Committees

Each conference determines its own needs for committees, although in treaty-making conferences, a credentials committee, a drafting committee and a general or steering committee are always among the committees appointed. The large size of international conferences requires that the conference set up main committees to carry out the task of preparing texts or resolutions. The practice of conferences appointing a committee of the whole, composed of the plenary, has become less common.

Pastuhov commented in 1945 that, according to custom, ‘all delegations are entitled to be represented on each main committee of an international conference’, and this custom remains valid.

Procedure of committees

Most rules of procedure stipulate that, with some exceptions, the rules applicable to the plenary apply to committees mutatis mutandis. The exceptions are usually that the quorum for opening a meeting is smaller than that required in plenary meetings; all decisions are taken by majority vote and a two-thirds majority is required only for reconsideration of an issue; and the chairmen can participate in the voting.

Relations between committees and plenary

At a 1989 meeting of the General Conference of the IAEA, the Legal Adviser was asked whether a proposal not approved by the Committee of the Whole could nevertheless be subject to a vote in the Plenary. The Legal Adviser gave his opinion that the ‘plenary, as master of its own procedure, could consider any proposal’ subject to the rules of procedure concerning notice of submission of proposals.