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COMMITTEE’S RULES OF PROCEDURE |
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) at its Twenty-third Session, held on 14-18 April 1997, decided to postpone the adoption of the proposed amendments to its Rules of Procedure until its next session in 1998, in order to take into account the amendments to Rule XXXIII of the General Rules of the Organization (GRO), once adopted by the Conference. The text of Rule XXXIII (GRO) as adopted by the Conference is reproduced in the Annex to this document. The text of the proposed amendments to the Committee’s Rules of Procedure is hereby resubmitted for consideration and adoption (proposed new text is underlined, text proposed for deletion is struck out).
Rule I
Membership
Membership of the Committee shall be in accordance with Rule XXXIII.1 of the General Rules of the Organization.
Rule II
Officers
1. At the first session of the Committee held after a regular session of the Conference, the Committee shall elect a Chairman and four Vice-Chairmen from among the representatives of its Members, who shall remain in office until the election of a new Chairman and new Vice-Chairmen. The Chairman and Vice-Chairmen shall not be eligible for election for two consecutive terms in the same office.
2. The Chairman, or in his absence one of the Vice-Chairmen, shall preside at meetings of the Committee and exercise such other functions as may be required to facilitate its work. In the event of the Chairman and the Vice-Chairmen not being able to preside at a meeting, the Committee shall appoint a representative of one of its Members to take the chair.
Rule III
Secretary
The Director-General of the Organization shall appoint a Secretary who shall perform such duties as the work of the Committee may require.
Rule IV
Sessions
1. The Committee shall hold sessions as provided in Rule XXXIII.3 and 4 of the General Rules of the Organization, and shall propose the date and place of its sessions.
2. Any number of separate meetings may be held during each session of the Committee.
3. Notice of the date and place of each session shall normally be communicated at least two months in advance of the session to all Member Nations and Associate Members of the Organization, to all Member States of the United Nations and to such international organizations as may have been invited to attend the session.
4. Each Member of the Committee may appoint alternates, associates and advisers to its representative on the Committee.
5. Presence of representatives of a majority of the Members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum for any formal action by the Committee.
Rule V
Attendance
1. Any Member Nation of the Organization or Member State of the United Nations not represented on the Committee, any Associate Member or any State that is not a member of the Organization or of the United Nations but a member of a specialized agency or of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or liberation movements in accordance with decisions of the Conference and Council, may attend in an observer capacity a session of the Committee and may submit memoranda and participate without vote in any discussions at a public or private meeting of the Committee.
2. Participation of international organizations, non-governmental organizations and other actors of civil society in an observer capacity in the work of the Committee shall be governed by the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the General Rules of the Organization, as well as by the rules of the Organization on relations with international organizations, taking into account the provisions of Rule XXXIII of the General Rules of the Organization.
3. In accordance with Rule XXXIII.1012 of the General Rules of the Organization, the International Wheat Council shall be invited to participate in the proceedings of the Committee and to cooperate in servicing the Committee relevant international organizations shall be invited to participate in the work of the Committee and the preparation of meeting documents on matters within their respective mandates in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Committee.
4. Meetings of the Committee shall be held in public, unless the Committee decides to meet in private for discussion of any items on its agenda.
Rule VI
Agenda and documents
1. The Director-General, in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, shall prepare a provisional agenda and shall normally circulate it at least three months in advance of the session to all Member Nations and Associate Members of the Organization, to all Member States of the United Nations and to all international organizations invited to attend the session.
2. All Member Nations and Associate Members of the Organization and all nonmember States which are members of the Committee may request the Director-General, normally not less than 30 days before the proposed date of the session, to insert an item in the provisional agenda. The Director-General shall thereupon circulate the proposed item to all Members of the Committee, together with any necessary papers.
3. The Committee in session may, by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, amend the agenda by the deletion, addition or modification of any item, provided that no matter referred to it by the Council or on request of the Conference or the World Food Council be omitted from the agenda.
4. Documents which have not already been dispatched shall be dispatched with the provisional agenda or as soon as possible thereafter in all the languages of the Organization.
Rule VII
Voting
1. Each Member of the Committee shall have one vote.
2. The decisions of the Committee shall be ascertained by the Chairman, who shall resort, upon the request of one or more Members, to a vote, in which case the pertinent provisions of Rule XII of the General Rules of the Organization shall apply mutatis mutandis.
Rule VIII
Reports
1. At each session, the Committee shall approve a report embodying its views, recommendations and decisions, including, when requested, a statement of minority views. Any recommendations adopted by the Committee which affect the programme or finances of the Organization or concerning legal or constitutional matters shall be reported to the Council with the comments of the appropriate subsidiary committees of the Council.
2. Reports of sessions shall be submitted to the Council and circulated to all Member Nations and Associate Members of the Organization, and to those nonmember States which are Members of the Committee, as well as to interested international and non-governmental organizations entitled to be represented at the session.
3. Pursuant to Rule XXXIII.79 of the General Rules of the Organization, the Committee shall submit periodic and special reports to the World Food Council, through the Council. In exceptional circumstances, reports may be submitted directly to the World Food Council, such action being notified to the following session of the Council provide regular reports to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), through the Council of the Organization.
Rule IX
Subsidiary bodies
1. In accordance with Rule XXXIII.1416 of the General Rules of the Organization the Committee may establish subsidiary or ad hoc bodies where it considers that such action would expedite its own work, without duplicating the work of existing bodies.
2. Before taking a decision on the establishment of any subsidiary or ad hoc body, the Committee shall examine the administrative and financial implications of such a decision, in the light of a report to be submitted by the Director-General.
3. The Committee shall define the terms of reference, composition and, as far as possible, the duration of the mandate of each subsidiary or ad hoc body. Such subsidiary or ad hoc bodies shall report to the Committee. The reports of the subsidiary or ad hoc bodies shall be made available for information to all members of the subsidiary or ad hoc bodies concerned, all Members of the Committee, and to interested international organizations entitled to attend sessions of the bodies concerned.
Rule X
Suspension of Rules
The Committee may, by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, decide to suspend any of the foregoing Rules of Procedure, provided that the action contemplated is consistent with the Constitution and the General Rules of the Organization and that 24 hours' notice of the proposal for the suspension has been given. Such notice may be waived if no Member objects.
Rule XI
Amendment of Rules
The Committee may, by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, amend its Rules of Procedure provided that such amendment is consistent with the Constitution and the General Rules of the Organization. No proposal for the amendment of these Rules of Procedure shall be included in the agenda of any session of the Committee, unless notice thereof has been dispatched by the Director-General to Members of the Committee at least 30 days before the opening of the session.
Rule XXXIII
Committee on World Food Security
1. The Committee on World Food Security provided for in paragraph 6 of Article V of the Constitution shall be open to all Member Nations of the Organization and all Member States of the United Nations. It shall be composed of those States which notify the Director-General in writing of their desire to become Members of the Committee and of their intention to participate in the work of the Committee.
2. The notifications referred to in paragraph 1 may be made at any time, and membership acquired on the basis thereof shall be for a biennium. The Director-General shall circulate, at the beginning of each session of the Committee, a document listing the Members of the Committee.
3. The Committee shall normally hold two sessions during each biennium. Sessions shall be convened by the Director-General, in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, taking into account any proposals made by the Committee.
4. If required, the Committee may hold additional sessions on the call of the Director-General in consultation with its Chairman, or on request submitted in writing to the Director-General by the majority of Members of the Committee.
5. The Committee shall contribute to promoting the objective of world food security with the aim of ensuring that all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
6. The Committee shall serve as a forum in the United Nations system for review and follow-up of policies concerning world food security, including food production, sustainable use of the natural resource base for food security, nutrition, physical and economic access to food and other food security related aspects of poverty eradication, the implications of food trade for world food security and other related matters and shall in particular:
(a) examine major problems and issues affecting the world food situation and the steps being proposed or taken to resolve them by Governments and relevant international organizations, bearing in mind the need for the adoption of an integrated approach towards their solution;
(b) examine the implications for world food security of other relevant factors, including the situation relating to the supply and demand of basic food stuffs and food aid requirements and trends, the state of stocks in exporting and importing countries and issues relating to physical and economic access to food and other food security related aspects of poverty eradication; and
(c) recommend such action as may be appropriate to promote the goal of world food security.
7. The Committee shall serve as the forum in the UN system for the monitoring of the implementation of the Plan of Action adopted by the World Food Summit in accordance with the relevant commitment of the Summit. [ The relevant provisions of the World Food Summit Plan of Action are set out in Commitment 7, Objective 7.3, which reads as follows: To monitor actively the implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action. To this end, Governments, in partnership with all actors of civil society, in coordination with relevant international institutions and, in conformity with ECOSOC Resolution 1996/36 on the follow-up to the major international UN conferences and summits as appropriate, will: (a) Establish through the CFS a timetable, procedures and standardized reporting formats, which do not duplicate similar reports to the UN, FAO and other agencies, on the national, sub-regional and regional implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action; (b) Set out in the CFS a process for developing targets and verifiable indicators of national and global food security where they do not exist; (c) Report to the CFS on national, sub-regional and regional implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action, drawing on a food insecurity and vulnerability information and mapping system, once established, as an analytical aid; (d) Invite the Secretary-General of the UN to request the ACC to report to ECOSOC in accordance with established procedures progress on the follow-up by UN agencies to the World Food Summit; (e) Monitor through the CFS the national, sub-regional, regional and international implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action, using reports from national governments, reports on UN agency follow-up and i nter-agency coordination, and information from other relevant international institutions; (f) Provide regular reports on implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action through the CFS via the FAO Council to the ECOSOC; (g) Encourage the effective participation of relevant actors of civil society in the CFS monitoring process, recognizing their critical role in enhancing food security; (h) By 2006, undertake in the CFS and within available resources a major broad-based progress assessment of the implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action and a mid-term review of achieving the target of reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015. This progress assessment and review should be in the context of a special forum of a regular session of the CFS and involve active participation from governments, relevant international organizations and actors of civil society. ]
8. The Committee shall report to the Council of the Organization and tender advice to the Director-General, and relevant international organizations as appropriate, on any matter considered by the Committee, it being understood that copies of its reports, including any conclusions, will be transmitted without delay to interested governments and international organizations.
9. The Committee shall provide regular reports to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), through the Council of the Organization.
10. Any recommendation adopted by the Committee affecting the programme or finance of the Organization or concerning legal or constitutional matters shall be reported to the Council with the comments of the appropriate subsidiary committees of the Council. The reports of the Committee, or relevant extracts therefrom, shall also be placed before the Conference.
11. The Committee shall draw on the advice, as necessary, of the Committee on Commodity Problems and its subsidiary bodies, the Committee on Agriculture and other technical committees of the Council as appropriate, and the Executive Board of the World Food Programme. In particular, it shall take full account of the responsibilities and activities of these and other intergovernmental bodies responsible for aspects of food security, in order to avoid overlapping and unnecessary duplication of work.
12. The Committee shall invite relevant international organizations to participate in the work of the Committee and the preparation of meeting documents on matters within their respective mandates in collaboration with the secretariat of the Committee.
13. In order to ensure the effective discharge of its functions, the Committee may request the Members to furnish all information required for its work, it being understood that where so requested by the governments concerned, the information supplied shall be kept on a restricted basis.
14. The Director-General or his representative shall participate in all meetings of the Committee and may be accompanied by such officers of the staff of the Organization as he may designate.
15. The Committee shall elect, from among its Members, its Chairman and the other officers. It may adopt and amend its rules of procedure, which shall be consistent with the Constitution and the General Rules of the Organization.
16. The Committee may decide to establish subsidiary or ad hoc bodies where it considers that such action would expedite its own work, without duplicating the work of existing bodies. A decision to this effect may be taken only after the Committee has examined a report by the Director-General on the administrative and financial implications.
17. When establishing subsidiary or ad hoc bodies, the Committee shall define their terms of reference, composition, and, as far as possible, the duration of their mandate. Subsidiary bodies may adopt their own rules of procedure, which shall be consistent with those of the Committee.