Procedure at International Conferences Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the second edition
- List of abbreviations and conference references
- Introduction
- 1 Historical development of rules of procedure of conferences and attempts to establish model rules
- 2 Adoption of rules of procedure
- 3 Rules of procedure and international law
- 4 Invitations, participation and credentials
- 5 Presiding officer and other officers of the conference
- 6 Meetings
- 7 Statements by delegations
- 8 Submission of proposals
- 9 Adjournment and closure of debate
- 10 Amendments
- 11 Withdrawal and reconsideration of motions
- 12 Procedural motions and points of order
- 13 Priorities between different proposals
- 14 Decision taking and method of voting
- 15 Majority required
- 16 Consensus
- 17 Separate votes
- 18 Conduct of voting – interruption of voting and correction of vote
- 19 Languages, records and documents
- 20 Committees
- 21 Suspension and amendment of rules of procedure
- Bibliography
- Index
10 - Amendments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the second edition
- List of abbreviations and conference references
- Introduction
- 1 Historical development of rules of procedure of conferences and attempts to establish model rules
- 2 Adoption of rules of procedure
- 3 Rules of procedure and international law
- 4 Invitations, participation and credentials
- 5 Presiding officer and other officers of the conference
- 6 Meetings
- 7 Statements by delegations
- 8 Submission of proposals
- 9 Adjournment and closure of debate
- 10 Amendments
- 11 Withdrawal and reconsideration of motions
- 12 Procedural motions and points of order
- 13 Priorities between different proposals
- 14 Decision taking and method of voting
- 15 Majority required
- 16 Consensus
- 17 Separate votes
- 18 Conduct of voting – interruption of voting and correction of vote
- 19 Languages, records and documents
- 20 Committees
- 21 Suspension and amendment of rules of procedure
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Distinguishing between separate proposals and amendments
In view of the practical importance of the difference between separate proposals and amendments in determining the order of voting, at times lengthy procedural debates develop on the question whether a suggested action is a proposal or an amendment.
The rules of procedure of the UNGA define an amendment as follows:
Rule 90
Voting on amendments
A motion is considered an amendment to a proposal if it merely adds to, deletes from or revises part of the proposal.
The UN Model Rules propose the following definition of an amendment:
Rule 58
Amendments
1. A proposal is considered an amendment to another proposal if it merely adds to, deletes from or revises part of that proposal. Unless specified otherwise, the word ‘proposal’ in these rules shall be considered as including amendments.
A similar phrase appears in the rules of procedure of all the conferences examined.
The rules of procedure of the Assembly of the ICAO state, regarding this issue:
Rule 50
The presiding officer shall determine whether a proposed amendment is so related to the motion as to constitute a proper amendment thereto, or whether it must be considered as an alternative or substitute motion.
Hovey, writing in 1950, stated that:
An amendment, however, which is too far removed in substance from the original, cannot properly be treated as an amendment at all. There is ample precedent for the view that a proposal – whether or not submitted as an amendment – will be treated as a separate proposition if it would either radically alter the original or eliminate for that session the possibility of voting on the original.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Procedure at International ConferencesA Study of the Rules of Procedure at the UN and at Inter-governmental Conferences, pp. 201 - 219Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006