Concerning the General Conference

The Provisional Agenda for the First General Conference was prepared pur-suant to paragraph C.3 of the PC Annex. Besides listing the items to be con-sidered by the Conference, the Commission recommended that its meetings be divided into a regular and a special session.⁶⁸

Pursuant to the same authority, the Commission prepared draft pro-visional Rules of Procedure and draft Supplementary Rules for the First Conference.69 In addition to the texts of these instruments, which were de-signed both to permit the conduct of business during the first regular and special sessions as well as to form the basis of the permanent Rules of the

Conference, the Commission also communicated to the Conference its con-sensus as to the interpretation of the provisional Rule relating to elections to the Board of Governors.70

3.3.2.2. Concerning the Board of Governors

Though not required to do so by the PC Annex, the Commission also pre-pared the Provisional Agenda for the first meeting of the Board of Governors and provisional Rules of Procedure for the Board (which it submitted to-gether with a covering note indicating that some members of the Commission felt that these Rules should be adopted by the Board by a two-thirds majority).71

3.3.2.3. Concerning the work of the Agency

The Report on "The Programme, Staff, Budget and Financing of the Agency during its first year" was prepared pursuant to paragraph C.5(a)-(d) of the PC Annex and constituted the principal accomplishment of the Commission.72

It was divided into chapters relating to the Initial Programme of the Agency, to the Staff Establishment, to The Budget, and to the Financing of the Agency;

attached to it were draft resolutions concerning the appropriations for the initial financial period of the Agency, for the establishment of a Working Capital Fund and concerning voluntary contributions.

Pursuant to paragraph C.5(a) of the PC Annex, the Commission also submitted certain recommendations concerning the scale of assessed contri-butions, to assist the Conference in the task assigned to it by Article XIV.D of the Statute.73

3.2.2.4. Concerning the Headquarters

Pursuant to paragraph C.5(e) of the PC Annex and responsive to the preference recorded by the Conference on the Statute, the Commission recommended that the Agency1 s permanent seat be established in Vienna.74

As the result of extensive negotiations with the Austrian Government conducted pursuant to paragraph C.6 of the PC Annex, the Commission be-queathed to the Board an almost complete draft of the Headquarters Agreement.75

3.2.2.5. Concerning the Staff

Pursuant to paragraph C.5(d) of the PC Annex, the Commission submitted draft Provisional Staff Regulations to the Conference and the Board.7 6

In a resolution concerning "Social Insurance for Members of the Agency's Staff", the Commission recommended to the Board, inter alia, that the Agency should seek admission to the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund and that, until this could be arranged, certain provisional coverage be provided.77

3.2.2.6. Concerning financial arrangements

Presumably in connection with its obligations under paragraph C.5(a)-(b) of the PC Annex, the Commission submitted to the Board draft Provisional

Financial Regulations, including "Principles to Govern the Audit Procedures of the...Agency".7 8

3.2.2.7. Concerning relationships with other organizations

Pursuant to paragraph C.7(a) of the PC Annex, the Commission had negoti-ated with the United Nations the draft of a Relationship Agreement to be con-cluded with that organization. Together with this draft the Commission com-municated the text of an exchange of letters between the President of the Com-mission and the UN Secretary-General, concerning the formulation of the first Article of the Agreement.⁷⁹

Pursuant to paragraph C.7(b) of the PC Annex, the Commission sub-mitted to the Conference and the Board "Recommendations... concerning the Guiding Principles for Relationship Agreements between the Agency and the Specialized Agencies".8 0 Since it had previously communicated these r e -commendations to the specialized agencies, the Commission was able to in-form the Board of their reactions as contained in correspondence exchanged with them and with the Secretary of ACC.

Pursuant to the same authority, the Commission also prepared a set of "Recommendations . . . concerning Relations with Non-Governmental Organizations'' ,81

NOTES

1 Referred to in this Chapter as the "PC Annex".

2 The first proposal leading to this arrangement was apparently made by New Zealand at the Conference on the Statute (IAEA/CS/OR. 8, p.21). The suggestion was later repeated by South Africa (IAEA/CS/OR.3S, p. 81).

3 IAEA Statute, Article XXI. E, G. Actually 70 States signed the Statute on that first day and 10 further States did so within the allowed period of 90 days.

4 IAEA/CS/OR.39. p.62. See also the prior discussion in IAEA/CS/OR. 35. pp.91-122 and/OR.37, pp. 107-121.

5 IAEA/CS/OR.40, pp. 11-15.

6 The Statute provided for the Commission to remain in existence until "a Board of Governors had been selected...". This did not make it clear whether it was merely necessary that 10 members of the Board be elected by the General Conference at its First Regular Session (to supplement those designated earlier by the Commission itself) (suggested in IAEA/PC/OR.37, p. 4) or that their term of office should have started from the end of that Session (IAEA Statute, Article VI D). Since both these events took place on 3 October 1957 and since the Commission had actually ceased its work some days earlier, no actual problem arose out of this ambiguity.

7 The cessation of the Commission as a functioning organ before it went out of existence as an organization (see the penultimate paragraph of this Section) led to certain difficulties. Thus overexpenditures in certain sections of the approved budget could no longer be approved by the Commission or its President, and were thus merely reported by the Executive Secretary to the Chairman of the Board of Governors.

8 The one exception was Belgium, which, according to Statute Article VI. A. 2, alternates with Portugal on the Board on an annual basis (Section 8 . 2 . 2 . 2 ) .

9 Section 3 . 2 . 4 .

10 Ibid. The Agency never registered this agreement, either with itself or with the United Nations. This implies that the Agency did not consider itself a party thereto, for otherwise an obligation to register would

have derived from Article XXII. B of the Statute (Section 2 6 . 6 . 1 . 1 . 1 ) . 11 INFCIRC/6/Rev.2, Article XIII.

12 Sections 3 . 2 . 3 . 5 and 3 . 2 . 3 . 6 . 13 IAEA/PC/OR.1, p . l .

14 IAEA/PC/W.10(S).

15 IAEA/PC/OR.7. p. 10.

16 IAEA/PC/W.10(S)/Rev.l and /Core. 1.

17 IAEA/PC/OR.8, pp.3-7. The final text appears in IAEA/PC/6.

18 IAEA/PC/OR.65, p. 16 (last line). A comment on this practice is recorded in UN doc. A/PV.715, para.48 (1957).

19 Rule 16. It did decide to hold open the ceremonial initial part of its 53r d Meeting, its first in Vienna (IAEA/PC/OR. 53).

20 Rule 51. The representative from Austria was invited to certain meetings at which questions related to the First General Conference or to the permanent seat of the Agency were discuned. See also IAEA/PC/2.

21 Rue 52. The interpretation, given to permit the invitation of non-governmentai organizations, is re-corded in IAEA/PC/OR.8, p.7.

22 The President (Mr. Carlos A. Bernardes - later the second Chairman of the Board of Governors) was elected from the delegation, that of Brazil, which had provided the President of the Conference on the Statute;

the Vice-President (Dr. Pavel Winkler - later the firstChairman of the Board of Governors), from Czecho-slovakia, was the person who had held the corresponding office at the Conference (Annex 3.3).

23 IAEA/PC/OR.42-ST/SG/AC. 1/SR. 32. See Section 1 2 . 2 . 1 . 1 . 24 IAEA/PC/3.

25 IAEA/PC/2. Composition recorded in IAEA/PC/OR.4.

26 Mr. Jolles later served, ex officio, as Secretary General of the first regular and special sessions of the General Conference. He was then designated Acting Director General to hold office until the first Director General assumed his post on 1 December 1957 (Section 4.3); at that time Mr. Jolles was appointed Deputy Director General for Administration, Liaison and Secretariat, a post which he held for just over three years.

27 The Commission originally felt that it could not legally employ anyone beyond the date on which its own existence would terminate. Later this legal consideration appears to have been outweighed by the practical desirability of providing staff continuity during the crucial period of the initial General Conference and Board of Governors meetings (IAEA/PC/OR. 51, p. 10). See also Section 3 . 2 . 2 . 2 ( c ) .

28 IAEA/PC/5.

29 IAEA/PC/W. 11(S).

30 IAEA/PC/W.ll(S)/Rev.l and/Corr.l.

31 IAEA/PC/OR.8, pp. 7-13;/OR., pp.2-10. The final text appears in IAEA/PC/8.

32 IAEA/PC/OR.9, pp.3-4.

33 IAEA/PC/W.ll(S)/Rev.l, Regulation 3.01; IAEA/PC/OR.8, pp.8-10. See also Section 2 4 . 1 . 4 . 1 . 34 Since the scales of salaries and allowances were at that time under consideration by the General Assembly,

the Executive Secretary was authorized to include in the Staff Regulations the amounts eventually adopted by the Assembly. A special reason for using those scales was that most of the Commission's staff had either been temporarily seconded from the United Nations Secretariat, or provided by the latter on a reimbursable loan basis ( i . e . , the UN kept paying the emoluments, but was reimbursed by the Commission).

35 IAEA/PC/8, Regulation 3.04; IAEA/PC/OR. 15, pp.14-15; IAEA/PC/W.35(S). para.l. See also supra, note 27.

36 IAEA/PC/8, Regulation 6.02; IAEA/PC/W.15(S). Actually, since most members of the Commission* s staff were seconded from or loaned by the United Nations, they could keep their existing UKJSPF coverage.

37 Preparatory Commission "Administrative Instruction No. 2".

38 IAEA/PC/OR.7, p. 11.

39 SEC/INS/9.

40 IAEA/PC/W.12(S).

41 IAEA/PC/W.12(S)/Rev.l.

42 IAEA/PC/OR.8, pp. 13-14. The final text appears in IAEA/PC/7.

43 Preparatory Commission "Administrative Instruction No. 1".

44 1AEA/PC/4.

45 IAEA/PC/W.25(S), Annex I.

46 GC.1(S)/RES/4, para.l, part A.

47 GC.l(S)/RES/7, paras.(a) and 3, Appendix I. para.7, and Appendix II.

48 when the Executive Secretary found that he had to make certain budgetary transfers after the Commission (and its officers) had ceased to exist, he merely reported these to the Chairman of the Board of Governors (the former Vice-President of the Commission).

49 IAEA/PC/9.

50 IAEA/PC/13.

51 The Agency's Accounts for 1957-1958, GC(III)/81, Annex I, para. V. Also GQII)/39, paras.98-99.

52 GO(II)/45. footnote 1.

53 22 Fed. Reg. 7099(1957).

54 59 Stat. 669, largely codified in 22 U . S . C . Sec. 288-288f. See Section 2 8 . 4 . 1 . 55 IAEA/PC/OR. 12, pp. 19-20.

56 IAEA/PC/14; GC. l/INF/3 - GOV/INF/2.

57 Idem., para.l.

58 When this Regulation was considered by the Commission the Soviet representative initially proposed its deletion (i. e . , to require Commission action on any waiver); though this proposal was withdrawn, it fore-shadowed a similar move by the Soviet Union in connection with the immunities of the staff of the Agency under the Headquarters Agreement (IAEA/PC/W.62; IAEA/PC/OR.56, p.3, Section 28.2.2(b)).

59 However,an all but complete list appears in GC.l/INF/1-GOV/lNF/l ("List of Main Documents Prepared by the Preparatory Commission").

60 IAEA/CS/ll.

61 IA EA/PC/OR. 8 and /OR. 9.

62 Ibid.

63 Supra note 56.

64 GC.1/10.

65 IAEA/PC/W.29(S), paras. 2-5.

66 Ibid, paras.6-8.

67 Ibid, paras. 9-11.

68 GC. 1/8. The reasons for this recommendation are discussed in Section 4 . 1 . 69 GC. 1/9 and/Con. 1 and /Add. 1. See Section 7 . 3 . 1 .

70 Announced orally by the Temporary President of the General Conference, GC. I/OR.2, para. 3. The sig-nificance of this consensus is explained in Section 8 . 2 . 2 . 4 . 3 . 1 .

71 Section 4 . 2 .

72 G C . l / l - G O V / 1 . The long-term significance of this report is discussed in Section 1 5 . 3 . 1 . 1 . 73 GC.1/11. See Section 2 5 . 3 .

74 GC. 1(S)/18, second preambular paragraph. Though the Commission had originally intended to address this recommendation to the General Conference in document GC. 1/6 (see GC. 1/INF/l) that document was never issued. See also Section 4 . 4 .

75 Section 2 8 . 2 . 2 .

76 GC.1/2-GOV/3. See Section 2 4 . 1 . 3 . 2 . 1 . 77 IAEA/PC/15.

78 GC.1/INF/2-GOV/2. See Section 2 5 . 1 . 2 . 1 . 79 GC.l/3-GOV/4and/Add.l. See Section 1 2 . 2 . 1 . 1 . 80 GC. 1/4-GOV/5. See Section 1 2 . 3 . 2 . 1 . 2 . 81 GC.1/5-GOV/6. See Section 1 2 . 6 . 2 . 1 .

PRINCIPAL INSTRUMENTS

IAEA Statute, Articles V. A; VI.A, C, D; Annex I, paras,C.3,4, 5(e)

Provisional and Supplementary Provisional Rules of Procedure for the Meetings of the General Conference in 1957 (GC. 1/9)

Agreement between the Austrian Government and the Preparatory Commission Concerning Arrangements for the Commission and the First General Conference (GC.l/INF/3)

The Statute entered into force on 29 July 1957, and thereby the Agency itself automatically came into existence on that date.1

At its birth, however, the new Agency was still without regular organs of its own. The final steps required to place the Agency into formal operation were to designate or convene the members of the two statutory r e p r e -sentative organs, which when once functioning could provide for their own continuity through a number of procedural devices: decisions to convene further sessions or the delegation of the power to do so to certain officers or to other statutory organs; the election of officers with at least sufficient continuity in office to arrange for and to conduct the meetings at which their successors would be elected.

The Preparatory Commission, a special organization which strictly speaking was not part of the Agency itself but still functioned as a temporary organ thereof, had been established in large part for the purpose of taking these final steps. The previous Chapter recites how it went about doing so;

the present one r e c o r d s how the permanent organs of the Agency, and in particular the General Conference, were set into motion.

4. 1. THE FIRST REGULAR AND SPECIAL SESSIONS OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE

In accordance with the charge contained in paragraph C. 3 of Annex I to the Statute, the Preparatory Commission convened the first session of the General Conference and prepared for it a provisional agenda and draft rules of procedure. In the course of formulating these instruments it became aware oi a procedural difficulty arising out of certain provisions of the Statute: the first session of the Conference would be required to deal with a number of questions, including especially the approval of the first budget, of the appoint-ment of the first Director General, and of the relationship agreeappoint-ment with the United Nations, on all of which it could only act following a recommen-dation or prior decision of the Board of Governors;2 however, according to Statute Articles VI. C and D, the members of the first Board would not take office (and thus constitute the first Board) until after "the end of t h e . . . 61

regular annual session of the General Conference" before which they were designated or at which they were elected.

Various solutions were explored3 to preventthe first session of the Confer-ence from being almost entirely inactive for lack of a Board to initiate pro-posals for the larger organ to act on:

(a) To allow the Conference at its first session to act directly on the reports of the Preparatory Commission, which in any case had been charged to make recommendations on the programme and budget for the first year of the Agency and to submit to the Conference the draft of a r e -lationship agreement with the United Nations. However, aside from the fact that the Commission had clearly not been given authority to take action on certain vital items (e. g., the appointment of a Director General, and the receipt and resubmission of the budget to the General Confer-ence if the latter should decide to "return" the initial estimates, with new recommendations, to the Board4), it was clear that this solution would do extensive violence to the statutory language as well as to the political equilibrium according to which the first Board would be an en-larged and thus somewhat altered version of the Preparatory Commission.

(b) To read Statute Article VI. C and D as allowing the first Board, exception-ally, to take office as soon as its membership had been completed by the elections to be held in the Conference. This solution too was r e -jected as being out of accord with the text of the Statute and thus also raising potential problems concerning the termination of the terms of office of the Board1 s initial members.

(c) To divide the first session of the Conference into a regular and a special part, the former to accomplish nothing substantive except to elect 10 members to the Board; on the adjournment of that regular session the first Board would automatically be constituted and thereupon the first special session of the Conference could immediately be convened to ac-complish all the substantive work for which prior action by the Board was required. This solution was adopted,5 as being most closely in accord with the Statute; a Czechoslovak objection, that special sessions must (according to Statute Article V. A) be convened by the Director General (whose appointment, however, required the prior existence of and action by the Board, followed by General Conference approval)6, was disregarded on the ground that the Director General1 s function in this respect was merely ministerial and could thus be assigned by the Conference to another official.7

The agenda prepared by the Preparatory Commission (and later adopted by the Conference) was thus divided into two parts: a provisional agenda for the regular session and a recommended list of items for the special session.8

Aside from hearing ceremonial addresses, the Conference at its first regu-lar session was merely asked to: adopt its agenda, adopt provisional rules of procedure, elect its President (but no other officers), appoint a Credentials Committe and receive its report, and elect 10 members of the Board. All other business appeared on the list for the special session.

To permit the first regular session to start its work as smoothly as possi-ble and to mesh with the first special session with a minimum duplication of formal steps, the rules of procedure proposed by the Preparatory Com-mission were divided into two parts and their consideration took place in two stages.9 At the regular session the Conference was asked to approve, for use only until permanent rules were adopted, a set of "Provisional Rules of Procedure" (which were so formulated as to constitute a draft of the perma-nent rules) and also a set of "Supplementary Provisional Rules of Procedure for the Meetings of the General Conference in 1957". The Provisional Rules (but not the Supplementary ones) were later fully considered at the special session, first in the Administrative and Legal Committee and then in the Plenary; they were then adopted with slight amendments as the permanent Rules of Procedure of the Conference10 (thus superseding the Provisional Rules, except in so far as the application of certain provisions was suspended, for the duration of the special session, by the Supplementary Rules).1 1

The Supplementary Rules made special provisions for the peculiarities of the combined first sessions:

(i) Because of the division into a regular and a special part, it was pro-vided that: credentials issued for the first regular session should also be considered valid for the first special session (thus preventing the possible unintentional disaccreditation of numerous delegates and inci-dentally obviating the need for a second Credentials Committee report);12

(ii) To avoid burdening the regular session with any unnecessary procedures, only a President and no other officer was elected; and the Credentials Committee was the only sub-organ constituted;13

(iii) To deal with the fact that there would be no Director General until the middle of the special session, the Executive Secretary of the Prepara-tory Commission was charged with acting as Secretary General of both sessions of the Conference and with conveningthe first special session;14

(iv) To deal with certain non-repetitive situations for which provision need thus not be made in the regular rules, a special device was introduced for selecting from among the 10 members of the Board elected at the same time those that were to serve for only one year,15 and it was also provided that the President of the Preparatory Commission should act as Temporary President of the first regular session;16

(v) To take account of the desirability of permitting all signatories of the Statute (many of which were expected to ratify in the near future - possi-bly during the Conference) to take part (of course without vote) in the Conference, and to permit attendance on a similar basis by representa-tives of the United Nations and the specialized agencies; even though no

(v) To take account of the desirability of permitting all signatories of the Statute (many of which were expected to ratify in the near future - possi-bly during the Conference) to take part (of course without vote) in the Conference, and to permit attendance on a similar basis by representa-tives of the United Nations and the specialized agencies; even though no