International Federation of Social Workers

Global Online conference

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International Federation of Social Workers

DRAFT Minutes of the International Federation of Social Workers General Meeting. 1st July – 2nd July 2018.

Countries in Attendance

1.    Aotearoa Tangata Whenua (Coordinating body)

2.    Argentina

3.    Australia

4.    Austria (Coordinating body)

5.    Azerbaijan

6.    Bangladesh (Proxy – Canada)

7.    Belgium (Proxy – Spain)

8.    Bolivia  (Proxy – Peru)

9.    Brazil

10. Bulgaria (Proxy – OBDS Austria)

11. Canada

12. Chile (Proxy – Argentina)

13. China

14. Colombia (Proxy – Peru)

15. Costa Rica (Proxy – Puerto Rico)

16. Croatia

17. Cuba (Proxy – Argentina)

18. Cyprus (Proxy – Greece)

19. Denmark

20. Dominicana Republic (Proxy- Puerto Rico)

21. El Salvador

22. Egypt (Proxy Palestine)

23. Finland

24. Germany

25. Ghana   (Proxy – Kenia)

26. Greece

27. Grenada (Proxy – Argentina)

28. Guinea  (Proxy – Argentina)

29. Hong Kong

30. Iceland (Proxy Norway)

31. India  (Proxy Japan) (Coordinating body)

32. Iran

33. Ireland

34. Israel

35. Italy

 

36. Japan (Coordinating body)

37. Kenya

38. Korea

39. Kyrgyz Republic (Proxy – Iran)

40. Lebanon (Proxy- Palestina)

41. Malaysia (Proxy – Hong Kong)

42. Malawai (Proxy – Zambia)

43. Malta (Proxy – Italia)

44. Mexico (Proxy – Puerto Rico)

45. Moldova

46. Morocco (Proxy – Argentina)

47. Nepal (Proxy – Japan)

48. Netherlands

49. Nicaragua (Proxy – Panama)

50. Norway

51. Palestine

52. Panama

53. Peru

54. Philippines (Proxy – Japan)

55. Poland   (Proxy – Romania)

56. Portugal

57. Puerto Rico

58. Romania (Coordinating body)

59. Russia

60. Sierra Leone (Proxy Argentina)

61. Spain

62. Sweden

63. Switzerland

64. UK

65. Uruguay (Proxy – Brazil)

66. USA

67. Vietnam (Proxy – Canada)

68. Yemen  (Proxy – Palestine)

69. Zambia

70. Zimbabwe

Apologies

  • Armenia not able to attend due to travel cancellation therefore the proxy from Georgia could not be presented
  • Peru arrived late
  • South Korea arrived late

1.  Welcome and formalities

  • Opening of the General Meeting

The meeting was opened with a welcome address from Aine McGuirk on behalf of the Irish Association of Social Workers. Also, Ruth Stark, IFSW President welcomed all delegates to the meeting and informed about the practical and logistic aspects.

  • Roll call of member organizations & 1.4 Voting rights at the General Meeting

The Secretary-General completed the roll call and distributed the voting cards and proxy votes

  • Introductions, including observer organisations

Rory Truell, IFSW Secretary-General, confirmed the meeting was being Live-Streamed so delegates needed to be aware that what they shared in the room would potentially be disseminated much wider than the delegation and IFSW members.

  • Voting rights at the General Meeting

Ruth Stark explained the voting procedure and voting rights at the General Meeting

  • Appointment of Secretary(ies) for the meeting

Ruth Allen and Jane Shears (United Kingdom) were appointed as secretaries

  • Appointment of Parliamentarian

Nicolai Paulsen (Denmark) was appointed as Parliamentarian

  • Work structure and procedures during the meeting

Ruth Stark explained the procedures and formalities of the meeting

  • Appointment of teller(s) for the meeting

David Jones (UK) was appointed as Elections Officer and delegates were invited to ensure each region appointed a teller to count the votes for their region.

The elections officer informed that all delegates registered were eligible to vote and each member was entitled to have one vote. During the General Meeting, the IFSW President position was going to be voted as well as the regional President positions for Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America. The Vice-president positions in Africa and Europe were going to be voted, too.

David Jones also announced that the nomination of Alice Mbiyu for Africa Vice-president position arrived late and had to be approved by the General Meeting.

The election officers communicated that the Noel Muridzo (Zimbabwe) withdraw his nomination for IFSW President position. The two candidates remained were Antonina Dashkina (Russia) and Silvana Martinez (Argentina)

The Parliamentarian informed that in accordance with IFSW Constitution there were no limitations on the number of proxy votes held by proxy holders.

  • Lunch breaks etc

n/a

  • Approval of agenda and timetable

The changes to the agenda were confirmed for delegates. It was confirmed that there are now only two nominations for the elections for IFSW Global President.

2.  Approval of the minutes of the General Meeting, Seoul  2016

Vote to approve the Minutes of IFSW General Meeting 2016.

  • Proposer –
  • Seconded – Puerto Rico
  • Abstention – 1 (El Salvador)
  • Carried

3.  Executive Reports

    • President and Regional reports

IFSW President and Regional Presidents presented the reports from the Asia-Pacific, African, European, Latin American and Caribbean and North American regions to delegates.

4.  Secretary-General Report

The Secretary-General, Rory Truell, reported on the global activities.

Questions and comments on agenda points 3 and 4 were invited from the floor. Delegates from Iran, Germany, Russia, USA contributed to this discussion.

Vote to accept the reports:

  • Proposer: Russia
  • Seconder: Iceland
  • Carried unanimously

5.  Executive Censure of the Israeli Union of Social Workers

IFSW President read out an unanimously agreed statement on behalf of the IFSW Executive.

Statement by the IFSW executive on the censure of the Israeli Union of Social Workers.  1st of July 2018

This is a written statement developed by the IFSW Executive on the 30th June 2018 in preparation for the 2018 General Meeting on the Executive Censure of the Israeli Union of Social Workers.

The Executive censure has been issued in accordance with the IFSW By-law 4, (d).

“A member can be subject to censure for violations of the Constitution or by-laws or for having in any other form or manner counteracted the basic interests, aims and policies of the Federation or its members. The decision whether to censure will be taken by a majority vote of the Executive committee following a recommendation from the Steering committee. (2016 IFSW By-law)”

The censure was time-limed to enable IFSW members to reflect on the concerns identified by the majority of the executive members. The Executive censure will cease to take effect at the beginning of this agenda item and executive believes that any calls for further action should be ratified by the General Meeting.

Concern

The IFSW executive identified a concern that the Israeli Union of Social Workers is not able to abide by the policies and procedures of the Federation in acting on a human rights perspective. This is particularly in relation to issues that have been identified by the IFSW Human Right Commission on the Israeli Government’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories, social workers participating as soldiers in the Palestinian territories, the practices of administrative detention, (imprisonment without trial) and independently verified institutional abuse of children in Israeli detention.

IFSW has at least since 2012 worked with the Israeli Union of Social Workers encouraging them to take a stand and action on these human rights abuses and commissioned the IFSW Secretary-General to discuss these concerns with the Union on five occasions as well as numerous correspondences on the matter.

Over this period, the Israeli Union has at different times moved to issue statements that were considered an appropriate reflection of IFSW policy, but their statements were not authorised for publication by their parent body The Histradut, (The Israeli Trade Union Federation). On other occasions the Israeli Union of Social Workers has itself articulated that it is a union first and foremost and not a social work association and that their primary objective is to increase the wages and conditions of Israeli social workers and they did not want to stress their relationship with their government in relation to these objectives.

After the perceived failing of the Israeli Union of Social Workers to take action on the identified concerns a censure was issued on the  26th March 2018 highlighting that the Union is not meeting is obligation as described in the Statement of Ethical Principles:

“Social workers should respect and promote people’s right to make their own choices and decisions, irrespective of their values and life choices, provided this does not threaten the rights and legitimate interests of others.”

Discussion

The Executive considered this issue at length over several meetings and engaged in correspondence directly with the Israeli Union before and after the censure. Not all members were in agreement that the censure was the most appropriate way to resolve the matter and the censure was passed within the Executive by a majority.

The executive members that did not support the motion raised concerns that the Israeli Union was being isolated and measures that apply to one member’s inability to support the human rights of others should be applied to all members. The Executive as a whole agrees that the Israeli Union and all members should actively support the rights of all people unless there is a risk that by doing so places the IFSW member at risk of arrest and harm.

The Executive has no objection to the Israeli Union of Social Workers acting as a union and advocating for its members on wages and conditions. The censure was issued with regards as to whether the Union can comply with the policy directives of the international profession and fulfil the obligations of membership of IFSW. It is hoped that the member will be able to do so.

Ruth Stark invited the President of the Israeli Union of Social Workers (IUSW) to respond, noting that the censure was only valid until this debate at the General Meeting.

The President of the Israeli Union of Social Workers, Inbal Hermoni, responded, (the following information was recorded in the screen notes)

“Israeli delegate congratulates the IFSW for the event – but this is not comfortable.

There is a lack of transparency in this process, what was the majority for instance. It is not how the Federation should operate.

I am Chair of the Israeli association. I am a social worker and committed to influencing the lives of people of all ages like social workers across the country. We work in all areas within and outside the green line including areas considered to be settlements. We are engaged in changing the face of Israeli society – listening, reducing violence, helping individuals and families, reducing tensions. Many jewish social workers seek to work with Palestinians, we work with people from all communities and with all needs including asylum seekers. Social workers engage in advocacy to ensure people’s voices can be heard and changing policy. I could speak of the rockets that are fired by Hamas into Israel – but I won’t go into nationalism in this way.  I ask how is it possible for an international federation in a profession based on dialogue could use this force. The Israeli association will always use dialogue. Our approach is dialogue with all here even though there are differences between us. We share human values of living in welfare and dignity. We should remember the reality of global capital – looking on as we fight.

This will not bring about significant change. A s socialist I believe our goal should be to make a real shift towards equality. The Israel union chooses to deal with this and not to deal with things that are not its mandate such as Israel’s policy on Palestinian conflict. We do engage with relevant policies such as detention of minors. All groups aspire for peace but disagree on the way to achieve this and the price.

 If we want to create peace between Israeli and Palestinian lets sit down together. I conclude on a personal note. I wake up for social work. I was working recently in South Sudan in training. Social work is needed where capitalist governments do not step in. Social workers in Israel are the only ones going in to meet needs in many areas. You may give up on me and the Israel union but we will not give up on you because of the need for solidarity amongst workers everywhere.”

The IFSW President explained that as the censure was now finished and that the General Meeting needed to decide what to do next.

Questions and comments were invited from the floor. Delegates from Switzerland, New Zealand, Austria, Russia, Bulgarian, Israel, Secretary-General, Palestine, European vice-president, contributed to this discussion.

Several motions were presented:

Motion proposed by Switzerland: IFSW needs to write down how to proceed in any future issue of a similar nature where a Member Organisation deviates from expected conduct.

  • Proposer: Switzerland
  • Seconded: – (no recorded on the minutes)

Motion proposed by Bulgaria: Finish the censure and continue to hold discussions with IUSW.

  • Proposer: Bulgaria
  • Seconded: Austria

Motion proposed by UK: To postpone voting on this motion until the second day of the General Meeting

  • Proposer: United Kingdom
  • Seconded: Greece
  • Motion: carried.

6.  Awards

The President and the Secretary-General announced the following awards

Award in Memory of Andrew Mouravieff-Apostol

  • David Jones (UK)
  • Mariko Kimura (Japan)
  • Angela Fielding (Australia)

Secretary General´s Award for Outstanding Social Work

  • Costa Rica Association of Social Workers
  • Munther Amira (Palestine)

7.  Election speeches from candidates for the position of IFSW President.

David Jones, elections officer, presented the two candidates for IFSW President: Antonina Dashkina (Russia) and Silvana Martinez (Argentina). Each candidate was given 10 minutes to deliver their presentation.

Candidates were invited onto the platform to take questions from the delegates. Delegates from Zambia, United States, Iran contributed to this discussion.

David Jones concluded the discussion announcing there had been no new nominations. He also informed that during the second day of the General Meeting the delegates will vote on whether the previously received late nominations were accepted or not.

IFSW President closed the first day of the General Meeting

IFSW President opened the second day of the General Meeting and informed the delegates that the new agenda was uploaded on the website.

8.  Information on the Global Agenda

David Jones gave a verbal summary on the Third Global Agenda Report and reminded that the next Pillar for the Global Agenda will be The Importance of Human of Relationships.

He stated that from 2020 there will be new Pillars for the Global Agenda strategy which will be identified collaboratively, possibly from an extended network of partners.

9.  Regional Meetings and Elections of Regional Positions

The election officer informed about the regional election processes and called for a vote for the acceptance of a late nomination for candidate Alice Mbiyu for the position of African vice-president. The vote was carried unanimously.

David Jones informed that there has been an open process to select a Vice President position for LAC and stated that was satisfied that the process has been opened and recommended that the General Meeting accepts the process and nomination.  The vote was carried unanimously.

Following the regional meeting, the Elections Officer announced the results of the voting

  • Rose Henderson. President Asia Pacific 2018 – 2022
  • Larry Alicea. President Latin America and Caribbean 2018 – 2022
  • Tânia Maria Ramos de Godoi Diniz. Vice President Latin America and Caribbean 2018 – 2020
  • Jan Christianson-Wood. President North America 2018 – 2020
  • Kathryn Wehrmann. Vice President North America 2018 -2020
  • Ana Radulescu. Vice President Europe 2018 – 2022
  • Joachim Mumba. Vice President Africa 2018 – 2022

Following the election, David Jones announced that the Nomination Committee had discussed introducing a new procedure for the General Meeting.  When there were more than two nominees for the same position a proposal representation system could be considered. The elections officer noted that the Nomination Committee will continue to explore this option, which may result in a proposal to the next General Meeting.

A comment from the floor requested that the Ethics Committee should be involved in developing this proposal. The elections officer agreed with this suggestion.

10.       Executive Censure of the Israeli Union of Social Workers. Continues discussion

The Palestine delegate began the ongoing discussion.

IFSW President informed that 4 motions were received (Palestine, Israel, Austria and Switzerland).  Motions were depicted on the screen notes as well as on the website

IFSW President announced that the motions were going to take separately in the following order: Palestine, United Kingdom and Austria, Israel and Switzerland

Motion Palestine The IFSW General Meeting delegates are concerned with the inaction of the Israeli Union of Social Workers with regards to Human Rights violations in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and their disregard of the Federation’s Code of Ethics. During the General Meeting our Israeli colleagues provided no evidence that they have or are willing to address the issues raised by the EC Statement. Therefore, we move a motion for the continuation of the Censure.

  • Proposer: Palestine
  • Seconded: Greece

Questions and comments were invited from the floor.  Delegates from Puerto Rico, Canada, Greece, Iran, Austria, Israel, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Romania, Germany contributed to this discussion.

Vote to the motion of Palestine:

  • Proposer: Palestine
  • Seconded: Greece
    • 29 votes for the motion.
    • 24 votes against the motion
    • 13 Abstentions
  • Motion passed.

Motion UK and Austria This motion notes the censure against the Israeli Union of Social Workers made by the IFSW Executive on 26th March 2018 in accordance with the IFSW By-law 4, (d) highlighting that in relation to Palestinian people the Union is not meeting is obligation as described in the Statement of Ethical Principles: “Social workers should respect and promote people’s right to make their own choices and decisions, irrespective of their values and life choices, provided this does not threaten the rights and legitimate interests of others.

This censure came to an end at the beginning of the agenda item on this matter at the 2018 IFSW global delegates meeting on 1st July 2018. The IFSW Executive believes that any calls for further action should be ratified by the General Meeting.

This motion recognises the importance of upholding social work ethical principles and proposes there is continued meaningful and timely dialogue between the Israeli Union, the European Region, the Palestinian Association, the Asia-Pacific Region and the Human Rights Commission and that this is a transparent process.

  • Proposer: Austria
  • Seconded: United Kingdom

Questions and comments were invited from the floor. Delegates from Canada, UK, Austria and Germany contributed to this discussion and proposed amendments to the motion

Vote on the motion for Austria and UK with amendments: This motion recognises the importance of upholding social work ethical principles and proposes there is continued meaningful and timely dialogue between the Israeli Union, the European Region, the Palestinian Association, the Asia-Pacific Region, the Human Rights Commission and the Ethic commission, that this is a transparent process

  • Proposer: UK and Austria
  • Seconded: Germany
  • The motion was passed unanimously

Motion Israel Israel proposes that, with the end of the executive censure, the situation return to the status quo that existed before the censure. Amendment to the Swiss proposal: Israel supports the Swiss proposal to clarify the procedures of the constitution regarding censure but proposes that it be carried out by a working group outside of the global executive.

  • Proposer: Israel
  • Seconded: Austria

Questions and comments were invited from the floor.

Sweden called a pointed of order “the motion should not go to a vote and this should be the end of the discussion as the proposal was already discussed under the motion of Palestine”

  • Proposer: Sweden
  • Seconded: Norway
  • Motion carried

Motion Switzerland The motion of Switzerland is that IFSW board establish a concrete process on how IFSW handle the censure process. Furthermore, the IFSW shall develop a process to improve the communication and flow of information of the IFSW board to members and vice versa.

  • Proposer: Switzerland
  • Seconded: Germany

Questions and comments were invited from the floor.

Israel proposed to amend the motion of Switzerland and proposed to establish a working group which is not a Global Executive. Switzerland declined to amend its motion.

Vote on the motion of Switzerland

  • Proposer: Switzerland
  • Seconded: Germany
  • Carried unanimously

Israel proposed a new motion to vote. The group created to review the procedures of the constitution regarding censure must not be shaped by Executives

  • Proposer: Israel
  • Seconded: United States

Questions and comments were invited from the floor. Delegates from Puerto Rico, the Secretary-General, Iran, Israel, Denmark, Switzerland, contributed to the discussion

Vote on the motion of Israel

  • Proposer: Israel
  • Seconded: United States
    • 30 votes for the motion.
    • 39 votes against the motion
    • 0 Abstentions
  • The amended motion was defeated.

11.       Finance 2016 & 2017 report

The Secretary-General on behalf of the Treasurer presented the financial report for the years 2016 – 2017.

Sweden questioned the rising infrastructure costs. The Secretary-General responded that the office had moved to new premises; that staff have been brought in, mostly on fixed contracts and that telephone costs have increased because two new members from Africa do not have access to Broadband.

Vote to accept the financial report:

  • Proposer USA
  • Seconded Norway
  • Abstentions: 3
  • Carried

The meeting agreed to continue to work with BDO as the auditor for the years 2018 -2020. (See further item 13 on the minutes)

12.       Report from the Interim Education Commission and Proposal to Formalize an IFSW Education Commission

A presentation was delivered by Vasilios Ioakimidis and Mariko Kimura. They proposed an establishment of an education commission.

Questions and comments were invited from the floor. Delegates from Iran, Sweden, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Russia, Azerbaijan, USA, Germany, Secretary-General, Panama, Canada, Ireland, contributed to the discussion

An amendment to the proposal was put to the meeting: That an Interim Education Commission with the full active involvement of regional representatives is approved to work on a Terms of Reference including the purpose, aims, collaboration and accountability.

  • Proposer Denmark
  • Seconded United Kingdom
  • Vote was carried

13.       Appointment of auditors (BDO).

The meeting agreed to continue to work with BDO as the auditor for the years 2018 -2020.

  • Proposer: Germany
  • Seconded: USA
  • Vote carried unanimously

14.       Acknowledgement and Thanks to Past President and Executive Members

The Secretary-General acknowledged the contribution that Ruth Stark has made over the past 4 years as President of IFSW.

Silvana Martinez (Latina America and the Caribbean), Alice Mbiyu (Africa) and Mariko Kimura (Asia Pacific) were stepping down from the IFSW Executive. They were thanked for their contribution to the IFSW

Nigel Hall was stepping down as IFSW Human Rights Commissioner. He was thanked for his long association with IFSW and contribution to the global promotion of Human Rights.

Klaus Kuhne has stepped down as IFSW representative to the United Nations Commission and was thanked retrospectively for his contribution on behalf of IFSW.

15.       Election of IFSW President

The elections officer explained the voting procedure and the ballot papers were counted and observed by representatives from each region.

David Jones announced the results

  • Silvana Martinez received 40 votes.
  • Antonina Dashkina received 26 votes.
  • 4 non-votes

Silvana Martinez was successfully elected as the President of IFSW.

Ruth Stark stepped down from chairing the meeting and Silvana Martinez took over chairing the meeting.

16.       Motion on ‘Global Treasurer within the Executive Committee’

Rose Henderson (ANZ) reported back on the intention of ANZ to make some changes to the IFSW constitution which will now be brought to the next General Meeting, due to the motion was presented outside of the constitutional time requirements.

17.       Report from UN Representatives presented by Priska Fleischlin

A presentation was delivered by Priska Fleischlin. She proposed the establishment of a UN Commission. The proposal was to formalise an IFSW collaboration with the UN Commission by establishing a Commission, formed from the current members, eventually having a membership with links to the 12 representatives in UN Headquarters.

Questions and comments were invited from the floor. Delegates from Iran, Germany, Canada, Secretary General, contributed to the discussion.

Vote to approve the proposal of creating a permanent commission of UN

  • Proposer Romania
  • Seconded Greece
  • Carried unanimously.

The Secretary-General informed that the executives will consider appointing a Commissioner during the executive meeting

Vote to approve the report of the UN Commission.

  • Proposer Austria
  • Seconded Romania
  • Carried

UK raised a point of clarification and stated that in principle all commissioners must have the support of their member association which have to be in good financial standing. The Secretary-General, Rory Truell confirmed this would be the case. Any recruitment of a person to a position with the IFSW Commission of the UN would need to be a transparent process, as well as each person having the support of his/her organisation.

Motion to vote: Any representative of the role of Commissioner must be nominated by their member organisation.

  • Proposer Austria
  • Seconded Portugal
  • Carried

Puerto Rico proposed an interim arrangement for existing commissioners continue until we have country nominations to ensure continuity of the work.

  • Proposer Puerto Rico
  • Seconder Spain

Questions and comments were invited from the floor. Delegates from Romania, Switzerland, Iran, UK contributed to the discussion. The Secretary-General clarified that, in order from preventing a delay, the existing Commissioners should remain in their current positions. Interim members of the Commission will be appointed pending the formal nomination and appointment process being put into place.

Puerto Rico withdraw the proposal

18.       Report from the Human Rights Commission presented by Nigel Hall.

A presentation was delivered by Nigel Hall.

Questions and comments were invited from the floor. No comments were made

Vote to accept the Human Rights report

  • Proposer Portugal
  • Seconded Puerto Rico
  • Carried unanimously

 

19.       Election of IFSW Treasurer

David Jones explained that the election for IFSW treasurer for 2018 -2020. There was only one nomination from Victor Garcia (Puerto Rico)

  • Victor García was elected unopposed

 20.       Report from the Ethic’s Commission on the Revision of the Statement of Ethical Principles presented by Dawn Hobdy.

A presentation was delivered by Dawn Hobdy. She explained the working process which resulted in two documents. One of them was developed jointly with IASSW which she put forward for discussion and the recommendation to adopt.

Questions and comments were invited from the floor. Delegates from United Kingdom contributed to the discussion.

Vote on the join IASSW Ethical statement– (Document number 2 from the ethics commission)

  • Proposer: Romania
  • Seconded: USA
  • Carried unanimously

21.       Archives Information Report presented by Fiona Robertson

A presentation about the progress of the archives project was delivered by Fiona  Robertson.

Questions and comments were invited from the floor. Delegates from United Kingdom contributed to the discussion.

The Parliamentarian clarified that no voted was needed as the archives report was not a formal report, just an information item.

22.       New policies

    • Cross-border Assessment
    • Socially Just World Trade Agreements

The Secretary-General informed the meeting that the groups working on these policies have agreed that the consultation will be extended with a view to adopting them by postal ballot by the end of the year It was agreed that Policies will be distributed to members for further consultation. A consultation will be carried out by email. There will be a postal ballot to be completed by the end of the calendar year, December 2018.

23.       Conferences

    • SWSD2018 Conference

The Executive and delegates extended thanks to the Irish Association of Social Work conference organising committee for their hard work in preparing for the Global Conference.

IFSW will have an open space in the Plenary Hall 1715 – 1815 on Friday 6th July 2018.

  • IFSW Regional Conferences
  • African conference will be in Ghana in June 2019.
  • Asia Pacific conference is September 17 – 20 2019 in India.
  • Europe conference in Vienna 8 – 11 September 2019.
  • Latin America and Caribbean conference will be in Havana – date to be advised.
  • North American conferences – NASW US June 2020. Other conferences To Be Advised as details become available.
  • World Conference 2020 in Calgary, Canada and 23.4 World Conference 2022.

The Secretary-General noted that it will not be a joint conference with IFSW/IASSW/ICSW as IASSW will be organising their global conference in Italy in 2020.

The conference will only be IFSW. He remarked that it was needed to make a decision about what we do in 2022 – will it be tripartite or IFSW only. It is a complex decision to make and it needs to be made this year because we need the time to make arrangements for the conference. The decisions are made ultimately by the Executive. It would be very useful to have reflections and comments to the Executive on this issue.

Questions and comments were invited from the floor. Delegates from Austria, Sweden, Ruth Stark, Iran, and Denmark contributed to the discussion.

24.       Any Other Business

USA – Proposed a motion.

The Executive Committee needs to be empowered to lift the censure. The Executive Committee needs to establish criteria for lifting the censure. The censure(s) status should be reviewed at each Executive Committee meeting.

  • Proposer United States
  • Seconded Puerto Rico
  • Abstentions: 3
  • Motion was Carried

The Parliamentarian clarified that there was nothing in the IFSW Constitution that prevented to bring a motion under any other business.

Iran – Presented a gift (specially made carpets with portraits of the Secretary-General, Mariko Kimura and Priska Fleischlin).

Denmark suggested that consideration was given to change the General Meeting chairing procedure to allow a person who is not the President to Chair future meetings

Puerto Rico made a statement regarding the financial constraints experienced by citizens of Puerto Rico and asked for support from the social work global community in denouncing the effects of their impact.

25.       Date and Place of the Next General Meeting

Calgary, Canada. This will take place before the IFSW Conference. Further details will be on the IFSW website.

Silvana Martinez thanked the delegates for the successful meeting and to the Ireland Association. She thanked the job of the screen notes, tellers, translators, election officer, the executives, the commissioners and the Secretary-General. She invited current and past members of the Executive to come to the front of the room for a photo.

IFSW President formally closed the meeting at 18h10.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

Silvana Martinez

IFSW President

 

Rory Truell

IFSW Secretary General

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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