Dear IUCN Members,
With regard to the 7 February 2025 deadline for nominations, upon recommendation of the Election Officer[1] the IUCN Council decided on 8 February 2025 to “extend the deadline until 21 February 2025 at 13:00 GMT/UTC in order to allow proposals for persons to be nominated as Treasurer and additional nominations of candidates for Councillor elected from the Regions only for Statutory regions for which, by the initial deadline of 7 February 2025, fewer complete and validated nominations have been received than there are seats in Council.”
At the close of the initial nomination period, the Election Officer received fewer complete and validated nominations than there are seats in Council for the position of Treasurer in addition to Councillor elected from the Regions for the following four (4) regions:
- Africa
- East Europe, North and Central Asia
- Oceania
- North America and the Caribbean
Pursuant to the Council’s Guidance for nominations of Councillors from the Regions (decision B/VII, 18 August 2024), “Nominations should aim to attract the best, high calibre candidates available and to ensure that nominees know the nature of their commitment and also contribute to promoting a balance on Council in respect of (i) governmental/non-governmental, (ii) developing county/developed country, (iii) gender, (iv) youth and (v) indigenous people.”
Further, the Election Officer acknowledges the potential for confusion relating to the second paragraph on page 9 of the Guidance note on the Nominations platform and the Process for nominating candidates for the position of Councillors elected from the Regions, and the Indigenous Councillor. Thus, nominees in any of the eight (8) regions for whom sufficient nominations were submitted prior to the 7 February 2025 deadline in accordance with IUCN Regulation 38 and, thus, received a notification asking them to complete the Nominee Form in addition to providing both an abbreviated curriculum vitae and Declaration of Willingness to Serve pursuant to Regulation 38ter, are requested to do so as soon as reasonably possible ahead of the extended deadline.
To the extent necessary, the Election Officer considers the grace period under Regulation 40 to have commenced on 7 February 2025.
Please write to the Election officer at nominations2025@iucn.org if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
David M. Forman, Election Officer
Claudia S. de Windt, Deputy Election Officer
[1] All references to the Election Officer in this communication encompass the Election Officer and the Deputy Election Officer. “The Deputy Election Officer is appointed by the IUCN Council to . . . to provide support to the Election [O]fficer to ensure the integrity of the elections. . . . The Deputy Election Officer shall have full access to all information and documents pertaining to the election, be copied on all correspondence, and be invited to attend all meetings that the Election Officer is part of, so that such officer is able to start working immediately as Election Officer, in the event that the Election Officer is unable to act.” When acting in the place of the Election Officer, the Deputy Election Officer will have the same obligations and responsibilities of the Election Officer specified in the Terms of Reference of the Election Officer and will be accountable to the Congress or, prior to the session of the Congress, to the IUCN Council. See Bureau of the Council of IUCN Decision (B/75/1), endorsed by the IUCN Council (C/95/2) in October 2018, revised by the Bureau(B90/2) in January 2021 and by the Bureau (B12/4) in March 2024.
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