CHAPTER IV: OFFICERS

Rule 15: Officers and their Election; Precedence Among Vice-Presidents

(1) The Conference shall have a President and 10 Vice-Presidents.

(2) The Credentials Committee, each of the two Main Committees and the Drafting Committee shall have a President and two Vice-Presidents.

(3) Any Working Group shall have a President and two Vice-Presidents.

(4) The Conference, meeting in Plenary, and presided over by the Director General of WIPO, shall elect its President and then, presided over by its President, shall elect its Vice-Presidents and the officers of the Credentials Committee, the Main Committees and the Drafting Committee.

(5) The officers of a Working Group shall be elected by the Main Committee that establishes that Working Group.

(6) Precedence among the Vice-Presidents of a given body (the Conference, the Credentials Committee, the two Main Committees, any Working Group, the Drafting Committee) shall be determined by the place occupied by the name of the State of each of them in the list of Member Delegations established in the alphabetical order of the names of the States in French, beginning with the Member Delegation whose name shall have been drawn by lot by the President of the Conference. The Vice-President of a given body who has precedence over all the other Vice-Presidents of that body shall be called “the ranking” Vice-President of that body.

Rule 16: Acting President

(1) If the President is absent from a meeting, the meeting shall be presided over, as Acting President, by the ranking Vice-President of that body.

(2) If all the officers of a body are absent from any meeting of the body concerned, that body shall elect an Acting President.

Rule 17: Replacement of the President

If a President becomes unable to perform his or her functions for the remainder of the duration of the Conference, a new President shall be elected.

Rule 18: Vote by the Presiding Officer

(1) No President, whether elected as such or acting (hereinafter referred to as “the Presiding Officer”), shall take part in voting. Another member of his or her Delegation may vote for that Delegation.

(2) Where the Presiding Officer is the only member of his or her Delegation, he or she may vote, but only in the last place.