Composition of the General Conference

Article 1 :

The delegations representing Member Universities shall be, each, composed of two members at the most, specialized in education, science and culture, either of them is the President (Rector) of the University or his representative. The accreditation documents shall be signed by the relevant University and shall be sent before the convening of the Conference.

Article 2 :

The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference -OIC- or his representative shall have the right to attend the General Conference.

Article 3 :

The members of the Executive Council shall attend the General Conference.

Article 4 :

Institutions and individuals may attend the General Conference as observers without the right to vote, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 8 (e) of the Charter.

Article 5 :

The Secretary General of the Federation shall attend the regular and extraordinary sessions of the General Conference. The Secretary General shall specify the staff who attend by virtue of their area of competence and duties.

General Conference meetings

Article 6 :

The General Conference shall hold its sessions in the headquarters of the Federation unless the General Conference decides otherwise or when a Member University offers to host the General Conference.
Regular sessions shall be held every three years, at a date set at the previous session.

Article 7 :

The General Conference shall hold open meetings or meet in camera when deemed appropriate.

Article 8 :

- The General Conference shall elect in each session the President and the other members of its Bureau. The proceedings of the General Conference shall be conducted by the outgoing President until a new President is elected. The Bureau shall be made up of the President, three Vice-Presidents, a General Rapporteur and the chairmen of the committees set up by the General Conference, in addition to the Chairman of the Executive Council.

- The Chairman of the Executive Council or, in case of his absence, the acting chairman, shall attend the meetings of the Bureau of the General Conference, without right to vote.

- The Bureau shall discharge the following tasks :

• schedule plenary sessions;
• coordinate the proceedings of the Conference, its committees and its subsidiary bodies;
• assist the President in steering the proceedings of the session.

Article 9 :

• In case of absence of the President, the presidency shall be entrusted to the senior Vice-President, following the order of hierarchy of the Bureau. In case of absence of the three Vice-presidents, the presidency shall be entrusted to the Rapporteur.
• In case of vacancy of the President's position for any reason, the presidency shall be entrusted to the senior Vice-President or the Rapporteur, as stated in the previous paragraph, until the Bureau of the Conference convenes and selects a new President at the following Bureau's meeting.

Article 10:

In each one of its sessions, the General Conference shall set up a Plans and Programmes Committee, and an Administrative, Financial and Legal Affairs Committee, or any other committees which the General Conference deems neccessary for the smooth conduct of its proceedings and full consideration of the agenda items. Each Committee shall elect its Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Rapporteur.

Article 11

Proceedings :

• The President of the General Conference shall conduct the proceedings on the questions under consideration according to the adopted agenda.
• The President shall give the floor in accordance with the order of requests. Priority may be granted, if need be, to a Chairman or Rapporteur of one of the Conference's committees.
• Any Member University may raise a point of order which shall be settled at once by the President so long as his ruling is not challenged by the majority of the members present at the General Conference session.

Article 12

Voting :

• Only the Member Universities shall have the right to vote at the General Conference. A consensus shall always be sought for the adoption of resolutions and recommendations. But the Conference may resort to voting if necessary.
• Each Member University shall have one vote in the General Conference or in the Committees in which it serves as member, regardless of the number of the Member Universities it represents.
• Voting shall be generally by show of hands or by a roll-call if requested by a Member University or when the President deems that the former procedure gives no clear picture of a majority. A vote by secret ballot may be taken if necessary.
• Any Member University may abstain from voting, or make reservations on a resolution or part thereof. Reservations shall be read out and put on record in the session's report after the said resolution.
• The overall number of the votes of Member Universities from one country shall not exceed the tenth of the expressed votes.

Functions of the General Conference

Article 13 :

The General Conference shall be in charge of the following :

• Lay down the general policy of the Federation, its action plans and programmes and ensure follow-up to their implementation;
• Discuss the reports and proposals put forward by Member Universities as well as the recommendations issued by the Executive Council and take appropriate action thereon;
• Adopt the Rules of Procedure of the General Conference;
• Amend and adopt the internal regulations of the General Conference as well as the Financial Regulations of the Federation and staff-related regulations;
• Consider all issues which do not fall within the competence of any other body of the Federation;
• Determine the relations of the Federation with the Islamic, Arab and international organizations, the parallel federations as well as the specialized agencies, governmental and non-governmental, in accordance with the provisions of the bilateral agreements concluded to this effect;
• Discuss and adopt the draft budget and programmes as well as the closing accounts of the Federation;
• Set up ad-hoc committees to carry out specific studies;
• Endorse the nomination of the Executive Council members upon the recommendation of the General Conference Bureau;
• Endorse the arbitration committee recommended by the Executive Council;
• Endorse the election of the Secretary General.

Agenda

Article 14 :

The Secretary General shall prepare the draft agenda of the regular sessions of the General Conference and shall send it out to Member Universities along with the relevant documents, at least two months before the Conference.

Article 15 :

The draft agenda shall include :

• the report of the Executive Council
• the report of the Secretary General
• the draft programmes of the Action Plan and the related draft Budget
• the items which the General Conference had decided, in a previous session, to include in the agenda
• the items proposed by the Executive Council or the Secretary General, including the proposals submitted by the Member Universities through the Executive Council and the General Secretariat.

Article 16 :

Should an additional item be included in the agenda before the convening of the General Conference, the Secretary General shall inform the Member Universities thereof.

Article 17 :

The General Conference shall adopt its agenda at each regular session, taking into account the decisions of the Executive Council in this matter.

Article 18 :

The General Conference may amend or delete, at any one of its sessions, certain agenda items subject to the approval of the simple majority.

Article 19 :

The agenda of an extraordinary session shall cover only the questions which warranted the meeting, unless the General Conference decides otherwise by an absolute majority.

Secretary General's role in the General Conference

Article 20 :

The resolutions and recommendations of the General Conference shall be sent out by the Secretary General to all the Member Universities within two months after the closing of the General Conference session.
The resolutions and recommendations adopted by the General Conference may be published or broadcast by the President of the General Conference or by the Secretary General unless the majority of attending and voting members decide otherwise.

Article 21 :

The Secretary General shall draw up the minutes for each session in extenso and send out copies thereof to the Member States if possible. The minutes shall be kept at the Federation's headquarters for reference purposes if need be.

Article 22 :

The Secretary General and his assistants shall participate in all proceedings of the General
Conference and its Committees by providing information, studies and clarifications about the agenda items.

Article 23 :

The Secretary General shall be responsible for organizational work of the regular and extraordinary sessions of the General Conference. He shall prepare all the relevant documents.

Article 24 :

The Secretary General shall be responsible for the Secretariat of the General Conference as well as the preparation of the minutes, the Resolutions and the Recommendations adopted.

Endorsement of the Appointment of the Secretary General

Article 25 :

The Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization -ISESCO- shall be appointed Secretary General of the Federation. His nomination shall be endorsed by the General Conference at its first session convened after the election of the Director General of the Islamic Organization - ISESCO.

General provisions

Article 26 :

Each member shall bear his own travel expenses to attend the Conference meetings or to fulfill other tasks entrusted to him. He shall also bear his accommodation expenses unless they are born by the hosting party.

Article 27 :

The present Rules of Procedure shall be amended only by a two-thirds majority of Member Universities. No request for amending or deleting any provision therein shall be considered unless it is sent in the form of a proposal to all Member Universities at least three months before the General Conference meeting.

Article 28 :

The Rules of Procedure of the General Conference shall come into force upon their adoption by the General Conference.