Organs
The functioning of OTIF is ensured by seven permanent organs (Article 13 § 1 of COTIF 1999). Three organs are responsible for the governance of the Organization and four other organs, the Committees, develop OTIF railway law and contribute to facilitating the crossing of borders.
The governing organs are:
The General Assembly. It is the supreme decision-making body. It is made up of representatives from all the Member States.
The Administrative Committee. It is the body that monitors the Secretary General’s administrative and financial activities. It is made up of one third of the Member States designated by the General Assembly for a period of three years.
The Secretary General. He manages the Organisation, but he is also an operational body which carries out the tasks of the depositary and represents OTIF.
The Committees develop international railway law.. They may set up working groups to prepare proposals in advance.
In principle, all the Member States are represented in the Committees. Non-Member States and international organisations and associations may be invited to take part in the Committees in an advisory capacity. The Secretary General convenes the Committees and sends out the calling notices two or three months before the meetings in accordance with each Committee’s Rules of Procedure.
For amendments to the base Convention, i.e. COTIF without its Appendices, it is the Revision Committee which is responsible for examining amendments.
Three Committees are responsible for the Appendices, depending on their competences. Each Committee has its Rules of Procedure, its area of activity and its own attributions:
The Revision Committee takes decisions on certain amendments to Appendices A, B, D, E, F and G.
The Committee of Technical Expertsprepares amendments to Appendices F and G and adopts Annexes to the Appendices and Uniform Technical Prescriptions (UTP).
The RID Committee of Experts takes decisions on amendments to Appendix C and its annex.
The aim of the Rail Facilitation Committee set up under COTIF 1999 is to propose standards and methods to improve border crossing in international rail traffic.
The General Assembly may also decide to set up other temporary committees. For example, the 15th General Assembly set up the ad hoc Committee on Legal Affairs and International Cooperation.
