F I R S T M E E T I N G
Held on Wednesday, 27 November 1946 at 3.15 p. m.
Chairman : Dr. SOMMERFELT (Norway). Dr. Y. R. CHAO (China), Vice-President of the General Conference, proposed M. SOMMERFELT
(Norway) as Chairman of the Commission. M. SOMMERFELT was elected unanimously and took the Chair.
The CHAIRMAN proposed the following appoint- ments :
Vice-Chairman of the Commission : Mr. EISEN-
HOWER (United States) ;
Chairman of the Administrative and Financial Sub-Commission : Dr. BEEBY (New Zealand); Chairman of the Legal and External Relations Sub-
Commission : M. PARKA-PEREZ (Venezuela). M. PARRA-PEREZ (Venezuela) proposed that M. Luis Alberto SANCHEZ (Peru) be appointed in his place.
With this alteration, the proposals of the Chair- man were adopted unanimously.
Finally, M. GRUZON (France) was chosen as
Rapporteur of the Commission.
The CHAIRMAN submitted the draft Agenda for approval.
The delegate of AUSTRALIA proposed that the following addition be made to Item 6 of the Agenda : “ as well as other questions raised dur- ing the general discussion ’’. The Agenda was
adopted with this amendment.
The CHAIRMAN expressed the opinion that most of the items on the Agenda should first be exa- mined by the two Sub-Commissions. Consequently he proposed that the Commission should hold only one Plenary Meeting and that the two Sub- Commissions should start work the next morning. This proposal was adopted.
The CHAIRMAN called on M. Jean THOMAS, De- puty Executive Secretary, to present Document C/7, Report of the Preparatory Commission on the General Conference, Administrative and Financial Questions, Legal Questions and External Relations. Chapter I, relating to the General Conference, had already been examined by the Conference and adopted.
The Commission had to consider Chapters II, III and IV :
Chapter II : Administrative and Personnel Ques- tions;
Chapter III : Budgetary and Financial Arran- gements;
Chapter IV : Legal Questions and External Re- lations;. relations with the United Nations, rela- tions with the Specialized Agencies, relations with Non-Governmental International Organizations. The following would also be submitted for the consideration of the Commission : the Draft Agree- ment with the United Nations, the Draft Conven- tion between the Member States of Unesco con-
The delegate of CHINA made three observations :
I. He considered that the Director-General should have power to change the allocation of certain sums within the budget; 2. He recommen- ded that the selection of the staff of Unesco be made with due regard to an equitable geographi- cal distribution; 3. He stated that China would be glad to welcome centres for scientific co-ope- ration and internationa1 laboratories.
The delegate of CZECHOSLOVAKIA noted that the budget provided for a total of 9 million dollars, a third of the budget for the United Nations for 1947. He was of the opinion that the four mil- lions allocated to staff expenses should include unforeseen expenditure, and he was supported in this by the delegate of VENEZUELA. These two delegates considered that, while a certain elastic- ity in the budget was necessary for the first year the Director-General should only be authorized to transfer funds from one item of the budget to another in exceptional circumstances, and that such a transfer should only be made after consul- tation with the Executive Board or a Superv is ry Commission. 0
The CHAIRMAN observed that, under Rule 23 of the Draft Financial Regulations, the Director- General had the power to make transfers within the budget, during the financial year of 1947.
The delegate of AUSTRALIA made the following
two suggestions: I. that the Administrative and Financial Sub-Commission should not meet until — 132 —
cerning Privileges and Immunities, the Draft Agreement with the Government of the French Republic concerning the Privileges and Immu- nities of Unesco, and the Draft Agreement with the International Council of Scientific Unions. The Administrative and Financial Sub-Com- mission would consider Chapters II and III, and the Legal and External Relations Sub-Commis- sion, Chapter IV.
M. THOMAS then described the steps taken in
the preparation of the budget by the Preparatory Commission; he said that its preparation had ne- cessitated the drawing up of a plan of the organ- ization of the permanent Secretariat. As the Execu- tive Board had requested the submission of se- veral plans, Chapter II contained three schemes for the organization of the Secretariat. The Bud- get estimates were based on the first of these.’
M. Thomas added that a supplementary budget had been provided (pages 88-89 of the booklet) for an intensified propaganda campaign for the rehabilitation of culture in devastated countries. The CHAIRMAN thanked M. Thomas for his sta- tement. While the majority of the questions would be considered by the Sub-Commissions, he pro- posed that the problem of the size of the budget should be discussed immediately, in order to sa- tisfy the requests of the Czechoslovak delega- tion, which had raised this point in the Prepara- tory Commission.
after the Programme Commission had finished its work, because the budget could only he drawn up when the main lines of Unesco’s work had been decided; 2. that the Secretariat should prepare a provisional scale of the contributions to be made by the 28 States at present Members of Unesco. The delegates of VENEZUELA and SOUTH AFRICA
seconded these proposals.
M. THOMAS said that the Secretariat was pre- pared to draw up the scale requested, but that it could be only provisional, as the number of Mem- bers States of Unesco was increasing rapidly. Mo- reover, he feared that postponement of the Admi- nistrative and Financial Sub-Commission meetings until the end of the Programme Commission would prolong the General Conference.
The delegate of the UNITED STATES thought that the Administrative and Financial Sub-Com- mission could meet next day and begin its work by considering questions of organization, postpo- ning consideration of the budget until later. He was supported in this by the delegate of FRANCE. The delegate of BELGIUM thought that Unesco
should be guided by principles of economy — it should not try to build up too vast an admini- strative machine, but should rely on the co-operat- ion of national and international intergovern- mental institutions and act as a co-ordinating point between them.
It was decided that the Administrative and Financial Sub-Commission would not consider the budget until after the report of the Programme Commission had been received. It would, however, meet the next day to start discussion of the organ- ization of the Secretariat and the Draft Staff Regulations.
The delegate of NEW ZEALAND, as Chairman of the Administrative and Financial Sub-Commis- sion, asked for precise instructions for the work of his Sub-Commission on Chapters II and III. He asked if they were to prepare recommendations
to the Director-General, or definite instructions:
M. THOMAS explained the plan of Chapter II : in the first part, the Preparatory Commission made recommendations to the General Conference; the second part contained a report on the general prin- ciples of the organization of the Secretariat, and the third part consisted of Draft Staff Regulations. It was not possible to give rigid orders to the Director-General at the First Conference, but it would be as well to establish guiding principles in line with international practice.
The delegate of NEW ZEALAND, supported by the delegate of BELGIUM, observed that if the conditional form were used it would be difficult for the Director-General to decide what line of action to take. They considered also that the Conference should avoid the official adoption of texts drafted in the conditional, which could not be binding.
The CHAIRMAN proposed that this question be referred to the Sub-Commission. This proposal was adopted.
The delegate of CANADA suggested that the me- moranda referring to the powers of the Execu- tive Board, mentioned in paragraph II of Article V of the Constitution, be submitted to the consider-
ation of the Administrative and Legal Commis- sion. This proposal was adopted.
The CHAIRMAN fixed the time-table for the Sub-
Commissions.
S E C O N D M E E T I N G
Held on Thursday 5 December 1946 at 3.15 p. m. Chairman : Dr. SOMMERFELT (Norway),
later Dr. BEEBY (New Zealand).
The CHAIRMAN proposed to begin with the exam- ination of Item 3 of the Agenda : Appointment of a Sub-Committee to study the Report on the Unesco Month.
As the Commission had not the time to consi- der this report (Doc. Unesco/C/Admin. & Jur./S. C. Leg. & Ext. Rel./18), the CHAIRMAN proposed the setting up of a Sub-Committee, made up of re- presentatives of countries most closely interestedin the Unesco Month, namely : China Egypt, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, the Uni- ted Kingdom, and the United States. Mexico hav- ing invited the General Conference for next year, the Chairman suggested that this Sub-Committee ‘should be presided over by that country.
This proposal was adopted.
The delegate of the UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
asked if delegates of countries not on the above list could be represented on the Sub-Committee. The answer was in the affirmative.
The CHAIRMAN then announced that the Admi- nistrative and Financial Sub-Commission had not yet been able to examine the report of the Pro- gramme Commission on the organisation of the Secretariat and on the budget. He therefore pro- posed that the Sub-Commission should be autho- rized to submit its report on these questions direct to the General Conference, by-passing the Plenary Commission.
After Mr. BEEBY, the Chairman of the Admi- nistrative and Financial Sub-Commission, had pointed out that the shortage of time made any other procedure a practical impossibility, this proposal was adopted.
The CHAIRMAN then called upon the Rappor-
teur of the Legal and External Relations Sub- Commission, M. Louis GEERAERTS (Belgium), who read the Sub-Commission’s report (Unesco/C/Ad- min. & Jur./S. C. Leg. & Ext. Rel./5).
The CHAIRMAN opened a discussion on the dif- ferent items in this report.
Item I. (Draft Agreement with the United Na-
tions) was adopted. The United Nations Observer
expressed his pleasure and said that the work was progressing in New York on parallel lines and in a satisfactory way.
Items II, III, IV, V, VI and VII were adop- ted.
A discussion arose in connection with Item VIII (Relations between Unesco and Member States), paragraph 3, in which the French and English texts differed slightly. It was decided to instruct the Secretariat to bring the English translation into agreement with the French text by restoring the English text originally adopted by the Sub- Commission.
With this alteration, Item VIII was approved.
Item IX (Relations between Unesco and the other Specialized Agencies) was adopted without discussion.
The CHAIRMAN then submitted for discus- sion the Draft Staff Regulations (Doc.Unesco/C/ Admin. & Jur./S. C. Adm. & Fin./17).
Mr. Walter LAVES (United States), Rapporteur of the Administrative and Financial Sub-Commis- sion, presented this document.
The preamble was adopted without discussion. Section I (Regulations I to 5) was adopted
with out discussion.
In Section II (Regulations 6 to 21) two amend- ments were made to Regulation 8 by M. Doré (Canada) Chairman of the Executive Board, na- mely, to add to the first paragraph the words “ or such Committee as the Executive Board may nominate” and, in the second paragraph, to de- lete the last part of the sentence : “ having regard to the opinions expressed by the Nominations Committee appointed by the Executive Board, from amongst its own members ’’. These amend- ments were rejected. The same fate attended an amendment by the delegate of Chile, who, in Re- gulation 9, suggested that the words “ one of the two working languages ” should be replaced by the words “ one of the three..., etc. ’’, in case the General Conference should admit Spanish as a third working language of Unesco.
The delegate of the UNITED KINGDOM propo-
sed the deletion of Regulation IO concerning can- didats files and information to be supplied about them by the National Commissions.
This proposal was voted on and adopted, but the FRENCH delegate protested against this vote
and said that he would ask the General Confe- rence to revert to this point.
With this deletion, the whole of Section II was
adopted.
Sections III, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII were
adopted.
In Section IX an amendment submitted by the CHAIRMAN of the EXECUTIVE BOARD to omit the words “with the concurrence of the Executive B o a r d ” was rejected. After correction of a mis- take in Regulation 32 (Regulation 28 should read Regulation 31), Section IX (Regulations 31 to 34) was adopted.
In Section X the French text of Regulation 36 was rather different from the English text and it was decided that the Secretariat should bring them into agreement on the basis of the English text. Section X was adopted.
Sections XI, XII, XIII and XIV were adopted.
The whole of the Draft Staff Regulations were thus adoped.
M r . BE E B Y (New Zealand) took the chair and submitted for examination the draft Finan- cial Regulations prepared by the Administrative and Financial Sub-Commission (Doc. Unesco/C/ Admin. & Jur./S. C. Adm. & Fin./16). This docu-, ment was presented by Mr. Walter LAVES (United States), Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission.
Regulations I to 14 were adopted without dis- cussion.
At the proposal of the SOUTH AFRICAN delegate, a small correction was made to the English text of Regulation 15 where “are payable” should be read instead of “ will be payable ’’. With this amendment Regulation 15 was adopted.
Regulations 16 to 31 were adopted without dis- cussion.
With regard to Regulation 32, discussion arose on when the Financial Regulations should come into force. In the opinion of the LEGAL ADVISOR
this should be on the day of the appointment of the Director-General, since the Preparatory Com- mission of Unesco would be dissolved on that day. However; at the proposal of the delegate of BEL-
GIUM, the Commission decided that it would not
itself fix this date.
The whole of the Draft Financial Regulations were adopted.
T H I R D M E E T I N G
Held on Saturday, 7 December 1946 at 4 p. m. Chairman : Dr. SOMMERFELT (Norway). The CHAIRMAN explained that the purpose of the meeting was to examine a proposal by the Executive Board to replace the provision adopted by the Administrative and Financial Sub-Com- mission concerning the Deputy Director-General, (Document Unesco/C/22 Section C I).
M. DORÉ (Canada), Chairman of the Executive Board, suggested the following amendment :
“A Deputy Director-General shall be appoin- ted.
“ This Deputy Director-General shall be the second official of the Organization and shall sub- ject to the authority of the Director-General, be responsible for administration, staff and finance.
“ Since the Director-General will necessarily be away from Headquarters at frequent inter- vals, the Deputy Director-General must be fa- miliar with all aspects of the Organisation’s ac- tivities, and his duties and responsibilities shall consist in the execution of programmes and all matters relating to administration and finance. ,, Mr. BEEBY (New Zealand), Chairman of the Administrative and Financial Sub-Commission, expressedsurprise that the Executive Board, paral- lel with the Sub-Commission, had examined a ques- tion that had been entrusted to the Sub-Commis- sion by the General Conference and had adopted a different text without informing it.
The delegates of the UNITED KINGDOM and of the UNITED STATES said there was no fundamental difference between the two texts and that it would he easy to agree on this point.
The AUSTRALIAN delegate was of the same opi- nion. He said that the procedure seemed perfect- ly correct.
Dr. BEEBY associated himself with the view ex- pressed by the AUSTRALIAN delegate as regards
procedure, but maintained that, if these questions of administration, staff and finance were entrus- ted to the Assistant Director-General, he would be
unable to deal with them satisfactorily, as he would often have to deputise for the Director- General, when the latter was absent.
The CHAIRMAN put to the vote the amendment
proposed by the Executive Board. The amendment was adopted.
The GREEK delegate drew the Commission’s at- tention to the vote on the budget total, which had taken place at the last meeting of the Admin- istrative and Financial Sub-Commission. He did
not think that this vote was in order, since the list for the roll call was not complete.
Dr. BEEBY, Chairman of the Administrative and Financial Sub-Commission, observed that this question was a matter for the Sub-Commission, and not for the full Commission.
The CHAIRMAN accepted this view and referred the point of order made by the Greek delegate to the Administrative and Financial Sub-Commis- sion.
F I R S T M E E T I N G