ARTICLE 1. The President of the Argentine Republic shall designate the temporary president who shall preside at the opening session and shall continue to preside until the Conference elects a permanent president.

SECTION II
Permanent President

ARTICLE 2. The permanent president of the Conference shall be elected by an absolute majority of the States represented at the Conference.

ARTICLE 3. The duties of the permanent president shall be:

First. To preside at the meetings of the Conference and to submit for consideration in their regular order the subjects contained in the order of the day.

Second. To concede the floor to the delegates in the order in which they may have requested it.

Third. To decide all questions of order raised during the debates of the Conference. Nevertheless, if any delegate shall so request, the ruling made by the chair shall be submitted to the Conference for decision.

Fourth. To call for votes and to announce the result of the vote to the Conference, as provided for by article 17.

Fifth. To transmit to the delegates in advance, through the secretary general, the order of business of each plenary session.

Sixth. To direct the secretary, after the approval of the minutes, to lay before the Conference such matters as may have been presented since the last meeting.

Seventh. To prescribe all necessary measures for the maintenance of order and strict compliance with the regulations.

SECTION III
Vice Presidents

ARTICLE 4. In the first session there shall be settled by lot the numerical order of the delegations for the purpose of establishing the order of precedence of their location. In this order the presidents of the delegations shall be called to occupy the chair in the absence of the president as provided by these regulations.

ARTICLE 5. In case of the absence of the president, the respective vice president shall perform the duties of president in accordance with article 3.

SECTION IV
Secretary General

ARTICLE 6. The Secretary General of the Conference shall be appointed by the President of the Argentine Republic. ARTICLE 7. The duties of the Secretary General are:

First. To organize, direct, and coordinate the work of the assistant secretaries, secretaries of committees, interpreters, clerks, and other employees which the Government of the Argentine Republic may appoint for service with the secretariat of the Conference. Second. To receive, distribute, and answer the official correspondence of the Conference in conformity with the resolutions of that body.

Third. To prepare, or cause to be prepared under his supervision, the minutes of the meeting in conformity with the notes

the secretaries shall furnish him; and to distribute among the delegates, before each session, printed or mimeographed copies of the minutes of the previous session, for the consideration of the Conference.

Fourth. To revise the translations made by the interpreters of the Conference.

Fifth. To distribute among the committees the matters on which they are required to present reports, and place at the disposal of the committees everything that may be necessary for the discharge of their duties.

Sixth. To prepare the order of the day in conformity with the instructions of the President.

Seventh. To be the intermediary between the delegations or their respective members in matters relating to the Conference and between the delegates and the Argentine authorities.

Eighth. To transmit the original minutes of the Conference and of the committees to the Director General of the Pan American Union for preservation in the archives of the Union.

Ninth. To perform such other functions as may be assigned to him by the regulations, by the Conference, or by the President.

CHAPTER II

Committees of the Conference

ARTICLE 8. Such committees as the Conference may consider necessary shall be organized to study, report, and formulate projects on the topics of the program. Each delegation shall be entitled to be represented by one or more of their members on each committee. The president of the Conference shall designate the membership of the committees in accordance with the lists submitted by the presidents of delegations, indicating the members of the delegations who are to serve on each committee.

A Committee on Initiatives shall be organized, composed of the presidents of delegations and presided over by the President of the Conference.

At the first plenary session the president, with the approval of the Conference, shall name a Committee on Credentials.

ARTICLE 9. Each committee shall elect from among its members a chairman and a vice chairman.

ARTICLE 10. The chairman of each committee shall appoint a reporting delegate for each topic or each group of related topics. The functions of the reporting delegates shall be:

First. To initiate the discussion of the question under consideration and present a report containing the antecedents and an

analysis of the various aspects of the question, which shall serve as a basis of discussion.

Second. At the conclusion of the discussion, the reporting delegate shall summarize the debate in a report and shall formulate, in accordance with the opinion of the majority of the committee, the project which, after approval by the committee, shall be submitted to the Conference. A general reporting delegate may be appointed to submit the conclusions of the committee to the Conference.

Third. The minority group of a committee shall have the right to designate a reporting delegate to present their views to the Conference, and the project which they may formulate.

CHAPTER III

The Delegations

ARTICLE 11. Delegates may speak in their own languages from manuscript or otherwise. The interpreters shall render a summary of the speech in the other official languages of the Conference, unless the speaker or any delegate may request a complete translation of his remarks.

The interpreters shall also render in the other official languages the remarks of the president and the secretary general of the Conference. ARTICLE 12. Any delegate may submit to the Conference his written opinion upon the matter under discussion, and may request that it be spread upon the minutes of the meeting in which it has been submitted.

A delegation not present at the session may deposit or transmit its vote in writing to the secretary. In this event, the delegation shall be considered as present and its vote counted.

ARTICLE 13. The Director General of the Pan American Union shall be considered as a member ex officio of the Conference, but without a right to vote.

CHAPTER IV

Meetings of the Conference and the Committees

ARTICLE 14. The first meeting shall be held at the time and place designated by the Government of the Argentine Republic, and the further sessions on such days as the Conference may determine.

ARTICLE 15. To hold a meeting it is necessary that a majority of the nations attending the Conference be represented by at least one of their delegates.

ARTICLE 16. At the opening of the meeting the secretary general shall read the minutes of the preceding meeting, unless such reading is dispensed with. Notes shall be taken of any remarks the president or any of the delegates may make thereon, and approval of the minutes shall be in order.

ARTICLE 17. In the deliberations in the plenary sessions as well as in the committees, the delegation of each Republic represented at the Conference shall have but one vote, and the votes shall be taken separately by countries and shall be recorded in the minutes.

Votes as a general rule shall be taken orally, unless any delegate should request that they be taken in writing. In this case each delegation shall deposit in an urn a ballot containing the name of the nation which it represents and the sense in which the vote is cast. The secretary shall read aloud these ballots and count the votes.

ARTICLE 18. The Conference shall not proceed to vote on any report, project, or proposal relating to any of the subjects included in the program, except when at least two-thirds of the nations attending the Conference are represented by one or more delegates.

ARTICLE 19. All proposals amending the motion, project, or resolution under consideration shall be referred to the respective committee, unless the Conference shall by a two-thirds vote decide otherwise.

ARTICLE 20. Amendments shall be submitted for discussion and put to a vote before the article or motion the text of which they are intended to modify is acted upon.

ARTICLE 21. The Conference may, by a two-thirds vote of the delegations present, suspend the rules and proceed to the consideration of a motion, provided, however, that in all cases the procedure with respect to new topics as set forth in article 25 shall be followed.

ARTICLE 22. Except in cases expressly indicated in these regulations, proposals, reports, and projects under consideration by the Conference shall be considered approved when they have obtained the affirmative vote of an absolute majority of the delegations represented by one or more of their members at the meeting where the vote is taken. The delegation which may have sent its vote to the secretary shall be considered as present at the meeting.

ARTICLE 23. The following may attend the sessions of the Conference and of the committees: The delegates with their respective secretaries and attachés; the Director General and other accredited representatives of the Pan American Union; the secretaries and members of the secretariat of the Conference; duly accredited representatives of the press; and any others to whom the Conference may by a majority vote extend this privilege.

At the request of any delegation the Conference may agree to go into secret session. A motion to this effect shall immediately be put and voted upon without discussion.

At the close of the session the secretary general shall issue to the press a statement summarizing the results of the session, except in the event set forth in the preceding paragraph, in which case the Conference shall decide as to the publication of the results of the session.