PREAMBLE

These rules shall be called Rules of Procedure for meetings/programmes of the ECO Cultural Institute. These rules shall come into force with effect from the date of their approval by the ECO Council of Ministers and shall apply to all activities of the ECO Cultural Institute.

Chapter – I

MANDATES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL ORGANS

1. A) BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Board of Trustees shall be the highest policy and decision-making body of ECO Cultural Institute. It shall meet biennially preferably prior to the beginning of ECO Cultural Institute fiscal year by rotation, in the territories of the Member States. The Board of Trustees shall have, inter-alia, the following responsibilities:

1. Approve policies, strategies, and work programmes of the Institute;

1. Nominate and appoint the President and the Executive Director of the Institute;

• Review and adopt the reports of the Institute;

1. Establish such subsidiary or ad-hoc Committees as appropriate;

1. Approve annual budget and audit reports of the Institute;

1. Decide on the scale of assessment of contribution by Member States to the budget of the Institute;

• Report to the ECO Council of Ministers/Summit on all matters related to the cultural policies and the implementation of ECO Cultural Institute’s programmes and projects;

• Determine and review as and when necessary, rules and regulations regarding all fiscal, administrative and organizational matters and provisions of financial and staff regulations of the

1. B)       PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTE

• The President of the Institute shall be responsible for carrying the general policies and decisions of the Board of Trustees and taking appropriate measures for implementation of the approved programmes of the

• In line with the objectives of the Institute and the directives of the Board of Trustees and supervision of the President of the Institute, the function of the Institute shall be as under:

1. To prepare plans, programmes and projects envisaged by the Institute’s decision making organs;

1. To serve as the permanent channel of communications and coordination among Member Governments in all areas related to Institute’s agreed programmes and activities through all means available to it; in this context also to provide practical information to the Member States on procedural matters and all other fields as may be

• To serve as the custodian of all documentation and archives of Institute;

1. To service technically and administratively all meetings of the Board of Trustees and activities of the Institute and help the preparation of reports and documents;

1. To act as the information agency for the Institute in all related areas within as well as outside the region;

1. To communicate, cooperate and interact with relevant regional and international organizations and agencies in agreed areas in accordance with the policy documents and directives of the Board of Trustees;

• To engage in activities and contacts in support of the member governments in order to facilitate financing of agreed projects and activities through international financial organizations, investors and donors;

• To maintain contact with the ECO Summit and Councils through the ECO

1. To prepare and submit Annual Report to the Council of Ministers on the overall performance and activities of the Institute through the ECO Secretariat;

1. To prepare Biennial Reports for consideration and approval of the Board of Trustees;

1. To prepare annual budget of the Institute for consideration and approval of the decision making body;

• To carry out such other functions and duties as may be assigned to it by the Board of Trustees or the ECO Council of Ministers and the Council of Permanent Representatives;

• To establish and operate a documentation and publication system in line with international standards;

• To maintain effective communications with the Permanent Missions/ Embassies and national focal points of the Member States through a modern and speedy network;

1. To assist the signatory Member States in establishing the Institute’s Branch or coordination unit in their countries in accordance to their own prevailing

1. C)    ECI Council of Permanent Representatives (ECI-CPR)

1. Council of permanent representatives of ECI shall meet under the chairpersonship of the representative of the Member State holding the chairpersonship of the Board of Trustee of
2. ECI CPR meeting will be preferably held back to back with ECO CPR.

• The ECI-CPR will carry out the following functions:

1. It shall be responsible on behalf of and in the name of the Board of Trustees of the Eco Cultural Institute to implement its decisions and carry out its
2. Report to the Board of Trustees on all policy related issues and matters referred to it by
3. Consider the budget and audit reports of the Institute and recommend them to the BOT for approval.
4. Advise/ recommend to the Regional Planning Council on the cultural functions of the Institute and other technical matters referred to it by the RPC.
5. Review all the reports of the
6. Prepare the draft agenda and expedite other arrangement for the RPC and BOT meetings
7. Monitor follow up action on decisions of the
8. Matters of certain urgency such as annual budget, implementation of approved project or programmes, convening of urgent ad-hoc expert meetings, change on the date or venue of certain meetings or programmes and etc. (Approved by 18^th CoM, 9 March 2009, Tehran & 4^th BoT, 21 March 2009, Mazarsharif, Afghanistan)

CHAPTER – II

MEETINGS / PROGRAMMES

• All meetings of the Institute shall be held according to the biennial programmes approved by the Board of Trustees.

• For the meetings organized at the Institute, each participating delegation shall bear his/her own expenses. For the meetings held in the Member States, local hospitality and internal travel for the duration of the meeting shall be provided by the host country, while the international travel to and from the venue of the meeting shall be borne by the participating Member States.

• For the events to be held in the ECO Member States, the dates may, in exceptional cases, and at the request of the host country, be changed from those approved date. The concurrence of other Member States shall be secured by the Institute.

• Approved programmes such as seminars, exhibitions, festivals, tournaments etc…shall be carried out by the Institute at the Member States in consultation between the Institute and the sponsor country and / or the relevant regional, international All the expenses for such programmes excluding the international travel to and from the venue shall be borne by the host country.

CHAPTER – III

AGENDA

• The draft agenda of the meetings of the Board of Trustees with its annotations shall be prepared by the Institute not later than three months before the date of the meeting and shall be immediately circulated to Member States by the

• Any Member may propose new items for inclusion in the agenda for a meeting of the Board of Trustees which shall be sent to the Institute for circulation at least four weeks before that meeting. However, for such an item to be adopted in the final agenda, the presence of the Member States proposing it shall be

• The Institute shall prepare and circulate the provisional agenda for other meetings of the Institute agenda eight weeks in advance of the meetings. Within three weeks the Member States shall convey their comments/amendments to the proposed agenda. A final draft agenda shall be circulated four weeks in advance of the meeting. The Institute shall also provide agenda annotations and/or working papers if possible four weeks advance. Any Member State may propose the inclusion of any new agenda item before the adoption of the final agenda in the

• Agenda or Work programme of the activities such as seminars, exhibitions, festivals etc… shall be prepared by the host country in consultation with the Institute. The prepared programmes shall be circulated to the Member States by the Institute 4 weeks before the approved

CHAPTER – IV

CHAIRPERSONSHIP

• For the meetings of the Board of Trustees, the relevant Minister or the representative of the host Member States shall be elected

• The President of the Institute or his/her representative shall assist the chairperson of the meetings of the Board of Trustees.

• In the meetings to be held at the Institute, the President or the representative of the Institute shall chair the meeting.

• For cultural activities such as seminars, festivals and so on, which the main responsibility lies with the host country sponsoring the programme, an official of the host country shall be chairperson if so is needed according to its work

CHAPTER – V

REPRESENTATION OF THE INSTITUTE IN THE MEETINGS

• The President of the Institute, or his/her designated representative shall attend all meetings of the Institute, and may make oral or written statements, as well as offer clarifications upon request.

• The President shall represent the Institute in external relations. He may also designate member(s) of the staff to represent the Institute in international

CHAPTER – VI

CONDUCT OR BUSINESS

Quorum:

• The approved programmes and participation in meetings shall be considered as mandatory, for all members. However, in case of unavoidable circumstances, the necessary quorum shall be as under:-

• The quorum for all meetings of the Board of Trustees, shall be four-fifth of the total

• For all other meetings or programmes, the quorum shall be simple majority of the total membership.

• In case a Member State cannot attend a meeting, it shall inform the Institute at least four weeks before the date of the

Programmes of Activities:

• The Programmes of Activities, which shall cover all activities of the Institute, shall be prepared by the Institute and approved by the Board of Trustees.

• For meetings to be held in the Member States, in case confirmation of participation by Member States required for obtaining necessary quorum for a meeting is not received by the Institute at least two weeks before the approved date of that meeting, such a meeting shall be Fresh dates shall be proposed by the host government/Institute, and concurrence to these dates by other Member States shall be obtained by the Institute.

• Except for the meeting of the Board of Trustees, if a Member State is unable to host a previously committed meeting, it shall inform the Institute at least two months before the approved In such a situation, the meeting shall be held in the Institute.

• For cultural programmes such as seminars, exhibitions, tournaments and etc… the dead line for confirmation of participation by Member States is one month before the approved

Drafting Committees/Working Groups:

• Any meeting may assign open-ended drafting committee(s) or working group(s) for preparation of the reports of the meetings with the assistance of the

• The Board of Trustees may establish ad-hoc interim committees to discuss matters referred to them whenever

CHAPTER – VII

DECISION-MAKING

• Each Member State present and voting shall have one

• With the exception of decisions of the Board of Trustees on vital issues which requires unanimity, decisions on all other meetings, shall be adopted by simple majority of the total membership of the Institute with every member having the right to record his reservations, if any. Budgetary allocation appointment of the President, and other issues which the Board of Trustees consider to be of vital importance to the Institute shall be taken on the basis of unanimity.

• The reports of all meetings of the Institute shall be adopted at the closure of the

• The Member States who have been unable to participate in a meeting may express their views in writing within four weeks to the Institute which shall be circulated to other Member States.

• A representative may at any time raise a point of order in the meetings, which shall immediately be decided by the Chairperson in accordance with the present rules. A representative may appeal against the ruling of the chairperson. The appeal shall immediately be put to the vote, and the chairperson’s ruling shall stand unless over- ruled by a majority of the members present in the meeting and A representative may not, in raising a point of order, speak on the substance of the question under discussion.

• The decision taken by the Board of Trustees shall be binding on all Member

CHAPTER – VIII

LANGUAGES

English shall be the official language for all meetings/programmes. Arrangements for adequate unofficial Russian translation and interpretation services shall be provided by the Government hosting the meeting or the Institute in cases where it is the venue of the meetings.

CHAPTER – IX

SUMMARY RECORDS AND REPORTS OF THE MEETINGS

• Reports and summary records of all meetings or programmes of the Institute shall comprise essentially the points agreed, views expressed and operative decisions taken by the Member States. They should be prepared in a way to secure progressive implementation of projects and achievement of Institute’s agreed

• The reports of the Board of Trustees shall take immediate effect, whereas all other reports shall be of recommendatory nature until they are adopted by the Board of Trustees or ECO Council of Ministers.

CHAPTER – X

STATUS AND PARTICIPATION OF INVITEES

Subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees or the Council of Permanent Representatives:

• Representatives of the relevant regional/international organization or governmental/non- governmental cultural agencies of the Member States may be invited to inaugural and closing ceremonies of the Board of Trustees

• They may also be invited to be present during discussions on proposals or projects involving collaboration with their organizations/countries.