SECAI PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] Observer Status Files

87778

1977-1981, 1990, predominant 1979-1981

series

textual records

2.0 linear feet of textual records

By-laws, Board of Governors Annual Meetings, Palestine

Informal Working Party of the Board of Governors, Joint Committee of Boards of Governors on Questions of Interpretation, Joint Procedures Committee

Series is open according to the Archives Access Policy. Reference staff must screen the files according to time restrictions.

At the Annual Meetings in Belgrade in 1979, Chairman R.D. Muldoon (New Zealand) convened the Joint Procedures Committee on October 1 to advise him on the questions raised by the September 29 meeting of the Group of 77 on the issue to support the application of the Palestinian Liberation Organization as observers to the Annual Meetings. The Committee could not reach a consensus in its meeting and concluded that the Chairman should establish an informal working party to study all aspects of the matter and report to the Chairman of the next Annual Meeting within three months. The Informal Working Party of the Board of Governors met three times, in Paris on November 28, 1979 and February 14-15 and in June 1980 with its final report concluding the four-four split in the vote between its eight Governor members, each from developing and industrial countries. When a resolution introduced by the U.S. authorities and passed by the Board of Governors preventing the Chairman of the 1980 Annual Meetings Amir H. Jamal (Tanzania) from inviting any observers other than those invited in 1979, Jamal decided in his power as Chairman that no observer invitations would be issued for the 1980 Annual Meetings. With the PLO issue on the Meeting agenda, the Joint Procedures Committee convened and submitted a resolution to the Board of Governors who approved creating another committee of governors tasked with reviewing the provisions in the by-laws regarding consultation and voting on observers. This ad hoc group became known as the Muldoon Committee, after its chairman New Zealand Prime Minister R.D. Muldoon. The series contains records maintained by Secretary Van Houtven and Deputy Secretary J.W. Lang relating to the issue of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) observer status at the Annual Meetings which was formally examined by the two joint committees and a working group between 1979 and 1981. IMF and World Bank served as Secretaries for the committees and organized the meetings, coordinated the documentation, and prepared summaries of meeting proceedings. Some original documents are found within the files but the series primarily contains copies of records kept by Deputy Secretary Lang such as memoranda, cables, letters, substantive draft and final reports, some press clippings and background documents concerning research on PLO status and the history of observer invitations. Also includes verbatim transcripts of the Joint Procedures Committee in Belgrade 1979 documenting the early discussion of the PLO status issue, and also transcripts of the Joint Committee of the Board of Governors on Questions of Interpretation meeting in January 1981. Also of notable mention is a copy of the letter received by IMF and World Bank Secretaries from Palestine National Fund President Walid Kamhali requesting to attend the Annual Meetings that initiated discussion of the observers issue and formation of the committees. Documents were removed from binders and re-housed in acid-free folders according to original chronological order.