives of other non-governmental international organisations which have been invited to be represented at the Conference, to make or circulate statements for the information of the Conference on questions which are being considered by the Conference other than administrative and financial questions. If agreement cannot be reached the matter shall be referred to the meeting for decision without discussion.
11. Persons appointed as observers by a State invited to attend the Conference may, with the permission of the President, address the Conference during the general discussions.
12. Representatives of liberation movements which have been invited to attend the Conference may, with the permission of the President, address the Conference during the discussion of the reports of the Governing Body and of the Director-General.
Motions, resolutions and amendments
1. No motion, resolution or amendment shall be discussed unless it has been seconded.
2. (1) Motions as to procedure may be moved verbally and without previous notice. They may be moved at any time except after the President has called upon a speaker and before the speaker has terminated his speech.
(2) Motions as to procedure include the following:
(a) a motion to refer the matter back;
(b) a motion to postpone consideration of the question;
(c) a motion to adjourn the sitting;
(d) a motion to adjourn the debate on a particular question;
(e) a motion that the Conference proceed with the next item on the agenda for the sitting;
(f) a motion to ask for the opinion of the President, the Secretary-General or the Legal Adviser of the Conference;
(g) a motion for the closure of the discussion.
3. All resolutions and amendments other than motions as to procedure must be submitted in writing in one of the official languages or in Spanish.
4. (1) No resolution relating to an item on the agenda shall, unless it be a motion as to procedure, be moved at any sitting of the Conference unless a copy has been handed in to the Secretariat of the Conference at least two days previously.
(2) Any resolution thus handed in shall be translated and circulated by the Secretariat not later than the day following that on which it was received.
5. Resolutions relating to matters not included in the agenda of the Conference shall be subject, in addition to the applicable provisions of this article, to the special rules set forth in article 17.
6. Amendments to a resolution may be moved without previous notice if a copy of the text of the amendment is handed in to the Secretariat of the Conference before the amendment is moved.
7. (1) Amendments shall be voted on before the resolution to which they refer.
(2) If there are several amendments to a motion or resolution the President shall determine the order in which they shall be discussed and put to the vote, subject to the following provisions:
(a) every motion, resolution or amendment shall be put to the vote;
(b) amendments may be voted on either individually or against other amendments according as the President may decide, but if amendments are voted on against other amendments, the motion or resolution shall be deemed to be amended only after the amendment receiving the largest number of affirmative votes has been voted on individually and adopted;
(c) if a motion or resolution is amended as the result of a vote, that motion or resolution as amended shall be put to the meeting for a final vote.
8. (1) Any amendment may be withdrawn by the person who moved it unless an amendment to it is under discussion or has been adopted.
(2) Any amendment so withdrawn may be moved without previous notice by any other member of the Conference.
9. Any member may at any time draw attention to the fact that the Standing Orders are not being observed, and the President shall give an immediate ruling on any question so raised.
Closure
1. Any delegate may move the closure of the discussion either on a particular resolution or amendment or on the general question.
2. The President shall put a motion for the closure of the discussion if it is supported by at least 30 delegates. Before putting it to the vote, however, he shall call out the names of those delegates who had signified their wish to speak before the closure had been moved.
3. If application is made for permission to speak against the closure, it shall be accorded subject to the condition that no speaker shall be allowed to speak for more than five minutes.
4. The President shall permit each group which makes a request to that effect through its Chairman to be heard on the question under discussion through one speaker appointed by the group, whether there has been a previous speaker or not representing the group.
5. Subject to the foregoing paragraphs no one shall be allowed to speak on a question after the closure has been voted.
Resolutions relating to matters not included in an item placed on the agenda
1. (1) Subject to paragraph 2 below, no resolution relating to a matter not included in an item placed on the agenda by the Conference or the Governing Body shall be moved at the session of the Conference preceding the beginning of a biennial financial period. Such resolutions may be moved at other sessions of the Conference provided that a copy of the resolution has been deposited with the Director-General of the International Labour Office at least 15 days before the opening of the session of the Conference, by a delegate to the Conference.
(2) Copies of all resolutions shall be available to delegates at the International Labour Office not more than 48 hours after the expiry of the time-limit laid down in the preceding subparagraph: Provided that the Director-General may decide to withhold circulation of the text of a particular resolution pending consultation of the Officers of the Governing Body.
(3) When circulation of a particular resolution has been withheld pending consultation of the Officers of the Governing Body, that resolution shall, unless the Officers decide unanimously to the contrary, be available to delegates not later than the date fixed for the opening of the session of the Conference.
2. The President may, with the approval of the three Vice-Presidents, permit a resolution relating to a matter not included in an item placed on the agenda by the Conference or the Governing Body to be moved, although it would not be otherwise receivable under paragraph 1(1) , if it relates either to urgent matters or to matters of an entirely formal nature. If permission is given, the Officers shall also make a recommendation to the Conference as to the manner in which the said resolution is to be considered before submission to the Conference.
3. Subject to paragraph 2 above, all resolutions relating to matters not included in an item placed on the agenda by the Conference or the Governing Body shall be referred by the Conference for report to a Resolutions Committee unless the Conference, on the recommendation of the Selection Committee, decides that a particular resolution relates to a matter for which another committee is competent and refers it to that other committee.
4. The Resolutions Committee shall consider in respect of each resolution whether it satisfies the conditions of receivability set forth in paragraph 1.
5. The Resolutions Committee shall determine the order in which resolutions which have been declared receivable shall be examined, as follows:
(a) After having given the author, or one of the authors, of each resolution the possibility of moving it in a speech which shall not exceed ten minutes, the Committee shall, without discussion, determine by ballot the first five resolutions to be considered, in the following manner:
(i) each member of the Committee shall receive a ballot paper on which the titles of all the resolutions to be considered appear, and shall indicate thereon the five resolutions which he wishes to be discussed first, his first preference being marked "1", his second "2", and so forth; a ballot paper which does not indicate preferences for five resolutions shall be void;
(ii) whenever a resolution is indicated as a first preference, it shall be allotted five points, whenever it is indicated as a second preference, four points, and so forth; resolutions for which no preference has been indicated will receive no points;
(iii) where the Government, Employers' or Workers' members of the Committee are entitled to cast more than one vote, to take account of the unequal representation of the group on the Committee, the total number of points secured by each resolution shall be calculated sep-arately for each group and multiplied by the multiplier applicable to the votes of members of the group;
(iv) the resolution obtaining the largest number of points, as determined in accordance with clauses (ii) and (iii), shall be discussed first, the resolution obtaining the second largest number of points shall be discussed second, and so forth for five resolutions; if the voting results in an equal number of points for each of two or more of the first five resolutions, priority shall be decided by lot in one or more castings, as appropriate;
(b) The Committee shall, at the beginning of its proceedings, set up a Working Party composed of three Government members, three Employers' members and three Workers' members to make recommendations as to the order in which the resolutions which were not included in the first five as a result of the procedure set forth in subparagraph (a) should be examined.
6. The Resolutions Committee shall begin its work as soon as possible after the opening of the session of the Conference, in order to enable it to complete its agenda, and shall terminate its work not later than at 6 p.m. on the last Saturday of the session. If, nevertheless, any resolution has not been considered by the Committee by the date on which it terminates its work, the Conference shall not discuss or act upon that resolution.
7. (1) If members of the Resolutions Committee having not less than one-quarter of the voting power of the Committee move that the Committee should take the view that a resolution is not within the competence of the Conference, or that its adoption is inexpedient, this preliminary question shall be determined by the Committee after hearing the author, or, where there are several, one of the authors of the resolution, not more than one speaker for and against the motion from each group, and the reply of the author or one of the authors.
(2) A recommendation by the Resolutions Committee that a resolution is not within the competence of the Conference, or that its adoption is inexpedient, shall be accompanied by a report of the discussion in the Committee and shall be put to the vote in the Conference without debate.
8. The Resolutions Committee may, after hearing the author or authors of a resolution, amend it in form or substance in such manner as it may consider desirable.
9. It shall be the special duty of the Resolutions Committee to distinguish, by appropriate drafting, resolutions the adoption of which by the Conference would involve exact legal consequences from resolutions intended for consideration by the Governing Body, governments or any other body, but not creating any legal obligation.
10. The Resolutions Committee shall submit a report to the Conference.
Prior consultation in respect of proposals for new activities relating to matters
of direct concern to the United Nations or other specialised agencies
1. Where a proposal submitted to the Conference involves new activities to be undertaken by the International Labour Organisation relating to matters which are of direct concern to the United Nations or one or more specialised agencies other than the International Labour Organisation, the Director-General shall enter into consultation with the organisations concerned and report