CB.13:4.4 - Make representation and local autonomy usable

For a representative arrangement, define the represented constituency in terms participants can verify. State who may nominate, stand, select and challenge the selection, using the current governing basis. Make the opportunity accessible to eligible people who cannot attend the central meeting. Explain how vacancies are filled.

Specify the mandate’s subject, limits and term. A representative may have discretion within a defined aim, be instructed on a particular proposal or need to return a materially different proposal to the constituency. Choose which applies before the consequential decision.

Give representatives a feasible way to obtain concerns and return reasons. Ask for relevant differences and minority positions. Where people decline to share a view or cannot be reached, preserve that limitation. Being affected and being represented through the established arrangement remain different facts.

Provide a means to replace or recall the representative under an intelligible rule. State who can initiate it, who decides, how the person can respond and what happens to current work during a vacancy. A recall procedure that no eligible person can reach adds little practical control.

For local autonomy, state the decisions retained by each group and the specific matters delegated to the common body. Provide a route for overlapping effects: a shared resource, a claim made in all groups’ names or an activity that changes another group’s commitments. Bring the affected groups into that question without requiring central approval of every unrelated local choice.