CL 115/6

Council

1. The appointment and term of office of the Director-General are defined in Article VII, paragraph 1, of the FAO Constitution, which reads as follows:

"1. There shall be a Director-General of the Organization who shall be appointed by the Conference for a term of six years. He shall be eligible for reappointment."

2. The Twenty-seventh Conference Session, having elected Mr. Jacques Diouf to the post of Director-General in accordance with Article VII of the Constitution, adopted Resolution 19/93 whereby it declared that Mr. Diouf "is appointed to the office of Director-General, for a period of six years, from 1 January 1994, the term of office expiring on 31 December 1999".

3. The procedure regarding nominations for the office of Director-General is governed by the provisions of Rule XXXVI.1 (a) of the General Rules of the Organization (GRO). The relevant provisions of this Rule read as follows:

"1. In pursuance of paragraph 1 of Article VII of the Constitution, the Director-General of the Organization shall be appointed under the following conditions:

(a) When the term of office of the Director-General is due to expire, the appointment of a new Director-General shall be placed on the agenda of the regular session of the Conference immediately preceding the expiry of the term of office; whenever, for other reasons, the office of the Director-General is vacant, or notice is received of a pending vacancy, the appointment of a new Director-General shall be placed on the agenda of the next session of the Conference which opens not less than 90 days from the occurrence or notice of the pending vacancy. Nominations validly made in accordance with Rule XII.5 of these Rules shall be communicated to the Secretary-General of the Conference and Council by the date set by the Council. The Secretary-General shall circulate these nominations to all Member Nations and Associate Members by the date likewise set by the Council, it being understood that in the case of an election taking place at a regular session of the Conference, such date set by the Council shall be no later than 30 days before the session of the Council provided for in Rule XXV.2 (c) of these Rules .....".

4. Pursuant to the provision quoted in the preceding paragraph, the Council is required to set two dates, namely the date by which nominations have to be communicated to the Secretary-General and the date by which the latter has to circulate to Member Nations the nominations received. In view of the requirement that the date for circulation of nominations "shall be not later than 30 days before the session of the Council provided for in Rule XXV.2 (c) of these Rules"1/; the dates for communication and circulation of nominations should be set by the Council at its current session.

5. In deciding the dates in question, the Council will no doubt wish to bear in mind that in 1999 the aforementioned summer session is scheduled to take place from 14 to 19 June, that transmittal of mail from and to some countries may take a week - and often longer - and that at least two weeks should be allowed to the Secretary-General for the preparation, translation, processing and despatch of circular letters to Member Nations.

6. In the light of the above considerations, the Council may deem it appropriate to set 8 April 1999 at 12.00 hours, as the date by which nominations should be received by the Secretary-General and 29 April 1999 as the date by which the Secretary-General should circulate nominations to all Member Nations. These arrangements would correspond to the timing set by the Council for nominations submitted in 1993.

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1/ i.e. the summer session held in Conference years.