REGIONAL COMMITTEE Sixty-third Session Bangkok, Thailand 7–10 September 2010
Provisional Agenda item 21 SEA/RC63/27 4 August 2010
Time and place of future sessions of the Regional Committee
Background 1. According to Rule 4 of the “Rules of Procedure of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia”, the Regional Committee determines at each session the time and place of its next session. 2. The annual session of the Regional Committee for South-East Asia is held in conjunction with the meeting of Ministers of Health of the Countries of the South-East Asia Region in the second week of September each year so as not to overlap with the dates of regional committee sessions of other regions. 3. In considering proposals for venues and dates, the Regional Committee is requested to keep in view the following resolutions of the World Health Assembly: (1) WHA7.26: “RECOMMENDS that, in deciding on the place of their meetings, regional committees should consider holding them from time to time at the site of the Regional Office, taking into account the costs involved for the Organization and the Member States concerned”; WHA9.20: “INVITES the attention of the regional committees to the desirability of host governments participating in the increased cost resulting from holding regional committee meetings outside the regional headquarters.”
(2)
4. The Regional Committee is invited to decide on the venue and date of forthcoming sessions based on invitations received from Member States to host such sessions. 5. During years in which the Regional Director’s election is scheduled to be on the agenda, sessions have traditionally been held at the Regional Office. The next scheduled election of the Regional Director is in 2013. 6. Also, when no formal invitation is received, the session is held at the Regional Office.
Sixty-fourth Session 7. At its Sixty-second Session, the Regional Committee noted with appreciation the invitation of the Government of India to host its Sixty-fourth Session in September 2011.
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Sixty-fifth Session 8. The Governments of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Republic of Indonesia have both offered to host the Sixty-fifth Session of the Regional Committee in September 2012. It should be noted that the Regional Committee session is usually held in conjunction with the meeting of the Health Ministers of the Region. 9. To facilitate the Regional Committee in deciding on the venue of its Sixty-fifth Session, information regarding the years in which its previous sessions were held in Bangladesh and Indonesia respectively, is given below: • • • •
Forty-second Session, 1989, Bandung, Indonesia Fifty-second Session, 1999, Dhaka, Bangladesh Fifty-fifth Session, 2002, Jakarta, Indonesia Fifty-ninth Session, 2006, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Actions for the Regional Committee (1) (2) The Regional Committee is invited to consider and to formally accept the invitation from the Government of India to host its Sixty-fourth Session in India in 2011. The Regional Committee is requested to consider the offers made by Bangladesh and Indonesia to host its Sixty-fifth Session, and decide on the venue of the Regional Committee in 2012.
10. Early decisions on this issue will enable the Regional Director to make appropriate adjustments in the programme budget for the biennium concerned.