Opening of the session and adoption of the agenda: special procedures: report by the Director-General

EXECUTIVE BOARD EB147/11 147th session 21 May 2020 Provisional agenda item 2 Opening of the session and adoption of the agenda Special procedures Report by the Director-General 1. Following a series of consultations with Member States on the holding of the 147th session of the Executive Board, the Board agreed through a written silence procedure that the session would be held on Friday, 22 May 2020 and that it would take place virtually, using video conference technology. It also decided that the thirty-second meeting of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee will be postponed to such a date and be held either virtually or in Geneva as to be further decided by the Board. 2. Special procedures need to be put in place so that the Executive Board can pursue its work in such virtual de minimis meetings; the same is true for the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee. This report is intended to enable the Board to take a decision in that regard. The special procedures are set out in the Annex to the draft decision below. ACTION BY THE EXECUTIVE BOARD 3. In view of the foregoing, the Board may wish to consider the following draft decision. The Executive Board having considered the report on special procedures for the de minimis meeting of the Executive Board1 decided: (1) to adopt the special procedures to regulate the conduct of virtual de minimis meetings of the Executive Board set out in the Annex to this decision; (2) that the said special procedures shall apply to the virtual de minimis 147th meeting of the Executive Board to be held on 22 May 2020. 1 Document EB147/11. EB147/11 2 ANNEX SPECIAL PROCEDURES TO REGULATE THE CONDUCT OF VIRTUAL DE MINIMIS MEETINGS OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD RULES OF PROCEDURE 1. The Rules of Procedure of the Executive Board shall continue to apply in full, except to the extent that they are inconsistent with these special procedures, in which case the Executive Board’s decision to adopt these special procedures shall operate as a decision to suspend the relevant Rules of Procedure to the extent necessary, in accordance with Rule 63 of the Rules of Procedure of the Executive Board.1 ATTENDANCE AND QUORUM FOR THE EXECUTIVE BOARD 2. Attendance by members of the Executive Board, Member States not represented on the Board and Associate Members, as well as Observers, invited representatives of the United Nations and other participating intergovernmental organizations, shall be through secured access to videoconference or other electronic means allowing representatives to hear other participants and to address the meeting remotely. Attendance by non-State actors in official relations with WHO shall be through videoconference or other electronic means allowing delegates to hear other participants. 3. For the avoidance of doubt, virtual attendance of members of the Executive Board shall be taken into account when calculating the presence of a quorum. ADDRESSING THE EXECUTIVE BOARD 4. Members of the Executive Board, Member States not represented on the Board and Associate Members, as well as Observers, invited representatives of United Nations and other participating intergovernmental organizations wishing to take the floor should signal their wish to speak. Individual statements by members of the Board will be limited to three minutes. Individual statements by all Member States not represented on the Board and Associate Members, on the one hand, and Observers, the invited representatives of United Nations and other participating intergovernmental organizations, on the other, will be limited to two minutes and one minute, respectively. Regional and group statements will be limited to four minutes. Any member of the Board wishing to raise a point of order or exercise a right of reply should signal their intention to do so. It is understood that, in accordance with well- established practice, any right of reply to an oral statement shall be exercised at the end of the meeting. REGISTRATION 5. Online registration will follow normal practice. Additional information is provided in the Circular Letter. 1 This will affect notably the relevant provisions of the following Rules of Procedure of the Executive Board as they appear in the 49th edition of the Basic documents: Rule 51 (show of hands vote) and Rules 56–61 (secret ballot and elections). Annex EB147/11 3 MEETINGS 6. All meetings of the Executive Board shall be held in public. The virtual de minimis meeting of the Executive Board shall be broadcast on the WHO website, in line with usual practice. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS FOR RESOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS FOR THE RESUMED SESSION 7. For the avoidance of doubt, the first day of the resumed session of the Executive Board shall be regarded as the first day of the session for the purposes of Rule 32, by which date proposals for resolutions or decisions relating to items of the agenda may be introduced provided that that session lasts at least three days. Should the resumed session be scheduled for two days or less, such proposals may be introduced not later than 48 hours prior to the opening of the resumed session. DECISION-MAKING 8. All decisions of the Executive Board and taken in virtual meetings should as far as possible be taken by consensus. In any event, given the virtual nature of the meeting, no decision shall be taken by a show of hands vote or by secret ballot. LANGUAGES 9. For the avoidance of doubt, Rule 26 of the Rules of Procedure of the Executive Board shall continue to apply, whereby speeches made in an official language shall be interpreted into the other official languages. PROGRAMME BUDGET AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE 10. The special procedures to regulate the conduct of a virtual meeting of the Executive Board set out above shall apply mutatis mutandis to virtual meetings of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee taking into consideration the composition of the Committee; except that decisions of the Programme Budget and Administration Committee taken in the virtual meeting shall be taken by consensus. = = =