Convention Relating to International Exhibitions

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Updated: 2009-04-14 18:45

ARTICLE 31

1. The Secretary General, who shall be appointed in accordance with the provisions of Article 28 of this Convention, shall be a national of the country of one of the Contracting Parties.

2. The Secretary General shall be responsible for attending to the current business of the Bureau in accordance with the instructions of the General Assembly and of the Executive Committee. He shall draw up a draft budget, present accounts and submit reports on his activities to the General Assembly. He shall represent the Bureau, especially in legal matters.

3. The General Assembly shall decide the other duties and responsibilities of the Secretary General as well as his terms of service.

ARTICLE 32

The annual budget of the Bureau shall be adopted by the General Assembly in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 28. The budget shall take account of the financial reserves of the Bureau, of revenue of all kinds, and also of the debit and credit balances carried forward from previous financial years. The expenses of the Bureau shall be met from these sources and from the subscriptions of Contracting Parties calculated on the basis of the number of parts falling to each Party according to the decisions of the General Assembly.

ARTICLE 33

1. Any Contracting Government may make a proposal for amendment of the Convention. The text of the said proposal and the reasons for it shall be communicated to the Secretary General who shall transmit them as soon as possible to the other Contracting Governments.

2. The proposal for amendment shall be included in the agenda of an ordinary session or of an extraordinary session of the General Assembly to be held at least three months after the date of its despatch by the Secretary General.

3. Every proposal for amendment adopted by the General Assembly in accordance with the provisions of the previous paragraph and of Article 28 shall be submitted by the Government of the French Republic for the acceptance of all the Governments Parties to this Convention. It shall come into force with regard to all Parties on the date on which four-fifths of them have notified their acceptance to the Government of the French Republic, except that a proposal for amendment of the present paragraph, of Article 16, or of the Annex referred to in that Article shall not come into force until all Parties have notified their acceptance to the Government of the French Republic.

4. Any Government which wishes to enter a reservation to its acceptance of an amendment shall inform the Bureau of the terms of this proposed reservation. The General Assembly shall give a decision concerning the admissibility of this reservation. It shall allow reservations which are conducive to the protection of established positions with regard to international exhibitions and reject those which would have the effect of creating privileged positions. If the reservation is accepted, the Party which had submitted it shall be included among those which are counted as having accepted the amendments for the purpose of calculating the above-mentioned four-fifths majority. If it is rejected, the Government which had submitted it shall choose between refusal to accept the amendment and its acceptance without reservation.

5. When the amendment comes into force, in the circumstances envisaged in the third paragraph of the present article, any Contracting Party which had refused to accept it may, if it sees fit, avail itself of the provisions of Article 37 below.

ARTICLE 34

1. Any dispute between two or more Contracting Governments concerning the application or the interpretation of this Convention, which cannot be settled by the authorities invested with powers of decision in pursuance of the provisions of this Convention, shall form the subject of negotiations between the Parties in dispute.

2. If these negotiations do not within a short space of time lead to an agreement, any Party shall refer the matter to the President of the Bureau and shall request him to nominate a conciliator. If the conciliator is unable to obtain the agreement of the Parties in dispute on a solution, he shall take note of and define the nature and the extent of the dispute in his report to the President.

3. Once a lack of agreement is thus notified the dispute shall become the subject of arbitration. To this end any Party shall, within an interval of two months from the date on which the report was communicated to the Parties in dispute, refer to the Secretary General of the Bureau a request for arbitration, naming the arbitrator chosen by that Party. The other Party or Parties to the dispute must each nominate, within an interval of two months, their respective arbitrators. Failing this, any Party shall notify the President of the International Court of Justice, requesting him to nominate the arbitrator or arbitrators. When several Parties act in unison for purposes outlined in the preceding paragraph, they shall count as one entity. In case of doubt, the decision lies with the Secretary General. The arbitrators shall in their turn nominate an additional arbitrator. If the arbitrators cannot agree on this choice within a space of two months, the President of the International Court of Justice, having been notified by any one Party, shall be responsible for nominating the additional arbitrator.

4. The arbitrating body shall give its decision by the majority of its members, the additional arbitrator having the casting vote in the event of the arbitrators?votes being equally divided. This decision shall be binding on all the Parties in dispute, finally and without the right of appeal.

5. Any State may, at the time of signing or ratifying this Convention, or acceding to it, declare itself not bound by the provisions of the above paragraphs 3 and 4. Other Contracting Parties will not be bound as regards those provisions towards any State which has so reserved its positions.

6. Any Contracting Party which has reserved its position in accordance with the provisions of the above paragraph, may at any time rescind its reservations by a notification to the depository Government.

ARTICLE 35

This Convention shall be open for accession by any State which is a member of the United Nations, or any State which is not a member of the United Nations but which is a Party to the Statute of the International Course of Justice or any State which is a member of one of the specialised agencies of the United Nations or the International Atomic Energy Agency and also by any State whose application for accession is approved by a two-thirds majority of the Contracting Parties which have the right to vote in the General Assembly of the Bureau. Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Government of the French Republic and shall become effective on the date they are so deposited.

ARTICLE 36

The Government of the French Republic shall inform signatory and acceding Governments and also the International Exhibitions Bureau of :

a) the entry into force of amendments in accordance with Article 33 ;

b) accessions in accordance with Article 35 ;

c) denunciations in accordance with Article 37 ;

d) reservations filed in accordance with Article 34 paragraph 5 ;

e) the termination of the Convention, should this arise.

ARTICLE 37

1. Any Contracting Government may denounce this Convention by notifying the Government of the French Republic in writing.

2. Such a denunciation shall take effect one year after the date of receipt of such notification.

3. This Convention shall terminate if, as the result of denunciations, the number of Contracting Governments is reduced to less than seven. Subject to any agreement which may be concluded between the Contracting Governments concerning the dissolution of the Bureau, the Secretary General shall be responsible for questions regarding liquidation. Unless the General Assembly decides otherwise, the assets shall be divided among the Contracting Governments in proportion to the subscriptions paid since they have been Parties of this Convention. If there are liabilities, these shall be taken over by the same Governments in proportion to the subscriptions fixed for the current financial year.

DONE at Paris, the 30th of November, 1972

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