Act on Iran’s Membership of the World Anti-Doping Agency — 2011

The Act on the Membership of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the World Anti-Doping Agency, passed by the Islamic Consultative Assembly on 12 October 2011 — the instrument that made Iran's membership of WADA a matter of statute and that carries the Agency's Statutes as an annex.

Adoption	12 October 2011 — public session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly
Promulgation	6 November 2011 — following approval by the Guardian Council
Constitutional basis	Article 123 of the Constitution
Organisation joined	World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)

Full text of the Act

No. 48866/185 — 29 October 2011

Act on the Membership of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the World Anti-Doping Agency

Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Further to letter No. 76626/39719 of 5 August 2008, and in implementation of Article one hundred and twenty-three (123) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Act on the Membership of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the World Anti-Doping Agency, which was submitted to the Islamic Consultative Assembly under the title Bill on the Membership of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the World Anti-Doping Agency, having been passed at the public session of Wednesday 12 October 2011 and approved by the Guardian Council, is hereby transmitted in annex.

Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly — Ali Larijani

No. 156481 — 6 November 2011

Office of the President — Ministry of Sport and Youth

The "Act on the Membership of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the World Anti-Doping Agency", which was passed at the public session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly on Wednesday 12 October 2011, was approved by the Guardian Council on 19 October 2011 and was received from the Islamic Consultative Assembly under letter No. 48866/185 of 29 October 2011, is hereby promulgated in annex for implementation.

President — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Act on the Membership of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the World Anti-Doping Agency

Single Article — The Government is authorised to join the "World Anti-Doping Agency" on the terms of the annexed Statutes and to pay the corresponding membership contribution. The designation and any change of the executive body party to the membership rests with the Government.

Note — In implementing the Statutes annexed to this Act, compliance with Article seventy-seven (77) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran is mandatory.

Statutes of the World Anti-Doping Agency

Article 1 — Constitution

Under the name World Anti-Doping Agency, hereinafter referred to as the "Foundation" or the "Agency", a foundation is established which is governed by these provisions and by the articles following article 80 of the Swiss Civil Code.

Article 2 — Registered office

The registered office of the Foundation is in the city of "Lausanne".

The registered office of the Foundation may be transferred to another place, in Switzerland or in another country, with the agreement of the supervisory authority.

The location of the Agency may differ from the registered office of the Foundation.

Article 3 — Duration

The duration of the Foundation is unlimited.

Article 4 — Purpose

The purpose of the Foundation is:

1. To promote and coordinate the fight against doping in sport in all its forms at international level, including through in-competition and out-of-competition action. To this end, the Foundation shall cooperate with intergovernmental organisations, governments, public authorities and other public and private bodies fighting against doping in sport, including the International Olympic Committee, the international sports federations, the National Olympic Committees and athletes. The Foundation shall obtain from all the above bodies a moral and political commitment to follow its recommendations.

2. To reinforce, at international level, the ethical principles for the practice of doping-free sport and to help protect the health of athletes.

3. To establish, adapt, modify and update, for all the public and private bodies concerned, including the International Olympic Committee, the international sports federations and the National Olympic Committees, the list of substances and methods prohibited in the practice of sport. The Agency shall publish this list at least once a year, and it shall enter into force on 1 January of each year and, should the list be amended in the course of the year, at any other time determined by the Agency.

4. To encourage, support, coordinate and, where necessary, undertake unannounced out-of-competition testing, in full cooperation with the public and private bodies concerned, in particular the International Olympic Committee, the international sports federations and the National Olympic Committees

5. To develop, coordinate and harmonise scientific, sampling and technical standards and procedures regarding analyses and equipment, including the accreditation of laboratories and the creation of a reference laboratory

6. To promote harmonised rules, disciplinary procedures, sanctions and other means of combating doping in sport, and to contribute to their unification, having regard to the rights of athletes

7. To devise and develop anti-doping education and prevention programmes at international level, with a view to developing the practice of doping-free sport in accordance with ethical principles

8. To promote and coordinate research in the fight against doping in sport

The Agency shall be entitled, where necessary, in the light of its transformation into a different structure, to prepare plans and proposals, where possible on the basis of public international law.

In addition to the above, the Agency shall endeavour to rely on the relevant existing skills, structures and networks, and shall create new ones only where necessary.

In any event, the Agency may establish working boards, commissions or working groups, whether permanent or temporary, in order to carry out its tasks. The Agency may consult other interested public and private organisations, whether or not involved in sport.

In order to achieve its purpose, the Foundation is entitled to conclude any contract and to acquire and transfer, free of charge or against payment, all rights, movable property and immovable property of any kind, in any country.

The Foundation may delegate the performance of all or part of its activities to third parties.

Article 5 — Capital and financial resources

The founder endows the Foundation with an initial capital of approximately five million Swiss francs.

The other financial resources of the Foundation consist of any allocation of funds, gift, legacy and other forms of grant, subsidy or other financial assistance from all natural or legal persons and all intergovernmental organisations, governments, public authorities and other public and private bodies.

Article 6 — Foundation Board

The Foundation Board shall initially be composed of at least ten members. This number may be increased to a total of not more than forty members. The members of the Foundation Board are persons elected for a term of three years. They may be re-elected for further terms of three years.

The initial members of the Foundation Board, including the first President, shall be appointed by the founder. The membership of the Foundation Board shall be increased in accordance with the following principles:

1. A maximum of eighteen members shall be appointed by the Olympic Movement, with an allocation of seats to be determined in rules to be laid down by the Foundation Board; of these eighteen, at least four shall be athletes.

2. A maximum of eighteen members shall be appointed by intergovernmental organisations, governments, public authorities or other public bodies involved in the fight against doping in sport (hereinafter referred to as the public authorities), with an allocation of seats to be determined in rules to be laid down by the Foundation Board.

3. Other members shall, where necessary, be elected by the Foundation Board on the joint proposal of the Olympic Movement and the public authorities.

4. In order to ensure stability and continuity in the Foundation Board, at the end of the first three-year term of office, that is at the end of 2002, the newly appointed members shall be divided, by unanimous decision or, failing agreement, by random draw, into the following three categories:

Category one — a term of office of one year, that is until the end of 2003

Category two — a term of office of two years, that is until the end of 2003

Category three — a term of office of three years, that is until the end of 2005

In appointing members, the proportion of representatives for each category or region shall be taken into account as far as possible.

At the end of 2003, the term of office of new members, or of members whose term of office has been renewed, shall be three years.

In general, if terms of office are renewed and the number of members is increased, the Foundation Board shall seek to ensure that parity is maintained between the members of the Foundation Board who represent the Olympic Movement (that is, the International Olympic Committee, the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, the General Association of International Sports Federations, the Association of National Olympic Committees and the IOC Athletes' Commission) on the one hand and the other members who represent the public authorities on the other; the provisions of paragraph 6 below are reserved.

5. The Foundation Board may also invite a limited number of intergovernmental organisations or international organisations to act in an advisory capacity to the Foundation.

Those organisations, which shall be invited on the basis of their legitimate interest in the work of the Foundation and their competence in the relevant fields, may take part in the deliberations of the Foundation Board but may not vote when the Foundation Board takes decisions.

6. To the extent that the membership contributions and annual funds paid into the budget of the Foundation under paragraph 1 of Article 13 below by the Olympic Movement on the one hand and the public authorities on the other are equal, each of the parties, that is the Olympic Movement on the one hand and the public authorities on the other, shall be entitled to appoint an equal number of members of the Foundation Board; where the annual funds paid by either of the aforementioned parties are not equal, the number of members of the Foundation Board appointed by the party which has in fact paid less shall be at least one fewer than the number of members appointed by the other party. This method shall be applied for as long as the membership contributions and annual funds paid into the budget of the Foundation by the two aforementioned parties are not equal.

Government representatives of a country which has not paid its dues, or whose country has not acceded to the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport before 1 January 2009, shall not be eligible to sit on the Foundation Board or on the Executive Committee. On 1 January of each year, any member of the Executive Committee or of the Foundation Board representing a country which has not paid its dues for the previous year shall automatically lose their seat as a member of the Foundation Board or of the Executive Committee.

The same rule applies to membership of temporary or standing committees; however, on account of particular expert requirements, the chair of a committee may, with the agreement of the Director General and the President of the Foundation Board, still grant membership to an independent and impartial expert from a country which has not paid its dues.

7. The Foundation Board may waive the rules set out in paragraphs 1 to 6 above by a decision of a two-thirds majority of its members.

8. The Foundation Board shall endeavour to ensure that its members, the members of the Executive Committee and any other persons acting on behalf of the Foundation in any capacity respect the fundamental ethical principles, in particular independence, dignity, integrity and impartiality.

Article 7 — Organisation of the Foundation Board

The Foundation Board is autonomous. The Foundation Board shall elect, from among its members or from persons chosen from outside its membership, a President and a Vice-President for a term of three years. The President and the Vice-President may be re-elected for further term(s) of three years.

The Foundation Board is an equal partnership between the Olympic Movement and the public authorities. In order to encourage and preserve equality between the stakeholders, the Foundation Board shall ensure that the office of President rotates between the Olympic Movement and the public authorities, and that this occurs in particular after two terms of three years, unless no alternative candidate has been put forward.

To preserve further the equal partnership between the Olympic Movement and the public authorities, if the President has been appointed by the Olympic Movement, the Vice-President must be a person appointed by the public authorities, and vice versa.

The President is elected before the Vice-President by an absolute majority of the members present. The Vice-President is elected after the President by an absolute majority of the members present.

The President and the Vice-President become members of the Foundation Board upon their election.

In any event, they shall not take part in the vote on the renewal of their own term of office or on the election of their successor. The President shall not take part in the vote for the Vice-President, nor the Vice-President in the vote for the President.

Where there is more than one candidate for either the office of President or that of Vice-President, successive rounds of voting shall be held. The candidate obtaining the fewest votes in each round shall be eliminated. In the event of a tie between two or more candidates, a vote shall be held between those candidates and the candidate obtaining the fewest votes shall be eliminated. If, following this successive voting, there is still a tie, the name of the candidate to be eliminated shall be drawn. If the last candidate, or the sole candidate, does not obtain an absolute majority in the final round of voting, the President or Vice-President currently in office shall remain in post until the next meeting of the Foundation Board, at which a new election shall be held.

Article 8 — Meetings and decisions of the Foundation Board

The Foundation Board shall meet as often as necessary, but at least once a year. Meetings of the Foundation Board shall be convened by the President. The President is required to convene a meeting of the Foundation Board at the written request of at least five members.

The deliberations and decisions of the Foundation Board shall be recorded in a set of minutes signed by the President and by the person who drew up the minutes.

At a meeting, the members of the Foundation Board are entitled to question the persons to whom the management and representation of the Foundation have been delegated about the conduct of the Foundation's activities and about particular matters.

The Foundation Board takes its decisions by an absolute majority of the votes of the members present; in the event of a tie, the President has the casting vote. The provisions of paragraph 2 of Article 16 of these Statutes are reserved. In addition, a two-thirds majority vote of the members of the Foundation Board present is required in order to determine or transfer the location of the Agency and to appoint the Executive Committee.

Decisions of the Foundation Board may be taken in the form of written approval of a proposal, unless any member considers a discussion of it necessary. The decisions shall be recorded in the minutes.

Members of the Foundation Board are permitted to appoint a substitute in advance to represent them at a meeting of the Board. Such a substitute has the same rights as the member represented, including the right to vote. Each member shall be permitted to appoint only one representative each year. The member shall enter the name of their representative in the list of representatives kept with the secretary of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Article 9 — Powers of the Foundation Board

The powers of the Foundation Board in respect of the Foundation are determined by law, by these Statutes and by all other rules and decisions of the Foundation Board.

The Foundation Board has an inalienable right in the following matters:

1. To propose amendment of these Statutes.

2. To appoint the auditing body of the Foundation.

3. To appoint the Executive Committee provided for in these Statutes.

4. To take all decisions relating to the acquisition of any immovable property against payment, or to its transfer, free of charge or against payment.

Article 10 — Obligations of the Foundation Board

The Foundation Board is required in particular to:

1. Guarantee the independence of the Foundation and transparency in all its activities,

2. Supervise the committees or persons to whom the management and representation of the Foundation have been delegated, in order to ensure that the activity of the Foundation complies with the law, these Statutes and the rules, and keep itself informed of the course of the Foundation's activities,

3. Appoint the members of the Executive Committee,

4. Formally enact the rules relating to the Foundation Board itself, to the Executive Committee and to the other committees, together with all other rules necessary for the functioning of the Foundation, subject to approval by the supervisory authority,

5. See to it that the minutes of the Foundation Board and the requisite books are duly kept and that the management report, the profit and loss account and the balance sheet are prepared in accordance with the statutory provisions,

6. Publish an annual report on all its activities, its profit and loss account and its balance sheet, in accordance with the applicable statutory requirements, in English and French.

Article 11 — Executive Committee

The Foundation Board delegates the administration and practical management of the Foundation, the conduct of all its activities and the practical administration of its assets to an Executive Committee of twelve members, the majority of whom are chosen from among the members of the Foundation Board.

The President and the Vice-President of the Foundation Board automatically hold the offices of President and Vice-President of the Executive Committee. The remaining ten members of the Executive Committee are elected by the Foundation Board for a term of one year. They may be re-elected.

The Executive Committee takes its decisions by an absolute majority of the votes of the members present; in the event of a tie, the President has the casting vote.

In addition, in the event of the incapacity or death of a member of the Executive Committee, that member's replacement shall be effected without delay by the Foundation Board or, provisionally, by the Executive Committee. Such a provisional appointment becomes final only upon confirmation by the Foundation Board, at the latest at the next meeting of the Board.

The Executive Committee is competent to take all decisions other than those which, by law or under these Statutes, are reserved to the Foundation Board. Its mandate and organisation shall be set out in one or more sets of rules formally enacted by the Foundation Board for that purpose.

The Executive Committee shall approve the creation of standing or temporary committees where it considers this necessary. The Executive Committee shall appoint the chair of each standing or temporary committee, being a member of the Board of the World Anti-Doping Agency or a former Board member whose membership of the Board ended within the past three years.

The chair of a standing or temporary committee shall decide on the composition of the committee in consultation with the President and the Director General of the Foundation Board.

No committee shall have more than eleven members, and each member, including the chair, shall be appointed for a term of three years. A rotation system shall be applied so that one third of the members change each year. The initial appointments shall specify the names of those appointed for one, two or three years. The composition of the committees shall ensure appropriate membership from the regions, the public authorities and the Olympic Movement, and there must be cultural and gender balance.

Article 12 — Representation of the Foundation

The Foundation is duly represented and bound vis-à-vis third parties by the joint signature of two persons designated as follows by the Foundation Board or by the founder, in accordance with the following signature arrangement:

(a) at least two members of the Executive Committee

(b) at least two members of the Foundation Board; in any event, one of the two signatories must be one of the members appointed by the Olympic Movement and the other must be one of the members appointed by the public authorities.

(c) at least one member of the Executive Committee and the Director General

Article 13 — Financial year, management report, balance sheet and profit and loss account

The Foundation Board shall, by 30 November of each year at the latest, adopt a budget for the following financial year. Failing adoption by a decision of a two-thirds majority of the members of the Foundation Board present, the budget of the current financial year shall apply to the following financial year.

The annual funds and other membership contributions shall be paid by 31 December of each year at the latest for the following financial year. However, where this is necessary because of governmental technical budgetary processes, payments may be made up to 30 June of the current financial year and before any sanction for non-payment is imposed.

Each year, the Foundation Board shall submit to the supervisory authority the management report, the balance sheet and the profit and loss account as approved by the Board.

The financial year corresponds to the calendar year. Accordingly, the first financial year ends on 31 December 2000.

Article 14 — Auditing body

Each year the Foundation Board shall appoint an independent and qualified auditing body. Each year the auditing body shall present a report on the accounts of the Foundation to the Foundation Board; this report shall be submitted to the supervisory authority.

Article 15 — Remuneration

Members of the Foundation Board shall not be entitled to any remuneration for the performance of their duties; they are, however, entitled to reimbursement of their expenses, subject to the conditions laid down by the Foundation Board.

Members of the Executive Committee are entitled, for the performance of their duties, to annual remuneration determined by the Foundation Board and to reimbursement of their expenses.

The auditing organisation is likewise entitled to remuneration in accordance with professional practice.

Staff employed by the Foundation are entitled to the remuneration determined by the Executive Committee, which also decides on the other conditions of employment.

Article 16 — Amendment of the Statutes

The Foundation Board may propose to the supervisory authority an amendment of these Statutes.

Any proposed amendment, and in particular any change in the purpose of the Foundation, must be approved by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Foundation Board present.

Article 17 — Dissolution

The Foundation may be dissolved in the cases provided for by law. The Foundation Board may appoint one or more liquidators.

No step towards dissolution may be taken without the express agreement of the supervisory authority.

Any surplus on liquidation shall, with the agreement of the supervisory authority, be given to a foundation pursuing the same or a similar purpose.

Article 18 — Registration in the commercial register

The Foundation shall be entered in the commercial register of Lausanne.

Article 19 — Supervisory authority

The Foundation shall be under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior, whose competence is hereby reserved.

The foregoing Act, consisting of a single article together with the text of the Statutes comprising nineteen articles, was passed at the public session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly on Wednesday 12 October 2011 and was approved by the Guardian Council on 19 October 2011.

Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly — Ali Larijani