N - Enabling effective attendance and participation of Members in future sessions of the World Conservation Congress

N - Enabling effective attendance and participation of Members in future sessions of the World Conservation Congress

Latest version in this language: Version as sent to Plenary | Published on: 14 Oct 2021
Explanatory memorandum

RECALLING that IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (also known as International Union for Conservation of Nature), is an international association of governmental, non-governmental Members and indigenous peoples organisations;

FURTHER RECALLING that the World Conservation Congress is the highest organ of IUCN;

REAFFIRMING that the rights of Members to participate in the World Conservation Congress and to vote in sessions of the World Conservation Congress or by mail ballot as stated in the Statutes are sacrosanct, and are the cornerstone of the governance of the Union;

RECALLING that the IUCN World Congress Rules of Procedure give the possibility to all members to vote on motions in person or by proxy, as stated in Rule 66(d);

RECOGNISING the critical importance of facilitating the active and safe participation of Member organisations at the IUCN World Conservation Congress;

RECALLING Article 21 (a) of the IUCN Statutes;

MINDFUL that in the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, the unequal access to vaccination created unacceptable inequalities in Members’ participation;

CONCERNED that a large number of IUCN Member organisations were unable, or not permitted due to the health situation, to participate in person at the current session of the World Conservation Congress;

FURTHER CONCERNED that IUCN Council rejected the various requests by a large number of IUCN Members to vote online on motions and decisions during the World Conservation Congress and that voting by proxy was the only option available to Members that could not attend the Congress, when many Members might also have been limited in their choice of proxy holder as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;

AWARE of the advances in virtual conferencing technologies which provide new opportunities for effective remote participation of Members and in particular online voting; and

MINDFUL that future congresses are more likely to have both virtual and in-person attendance, with corresponding relevant impact on carbon foot print;

The IUCN World Conservation Congress, at its session in Marseille, France:

1. CALLS ON the Director General, the President and the Council to ensure that more emphasis is put on implementation of Article 21 (a) in the organisation of the future sessions of the World Conservation Congress;

2. REQUESTS the Council to ensure that the financial support of Member organisations for the next session of the World Conservation Congress (2024/2025) is not conditioned by their vote in the current session of the Congress;

3. URGES the Director General to make all necessary efforts to raise funds to support the participation of Members that would not otherwise be able to attend the Congress and exercise their voting rights;

4. REQUESTS the Council to prepare draft revisions to the IUCN Statutes and formulate proposals to be presented to Members with a view to enhancing the remote participation of Members and the use of online votes during Congress, and to ensure that IUCN is more agile in its response to extraordinary circumstances;

5. ESTABLISHES an “Advisory Group for the Revision of the Statutes” (hereinafter, “Advisory Group”), comprising a maximum of eight members to work with Council in this task;

6. DIRECTS the Council to call for nominations to the Advisory Group in the three months following the close of the World Conservation Congress;

7. REQUESTS the Council, following receipt of nominations, to determine the composition of the Advisory Group taking into consideration experience with the modalities of IUCN, relevant knowledge, geographical representation and diversity, gender and generational balance;

8. FURTHER REQUESTS the Council to announce the composition of the Advisory Group within no more than three months after the receipt of nominations;

9. CHARGES the Council to communicate proposals for revisions of the Statutes to Members, organise an online discussion and revise the proposals as per the result of these discussions; and

10. REQUIRES that each individual proposal be voted on by electronic ballot with the aim of ensuring that the suggested changes are applicable in time to be effective during the preparation of the next World Conservation Congress.

The preparation of this WCC has raised a number of issues around inequalities of access to the Congress and the inability of members to effectively participate in the work of the Congress and especially on how they can cast their vote. The restrictive conditions of entry due to the pandemic resulted in excluding a large number of members from being able to attend in person and therefore freely exercise their right to vote on motions and other decisions. Many members felt that article 21 a) of the Statutes was not respected, and IUCN and Council should have stressed upon its requirement.

Furthermore, IUCN and Council have initially only provided members that are unable to attend the Congress in person the option to vote by proxy. Many Members have written to council to request an electronic vote on all agenda items on the agenda of the Congress, but the Council decision was to only allow for the elections to be voted online. Motions are still to be voted on by proxy, and it is worth noting that members from red countries would not only be unable to attend but also very limited in their choice of proxy. This situation created unacceptable inequalities in exercising the Members’ fundamental right to vote.

The motion is new as these conditions have only risen in the months prior to Congress, well after the deadline for the motion submission has passed. The conditions created by the Pandemic, and the acceptance of IUCN of such strict restrictions could not have been foreseen. This situation has also highlighted many issues with the Statutes that require revisions, particularly as future events are more likely to have both virtual and in-person attendance, as more organizations and Members strive to reduce their Carbon footprint, and in recognition of the threat of both future pandemics and the continuation of COVID-19.

The motion addresses two key issues:
1- Members who were unable to attend and chose not to delegate their proxy vote should not be penalised in future sessions of congress as the selection of members to be supported to attend Congress is generally conditioned by the Secretariat according to the percentage of the motions they have voted on in previous congresses.
2- The provisions on mail ballot and electronic ballot within the IUCN statutes are antiquated and need to be revised considering the advances in technologies. Furthermore, it is expected that hybrid congresses would be the norm in the future and the IUCN Statutes should be revised to that effect.
  • A Rocha International [United Kingdom]
  • Al Shouf Cedar Society [Lebanon]
  • Association des Enseignants des Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre [Morocco]
  • Association Les Amis des Oiseaux [Tunisia]
  • Association pour la Protection de l'Environnement et le Développement Durable de Bizerte [Tunisia]
  • Association Tunisienne de Taxonomie [Tunisia]
  • BIOSFERA [Cabo Verde]
  • BirdLife South Africa [South Africa]
  • BirdLife Suomi [Finland]
  • BirdLife Zimbabwe [Zimbabwe]
  • Dansk Ornitologisk Forening - Birdlife Denmark [Denmark]
  • Exploralis [Tunisia]
  • GHADI [Lebanon]
  • Groupe de Recherche pour la Protection des Oiseaux au Maroc [Morocco]
  • Ministère de l'Environnement [Tunisia]
  • Nature Mauritanie (Association Mauritanienne de Conservation de la Nature) [Mauritania]
  • Nature Society (Singapore) [Singapore]
  • Naturschutzbund Deutschland [Germany]
  • Nigerian Conservation Foundation [Nigeria]
  • Reforestamos México A.C. [Mexico]
  • Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon [Lebanon]
  • Synchronicity Earth [United Kingdom]
  • The WILD Foundation [United States of America]
  • Wilderness Foundation [South Africa]
  • Wildlife Conservation Society [United States of America]
  • Wildlife Conservation Trust [India]
  • World Resources Institute [United States of America]
  • Zoological Society of London [United Kingdom]

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