By Toby McIntosh
The International Civil Aviation Organization does not make public a calendar of its committee meetings, nor are the meetings open to observe.
ICAO rebuffed a request for a list of committee meetings held in May and for a schedule of those to be held for June. A press officer told EYE that such information is available only to the 193 member nations and to approved observers from nongovernmental organizations.
“Documentation pertaining to the meetings of the committees of the ICAO Council are available to participating States and official observers only, which can include non-governmental organizations,” according to ICAO’s communication officer, William Raillant-Clark.
The spokesman stated, however, that “virtual ICAO meetings that were open to the public did take place in May.”
But he declined to provide any examples, referring EYE to “our public outreach documents and tools.”
Review Finds Scant Information on Meetings
A search by EYE of ICAO’s press releases, tweets and video offerings on ICAOTV found no mention of any virtual open meetings in May. ICAO meetings are now being held virtually.
The highest profile meetings held during May were those of the COVID-19 Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART), which recently issued its report.
The five CART meetings were held virtually, but were neither announced nor open to public viewing.
After the CART report was released, a half-hour press conference was conducted, on June 2, and a recording later posted on the ICAO YouTube channel.
Overall, there appears to be no public information on ICAO committee meetings in May.
Some public webinars were held, but these are not decision-making meetings. ICAOTV posted recordings of eight ICAO webinars.
There undoubtedly were committee meetings during May.
The month is officially designated as the “Committee Phase” that precedes the June meetings of the governing Council, known as the “Council Phase. ” A webpage on “ICAO Meetings and Events” provides scant detail. It notes only that May 4-22 was the Committee Phase and June 8-26 is the Council Phase. But no further detail is available.
By contrast, other UN agencies provide more information on meetings. The Journal of the UN Secretariat contains a daily listing. Or, see the “IMO Meetings” page at International Maritime Organization and the webpages for individual committees. The UN Environmental Programme has a “Meetings” page that “provides you with an easy access to the calendar of meetings of the Committee of Permanent Representatives as well as the resources for each meeting.”
No Schedule, Closed Meetings
At ICAO, the absence of any public calendar of meetings is consistent with the lack of public access to meetings, notwithstanding a stated ICAO policy favoring open meetings.
Under ICAO’s rules, committee meetings are open unless a decision is made to restrict access by the committee (Rule 17, Doc 8146). (ICAO sells copies of the rules for $30, but the ICAO spokesman has said that “all of our documents are always available to those who need them, including media, and for this reason we do provide a waiver of the fees when a need for this is presented and justified.”)
So the decision to close the CART meetings presumably was a conscious choice. However, ICAO’s spokesman declined to say whether such a decision was made.
In general, ICAO provides no documents about committee meetings, such as agendas, draft proposals or minutes.
The spokesman drew a connection between the lack of documentation and of access that seem to accurately describe ICAO transparency policy overall.
He said, “The accessibility of ICAO documentation about meetings is a logical function of the accessibility of the meeting itself.”
Hints of Change?
There have been hints of movement forward more transparency. See previous EYE articles noted below.
The ICAO spokesman in early May of 2020 said that the Secretariat “has encouraged” the Council “to consider permitting greater public access to its discussions while they are taking place via online platforms.” (See EYE article.) Nothing further has been said.
The Assembly in 2019 adopted a resolution directing the ICAO Council and the Secretary General to “take further concrete steps to increase transparency.” (See EYE article.) Could the Council address this in its June sessions? It is unclear whether proposals are on the table.
ICAO is more open at the triennial Assembly meeting of all ICAO members. At the last one, held in September 2019, three out of five committee meetings were “livecast,” but not the committee that handles climate. (See EYE article.) The Assembly plenary sessions were broadcast and can be seen on the ICAO YouTube.
See 2019 EYE report on overall transparency picture at ICAO. Besides restricting access to documents, the agency lacks a process for requesting documents.
