Proposed amendment to the IAP Constitution

The proposed amendments concerning the Secretary-General and the General Counsel will be on the agenda for the next IAP General Meeting, Wednesday 16 September 2015 Zurich, Switzerland

With reference to article 16 of the Constitution of our Association (Amendment of the Constitution) please take following note into consideration;

Following a discussion at the Executive Committee (Bahrain, April 2015), about the current structure of reporting arrangements of the Association's officers under which the Secretary-General and the General Counsel are accountable to the Committee of which they are also full voting members it was decided by the Committee to recommend to the membership an alternative model which the committee considered more appropriate under which the officers would continue to attend, make proposals at and speak at Executive Committee meetings but would not be members with full voting rights, the change not to have effect within the terms of office of the current officers.

Download IAP Constitution (November 2014)

Article 12.3. Proposal: replace existing Article 12.3 with the following:

“The Secretary-General shall be a member of the Association and shall be appointed by the Executive Committee and, unless the Executive Committee otherwise determines, shall serve for a term of six years and shall be eligible for re-election.”

Article 12.4. Proposal: delete existing Article 12.4 and replace with the following:

“The Secretary-General shall have such powers and duties in addition to those referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article as may be determined by the Executive Committee, which may amend or revoke any determination made under this paragraph.”

Article 12.6. Proposal: replace existing Article 12.6 with the following:

“In the event of dismissal, resignation, permanent incapacity or death of the Secretary-General, the Executive Committee may appoint a member of the Association as acting Secretary-General.  In the event of temporary incapacity of the Secretary-General the Executive Committee may appoint a member of the Association who shall serve as acting Secretary-General during such incapacity.  In the event of suspension of the Secretary-General, the Executive Committee may appoint a member of the Association who shall serve as acting Secretary-General pending the General Meeting’s decision on the proposal to dismiss the Secretary-General.”

Article 8. Proposal: replace paragraph 8.2.h) with the following: – “to appoint the Secretary-General and the General Counsel;”

Article 8.3. Proposal: In the first sentence of Article 8.3 delete the words “the Secretary-General and the General Counsel”. Add at the end of Article 8.3 the following sentence: “A Secretary-General who held that office on 1 January 2015 shall continue to be a member of the Executive Committee while he remains in office.”

Article 13.4. Proposal: this provision is the corresponding provision to Article 12.6 in relation to the General Counsel.  The two provisions should be aligned.  Article 13.4 should therefore be amended to read as follows:

 “In the event of dismissal, resignation, permanent incapacity or death of the General Counsel, the Executive Committee may appoint a member of the Association as acting General Counsel.  In the event of temporary incapacity of the General Counsel the Executive Committee may appoint a member of the Association who shall serve as acting General Counsel during such incapacity.  In the event of suspension of the General Counsel, the Executive Committee may appoint a member of the Association who shall serve as acting General Counsel pending the General Meeting’s decision on the proposal to dismiss the General Counsel”