Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05ROME455
2005-02-11 13:12:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Rome
Cable title:  

INVITATION TO JOIN AD-HOC UNIDROIT ELECTION

Tags:  AORC UNIDROIT 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS ROME 000455 

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CORRECTED COPY - SIGNATURE ADDED
FROM THE U.S. MISSION TO THE UN AGENCIES IN ROME

L/PIL FOR HAL BURMAN AND JEFF KOVAR
IO/S FOR LISA SPRATT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC UNIDROIT
SUBJECT: INVITATION TO JOIN AD-HOC UNIDROIT ELECTION
COMMITTEE

UNCLAS ROME 000455

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CORRECTED COPY - SIGNATURE ADDED
FROM THE U.S. MISSION TO THE UN AGENCIES IN ROME

L/PIL FOR HAL BURMAN AND JEFF KOVAR
IO/S FOR LISA SPRATT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC UNIDROIT
SUBJECT: INVITATION TO JOIN AD-HOC UNIDROIT ELECTION
COMMITTEE


1. Summary: Mission received a January 27 letter from the
International Institute for the Unification of Private Law
(UNIDROIT) to join an ad-hoc committee session on February

28. The session will examine possible changes to the
organization's by-laws dealing with Governing Council
elections, with a view toward a guarantee of regional
geographic representation on the Council. Mission proposes
to be a part of the ad-hoc committee and requests guidance
on issues laid out below (see para 6 for action request).
End Summary.


2. In the January 27 letter, UNIDROIT invited all member
states to take part in the ad-hoc committee session
scheduled for February 28 (Egypt, India, South Africa,
Tunisia and the UK already declared their interest in
serving). The reason for the committee's existence stems
from the November 2003 Governing Council elections, in
which none of the three candidates submitted by African
nations secured a seat. Common sentiment among member
states and the secretariat that this was not a desirable
outcome led to the committee's creation by the November
2004 General Assembly.


3. The committee is tasked with preparing proposals for the
amendment of Article 7 of the UNIDROIT regulations dealing
with Governing Council elections. Recommendations will be
forwarded to the General Assembly for review at its next
session, scheduled for April 18 20. Copies of Article 7
have been e-mailed to L/PIL and IO/S, and the current
language is quite straightforward: whoever gets the most
votes wins a seat. The idea for change, then, is to assure
that there is some guarantee of regional geographic
representation on the Governing Council. How that change
is achieved and precisely which regions need to be
represented will be left to the committee to recommend to
the General Assembly.


4. In addition to a draft agenda, the UNIDROIT secretariat
also included a brief paper on points relevant to the
committee's work (also e-mailed to L/PIL and IO/S). One
issue concerns the criteria used to determine how member
nations might be divided into geographic regions. The UN
divides member states into five regions, for instance,
while the FAO (also here in Rome) uses seven. The
secretariat makes the argument that because UNIDROIT is

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specifically focused on private law and its membership is
far from universal (75 percent from Europe and the
Americas),representation should take into account the
technical focus of its work as well as the relatively
narrow constituency it serves.


5. The second point deals with the number of members per
geographic region that should be guaranteed representation
on the Governing Council. To this, the secretariat
presents historical data indicating that from 1968 to 1989,
when the Governing Council had 21 seats, an average of one
seat went to Africa, three to the Americas, three to Asia-
Pacific and 14 to Europe. With the expansion of the
Council to 25 seats in 1990, one seat continued to go to
Africa, four to the Americas, five to Asia-Pacific and 15
to Europe. The secretariat makes no formal recommendations
on either point.


6. Comment and Action Request: while Mission has no
particular heartburn with some form of guaranteed
geographic representation, we see no reason to react too
strongly to a single election peculiarity and therefore
would not favor any guarantee for more than one nation from
any one region, particularly given the historical data
presented. Mission proposes to consult with the
secretariat and other like-minded member states in advance.

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2005ROME00455 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED