WORLD BLIND UNION

TERMS OF REFERENCE

OF THE RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE

1. The officers shall ensure that the committee is formed not less than one year before the general assembly. It shall consist of a chairman and a secretary appointed by the officers and one member from each of the regional unions of WBU appointed by the president of his/her regional union. Not less than six months before the opening of the general assembly the secretary general shall send a notice in writing to all national and special members inviting them to submit draft resolutions to the chairman of the resolutions committee.

2. The committee is responsible to the general assembly for ensuring that all draft resolutions placed before it:-

2.1 Comply with the criteria set out in the schedule below;

2.2 Do not duplicate resolutions already passed, or policies already adopted, or prepared for adoption, by the general assembly.

3. If more than one draft resolution dealing with the same subject, or similar subjects, are submitted to the committee, it may amalgamate the draft resolutions or take other appropriate action to avoid duplication.

4. Not less than two months before the date of the opening of the regular four-yearly meeting of the general assembly the committee shall meet, either face-to-face or by conference call, and at that meeting shall consider any draft resolution put forward by the table officers, the officers, the executive or any committee, working group or ad hoc working group appointed in accordance with the constitution, or any national, special or international member.

5. Immediately after the meeting referred to in 4, the chairman of the committee shall send to the secretary general draft resolutions which meet 2 above. The secretary general shall thereupon prepare copies of such resolutions, and of texts of the resolutions in French and Spanish, for distribution to delegates On a date as many days as possible before the opening of the general assembly.

6. Any delegation of a national or special member may, with the consent of the President, submit a draft resolution which complies with 2 above to the chairman of the committee no later than 6 PM on the first day of the general assembly.

7. If during the course of the general assembly it appears to any delegate that an issue has arisen at one of its sessions which should properly be the subject of a draft resolution, he/she may submit a proposal to the chairman of the committee that the committee should draft an appropriate resolution. If the chairman has any doubt whether a resolution would comply with 2 above or is one which the general assembly would wish to consider he/she shall refer the question to the President whose decision shall be final.

8. The committee shall meet as necessary during the general assembly to consider draft resolutions proposed and submitted under 6 and 7 above. The committee and the national member hosting the general assembly will use their best endeavours to ensure that copies of the draft resolutions are available to delegates in acceptable formats no later than the commencement of the session of the general assembly at which they are to be considered.

9. When presenting draft resolutions to the general assembly, the committee shall, so far as practicable, group together draft resolutions dealing with similar issues.

Schedule

Criteria for draft resolutions

1. A draft resolution must be prepared in English.

2. Outdated English words such as "whereas" should not be used.

3. Although a preamble giving the background and philosophy behind the proposal is permissible, lengthy narrativeshould be avoided.

4. As a general rule, a draft resolution should call for specific action to be taken, and should indicate if such action is to be taken by the President, the table officers, the officers, the executive, national or special members. It may call for action to be taken by bodies outside WBU, for example, by national governments, or the United Nations, but, if it does, it should indicate which organ of WBUis responsible for drawing the text of the draft resolution to the attention of that body.

5. Action called for must come within the objects set out in the WBU constitution and must not violate its provisions.