General Secretary's Memorandum on Voting Procedures

[CCP]

THE GENERAL SECRETARY

Your Excellencies,

At various times since the founding of the World Congress, Security Council deliberations have slowed to the point of lethargy, leaving Resolution debates and votes uncompleted for years at a time. To avoid such problems, the Secretariat will immediately implement the following voting procedures for Security Council deliberations.

1. Resolution votes will last 168 hours (one real-time week).

2. Resolution votes will begin when the delegation that submitted the Resolution casts a vote on the Resolution or when that delegation asks the Secretariat to begin the voting process.

3. Resolution votes may close early if all five delegations have voted.

4. Resolution votes may begin early if three Security Council Members vote in favor of a Motion to Proceed. A Motion to Proceed may be proposed by any Security Council Member. Voting for a Motion to Proceed will begin immediately upon proposal and will end when 3 votes have been cast for or against the motion, or when the vote for the underlying Resolution concludes, whichever occurs first.

5. This Memorandum does not apply to Resolutions proposed prior to the publication of this Memorandum.

Security Council Members are invited to direct any questions or concerns regarding this Memoradum to the Secretariat

[Zanz]

Cyrille Rodier, Rildanorian Ambassador and Representative to the Security Council

Mr. General Secretary,

We appreciate this effort toward codifying the rules of this chamber - we do worry, however, that the resolution voting time is so long as to be prohibitive. Could we perhaps shorten the period of voting? (OOC: Say, to 2 or 3 RL days rather than 7?)

[Axxell]

OOC: It is a miracle if in one week all the members of the SC write something hahahahah

[CCP]

THE DEPUTY GENERAL SECRETARY (Safia Sidi)

Ambassador Rodier,

Thank you for contacting the General Secretary's office regarding this important matter. During the General Secretary's Mission to Lead Recovery Efforts at World Congress Offices in Istalia, it falls to me as Deputy General Secretary to provide support to delegations and Member States for all matters pertaining to normal operations here at the Security Council and at the General Assembly. That includes communicating with delegations regarding Security Council procedures like that outlined in the General Secretary's Memorandum on Voting Procedures.

I personally took part in the decision-making process preceding publication of the General Secretary's Memorandum, and I am therefore able to share with Your Excellency that the General Secretary shared Your Excellency's concerns regarding the 3.5 year (OOC: 7 real-time days) voting period and that he too personally preferred a 1.5 year (OOC: 3 real-time days) voting period. However, the General Secretary's final decision on the voting period ultimately rested on the current practice and historical precedents of Security Council deliberations. Specifically, the General Secretary observed that Security Council Resolutions have tended to be debated over fairly long periods throughout World Congress history, and that Resolution authors have often taken significantly longer than 1.5 years to gather the requisite three votes for passage of Resolutions, and finally that delegations have often taken 3.5 years or longer to travel to Security Council chambers to cast their votes. The General Secretary therefore took the judgement that while a less protracted voting period would allow the Security Council to process business more quickly and efficiently, such a shorter voting period was unlikely to be adhered to by Members of the Council, especially when imposed by the Secretariat, and would therefore likely result in less Security Council business being completed in total rather than more.

However, in anticipation that some Member Nations might advocate a shorter voting period, the General Secretary issued an important Rule in his Implementation and Regulation Orders which were issued to the Secretariat in conjunction with the publication of the underlying Memorandum. The relevant Rule reads in part:

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4. However, the Memorandum's Voting Period should at all times be understood as a maximum allowable time. Security Council Members may accordingly take advantage of Motions to Proceed to shorten deliberations or draft and pass Resolutions mandating a shorter Voting Period. Any such Resolutions, if successfully passed, shall be fully adhered to and implemented by the Secretariat if at all practical, and the present Memorandum shall be amended accordingly. However, the Secretariat is directed to exercise great care that maximal effort is expended to include all Security Council Members in any deliberations regarding a reduced Voting Period.

With this Implementation and Regulation Order in mind, I would therefore urge Your Excellency to explore the possibility of crafting a Member State initiative to reduce the voting period in deliberation and conjunction with Your Excellency's fellow Security Council Members.


Most Respectfully,
/s/Safia Sidi
World Congress Deputy General Secretary