WIPO COORDINATION COMMITTEE

Fortieth Session (12th Extraordinary)
Geneva, March 25 to 27, 1998

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR THE NOMINATION AND APPOINTMENT OF DIRECTORS GENERAL

Memorandum of the International Bureau

1. In its ordinary session of September-October 1997, the WIPO General Assembly adopted the following resolution:

"The General Assembly,

Welcoming the work successfully undertaken by the Coordination Committee to establish an ad hoc process for the nomination of the new Director General,

Recognizing the need to establish standard policies and practices for such appointments in future,

Noting the growing practice within the United Nations System, of defining the rules concerning the maximum successive mandates of an Executive Head,

Requests the Coordination Committee to make recommendations to the General Assembly at its session in September 1998 on the policies and practices for the nomination and appointment of a Director General related to all the above paragraphs, and for this purpose invites the Coordination Committee to establish a Working Group." (see document WO/GA/XXI/13, paragraph 236)

2. In order for the Coordination Committee to fulfill the request of the WIPO General Assembly for it to make recommendations to the WIPO General Assembly at the Assembly's session in September 1998, it would be necessary for the Coordination Committee to establish a Working Group at its present session. It would also be necessary for the Coordination Committee to decide the composition and working procedures of the Working Group. The ensuing paragraphs set out suggestions for the consideration of the Coordination Committee in addressing these issues.

Terms of Reference of the Working Group

3. The WIPO General Rules of Procedure apply to the WIPO Coordination Committee, except as varied by the Special Rules of Procedure of the Coordination Committee (those Special Rules of Procedure are set out in document AB/XXIV/INF/2, but have no bearing on the issues dealt with in the present document). Rule 12 of the WIPO General Rules of Procedure empowers the Coordination Committee to establish working groups and provides for such working groups to report to the Coordination Committee.

4. If the Coordination Committee decides to establish a Working Group on Policies and Practices for the Nomination and Appointment of Directors General it may wish to consider mandating the Working Group

(i) to review the procedures adopted by the WIPO Coordination Committee in March 1997 for the purpose of nominating a new Director General;

(ii) to review the practices adopted in other organizations in the United Nations system with respect to any policies or rules adopted by them concerning the maximum successive mandates of Executive Heads;

(iii) to report to the Coordination Committee on any recommendations that the Working Group suggests be made by the Coordination Committee to the WIPO General Assembly on the establishment of standard policies and practices for future appointments to the post of Director General and on legal or political manner in which any such standard policies and practices might be adopted by the WIPO General Assembly.

Composition

5. The purpose of establishing a working group is normally to create a forum with limited, but representative, participation in order to enable discussions to take place in a less formal atmosphere and work to proceed more intensely than in the larger committee which establishes the working group. In deciding what composition the Working Group might have in the present context, the Coordination Committee might wish to consider the following membership:

• the Chairs and the Vice-Chairs of the WIPO Coordination Committee and of the WIPO General Assembly and;

• the Coordinators of the African Group, the Asian Group, Group B, the Group of Central Asian, Caucasus and Eastern European Countries, the Group of Central European and Baltic States and the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries and the Representative of China.

Meetings and Working Documents

6. The Coordination Committee may wish to fix the dates of the first meeting of the Working Group and a subsequent schedule of meetings. In order to enable the Working Group to present its report to the Coordination Committee in time for the Coordination Committee, in turn, to transmit its recommendations to the WIPO General Assembly in September 1998, it is suggested that the first meeting of the Working Group be convened in the month of April or of May 1998. Thereafter, a subsequent meeting could be convened in the month of June or of July 1998 or it could be left to the Working Group to decide itself on the dates of any subsequent meetings, it being understood that the Working Group would be requested to finalize its report for circulation to the members of the Coordination Committee (as well as to all other member States of WIPO for information) by the end of June or of July 1998.

7. It is suggested that the working documents for the first meeting of the Working Group consist of an information paper on policies and practices for the nomination and appointment of executive heads in organizations in the United Nations system to be prepared by the Secretariat and of any proposals or submissions that, upon invitation, any member State of WIPO may wish to submit for the consideration of the Working Group.

Subsequent Meeting of the Coordination Committee

8. The Coordination Committee may wish to decide whether it wishes to meet in extraordinary session to consider the report of the Working Group and to formulate its recommendations to the WIPO General Assembly before its ordinary session during the meetings of the Assemblies of WIPO in September 1998, or whether it wishes to consider that report in the course of its ordinary session in September 1998.

9. The WIPO Coordination Committee is invited to establish a Working Group on Policies and Practices for the Nomination and Appointment of Director General and to decide on the terms of reference, composition and practical arrangements for the Working Group.

[End of Document]

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