GENERAL ASSEMBLY INTERNAL RULES (Approved by FIDE General Assembly on 28/12/2021)

Preamble

On the basis of Article 7.10 of the FIDE Charter, the General Assembly (hereinafter also referred to as “GA”) has approved and adopted the following Internal Rules, concerning its functioning, for all aspects not expressly provided for by the FIDE Charter. In the event of any inconsistency or contradiction between these Internal Rules and the FIDE Charter or Electoral Rules, the FIDE Charter and Electoral Rules shall prevail.

1.       Chairing the Meeting

1.1     The GA is chaired by the FIDE President, if not otherwise provided by the Electoral Rules. The FIDE President may temporarily appoint another FIDE Official to chair the meeting for the part of GA session if necessary.

1.2     The Chairman:

1.2.1      Shall grant permission to speak. No one may take the floor without having previously obtained the permission of the Chairman.

1.2.2      May remind a speaker that the speech and remarks must be, and remain, relevant to the subject under discussion.

1.2.3      May decide to limit the time to be allowed to a speaker and the number of times each speaker may speak on any one item. If necessary, he / she may grant the right to speak on an item only once.

1.2.4      May call the speaker to order without delay, specifically when debate is limited and a delegation has exceeded the allotted time.

1.2.5      May deny the right to speak in case of an obvious rights abuse or violation of law, FIDE Charter or general sportsmanship principles.

2.       Agenda

2.1     The FIDE Offices shall send the participants the complete agenda and the relevant documents, at least one month before the GA. The FIDE Offices shall send the participants additional materials later if such materials concern items included in the agenda and may assist the discussion. Such materials include, but are not restricted to, additional experts’ opinions, Commissions’ reports, FIDE organs and Member Federations opinions, and updated draft versions of the same documents.

2.2     Items not included in the agenda may not be discussed by the GA unless there is an emergency situation proved by evidence, and a proposal to add the item to the agenda is supported by at least two-thirds of the GA participants present.

2.3     Motions of no confidence not included in the agenda shall not be discussed by the GA regardless of any emergency situation.

2.4     Proposals from Member Federations or Affiliated Organisations about items to be included in the agenda of the GA should reach the FIDE Offices not later than two months before the opening date of the GA together with the reasons for them.

2.5     Proposals submitted within this time limit must be included in the agenda, except:

2.5.1      The President shall decline to include a proposal onto the GA agenda if the proposal is not subject to review from the GA or another FIDE organ. The proposing body will be notified of this decision as soon as possible.

2.5.2      The President and Council may add items to the agenda at least one month before the scheduled GA date.

3.       Public Sessions

3.1     Sessions of the GA are public unless it is decided otherwise by simple majority vote. Observers can be admitted to attend the sessions of the GA pursuant to the registration conditions of the meeting.

3.2     If the GA is held in online or hybrid format, observers can be admitted to attend the sessions of the GA according to the technical capabilities of the online platform.

4.       Roll Call – Quorum and Vote

4.1     Electoral Rules regarding the roll call are applicable non-electoral GA meetings, except that it shall be the Council, upon hearing the proposals of the Management Board, to nominate the three persons charged with conducting the roll call. The three persons will ideally be FIDE employees.

4.2     Electoral Rules regarding the quorum and votes are also applicable to non- electoral GA meetings.

5.       Motions

5.1     Motions of order (for example, closing of the discussion, adjournment of the agenda point, removing the point from the agenda) may be made at any time on a point under discussion by a Member Federation. The President shall consider the motions and shall either pass them to the GA to make a decision or decline the motions if they:

5.1.1      entail an interruption of the session;

5.1.2      lead to obvious violation of the Charter;

5.1.3      are an abuse of rights;

5.1.4      obstruct regular session proceedings.

6.       Publishing GA Decisions and Minutes

6.1     GA decisions will be published on the FIDE website within two weeks of its close.

6.2     The minutes shall be published within eight weeks after its close.

7.       Online and Hybrid Meetings

7.1     GA sessions may be held in an online or hybrid format if necessary. Articles 1 to 6 shall apply to the online/hybrid GA sessions mutatis mutandis unless otherwise decided by the GA for certain sessions, with the following exceptions:

7.1.1      A reliable online system / platform shall be used. (Skype, Zoom, etc.)

7.1.2      The online system / platform and voting specifics shall be pre-approved by FIDE Council.

7.1.3      Each session participant shall be solely responsible for his technical equipment and web connection.

7.1.4      Technical requirements and details of the online system / platform use shall be specified by the President and distributed to the participants in advance by the FIDE Office.

7.1.5      Participants are strongly recommended to inform the Chairman of their intention to deliver a speech in advance in order to form a comfortable schedule to cover all items of the agenda, otherwise the Chairman may limit the length of the speech.