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A. Election of the chairman and vice-chairmen of the conference
A. Election of the chairman and vice-chairmen of the conference
6. The Council nominated, and the Conference elected I.M. Sinclair (Australia) as Chairman of the Sixteenth Session of the Conference.
7. The Nominations Committee recommended, and the Conference approved the following appointments:
Vice-Chairmen of the Conference
T.P. Singh (India)
A.J. Mair (United States of America)
R. Gobe (Cameroon)
B. Appointment of the general committee and credentials committee
8. The Nominations Committee recommended, and the Conference approved the following appointments:
Members of the General Committee
| Colombia | Japan |
| Egypt | Nigeria |
| France | Venezuela |
| Hungary |
Members of the Credentials Committee
| Bulgaria | Malta |
| Ecuador | Nicaragua |
| Ethiopia | Tunisia |
| Jordan | Vietnam, Rep. of |
| Malaysia |
9. The Conference adopted the Agenda set out in Appendix A to this Report.
D. Arrangements for the session and allocation of agenda items
Establishment of Commissions and Appointment of their Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen
Resolutions Committee of the Conference
Right of Reply
Verbatim Records
Verification of Credential
Voting Rights
Informal Meeting of Non-Governmental Organizations
10. The Conference adopted the arrangements and timetable proposed by the Fifty-Sixth Session of the Council, as amended by the Fifty-Seventh Session of the Council and by the General Committee.
Establishment of Commissions and Appointment of their Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen
11. The Conference concurred with the Council's recommendation to establish three Commissions to consider and report upon Parts I, II ant III of the Agenda.
12. In accordance with Rules VII-1 and XXIV-5(b) of the General Rules of the Organization, the Fifty-Seventh Session of the Council had nominated the following chairmen of the Commissions:
| Comission I: | Thiam (Senegal) |
| Comission II: | H.J. Kristensen (Denmark) |
| Comission III: | F. Hedina Ascensio (Mexico) |
13. The Conference appointed the foregoing officers and, taking into consideration the
proposals of the General Committee, in accordance with Rule XIII-2 of the General Rules of
the Organization, also appointed:
Vice-Chairmen of Commission I:
J.C. Vignaud (Argentina)
S. Haidar (Lebanon)
Vice-Chairmen of Commission II:
H.O. Semega-Janneh (The Gambia)
S. Sarmiento (Philippines)
Vice-Chairmen of Commission III:
Soageng Amat (Indonesia)
M. Häkkänen (Finland)
14. The Conference agreed with the recommendation of the Fifty-Sixth Session of the Council that it appoint a Rapporteur from Plenary to Commission I, to inform the Commission of the salient points made by ministers and heads of delegation in their general statements. On the proposal of the General Committee, it appointed E.R. Woods (New Zealand) as Rapporteur from Plenary to Commission.
Resolutions Committee of the Conference
15. The Fifty-Sixth Session of the Council had recommended the establishment of a Resolutions Committee similar to that which hat functioned during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Sessions of the Conference. The Conference concurred with this recommendation, and agreed that this Committee should comprise the Chairman of the Programme Committee, Finance Committee and CCLM, together with four members of the General Committee. The following four members were selected by that Committee:
| Egypt | Nigeria |
| Japan | Venezuela |
16. The Conference agreed to the proposal of the General Committee that the Resolutions
Committee should elect a chairman from among its own members.
17. The Conference approved the functions and method of operation of the Resolutions Committee, as well as the criteria for the formulation of resolutions, as set out in document C 71/17-Sup.1.
18. The Conference, however, concurred with the recommendation of the General Committee that the functions to the Resolutions Committee as specified in paragraph 3 of document C 71/17-Sup.1 be amended to read as follows:
"The functions of the Resolutions Committee are to examine all draft resolutions, whatever their origin, before they are submitted to the Commissions or the plenary of the Conference for approval, unless the General Committee decides otherwise, and where desirable to revise or consolidate them, or recommend that the substance be incorporated in the text of the report.''
19. The Conference also decided that the criteria for the formulation of resolutions, as set out in paragraph 4 of the same document, be reviewed by the Council at a future session.
20. The Conference confirmed the decision taken at its three previous sessions to the effect that, when a delegate wished to reply to criticism of his Government's policy he should preferably do so on the afternoon of the day on which such criticism had been voiced, after all those wishing to participate in the discussion had had an opportunity to do so.
21. Under FAO rules, verbatim records were kept of the Conference Plenary and Commission meetings, and the right of delegates to suggest corrections to the records was specifically mentioned (Rule XVIII-2 GRO).
22. The definition of ''corrections", and the procedure for having them inserted in the verbatim records, were the same as those adopted by the Fourteenth Session of the Conference.
23. The credentials of delegations of 119 Member Nations, including those of five newly admitted Member Nations, were found in order. The credentials of one delegation were found invalid. Five Member Nations did not send a delegation to the Conference.
24. The credentials of the Permanent Observers to FAO of the Holy See were found satisfactory,
25. The names of the representatives of the international organizations attending the Conference, including the United Nations and Specialized Agencies, were duly deposited as prescribed by Rule III.2 of the General Rules of the Organization.
26. The Conference recalled that under the terms of Article III-4 of the Constitution, a Member Nation which was in arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the Organization had no vote in the Conference if the amount of its arrears equalled or exceeded the amount of the contributions due from it for the two preceding calendar years. The Conference might, nevertheless, permit such Member Nations to vote if it was satisfied that the failure to pay was due to conditions beyond the control of such Member Nations.
27. The Conference noted that one Member Nation was in arrears in the amounts referred to above, and had therefore forfeited its right to vote.
Informal Meeting of Non-Governmental Organizations
28. An informal meeting of representatives of international non-governmental organizations admitted as observers to the Sixteenth Session of the Conference was convened on Monday 8 November 1971 under the chairmanship of Tom S. Bavin (International Federation of Plantation, Agricultural and Allied Workers), who had been nominated by the Fifty-Seventh Session of the Council.
Applicants for Membership
Intergovernmental and International Non-Governmental Organizations
29. As was customary, the Director-General had provisionally invited the applicants for membership to be represented by observers until their admission to the Organization hat been decided upon. These applicants were Bahrain, Fiji, Maldives, Oman, Qatar and Swaziland. The Conference confirmed the Director-General's action.
Intergovernmental and International Non-Governmental Organizations
30. The Conference approved the list of international organizations to which the Director General had extended a provisional invitation to the Conference session, ant invited the representatives of these organizations to participate in the activities of the Conference in an observer capacity.
31. The Conference concurred with the recommendation of the General Committee that, in accordance with Rule XVII.3 of the General Rules of the Organization, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) address the Plenary of the Conference, and that statements by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) be inserted in the verbatim records of the general discussion.
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