ENB:04:01
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RULES OF PROCEDURE
Kjell‚n announced that informal consultations on the rules of procedure had been held earlier that morning and that agreement had been reached on the rules in question: 9, 29 and 49.
Rule 9 was amended to read: "The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall be the Secretary-General of the Committee. He, or his representative, shall act in that capacity in all meetings of the Committee and its subsidiary organs." Rule 29 was amended to confirm that the rules of the Committee, with regard to decision-making, would be based on the rules of the General Assembly. The rule now reads: "Subject to rule 27, decisions of the Committee and its subsidiary organs shall be taken in accordance with the rules of procedure of the General Assembly and its committees, respectively."
Rule 49 was adapted from the rules of procedure of the climate change negotiations with regard to NGOs. The Committee decided, however, that they also needed to have reference to decision 2/1 of the UNCED PrepCom, which contains a detailed presentation of the procedure for determining NGO competence and relevance to the work of the Committee. The rule now reads: "Non-governmental organizations invited to the Committee may make contributions to the negotiating process, as appropriate, on the understanding that these organizations shall not have any negotiating role during the process, and taking into account, in particular, decisions 1/1 and 2/1 concerning the participation of non-governmental organizations adopted by the Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development at its first and second sessions." Some countries were not prepared to adopt the rules of procedure that morning, so Kjell‚n proposed that the Committee consider the rules of procedure adopted ad referendum and that final approval would take place the next day.