Intergovernmental Negotiations And Decision Making At The - NGLS

36 Negotiations and Decision Making at the United NationsThe report of the meeting: The report is generally adopted at the lastsession. It includes a detailed record of who attended, how many sessionswere held, what decisions were made on organizational issuesand what the final outcome was.NegotiationsThe text of a negotiated agreement can travel through many differentversions and revisions in the course of a negotiating process. In general,the debate relies most heavily on two kinds of documents: thosepresented as the foundation for discussion towards an agreement,which are regularly revised and updated, and the various proposals,additions and corrections submitted during the course of the meeting.The draft outcome text: The draft outcome text is the basis on whichgovernments negotiate. The process of writing this document, oftendrafted by the Secretariat, generally involves the solicitation of viewsfrom participating governments and UN agencies concerned with thesubject being discussed. In some cases, NGOs and other stakeholdersmay have been invited to contribute as well.Chair’s text: At times, in order to bridge differences on some of themore difficult issues or final compromise text, the chair of the meetingwill draft a text, lending political authority to persuade delegatesto accept the text without much revision and move forward.Facilitator’s text: If a process has appointed a facilitator to assist thenegotiations, he or she listens to input from governments and thendrafts a new or revised text. This document may be accepted by delegationsas expressing their areas of agreement or may become thebasis for continuing line-by-line negotiations.