REGIONAL COMMITTEE Sixtieth session Thimphu, Bhutan 31 August – 3 September 2007
Provisional Agenda item 18 SEA/RC60/24 Rev. 23 August 2007
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 held in conjunction with the meetings of Ministers of Health of the countries of the South-East Asia Region has typically been held in the second week of September each year so as not to overlap with the dates of regional committee sessions of other regions. 3. The Regional Committee is invited to decide on the venue and date of forthcoming sessions based on invitations received from Member countries to host such sessions. 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. Also, when no formal invitation is received, the session is held at the Regional Office. 4. In considering proposals for venues and dates, the Regional Committee is requested to keep in view the following resolutions of the World Health Assembly and the Regional Committee for South-East Asia: (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)
SEA/RC60/24 Rev. Page 2
Sixty-first session 5. At its fifty-ninth session, the Regional Committee decided to hold its sixty-first session in 2008 in the Regional Office, being the year for the nomination of the Regional Director. The week of 8 September 2008 is being proposed for the sixty-first session.
Sixty-second session 6. The fifty-ninth session of the Regional Committee noted that after confirmation from the Government of Nepal, the sixty-second session would be held at Kathmandu in 2009.
Action for the Regional Committee 7. The Regional Committee is invited to confirm the dates of the sixty-first session and to decide on the venue(s) of the sixty-third session and any other future sessions on the basis of the invitations received, if any, from Member countries desirous of hosting such sessions.