| General Assembly resolutions |
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Adoption procedure
Legal value of resolutions
Presentation of resolutions
Adoption procedure
In conformity with Article
17 of the Organization's General Regulations, the
General Assembly takes its decisions in plenary session, usually by adopting
resolutions.
It cannot, in application of Article
31, paragraph 1 of the General Regulations, vote on a draft resolution
unless copies of it in all the working languages (Arabic, English, French
and Spanish) have been distributed.
The term 'draft resolution' means:
- a document submitted directly to the General Assembly in plenary session,
or
- a document previously submitted to a Committee; in this case, the preliminary
draft resolution may be amended by the Committee.
Depending on the subject matter and in application of the relevant provisions
of the Constitution and General Regulations, adoption of the resolution may
require:
- a two-thirds majority of the Organization's Members (amendments to the
Organization's Constitution),
- a two-thirds majority of the delegations present and casting an affirmative
or negative vote (amendments to the General Regulations or its appendices,
adoption of new appendices to the General Regulations),
- a simple majority (all resolutions for which the Constitution or General
Regulations does not require a specific majority).
Preliminary draft resolutions aimed at amending the Constitution, or the
General Regulations or its appendices, must be sent to the Organization's
Members at least ninety days before they are put to the General Assembly
for consideration. In conformity with Article
56 of the General Regulations, an ad hoc Committee is set up to give an
opinion beforehand on such preliminary draft resolutions.
If an official of the Organization is aware that a member country, a group
of member countries or the participants at a meeting organized by the General
Secretariat intend to submit a draft resolution to the General Assembly, he
should ask those concerned to communicate the draft to the General Secretariat
as soon as possible so that it can be translated and sent to delegates sufficiently
ahead of the General Assembly session to allow them to study the text.
Legal value of resolutions
The legal value of a resolution depends on its subject matter and on whom
it is addressed to.
Generally speaking, the General Assembly adopts two types of resolution:
- resolutions relating to the functioning of the Organization (budget,
structure, adoption and amendment of statutory and regulatory texts, establishment
of subsidiary organs, adoption of agreements between Interpol and individual
governments or international organizations, etc.)
- resolutions dealing with different aspects of international law enforcement
(declarations of principle expressing determination to combat a given type
of crime, incitement to take particular action, encouragement to pass laws,
recommendations on regulations or working methods covering a particular
subject, invitations to send certain types of information or establish forms,
etc.).
Resolutions relating to the Organization's functioning apply to the Organization's
Members and institutions concerned. For instance, an amendment to the Constitution
or General Regulations also applies to all Members, even those which may have
voted against it. This being said, as a rule, such resolutions contain few,
if any, obligations for Members; if they do contain any, they are unavoidable
obligations which do not affect the sovereignty or laws of each country.
Resolutions on law-enforcement subjects do not impose obligations: they may
ask, urge, or encourage Members to do something, but cannot be binding since
they touch on an area which is proper to the sovereignty of States - an area
where Interpol's action is limited by national laws.
On the other hand, resolutions relating to the functioning of the Organization
or to law enforcement and which are addressed to the General Secretariat,
to the Executive Committee or to subsidiary organs, are binding. When the
General Assembly asks the General Secretariat to conduct a study on a given
type of crime, to organize a meeting or take a particular measure, the Secretary
General must respect the wish of the General Assembly.
In short, resolutions rarely have a mandatory character for the Organization's
Members unless they concern the functioning of Interpol. However, they impose
obligations on all the Organization's organs, especially on the General Secretariat.
Presentation of resolutions
Resolutions are drafted in accordance with a set model:
- The text begins with the preamble which sets out the reasons for the
decision. It is usually introduced by adjectives ('aware', 'conscious',
'convinced', etc.) or by verbs in the present participle ('noting', 'considering',
'taking note of', 'acknowledging', 'bearing in mind', 'recalling', and so
on),
- Next comes the sentence 'The ICPO-Interpol General Assembly, meeting
in (name of host city) from .... to .... (dates) at its ... (ordinal number)
session:'.
- Finally there is the operative part which sets out the General Assembly's
decisions which are introduced by verbs such as 'adopts', 'recommends',
'asks', 'decides', 'requests', etc.
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