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GB.270/LILS/2/1
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Committee on Legal Issues and International Labour Standards |
LILS |
SECOND ITEM ON THE AGENDA
Other legal questions
Amendment to the Standing Orders of the Governing Body
consequential on the amendment of article 32 of the
Standing Orders of the International Labour Conference
1. The Committee may recall that at the 268th Session of the Governing Body (March 1997) it recommended to the Conference an amendment to article 32, paragraph 2, of its Standing Orders concerning the period of validity of a decision to permit a Member in arrears in the payment of its contributions to vote. This amendment was adopted by the Conference at its 85th Session (June 1997).
2. The effect of the amendment to the Conference Standing Orders is as follows: until it was adopted, a Member in arrears of contributions for which the Conference had approved an arrangement under which its arrears were consolidated and payable by annual instalments, retained the right to vote as long as it paid both its current contributions and the instalments on its consolidated arrears during the year in respect of which they were due. Under the amended provision, however, a Member which fails to meet the 31 December deadline will, until the end of the next session of the Conference, be permitted to vote if, at the time of the vote concerned, it has paid all the amounts that were due at the end of the previous year. Thus, any Government member of the Governing Body from a member State that is in this position and which would have lost the right to vote on 31 December will, under the new provisions, be able to vote at the March session of the Governing Body if, at the time of the vote, it has paid in full its contributions and instalments on arrears due the previous year.
3. This amendment also calls for a consequential amendment to article 17, paragraph 6, of the Standing Orders of the Governing Body, which is in the same terms as article 32, paragraph 2, of the Conference Standing Orders. Although the amended text would have no practical application to the Governing Body in its present composition, there would seem to be no reason to defer action to a later session, because the question is a straightforward one of incorporating into the Standing Orders of the Governing Body the substance, and to a large extent the actual wording, of the amendment adopted by the Conference. It is therefore brought before the Committee at the present session so that it can, if it thinks fit, proceed immediately to the approval of a draft amendment proposed to the Governing Body on the basis of a text prepared by the Office, or decide to place the matter on the agenda of its next session.
4. In order to bring the Standing Orders of the Governing Body into line with the Conference Standing Orders as amended, article 17, paragraph 6, could be amended as follows:(1)
6.Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 5 of this article, after the Conference has approved an arrangement under which the arrears of a Member are consolidated and are payable in annual instalments over a period of years, [any decision by the Conference permitting that Member to vote shall be valid as long as the Member concerned pays both its current contributions and the instalments on its consolidated arrears during the year in respect of which they are due] the representative of the Member concerned and any deputy member of the Governing Body appointed by that Member shall be permitted to vote provided that, at the time of the vote concerned, the Member has fully paid all instalments due under the arrangement as well as all financial contributions under article 13 of the Constitution that were due before the end of the previous year. For any Member which, at the close of a session of the Conference, has not fully paid all such instalments and contributions due before the end of the previous year, the permission to vote shall lapse.
5. In the light of the foregoing, the Committee is invited to recommend to the Governing Body that it amend article 17, paragraph 6, of its Standing Orders in the terms set out in paragraph 4 above.
Geneva, 30 October 1997.
Point for decision: Paragraph 5.
1. Passages that it is proposed to delete are shown between square brackets; those to be inserted are in italics.