8.2 The Cospas-Sarsat Joint Committee
At its first meeting, and acting under the authority granted by Article 9 of the ICSPA for “the establishment of mechanisms for exchange of appropriate technical and operational information”, the Council established two working groups:
· the Operations Working Group (OWG), and
· the Technical Working Group (TWG).
In the first year, these two working groups met separately; however, since that time, they have met together, once a year, as the Cospas-Sarsat Joint Committee (JC).
The rules of procedure for the Joint Committee meetings are set out in the document C/S P.011, “Cospas-Sarsat Programme Management Policy”. These rules are also used for the conduct of the meetings of the other bodies that have been created by the Cospas-Sarsat Council.
Although the Joint Committee includes participants who speak many languages, the meetings of the Joint Committee are conducted only in English.
The Joint Committee is an advisory group: it operates by consensus, and it makes recommendations to the Cospas-Sarsat Council. However, it does not have any authority to make decisions or commitments on behalf of the Programme.