PARAGRAPHS 1 TO 5, INCLUDING DRAFT RESOLUTION
LES PARAGRAPHES 1 A 5, Y COMPRIS LE PROJET DE RESOLUTION
PÁRRAFOS 1 A 5, INCLUIDO EL PROYECTO DE RESOLUCIÓN
P. SAND (Secretary, COMMISSION III): There are a few corrections in the French and the Spanish texts, not in the English text. In the French text in paragraph 2 in the fourth line the word "opportune" should be replaced by the word "justifie''.
Also in the French text, in the text of the resolution on page 3 the third paragraph of the resolution which starts with the word ''Reconnaissant" should be changed to read "Reconnaissant qu'un élargissement limité du Conseil est justifié par l'augmentation du" and the rest is unchanged.
As to the Spanish text, in paragraph 2 of the Report, the phrase in the fourth line, "un número de miembros aceptable", should be changed to read "una composición funcional".
P. MASUD (Chairman, Drafting Committee): Distinguished, Delegates, I shall be extremely brief since my work has been aided considerably by the unanimity in this Commission with regard to the Council's proposals on the increase of Council seats.
The draft report which you have before you is short and self-explanatory. I should however draw the attention of the Commission to the draft resolution appearing on page 3 of the Draft Report which the Resolutions Committee have examined and found in order.
With this short introduction I present this first draft of the Report of Commission III
CHAIRMAN: May I now invite any comments from the floor if there are any.
B. SAMANEZ CONCHA (Perú): Tengo la impresión de que se ha sometido a consideración el informe en su conjunto tanto para aprobar los item. 1, 2, 3, 4, el proyecto de resolución y el item. 5; pero yo quisiera formular algunas observaciones al ultimo item. Me refiero al item. 5.
En el día de ayer el distinguido delegado de Malta propuso que el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Composición y mandato del Consejo debería continuar en sus labores durante el próximo período, a fin de buscar una solución definitiva al problema sobre el número de miembros del Consejo; propuesta que fue apoyada por la gran mayoría y no hubo objeciones.Pero esto no se refleja claramente en el item. 5.
Por consiguiente, sugiero que al item. 5 se añada lo siguiente, en la parte final:"... y por consiguiente el Grupo de Trabajo sobre la composición y mandato del Consejo debe continuar estudiando el problema, con el fin de que la próxima Conferencia resuelva en definitiva esta cuestión."
E. DIAZ BUSTABAD (Cuba): Quisiéramos unirnos a la propuesta que ha presentado la delegación de Perú, porque consideramos que el resultado de nuestro debate fue precisamente ése, o sea, que no hubo oposición por ninguna de las delegaciones presentes y consecuentemente con esto proponemos que se suprima lo que aparece al inicio de este párrafo, que es:''varias de las delegaciones" y se sustituya por la de "la mayoría", o sea, "la mayoría de las delegaciones".
I. DEBARRO (Malta): My delegation is of the opinion that in paragraph 5, English version, 6th line, we should add after the word "review", "during the forthcoming biennium".
M.A. MAKKI (Saudi Arabia) (interpretation from Arabic): We have referred to the continuity of the working group in our statement yesterday and I support what the delegates have required about this addition to paragraph 5 so that we can have an equitable solution to member countries'representation in the Council. Naturally in view of the non-representation of the African countries we must see that they join the Council so as to be properly represented.
Sra. M. IVANKOVICH de AROSEMENA (Panamá): La delegación de Panamá apoya la propuesta del delegado del Perú, respaldada por la delegación de Cuba, pues consideramos que refleja el consenso a que llegó esta Comisión en el día de ayer.
S. DOSSOU (Bénin): Je prends la parole pour une question de forme. Au paragraphe 5 du texte français, à la page 4, on constate qu'au début de la rédaction de la résolution relative à l'augmentation du nombre des sièges du Conseil, on dit, "La Conférence, rappelant, considérant, reconnaissant, ..." puis, plus loin, "décide d'amender", etc. Ensuite encore, "décide que trois sièges" et,à la fin, on lit "tout en se déclarant".
Je pense que normalement c'est la Conférence qui prend une décision, qui prend note de ce qu'une certaine délégation, tout en se déclarant favorable, etc. Je ne vois pas la liaison entre cette brutale scission entre les décisions prises par la Conférence et le paragraphe 5 de la page 4 qui dit "Tout en se déclarant" ... Si c'est une décision de la Conférence, on devrait dire,"La Conférence prend note de ce que certaines délégations, etc. " .
I. HAKIM (Indonesia): Although I do not have the proposals made by the distinguished delegate from Peru, I hope that the Rapporteur has got it. I would just like to add to the proposals made by the delegate from Peru, where he mentioned that the working party should continue to study the problem, then you should insert "taking fully into account the deliberations taking place during the Conference".
LEGAL COUNSEL: I think there are certain legal and constitutional problems which arise in connection with the proposal made by the distinguished delegate from Peru, supported by various other delegates. The Working Party was established by the Council at its post-Conference session two years ago. The Chairman, Mr. Bula-Hoyos, was requested to undertake consultations with Members of the Council in order to determine the composition of the Working Party equitably representing the various regions. This the Chairman did and he finally constituted the Working Party as he had been authorized to do by the Council. However, that Working Party was of an ad hoc nature and its term would come to an end by the end of the term of the Chairman of the Council. It was an arrangement which was very much geared to the Chairman of the Council. However, the main difficulty arises from the fact that the Working Party was composed of Members of the Council.
The Council membershipchanges at the end of the year; therefore, the composition of the Working Party would have to be reviewed by the Council in any event to take into account the changing membership of the Council.
Thirdly, I think that it is in accordance with established custom to entrust the Council with the task of studying a question, possibly by establishing a Working Party, but it is the Council that has authority to establish a Working Party under the General Rules of the Organization, in particular Rule XXV.10 of the General Rules.I believe therefore that a slightly more flexible formula might be considered by the Conference, such as:
''by way of establishing a Working Party to study the question" or something along those lines.
CHAIRMAN: In the light of the explanation given by the Legal Counsel, who pointed out some of the procedural problems, would Members of the Commission still insist on the proposal made by the delegate of Peru, or should we alter the paragraph in the light of the explanation given by the Legal Counsel?
B. SAMANEZ CONCHA (Perú):He escuchado atentamente lo expresado por el Dr. Boolell y las razones que ha expuesto son valederas, pero debemos tomar en cuenta que la Conferencia es el organo máximo de la Organización y ya tomo conocimiento en período anterior, tal como se expresa en el párrafo 1°, de la creación del Grupo de Trabajo. Si bien es cierto que la composición del Grupo de Trabajo puede variar por la renovación que se va a efectuar entre los miembros del Consejo, yo creo que es muy fácil superar el impasse y la propuesta que había presentado a la luz de las observaciones del Asesor Legal podía modificarse en la siguiente forma: ''Y por consiguiente, el Consejo o un grupo de trabajo creado por este debe continuar el estudio del problema con el fin de que la próxima Conferencia resuelva en definitiva esta cuestión."
Y me adhiero, aprovecho para adherirme, a lo manifestado, creo que ha sido por el distinguido delegado de Indonesia, que este problema sea resuelto a la luz de las discusiones y lo tratado en el seno de esta Comisión.
P. MASUD (Chairman, Drafting Committee): While trying to be brief, I thought I had covered everything but apparently there are one or two aspects which need to be looked at again.
As regards the proposal of the delegate of Cuba, I would gladly go along with the suggestion that it should be ''a majority of delegations to the Conference.''I hope that would be acceptable to the delegate of Cuba.It would also look after the concern expressed by the delegate of the People's Republic of Benin.This would include mention of the Conference, so it would be in line with his wishes.
As regards the proposal of the delegate of Peru, as we are all aware, there is no final solution to this problem of increasing the number of seats because two years from now, when the next Conference meets, the situation may still warrant further examination; therefore, to demand that we should have a final solution by the next Conference would not be quite realistic.
I would, however, agree with the proposal of the delegate of Peru that we should have another look at the fifth line of the English text, which reads:
''Accordingly, they were of the opinion that this matter should continue to be kept under review". If that is read with the earlier part:
''....while they accepted this increase as a compromise, they considered that their regions were still under-represented and that the solution reached did not constitute a permanent solution to the question of equitable geographical representation on the Council".
The words permanent solution is a very important aspect of the wording of this paragraph.We are here already admitting that there is no permanent solution and I do not think it would be advisable at this stage to include in this draft wording which would read a ''final solution by the next Conference", because I am afraid that also would not be possible since we cannot predict the situation that will exist two years from now.
As regards the concern expressed by the delegate of Saudi Arabia, that is also covered by what I have just said, because it clearly states that the matter should continue to be kept under review.
I should like to have the views of the delegate of Peru on what I have said.
L. LAPEBY (Gabon):II est question de deux choses très distinctes. D'une part, le rapport, dans le-quel il est évidemment fait mention des préoccupations de plusieurs délégations et,d'autre part,le fait qu'il faut tenir compte de la Résolution dans laquelle il n'est fait aucune mention de ce que nous sou-haitons .
Par conséquent, il faudrait voir si,dans la Résolution, on ne pourrait pas, dans le paragraphe 1 qui cite: "décide d'amender", écrire, "décide d'amender à titre provisoire". Ceci permettrait de se référer à nouveau à cette Résolution sur cette question. On adopterait alors le paragraphe 5 en deman-dant au Conseil de continuer à étudier la question.
CONSEILLER JURIDIQUE: Je crois que la possibilité envisagée par le distingué délégué du Gabon est parfaite-ment couverte par la formule (pas encore définitive) du paragraphe 5 du rapport, qui prévoit qu'en tout cas la question reste à l'étude. Du point de vue juridique, un amendement provisoire n'est pas prévu par l'Acte constitutif.Il s'agit bien d'un amendement qui doit être adopté par une majorité des deux tiers, pour qu'il devienne effectif. Donc, il faut que l'amendement tel qu'il est proposé soit adopté par la Conférence de façon définitive, quitte à revenir sur la question, comme la Conférence l'a fait à plusieurs reprises lorsque le nombre de sièges au Conseil a été augmenté de 18 à 24, à 27, à 30, à 34, ensuite à 42 et maintenant probablement à 49. Donc, rien n'est définitif dans ce monde, mais l'amendement ne peut pas être adopté à titre provisoire.Il doit être ferme pour pouvoir être inséré dans l'Acte constitutif.
J. BETERLING (Netherlands):I am a little puzzled now.It is said in the Seventh Report that a number of delegations said they accepted the increase as a compromise.I recall that a number of delegates said yesterday that they could accept the increase as a compromise but that they considered the increase was already quite high. As regards keeping this matter under review, I would like to remind delegations that there are some other things going on in the United Nations system in these matters.I personally have some experience of the endless and not very fruitful discussions on the restructuring of the United Nations system. The same thing is now going on as regards the structure of the International Labour Organization. Of course, it is easy to discuss structure and councils and these things again and again and not discuss agriculture and the situation of agriculture in the world.
However, we have noted what happened yesterday; therefore, I would suggest a sentence at the end of the paragraph to this effect:
''Other delegations feared that the increase might already hamper the effectiveness of the Council and were not in favour of keeping the matter under review".
P. MASUD (Chairman, Drafting Committee): The concern expressed by the delegate of the Netherlands is already reflected in the Resolution on page 3, where it says:
''Considering the need to keep the Council to a manageable size in order to retain efficiency,"
The Conference is already aware of this aspect, and I thought there was no need to mention it in the few lines I had recorded.I therefore think that at the moment what he fears is already uppermost in the mind of the Conference and there is no need to mention it again.
A.F. CHOWDHURY (Bangladesh):It appears that there may be a number of solutions for changing the draft here and there but still we may not be able to come to an acceptable solution.I agree with the Rapporteur, Mr. Masud, on the slight amendment he has suggested, instead of a ''a number of delegations". I think that is all right.
Regarding the other portion,. about review, to my mind that should satisfy our anxiety about getting better and more equitable representation in future, because I agree with the learned Legal Counsel that there cannot be a permanent solution to a human problem like this. The solution that the majority of us, at least, agree to today is on the basis of the position and the circumstances prevailing today. After two years the number of members of FAO will go up and the question of further review and perhaps further increasing the number of different commissions and committees may arise.So I think our anxiety about getting better, representation is well reflected when it is said that the matter should continue to be kept under review. Therefore I support this draft with the amendment that has already been accepted by the Rapporteur.
L. LAPEBY (Gabon): Le premier considérant de la resolution parle de deux aspects: il y a la composition et il y a le mandat. Or, la résolution qui nous est proposée ne concerne que la composition. Le problème n'est donc pas résolu.Je pense qu'il y a là une étude qu'il faut quand même refaire, et il manque un paragraphe à cette résolution. Il faut quand même que celle-ci dise nettement que le Conseil doit con-tinuer cette étude, ce n'est pas seulement le rapport qui doit le dire, et la résolution ne doit ser-vir que de référence. Il n'est pas exclu que, lorsque le groupe de travail aura épuisé la question, on, soit peut-être admis à diminuer le nombre de membres du Conseil tout en respectant une meilleure ré-partition géographique et en lui donnant un mandat qui soit beaucoup plus efficace. C'est la notion sur laquelle je voudrais insister.
CONSEILLER JURIDIQUE: Si je ne m'abuse, la pratique générale de l'Organisation est de mettre dans une résolution des décisions pour lesquelles une résolution est effectivement requise. Il faut une résolu- ! tion pour tout amendement aux textes fondamentaux de l'Organisation; en outre, pour qu'il n'y ait au-cune équivoque en ce qui concerne l'application d'un amendement aux textes fondamentaux, il convient d'insérer un paragraphe opératif qui prévoie comment cet amendement est en effet appliqué. Vous avez donc deux amendements qui sont couverts par le premier paragraphe opératif tandis que le deuxième para-graphe prévoit comment ces amendements seront appliqués, c'est-à-dire à quelles régions seront attri-bués les sièges supplémentaires qui sont introduits en vertu des amendements prévus au premier paragra-phe opératif.
En ce qui concerne les directives que la Conférence donne au Conseil, en général c'est dans la partie narrative du rapport qu'elles sont inscrites. Ce n'est pas une règle fixe, mais cela correspond à la coutume prépondérante de tracer la ligne de démarcation, si j'ose dire, entre le contenu d'une résolu-tion et le contenu de la partie narrative du rapport. Bien sûr, la Conférence est libre de décider comme elle le juge utile. Toutefois, puisque vous m'avez demandé des explications, j'ai pensé qu'il était de mon devoir de vous soumettre ces observations.
0.0. SOMORIN (Nigeria): I would say that better representation is properly safeguarded by the wording of paragraph 5 as it stands. The points in paragraph 5 are still open to discussion as and when necessary.
CHAIRMAN: As I do not have any more speakers for the time being, may I sum up this discussion and propose that we agree to the amendment suggested by Cuba that instead of "a number" we put "a ma-jority of delegations to the Conference.'' As explained both by the Legal Counsel and the Rapporteur, the anxiety expressed by a large number of delegations as to their representation is already taken care of in the wording of paragraph 5, so as this matter is still open, I would submit that we accept paragraph 5 with the amendments proposed and that we proceed to the adoption of the Report. Is that agreeable?
B. SAMENEZ CONCHA (Peru): Sugeriría que para encontrar una solución y un consenso a la luz de lo manifestado por el representante de Pakistán, Relator de esta Comisión, se intercale una frase en el párrafo que dice:''Por consiguiente, opinaban que esta cuestión debía seguir sometida a examen". Es cierto que queda sometida a examen, pero no se especifica a examen de quién y a qué plazo.Sugerimos que se adicione la frase siguiente:a examen por el Consejo o un Grupo de Trabajo creado por éste.
Creo que esto podría ser aceptable por parte de las demás delegaciones y así superaríamos este pequeño impasse.
CHAIRMAN :I think this is acceptable.It is quite reasonable.So with this amendment can we proceed to the adoption of the Report ? The Secretariat has taken note of the amendments and the Report, as amended, will be circulated to delegates.
Paragraphs 1 to 4, including draft resolution, adopted
Les paragraphes 1 à 4, y compris le projet de résolution, sont adoptés
Los párrafos 1 a 4, incluido el proyecto de resolucion, son aprobados
Paragraph 5, as amended, approved
Le paragraphe 5,'ainsi amendé, est approuvé
Kl párrafo 5, así enmendado, es aprobado
Draft Report of Commission III - Part 1, as amended, was adopted
Le projet de rapport de la Commission III, pramiére partie, ainsi amendé, est adopté
El proyecto de informe - Parte'I, asíenmendado, es aprobado
CHAIRMAN : It was suggested at the beginning yesterday that we should approach these items point by point, so I am going to ask you to give your attention now to the composition of the Programme Committee and the Finance Committee. As with the increase in Council seats, this will eventually require amendments to the FAO Basic Texts and hence falls within both Agenda items 17 and 18. -Again, in order to avoid duplication of discussion, I would invite you to take this point from the agreed recommendation of the Council at its Seventy-First Session. The relevant document is C 77/LIM/2.I will now call on the Legal Counsel to introduce the subject.
LEGAL COUNSEL: As you have just said, Mr. Chairman, the document relating to this item on the Agenda is C 77/LIM/2. From this document, which contains the relevant extracts from the reports of the Seventy-First and Seventy-Second Sessions of the Council and of the Thirty-Fifth Session of the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Matters (CCLM), you will see that the Conference has before it a set of draft amendments to Rules XXVI and XXVII of the General Rules relating to a proposed change in the composition of the Programme Committee and the Finance Committee. In order to assist the Commission in considering this matter, it may be useful to summarize the eyents that have led up to the draft amendments that the Commission isnow called upon to examine.
At its Session in 1975 the Conference asked the Council to study its own terms of reference and also those of the Programme Committee, the Finance Committee and the CCLM.
The Council set up a working party for this purpose, whose recommendations were considered by the Council at its Seventy. First Session in June 1977. The recommendations relating to the composition of the Programme and Finance Committees were endorsed by the Council. They are recorded in paragraph 237 (a) to (g) of the Report of the Seventy-First Session of the Council as reproduced in Appendix A to document C 77/LIM/2. They embody the basic principles and ideas which the Conference is now called upon to consider.
As the Council realized that, in order to give effect to its recommendations, it would be necessary to amend the Organization's Basic Texts, the Council also entrusted the CCLM with the task of preparing appropriate amendments. This the CCLM did at its Thirty-Fifth Session in October of this year, and the observations of the Committee may be found in paragraphs 3 to 18 of its Report, reproduced in Appendix B of the document I have just mentioned.
The draft amendments to the General Rules XXVI and XXVII that it proposed are shown in Appendix F to that document.
The report of the CCLM and the proposed draft amendments were submitted to the 72nd Session of the Council which emmediately preceded this Conference Session. While a number of views were expressed, the Council nevertheless decided that there was insufficient time to examine the complex questions involved, and therefore decided to refer the matter to the Conference.
May I now be allowed to refer briefly to the substantive point which the Commission is called upon to consider. The Commission may find it desirable to use as its point of departure the recommendations submitted by the Council.If the Conference agrees with the Council recommendations, it may then wish to consider the draft amendments to Rules XXVI and XXVII which are designed to give effect to these recommendations.In case the Conference should wish to modify any of the Council recommendations, it would be necessary to see whether, and in what way, the proposed amendments to these Rules would be affected.
To recapitulate this briefly, the main points of the Council's recommendations are : First, that the Standing Committees of the Council should continue to be advisory to the Council ; second, that there should be no change in the composition of the CCLM but that there should be a moderate increase in the membership of the Programme and Finance Committees, four members being added to each committee ; third, that the members should be Member Nations rather than persons appointed by the Council in their, individual capacity, but that the qualifications of the representatives of the Member Nations that they would appoint would nevertheless be a relevant factor ; fourth, that there should be no longer any alternates to the members of the Programme and Finance Committees ; and last, that equitable geographical distribution should be achieved by the election procedure spelt out in paragraph 237(g) of the Report of the 71st Session of the Council, with seats being distributed to the seven regions divided into two groups of regions.
As I have said, the amendments to the General Rules before you reflect these recommendations, but there are two further points to which I believe the Commission's attention should be drawn. As will be noted from the CCLM's report to the 72nd Session of the Council, the CCLM found that there were questions that arose out of the Council recommendations which were not covered, or only partly covered. Accordingly, the CCLM made certain suggestions on these matters and took them into account when drafting the proposed amendments to Rules XXVI and XXVII, There are fundamentally two questions. The first relates to the equitable geographical distribution. This principle is referred to in sub-paragraph (g) of the Council recommendations in connection with the election procedure for the Programme and Finance Committees proposed by the Council.
The procedure involves placing seven FAO regions into two groups. The CCLM assumed that the countries belonging to the regions concerned would consult each other before the election took place, particularly with regard to the representation on the Finance Committee where the four regions included in the first group would be sharing six seats.
The second question which requires consideration by the Commission, assuming that it accepts the Council's recommendations, is that of whether - and if so, under what conditions- members of these Committees may replace their representatives. The Commission will note from sub-paragraph (a) of the Council's recommendations that while Committees would be made up of Member Nations, these Member Nations would indicate before the election the names of the representatives they would appoint if they were elected and submit a curriculum vitae of their prospective representatives.It would appear that the Council envisaged that the personal merits of the representative whom a Member Nation proposed to appoint would be a relevant consideration for Members of the Council in electing the members of the Programmeand Finance Committees. Thus, although the Committees would be composed of representatives of Member Nations, an element of personal merit that characterized elections of these Committees until now as their members were elected in their personal capacity would still be maintained.
The CCLM felt - this opinion is reflected in the draft amendments to the General Rules which are before you - that a certain degree of flexibility should be permitted so that a Member Nation may be allowed to designate a substitute for its representative at least once in a biennium, submitting details of the substitute's qualifications and experience to the next Session of the Council, However, in order to ensure a reasonable degree of stability in the composition of the Committees, and to secure continuity of attendance by representatives, the CCLM considered that the seat of a member should be declared vacant if the representative were absent from two consecutive sessions, or if he were unable to perform his functions for the remainder of the Committee's term.In both these cases a bi-election would be held at the next session of the Council to fill the vacancy.
The CCLM also made proposals to cover the possibility of the Chairman of either committee being absent, suggesting that he should be replaced temporarily by the Vice-Chairman if the Chairman were absent for one session or for a part of one session. However, if he were absent for two consecutive sessions, or unable to perform his duties for the remainder of his term of office, the office of Chairman would devolve upon the Vice-Chairman for the remainder of such term, and a by-election would be held at the
next Session of the Council to fill the vacancy by a candidate from the group of regions to which the former Chairman belonged.It goes without saying that,'in the event of a by-election, the country previously elected could again present its candidature.
To conclude, therefore, the Commission may find it desirable to devote its attention first to the recommendations formulated by the Council at its 71st Session, and then, in the light of the report of the CCLM and the views of the Council expressed in the 72nd Session, to consider whether the proposed amendments to General Rules XXVI and XXVII correspond to the policy that the Conference wishes to adopt in this connection.
Any amendments to the General Rules would, in.accordance with standing practice, have to be adopted by means of resolution. However, the drawing up of such a 'draft resolution has to be deferred until the Commission has taken a decision on the substantive issues submitted to it for consideration. The draft resolution would include appropriate amendments to Rules XXVI and XXVII which, once agreed upon by the ' Commission, will require adoption at a Plenary Meeting of the Conference by a two-thirds majority vote.
CHAIRMAN : Now that you have iistened to the Legal Counsel and have before you the relevant document C 77/LIM/2, I would invite your comments on both Appendix A and the report of the CCLM.
Sra. A.C. BERTA DE ALBERTO (Argentina): Muchas gracias, señor Presidente.La delegación de Argentina desea en primer lugar manifestar que adjudica transcendente importancia a este tema, porque entiende que tanto el Comité del Programa como el Comité de Finanzas han estado brindando valiosas contribucio-nes a la tarea de la Organización, a través del asesoramiento que han prestado al Consejo.El propio Consejo ha tenido oportunidad de reconocer esta circunstancia, porque en casi todos sus informes ha manifestado su reconocimiento por la eficiencia con que esos órganos han actuado. Esta circunstancia me lleva a invitar a que se haga un análisis muy detenido de las modificaciones que se proponen intro-ducir en la constitución y el mandato de estos Comités, para evitar que se aprueben modificaciones que puedan ir en detrimento de esta eficiencia, que se ha reconocido reiteradamente a estos Comités.
A este respecto deseo señalar que mi delegación, aun cuando pienso que mientras más reducidos sean los Comités más fácil es llegar a soluciones concretas, en este caso particular que nos ocupa está dispuesta a apoyar el incremento que el Consejo sugiere para los Comités del Programa y de Finanzas, porque entiende que el aumento del numero de puestos en el propio Consejo es un antecendente que debe tener su correspondencia en los Comités del Programa y de Finanzas.
En cuanto concierne al carácter de los Miembros de estos Comités, es decir, si serán representantes de Gobierno o si actuarán a título personal, mi delegación desea señalar que no está de acuerdo con la orientación del Consejo y que estos integrantes deberían actuar a título personal.En efecto, la experiencia indica que hasta ahora los integrantes de estos Comités, precisamente por haber tenido la oportunidad de actuar con flexibilidad y liberalidad, no tienen que ajustarse a las instrucciones de sus capitales y esto les ha permitido llegar a un consenso en casi todos los puntos que han tenido que analizar.
Si, en cambio, la integración se hace a título de país, se desnaturalizaría totalmente el carácter de estos órganos, que se limitarían entonces a anticipar las deliberaciones que luego tendrán lugar en el próximo Consejo, porque las instrucciones que recibirán de sus capitales serán las mismas que se impartirán a las delegaciones que asistan a las sesiones ordinarias del Consejo,
Frente a ello, mi delegación pondría en tela de juicio la necesidad de la existencia misma de los Comi-tés del Programa y de Finanzas, si es que su cometido, dado el carácter de sus integrantes, se limitase a duplicar los debates del Consejo. Y en mérito a ello mi país desea proponer lo siguiente: Que los países Miembros sean quienes propongan los propios candidatos, en base a sus antecedentes personales; pero que los candidatos que resulten elegidos actúen luego a título personal.
Como podrá observarse, lo que estamos proponiendo es una solución intermedia entre el modo de integración de los anteriores Comités del Programa y de Finanzas y el que hoy nos propone el Consejo, y lo hacemos así porque estamos convencidos de que esta solución, a la vez que permitiría que los dos Comités sigan actuando con la eficiencia que han tenido hasta ahora, permitiría también que en su integración se observara una distribución geográfica equitativa.
En cuanto a los suplentes, señor-Presidente, mi delegación no aprecia ningún motivo para eliminarlos. Por el contrario, entiende que hay razones más que valederas para que sean designados. Ello debería hacerse en consonancia con el sistema que estamos proponiendo para los Miembros titulares.
En cuanto al número de suplentes, creo que para el Comité del Programe deberían designarse: 3 para las regiones en desarrollo y 1 para los países desarrollados.
Finalmente, señor Presidente, nosotros desearíamos que en la medida de lo posible estos comentarios sean analizados por las delegaciones a medida que intervengan y consten asimismo en el informe como la posición de nuestro país.
A. ZAKI (Maroc) (interprétation de l'arabe): Je suis heureux de prendre la parole pour la première fois à cette séance de la troisième Commission et je tiens donc de ce fait â vous féliciter devotre élection qui est la marque de confiance qui vous est faite, Nous sommes absolument certains que sous votre direction cette Commission fera des progrès et que les résultats de ces travaux seront satisfaisants. Je tiens aussi à féliciter les membres de votre bureau, en particulier M. MASUD qui a été nommé rapporteur de cette Commission.
Je saisis également cette occasion pour évoquer certains des points qui figurent ä notre ordre du jour et vous faire connaître le point de vue de ma délégation à leur sujet. Tout d'abord, nous aimerions remercier le Conseiller juridique qui nous a exposé dans le détail les propositions qui nous sont présentées et qui figurent dans le Document C 77/LIM/2,
En ce qui concerne le nombre des membres du Comité financier, ma délégation estime que l'augmentation du nombre des membres à neuf n'est pas suffisante, parce qu'il serait véritablement difficile d'assurer une représentation équitable à tous les pays ; par conséquent, il serait préférable que le nombre des représentants soit de 8 au lieu de 6 pour l'Afrique, l'Orient, le Proche-Orient et l'Amérique du Sud.
Ensuite, dans le cas du Président se trouvant dans l'incapacité d'assister à une réunion, que ce soit le Comité du programme ou le Comité financier, et ensuite au sujet de l'élection des membres de ces deux comités, je dirai que ma délégation appuie les recommandations du Conseil qui s'y rapportent. A ce sujet, je voudrais souligner l'importance considérable que mon pays attache à- la composition du Comité du programme car nous estimons que ce Comité est véritablement l'élément moteur de nos programmes et qu'il se doit de défendre les intérêts de tous' les Etats Membres dans le domaine de l'agriculture. La délégation du Royaume du Maroc a suivi de très près et sans interruption les travaux de ce Comité, ceci depuis près de 15 ans.
B. de AZEVEDO BRITO (Brazil) :[ My delegation would like first first of all to thank the Legal Counsel for introducing the item to our Commission and explaining the basic points which we are called upon to decide. We feel that we are facing here quite an important problem because the possibility of the Programme and Finance Committee to operate in an efficient manner depends to a large extent on the appropriateness of the programmes of the Organization, not only the programmes that we approve but even the implementation, the follow-up of the programmes.
We feel that this exercise which we are taking up now represents the result of long effort and of detailed consideration of the subject. Basically the need for reform of the Programme and Finance Committee is linked to the actual functions of the FAO Council. For a number of years Member states, at least a large number of them, felt that FAO Council by virtue of its large composition, its short sessions and the number of items it has to consider within its agenda has no time to scrutinize in detail programme proposals or budgetary proposals. The result is that it became more and more important for a number of delegations at least to be assured that the results of the deliberations of the Programme and Finance Committees represented in itself a balanced and reasonable approach not only from an academic point of view but a governmental point of view.
Many of us in the Council - and that view was expressed many times - felt that since we are not in a position to scrutinize programmes in so much detail it was very important that what emerged from the Programme and Finance Committees represented the considered and balanced view of a really representative group of countries. The result of that approach, that orientation, that concern, was that it was necessary first to have a larger composition of the Programme and Finance Committee. That was the first conclusion. The second conclusion was that it was necessary to have surely persons with technical knowledge of the subjects, with expertise, but at the same time persons who could advance the positions of their government, what was the analysis and assessment of their governments, and not purely academic work.
May I say in this connection that the so-called purely technical work is done by the Secretariat. For that effect we have an independent Secretariat paid by all of us, and independent of all and each of us. The purely technical work of programming and budgeting is done by the impartial Secretariat. This
impartial Secretariat is directed by the Director-General, he brings up its proposals which are supposedly balanced, taking into account the views of Member states in general. Now the Council has two technical bodies to have the first review of those proposals. In our view, and what was the feeling of many delegations, it was necessary to have already a clear analysis by governements. On those lines the Council at its 71st Session recommended the kind of action which is later on worked on by the;CCLM with its proposed amendments.
My delegation fully supports the conclusions of the 71st FAO Council. We feel the increase in the number of members of the Programme and Finance Committees is a direct response inter alia to the larger membership of the Organization. We feel also that the character of government representatives, the fact that they are elected Member states, is vital if we want to have an analysis which really represents the balanced views of a group of representative countries elected by us. We feel if we wanted a purely academic analysis of programmes we would find it in universities, we would have a team of experts, we would not elect many members there but would elect experts to go through the budgetary proposals. The project, however, is different. We want to know, for instance, that what comes out from the Finance Committee is a proposal that reflects a balanced accepted approach from both developing and developed countries. We want to know, for instance, if Country A be present in-the Finance Committee and approved, that we also have Country A's approval in Council and Conference. That is very important, because in other words what happens is that we have so-called agreements in the Programme and Finance Committees then we discover here that the same countries' representatives who spoke for them, after all were speaking only for themselves. There were things that were supposed to be valid and in fact were not valid. Concessions are made in the Programme and Finance Committees and we just discovered later that these concessions meant nothing. We feel therefore that it is very important to ensure Governmental representation. We feel also that the 71st Session of the FAO Council followed a very good compromise by saying that the country when presenting its candidature for one of these two Committeesshould also indicate the person it is intended to appoint as its representative, together with the curriculum vitae. May I say in this connection that that is precisely the procedure of the United Nations Programme Committee which by the way is a 21-member Committee. I have had the privilege to serve on that Committee for seven years and it is precisely the system, in such a way that we show the expertise. The country which is elected not only indicates beforehand the name of the person but of course takes maximum care to ensure that the person is really knowledgeable on the issues that he is supposed to give advice on. This experience of the Programme Committee of the United Nations itself has been extremely positive in our view, in such a way that the Economic and Social Council when it reviews their work, know already that out of the 21-member Committee we already have a balanced view of members of the Organizationin such a way that the Economic and Social Council can go much faster into consideration of programmes and budgets for the United Nations proper.
We have only a minor divergence on the proposal of CCLM concerning the by-election. We feel that all efforts should be made by the countries appointed to these two Committees not to change their representatives. Obviously in some cases when there is administration change it is difficult to completely make impossible such a change. If for instance a major contributor to the budget has a major change in its administration it is quite understandable that it is impossible to forbid that Member State to bring a representative who will follow and transmit its views. That is obvious. May I say also in this connection, referring to the United Nations experience which I have had for around seven years in the Programme Committee, to my memory in seven years there was only one change to this effect, which shows a remarkable degree of stability and restraint in this option of being able to make changes in exceptional cases. But I must say that is a question of drafting of the actual proposal of the CCLM that can easily be taken care of if we agree on the main thrust of the proposal of the 71st Session of the FAO Council and I repeat, my delegation fully supports the proposal of the 71st Session. We feel that they represent already a compromise very difficult to work. This compromise was worked on the basis of the recommendation of the ad hoc Committee which worked extensively looking into all aspects of the subject. It was very serious work done and also the Council devoted much attention to it. We are quite happy to see at the 71st Session of the Council that there was a consensus on the recommendations of the 71st Session of the Council. We very much hope this consensus will not change here.
A. GOMEZ ORB ANEJA (España): Muchas gracias por darme la palabra. Quiero ante todo agradecer al Consejero Jurídico por habernos centrado el problema y voy a seguir su consejo. Parece que ante todo debemos decidir cuáles son las finalidades a que aspiramos, qué es lo que queremos, y luego discutir si la propuesta de las enmiendas continuará o podemos conseguir lo -que queremos de esa manera.
De manera que me reservaré les comentarios que tenga sobre los cambios del Reglamento de la Organización, pero primero vamos a ver a qué aspiramos y qué queremos, y ver si entendemos lo que queremos.
Para ello voy a seguir como nos ha propuesto el Asesor Legal, el resumen del Informe del 71 período de sesiones del Consejo. Evidentemente la historia de la FAO es que había unos Comités Asesores Técnicos y que por la evolución natural, esos Comités estaban últimamente compuestos de representantes de
gobierno, aunque no se llamasen así, pero en realidad representaban gobiernos. 0 sea, había tendencia a representar gobiernos y ahora se nos propone que sean representantes de gobiernos y que sean los gobiernos quienes propongan unos individuos. Francamente, me extraña mucho que buscando una formula de combinación de representantes de gobiernos y de técnicos no se haya seguido el ejemplo que nos da la Unesco y la OMS en el que se propone y existe en los Comités Ejecutivos de los dos organismos una fórmula que yo creo que es la más parecida a la que nos ha propuesto la Sra. delegado de Argentina y con la que estoy de acuerdo. Sería el nombramiento de individuos y que estos individuos que se les elige por sus méritos propios, su capacidad técnica, representen gobiernos; o sea el cambio es un cambio bastante importante, porque seguimos teniendo técnicos, pero representando gobiernos, pero no gobiernos sólo, porque entonces no tendremos técnicos quizás.
Segunda cuestión y que me parece que es a lo que se aspira. Es primero aumentar los miembros de los dos Comités. Se aumenta, naturalmente, por la evolución de la Organización; en el aumento de los miembros del Consejo estamos de acuerdo en que hay que aumentarlos, pero, claro, creo que hay una distinción muy importante que hay que hacer aquí y que me parece está confundida, que es lo relativo a la distribución geográfica.
No creo que se pueda hacer la misma comparación de distribución geográfica entre el Comité del Programa y de Finanzas. En el Comité del Programa, evidentemente, debe haber una distribución geográfica; los países representantes tienen distintos puntos de vista geográficos, digamos, y es lógico que se busque una fórmula de participación de todas las regiones, incluso de las regiones que tienen más población, como la africana o el Lejano Oriente, y se les dé una posibilidad de tener miembros representantes de la región porque los programas deben representarse. Pero para el Comité de Finanzas no hay razón alguna para la representación geográfica; es mucho más técnico y el mismo Asesor jurídico nos ha dicho ya que va a ser imposible hacer una distribución geográfica en el Comité de Finanzas. Por lo tanto, creo que habría que hacer una distinción entre geográfica a rajatabla para el Comité del Programa, pero no para el Comité de Finanzas, en el que además hay unos intereses económicos, pues es lógico que países que contribuyen en gran cantidad quieran ser representados en el Comité de Finanzas. Y por ello, insisto en que creo que hay que ver si es posible dar una representación personal a la vez que política, digamos, y aumentar los puestos. Hacer la distinción de representación geográfica para el Comité del Programa y el Comité de Finanzas; en cuanto a los sustitutos, también aquí estoy de acuerdo con la delegado de Argentina. Evidentemente, la fórmula que se nos propone es muy complicada. Sería muy difícil el nombrar sustitutos. No sé por qué se han suprimido los suplentes; los suplentes eran simplemente una elección hecha de antemano, para el día que faltase un representante que no pudiese venir, y además estaba elegido por el mismo Consejo. No sé por qué se ha sustituido.
De manera que estos son los puntos que hay que centrar; ver si estamos de acuerdo sobre ellos, y luego veremos la manera de conseguir esos objetivos.
N. Al-SALEH (Saudi Arabia)(interpretation from Arabic):I wish to put forward the point of view of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the points at hand. First we support the increase in the membership of the two Committees for the justifications shown in the report, and as clarified by Legal Counsel. We also fully support what the distinguished delegate of Morocco said in connection with the increase in the membership of the Finance Committee. We believe this proposal deserves full support.
The memo before us speaks of the qualifications of the representative of the country to be nominated, yet we believe it is preferable that these qualifications or the minimum qualifications should be clearly defined so that member countries could be aware of the requirements when they nominate a citizen for membership of the Committee.
In paragraph 7 it is mentioned that the representation need not be at regional level. However, my delegation considers that representation at regional level is preferable and I consider that this point requires further clarification.
A.F. CHOWDHURY (Bangladesh): As the Commission has already agreeed to the proposal of the Council to increase the number of his own seats, in the same proportion it was proposed to increase the number of seats in the Programme Committee and the Finance Committee. So my delegation supports the proposal for increasing the members in the Programme Committee by four, bringing it to eleven, and I am also at one with the distinguished delegates from Saudi Arabia and Morocco to increase the number of members of the Finance Committee also to eleven because to my mind the Programme Committee and Finance Committee are two very closely interrelated committees because the programme has to be executed with finance, so if the representation of the Finance Committee becomes a little broad based I think that will not hamper the efficiency of the Committee, rather it has the advantage of getting the advice of a few more countries.
Regarding the geographical distribution of membership of the Committee, I am afraid I cannot agree with the views of the delegate of Spain that those countries which contribute more should be better represented on the Finance Committee. I think that this is not in keeping with the spirit of FAO, because FAO is mainly meant to help the under-developed countries, countries which have been lagging behind in the food and agriculture sector. On his argument, the countries which have contributed more could ask for more investment, more help, in their own countries; but that is not going to help this world body. Since the Programme Committee is responsible for drawing up and approving programmes for the development of food and agriculture in different countries, the Finance Committee also should be composed with the same geographical equitability, so that the two Committees may work in full harmony.
As regards the status of the members who will be serving on these Committees, whether they will be individuals or representatives of governments, the recommendation of the Council was made after due deliberation. The individual capacity position cannot be accepted by my delegation because we feel that, since FAO was composed of countries, Members of FAO are countries and not individuals so in the Committees also they are representatives and not individuals; but since in order to serve on these Committees the individuals should have some qualifications and expertise, I think the requirement of calling for a curriculum vitae is in order. That means the countries will be represented, after due election, with the personal qualifications of the candidates being taken into consideration; but if this is left to individuals I think there will be complicated problems, because, after all, who will those individuals be? They will be persons who are also serving their countries, serving their governments. There have been cases where, when representation was based on individuals, a government could not make available the services of an individual to serve on Committees when required. But if the nomination is on the basis of representation of the country, the government will necessarily think in advance about the possibility of making the services of the individual available to serve on these Committees.
I, therefore support the recommendation made by the Council regarding the compromise between representation of governments and individual qualifications.
Regarding the alternate, I think this Commission should accept alternate delegates, because after an individual has been nominated by a government there may be many changes, changes in government, and if due to the exigencies of circumstances an individual cannot be spared by the government I think at least one alternate should be allowed for members of these Committees. I think the alternate nominations also should be submitted along with complete curriculum vitae so that both the principal nominee and the alternate nominee will be sufficiently qualified to serve on these Committees.
For Chairmen, however, there should not be any alternate, because, after all, the Chairmen will be elected from among the members nominated by different governments after looking into their capabilities and qualifications to guide the proceedings of the Committees. I therefore suggest that except in the case of Chairmen at least one alternate should be considered.
R. SALMI (Finland):I wish to state the opinion of the Nordic countries in this matter. In our opinion, the recommendations submitted for consideration to this Conference by the Council are the result of many compromises.The proposed increase by four in the number of members of the Programme and Finance Committees could lead to strenghtening the importance of those Committees, and we wish them success in their activities in the future. However, at this stage we do not find it necessary to go more deeply into the details of the recommendations, but we reserve the right to comment further if necessary.
J.L. TOFFIN (France): En ce qui concerne notre délégation, nous considérons, pour notre part, comme tout à fait opportune une réforme de la composition et du mode de désignation du Comité financier et du Comité du programme.Il nous paraît en effet que la composition et le mode de désignation de ces comités tels qu'ils ont fonctionné jusqu'ici sont de moins en moins adaptés aux nécessités actuelles. En particulier compte tenu des tâches toujours plus lourdes qui sont dévolues à ces Comités, ce qui s'explique naturellement par la complexité croissante des tâches de notre Organisation, aussi bien au sein du groupe de travail qui a été nommé par le Conseil qu'au sein du Conseil lui-même, le sentiment général s'est très vite affirmé qu'une modification . était nécessaire dans le mode de désignation des membres de ces Comités et qu'il convenait que ces membres, au lieu d'être désignés simplement à titre personnel, soient désormais des représen-tants de leurs gouvernements.
Nous approuvons totalement cette opinion, mais il nous a paru également souhaitable de maintenir une certaine exigence quant aux qualifications personnelles des membres des comités. C'est pour-quoi nous approuvons la proposition qui a été faite par le Conseil de faire présenter les candidats par leurs gouvernements, mais d'accompagner leur candidature de la production d'un curriculum vitae qui permettrait aux membres du Conseil, lors des élections, de juger des qualifications personnelles de chacun des candidats. C'est une formule qui nous paraît assez heureuse et qui permet de maintenir l'équilibre entre les deux conditions qui nous semblent nécessaires dans le choix des membres de ces Comités, c'est-à-dire la représentation du gouvernement et la qualification personnelle.
D'autre part, il est apparu nécessaire de revoir la composition des deux comités, le Comité du programme et le Comité financier, pour tenir compte de l'augmentation des membres de l'Organisation et des membres du Conseil et qu'en même temps il était important de ne pas dépasser un effectif raisonnable pour permettre à ces comités de continuer à fonctionner de façon efficace.
Nous estimons pour notre part que les chiffres qui ont été retenus, soit 11 pour le Comité du programme et 9 pour le Comité financier, sont des chiffres raisonnables auxquels nous pouvons souscrire sans difficulté.
En outre, le régime qui nous est proposé présente à notre point de vue un avantage très important en ce sens qu'il permet de réaliser une répartition géographique entre les membres du Comité qui permet à toutes les régions géographiques d'être représentées au sein du Comité financier et du Comité du programme, ce qui n'était pas le cas, jusqu'à.présent, dans l'ancien système.
En définitive, et comme l'a très justement rappelé le représentant du Brésil tout à l'heure, je dois dire que les propositions qui nous sont soumises sont le résultat de très longues discussions, d'un travail très approfondi, très sérieux, et je crois que nous sommes en présence d'un résultat valable et nous souhaitons beaucoup qu'il puisse recueillir une approbation de la Conférence, tout au moins dans ses lignes principales.
S.H. AL-SHAKIR (Iraq) (interpretation from Arabic): The issues concerning the constitution of the Programme and Finance Committees have already been discussed when we studied the work of those Committees and the advice they give to the Council. When we saw this, my delegation found that there were new criteria for judging the efficiency of the two Committees. Those criteria show that the working of the Committees reflects on agricultural policy as contained in the Programme, particularly the financial aspects; therefore, the opinion of the member countries and governments on that policy, particularly the regions they come from, will play a major role in the programmes and the budgets relating to them. The result is that other views will be given by the addition of new members to our Organization. Now, if the various countries require renovation and development in line with the new world economic order we feel that the committees of our Organization should be inspired by what is going on in other United Nations bodies and in governmental bodies.
There is no doubt also that personal qualifications will play a major role in these Committees and these criteria should be kept well in mind by the various countries when nominating their candidates to play their role in the Committees, particularly with respect to their technical and agricultural experience, as the delegate of Brazil has said, so that they may better play their role in the Committees. We must therefore clearly define the qualifications of the members nominated. Added to this, increasing the number of members will enable us to arrive at a better geographical representation.
Then the personal qualifications concern the member countries and the regions. Added to this, through these suggestions the people can better play their roles, particularly in augmenting the work of the Organization and in coping with its increased activities. We support all those who follow the lines of these proposals in our approach to settling this point, whether it be for an election or for the constitution.
P. MASUD (Pakistan):I will not take too long because what I wanted to say has already been very ably said by the delegate of Brazil.I fully agree with the views expressed by him and support the decision reached by the Seventy-First Council Session of the FAO.
However, I would like to take this opportunity of saying a word about the proposal made by the delegate of Spain regarding greater representation for the major donor countries. At this point, the argument my delegation would like to present is that everybody is a donor according to his capacity. Some are rich countries, others are not so rich, and everybody contributes according to his capacity. Therefore it would be unfair to give any greater representation to those who contribute more. Secondly, once a donor country has donated the amount due from that country, it has very little say in how it is spent. It is then for the FAO in its wisdom to spend it in the manner in which it thinks most beneficial. Therefore we are not inclined to agree with that point of view.
On the proposal put forward by the delegate of Argentina regarding member countries proposing their own candidates, who should act in a personal capacity, I think there is very little difference between what has been said by the delegate of Argentina and that proposed by the Council. Once a person is nominated by his country, he would always take into consideration the viewpoint or the inclination of . his country and therefore it would be very difficult for him to act independently. Therefore I would think that there is no difference between the proposal by Argentina and the one approved by the last Council Session.
Lastly, another point was made regarding alternates. At present, if I am not mistaken - and the Secretariat should correct me if I am wrong - alternates do not belong to the same country. What is now being proposed is that alternates should belong to the same country. For example, if Country X is elected, the alternate should be from the same country and not the present system in which the alternate comes from a different country than the actual member.
F. WILA (Gabon): J'abonde dans le même sens que le Maroc, en ce qui concerne l'augmentation du nombre des membres des deux Comités concernés.J'appuie par ailleurs les propositions contenues dans les documents s'agissant de la representation des membres techniquement compétents désignés par leurs gouvernements. Le contraire signifierait l'existence d'un comité composé de personnes très qualifiées mais ne respectant pas les politiques respectives de leurs gouvernements, qui contribuent bien sûr au fonctionnement de notre Organisation.
Au paragraphe 4 du document présenté, il est dit qu'en cas d'impossibilité d'un membre du Comité de participer à une session, celui-ci a la faculté de désigner un remplaçant. Mais ici, le caractère relatif de la compétence doit être pris en considération compte tenu du facteur temps qui ne permettra pas un choix aussi efficace que voulu du remplaçant.
RAMADHAR (India): The issues that we are discussing are fairly important and every care has to be taken to see that the effectiveness of these two Committees is enhanced.
My delegation supports the proposed increase in the number of members of the Programme Committee to make a total of eleven. My delegation further suggests that there is no reason why a similar increase should not be made in the membership of the Finance Committee. The Finance Committee is equally if not more important than the Programme Committee and therefore its membership could also be increased to eleven to enhance its effectiveness and to give fair geographical representation.
So far as the principle of representation is concerned, my delegation supports the proposal that this should be governmental representation, but the curriculum vitae of the candidates should be separated by the countries concerned.
The question of alternates was discussed earlier and was dropped. Now if a particular member is not able to attend a meeting, my delegation suggests that the government should be free to nominate a person to attend in his place and the curriculum vitae of such a nominated person may be communicated to the next Council Session for information. Thus there should be no necessity to have a by-election. In suggesting this, my delegation is aware that the government concerned will take every care to propose the name of a really competent person to act as some sort of alternate for that particular session.
Further, my delegation is in full agreement with what has been said by the delegates of Bangladesh and Pakistan, that there is no question of bringing in the concept of contribution when determining geographical distribution. We are really surprised that such a suggestion has been made because it is very unusual and irregular for giving representation in international bodies. Representation in FAO is made according to a formula, as in other international organizations, and I am not aware that it is decided anywhere on the scale of contributions.
D. VUJACIC (Yugoslavia): The proposal made by the Council was as a result of a year or more's work of the Working Group, which was appointed immediately after the last Conference.It was also discussed in the Council and is the result of a kind of compromise after long consultations between various regions during the whole of this period. My delegation considers that this proposal represents a very reasonable compromise in all its aspects.
On the number of seats in the Committees, my delegation is not against the suggestion by the delegate of India to have an equal number of seats in both the Programme Committee and the Finance Committee. It also supports the proposed method of regional distribution and the method of election to secure this regional distribution in the Committees. We are also in favour of the proposed procedure which ensures that qualified people participate in the work of the Committees by being elected in a specific manner, so that the electing body is acquainted with their curriculum vitae.I do not wish to extend my statement because previous speakers have explained much more eloquently the reasons why this solution is most suitable for the present circumstances and the needs of the Organization. To conclude, my delegation supports the proposal of the Council concerning the composition and method of election of the members of the Committees.
T. HAYAKAWA (Japan):I only wish to make brief comments.First of all, as to the status of the representatives on the two Committees in question, my delegation thinks that members of these two Committees cannot but have two different characters.In other words, they are elected for their own personal merits as experts but, at the same time, they reflect the views or opinions of their govern-ments.So in this connection my delegation supports the proposal advanced by the Council.
Secondly, as to the enlargement of these two Committees, my delegation is of the opinion that the balanced representation of developing and developed countries must be ensured in these two important Committees.In this connection we can support the idea of increasing these two Committees.If this Commission feels it necessary to increase them to twelve or fourteen for each Committee we shall be in a position to support this.However, the number proposed by the Council is as a result of careful and long studies, so we can also be in a position to support the number suggested by the Council.
T.M. NARAIN (Mauritius):We have before us a document which is the result of long previous discussions. My delegation fully appreciates the importance of the issues being discussed, and we have heard with great interest the views expressed by other delegations, and particularly the explicit statements made by the Legal Counsel and the delegate of Brazil.
We have no difficulty in agreeing with the recommendations of the Council at its Seventy-First Session. We agree to the increase in the number of seats for the Programme and Finance Committees so as to represent the geographical areas more equitably;it would bring the increase in line with the Council's and F AO's increases in membership. We agree that the members of the Programme and Finance Committees should be on a governmental basis first, and then as individuals.The individuals have to represent the views of the country and the geographical region they represent.
Since the members of the Finance and Programme Committees are representatives of governments in the first instance, we feel that alternates should be acceptable, because governments will change or have revised opinions on the elected representatives, or the representative may for various reasons be unable to attend the Committee. Therefore, at least one alternate should be allowed.
Sra. M. HERNANDEZ BRITO (Cuba):En lo que respecta al numero de puestos de los Comités del Programa y de Finanzas, consideramos que debemos ser consecuentes con el aumento propuesto del número de puestos del Consejo, ya que el principio es el mismo:lograr una mayor participación de los países teniendo en cuenta el aumento en el número de países que han ingresado en la Organización, y de igual forma debía considerarse el número de puestos en el de Finanzas.Sin embargo, esto no fue aceptado ni se trae una propuesta a este respecto para ser sometida a esta Conferencia.
La posición de nuestras delegación sobre la composición de los Comités del Programa y de Finanzas y de Asuntos Constitucionales y Jurídicos es que sean designados Estados Miembros y no personas a título personal. Uno de los argumentos que se esgrimen para justificar que la designación sea a título personal es lograr la mayor competencia y capacidad en la persona designada.Aceptar esto es aceptar que las personas designadas por los Gobiernos no la tendrían, y continuando por esta vía de análisis, los que nos encontramos representando a nuestros Gobiernos tendríamos que aceptar nosotros mismos que no somos competentes, lo cual es contradictorio, por cuanto consideramos que los que nos encontramos en esta sala somos competentes v capaces y que esta es una Organización de Estados Miembros y no de personas.
Sobre la representatividad, consideramos es necesario que los Comités del Programa y de Finanzas estén integrados por representantes de países, siguiendo estrictamente el criterio de la representación geográfica equitativa; rechazamos cualquier propuesta que se base en el criterio del monto de las donaciones y apoyamos cualquiera que sea tendente a reconocer a los países en desarrollo y subdesarro-llados, con igual derecho, como establece la Carta de las Naciones Unidas.
Nuestra delegación admite que estas propuestas, contenidas en el documento C 77/LIM/2, son el fruto de largas negociaciones y lo acepta como lo que es: una solución de transacción, con la excepción del párrafo 4(a) y (b) I y II, en lo que se refiere a la sustitución de representantes de los Estados Miembros, ya que debe ser facultad del Estado Miembro elegido sustituir a sus representantes.
Apoyamos lo expuesto por el Presidente del Grupo de los 77, en el sentido de que esta fue la posición que se adoptó en el Grupo.
J.O. ALABI (Nigeria): My delegation supports the proposal for the increase in the number of seats on the Programme and Finance Committees. This will make it possible to have wider representation on the Committee and to have the benefit of the views of more experts.We feel, however, that the size of the Committees proposed is reasonable. We want to avoid making it more difficult for the Committees to reach agreement. After all, it is not the number which matters but the contribution of members who are participating.
On the question of having alternates, we feel there is no need to have alternates since it would be possible for members to represent those who are absent.The elected members should be present at all meetings in-so-far as possible in order to ensure continuity.
With regard to the question that the curriculum vitae of candidates proposed by governments should be submitted at the time of election, we are trying to ensure that people who are knowledgable in the matters to be discussed serve on the Committees,and it is necessary to pin down to some extent who will serve on the committees.If we just leave it to the governments to nominate anybody, we may end up with having a new person coming for each meeting, which is not desirable.
We would appeal to governments to allow their nominees to act freely as experts and not give them too strong instructions, which would make it difficult to arrive at a consensus at meetings.
I. HAKIM (Indonesia):I have three points to make during this debate, but first I should like to give my delegation's view? on this matter.
We agree to the increase in members of the Programme and Finance Committees because it is in line with the increase in the membership of the Conference and in line also with the membership of the Council. We are also of the view that the Programme and Finance Committeesare advisory bodies of the Council and also, as a first stage, scrutinizing bodies of the Council. We are grateful for the explanation given by the delegate of Brazil about his experiences in the Programme Committee of the United Nations. In this regard, as we follow that line of thinking, we consider that the Programme and Finance Committee members should represent member countries and also be representatives of their regions.
In that regard, following suggestions made by other delegates, we think the increase in the Programme Committee and the Finance Committee should be equal.The task of the Programme Committee is not only to follow up the formulation of programmes and budgets but aslo to monitor, and at the end there is the question of the evaluation of the programmesthe evaluation and auditing of the budgets. We think that both Committees should be equally represented.It means an increase in the numbers of the Programme Committee to equal the Finance Committee, if we follow this line of thinking.
This also makes it easier to agree on the procedure for electing members of these two Committees because we have the first stage and the second stage of election, and then eight members will be elected in the first stage for the Programme Committee and the Finance Committee.If the membership of the Finance Committee is only six, and we have four regions, some difficulties will arise.
The second point which we should like to touch upon is the question of balanced representation between the developed and the developing countries.Of course, we agree to this principle, but we have seven regions in the FAO. How can we say that North America should have balanced representation between developed and developing countries, because in North America we are supposed to have only two developed countries, so you cannot apply the principle of balanced representation between developed and developing countries in that region, that is, unless we are again to discuss the concept of seven regions in the FAO.I mentioned this in my first intervention on another item.If we are going to discuss these seven regions of the FAO, then this concept can be discussed.
The third point ray delegation would like to raise is the question of amendment to the General Rules of the Organization. If we follow this concept that the Programme and Finance Committeees should consist of representatives of countries and of regions, and that representatives' personal merits should also be taken into account then we do not consider a by-election is necessary if a certain member is unable to attend the sessions for two consecutive sessions. We suggest that instead of a by-election we might ask the Council to approve the new member taking the place of the member who is unable to attend on two consecutive sessions.In that way we would avoid the difficulties of a by-election.
J. CHAMI (Liban) (interpretation de l'arabe): Je ne ferai pas une longue déclaration. Ce que je voudrais dire a déjà été présenté par le délégué', du Brésil. Notre délégation appuie le projet de résolution adopté par le Conseil lors de sa soixante et onzième session et qui a été présenté à cette Commission.
Notre appui, en effet, porte sur l'augmentation du nombre des membres des Comités du programme et financier, ainsi que sur la représentation à ces comités et les qualifications requises des candidats pour pouvoir siéger à ces deux comités.
M.A.BENDJENNA (Algérie): Je voudrais tout d'abord remercier le Conseiller juridique pour la façon dont il nous a présenté la question qui fait l'objet de nos débats.Je peux également ajouter qu'il a même éclairé certains point obscurs des documents soumis.Notamment la possibilité,pour un Etat Membre dont le représentant n'a pu assister à deux sessions d'un comité, de pouvoir poser sa candidature même s'il doit faire l'objet d'une élection partielle.
Ceci étant dit, je voudrais ajouter que ma délégation appuie les conclusions de la soixante et onzième session du Conseil, surtout celles tendant,d'une part, à l'augmentation du nombre des membres du Comité du programme et du Comité financier (augmentation inférieure à nos souhaits mais que l'on accepte), et, d'autre partea transformer lesdits comités en organes composés de représentants gouvernementaux.Enfin nous pensons, nous aussi, que les conclusions du Conseil représentent une formule de compromis et que nous devons nous y rallier.
P.J. BYRNES (United States of America): Like most of the speakers this morning my delegation appreciates the importance of these two Committees. We know these Committees have been effective over the years and have served the Organization, the Council and the Conference very well. In both the ad hoc Working Party and the 71 st session of the Council we stated that we would have been pleased to see these remain structured in size and manner as they currently are. However, we recognize the majority view was different concerning this, and we recognize the fact that in the long deliberation that has taken place there has been a necessity for extensive compromise. I will not comment concerning the specific points raised this morning and now before us. I will merely say my government accepts the changes recommended by the Seventy-First Council and the CCLM. In closing, let me say we are very grateful for the clarity with which the Legal Counsel introduced this very difficult subject this morning.
B. SUK LEE (Korea, Rep. of): First of all, my delegation would like to thank the Legal Counsel for giving us a very informative explanation on this matter. My delegation would like to speak very briefly on this. The constitution of the Programme and Finance Committee has been scrutinized by a Working Party for a long time, and also discussed in the Seventy-First Session of the Council.While agreeing to the general recommendations of the seventyfirst Council and also the views expressed by the delegates of Brazil and India, my delegation would like too point out one thing concerning the size of the Finance Committee.
Since the Finance Committee's function is as important as the Programme Committee's and also the two Committees are very closely related, my delegation fully supports the proposal made by the delegate of :" Bangladesh and supported by the delegate of India to increase the Finance Committee to 11 Member countries.
A. GOMEZ ORBANEJA (España):Le agradezco me dé la palabra, para aclarar una cuestión.
Los delegados de Bangladesh, India y Pakistan se han referido a mi declaración anterior y yo desde luego he de decir que no había propuesto que la composición del Comité de Finanzas se basase en la distribución geográfica.Lo que sí dije fue que el mismo Comité de Asuntos Jurídicos había encontrado dificultades
sobre la distribución geográfica. Yo dije también que la razón principal no es sólo la del número de los componentes, sino la de la materia. La programación sí es una cuestión geográfica y es lógico que haya un Comité de Programación geográfico, pero en un Comité de Finanzas, la geografía no tiene nada que ver, pues es simplemente une cuestión técnica.
El representante de Bangladesh ha hablado de inversiones; pero es que el Comité de Finanzas no hace inver-. siones, lo que hace es controlar los costos.
0 sea que la distinción que yo quería hacer es que la distribución geográfica debe aplicarse al Comité del Programa, pero no al Comité de Finanzas.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you, distinguished delegate of Spain.
Distinguished delegates, I think we have come to the end of this morning's session. We have discussed rather exhaustively document CC 77/LIM/2 Appendix A recommendations of the Council and we still have to discuss certain other matters raised by the Legal Counsel arising from the recommendation and comments of the CCLM.
The meeting rose at 12.20 hours
La seance est levée à 12 h 20
Se levanta la sesión a las 12.20 horas
