SUMMARY OF THE DECISIONS OF THE ICMM’S GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSIONS

New country admitted :
Canada (admission voted unanimously)
Observers :
Byelorussia, Colombia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Moldavia, Turkmenistan, WHO.1.

1. Chairmanship 2005-2007 :
- Lt Gen Igor BYKOV, Russian Federation,
Chairman
- Dr. William WINKENWERDER, Jr., MD, United States of America,
Deputy Chairman
- Dr. Mongi HASSOUNA, Tunisia,
Deputy Chairman

2. Future World Congresses officially voted
May 2007 : Tunisia
Fall 2008 : Malaysia

3. Group Meetings :
For the first time during a General Assembly, delegates did gather in groups of discussion on a geographical distribution basis.

Five groups were in session :

Except the first two groups, nothing is decided as for the formation or the future designation of these groups. It is up to the political authorities to define its belonging to some group or other. This issue will be discussed and followed up in the next months and will be subjected to a summary during the next Tunisia world congress.

The groups reporters announced their interest for this system, that allowed more efficient and direct exchanges on the several questions interesting the committee.

4. Chairmanship of the Technical Commission of Medico-Military Administration
Lt Col Dott. Guiseppe TIRICO, introduced with the agreement of Lt Gen DONVITO (Italy), is elected Chairman of this technical commission for a 4-year mandate.

5. Report of account committee
The Assembly votes the discharge of the Secretary-General for the 2004 accounts, after having listened to the auditors report and recommendations.

6. Statutes revision
After having deliberated over the proposal of revision of several issues of the ICMM statutes, submitted by the Secretariat General, the General Assembly decides :

a) There is no rush in the necessity of revising the statutes.
b) Actual statutes, updated during the China congress in 1996, are maintained unchanged.

7. Elections
The present Secretary-General mandate ending in 2006, year without General Assembly meeting, it is proposed or to proceed to a new election as soon as 2005, or to extend the current mandate until 2007.

After having deliberated, the General Assembly decides, unanimously, that :

Consequently, the Secretary-General appoints:

It is reminded that the Secretariat General members are all voluntaries and that several countries financially contribute, in addition to their state members subscriptions, to the running of the committee, that is to say :

8. International Working Group
The General Assembly announced its agreement as for the necessity of creating a consultancy interface between the Secretariat General and state members, to facilitate dialog and opinion exchange between two congresses.

Insofar as statutes have not been modified, the Assembly allows the Secretary-General to immediately create, in accordance to the present statutes, an ad hoc Work Group in charge of preparing this project before the Tunisia congress. This Group will be named «Task Force» and the Secretary-General will organise it by basing his judgement on the different regional groups proposals.

A specific document will be established by the Secretary-General as soon as possible.

9. 2006-2007 Budget
The proposed Budget based on 180,000 US$ is approved with a large majority.

(It is resumed in the appendix in the document sent to delegates)

10. State members’ subscriptions
The General Assembly approves, with a large majority, the new project of subscriptions, aiming to more equity and homogeneity, worked out from the distribution of state members in order of growing GDP, based on the actual subscriptions scale (The general chart is resumed in the appendix in the document sent to delegates).

These new subscriptions will be implement in 2006.

11. The World Health Organization (WHO) delegate submits several avenues within the context of co-operation between WHO and the ICMM, to put into practice the resolution voted during the Washington congress. The Assembly approves the continuation of this consultation. Following the request of the Chairman of the Veterinary Technical Commission, the Assembly approves the signature of a draft agreement between the ICMM and the World Organization for Animal Health, based on the one signed a year ago with WHO.

12. Major General LUPI (Switzerland) presented the next Course on Law of Armed Conflicts that will be held in Spiez (Switzerland) from 19^th to 26^th next August. He will study with the Pan-American Group, the possible decentralization of the course in Spanish language, to be held in the South American Continent, in co-operation with the Pan-American Work Group actually chaired by CAm ECHEVERRIA (Chile), but of which the financing is still to be defined.

13. Dr. HASSOUNA, Director of the Military Medical Service in Tunisia, presents and distributes the 1^st official announcement of the 37^th World Congress in 2007.

14. The Malaysia representative confirms to the General Assembly the will of his country to welcome the 38^th World Congress during fall 2008.

Nigeria announces that it studies the possibility to welcome the 39^th World Congress during spring 2010. No decision will be taken before the Tunisia Congress in 2007 and other candidacies could still be introduced.

15. A Regional Congress will be organised in the Pan-African Group by Cameroon in November 2005.

A Regional Congress will be organised in the Pan American Group by Argentina during Autumn 2006.

16. LtGen Rinus Jansen VAN RENSBURG (South Africa) is recognised as Honour Chairman and receives the ICMM gold medal.

Médecin Général Inspecteur André PASTUREL (France) receives the ICMM gold medal for his activity as Chairman of the Scientific Council from 2000 to 2005.

Coronel FROCHT (Uruguay) receives the ICMM medal for his long activity within the Committee.

17. LtGen BYKOV closes the General Assembly. He underlines the numerous participation to the two sessions of the General Assembly and is very pleased about the vitality of works.

The next meeting of the ICMM General Assembly will take place during
the 37^th ICMM World Congress that will be held in Tunisia from May 21^st to 26^th 2007.