Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission

The IOC is composed of its Member States, an Assembly, an Executive Council and a Secretariat. The Secretariat is based in Paris, France. Additionally the IOC has a number of Subsidiary Bodies. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO is composed of an Assembly, an Executive Council and a Secretariat. Additional to this, the organization has also established a number of Subsidiary Bodies. The formal texts of the Commission are: Statutes (revised in November 1999) English, French, Russian and Spanish Rules of Procedure (revised in July 2001) English, French, Russian and Spanish Each Member State has one seat in the Assembly, which meets once every two years. The Assembly is the principal organ of the Commission which make all decisions to accomplish the objectives of IOC. The IOC currently has 129 Member States. In order to enable the Member States to provide guidance to the Secretariat for the implementation of the activities of the Commission during the Assembly's inter-sessional period, an Executive Council meets every year. This body is elected by the Assembly and shall encompass a maximum of 40 Member States (including those of the Member States represented by the Officers). The Executive Council reports to the Assembly. The Secretariat is the executive arm of the organization. It is headed by an Executive Secretary who is elected by the Assembly and appointed by the Director-General of UNESCO. The Secretariat ensures the implementation of activities decided upon by the Assembly. The Officers of the Commission are elected in their personnal capacity at each session of the Assembly. They are nominated from the 5 electoral groups that ensure equitable geographical distribution at elections. Currently (2004-2005) the Officers are: Chairperson: Dr David T. Pugh (United Kingdom) Vice-Chairperson: Prof. M. Ruivo (Portugal) Vice-Chairperson: Dr A. Frolov (Russian Federation) Vice-Chairperson: Capitán de Navio J.A. Valladares (Argentina) Vice-Chairperson: Dr K. Radhakrishnan (India) Vice-Chairperson: Prof. Amor El Abed (Tunisia) The IOC Executive Secretary is Dr. Patricio Bernal (since April 1998) Ex-Oficio: Prof. Su Jilan (China)