Chatham House Rule

 

GCSP has formally adopted the Chatham House Rule to ensure a frank and open dialogue.

The Chatham House Rule of Confidentiality was established by the Council of the Royal Institute for International Affairs (RIIA) in June 1927. In order to bring the Rule into line with current practice at the RIIA, where many meetings are now held "on the record", in a resolution of the Council adopted in October 1992 the application of the Rule was clarified and its wording strengthened as follows:

Meetings of the Institute may be held "on the record" or under the Chatham House Rule. In the latter case, in accordance with the Chatham House tradition, it may be agreed with the speaker(s) that it would be conducive to free discussion that a given meeting, or part thereof, should be strictly private and thus held under the Chatham House Rule.

"When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed".

The influence of the rule has been so considerable that it has become common parlance in other institutes where confidentiality is required for the Chairman to use an expression such as "We are holding this meeting under Chatham House Rules".

Although the plural is often used colloquially, there is only one rule, as given above.

Please note that reporting of GCSP workshops, conferences, seminars, and lectures that take place under the Chatham House Rule should not contain names and attributions. Therefore, a list of participants and quotations without attributions should be the procedure followed in the GCSP by all, including in course documentation such as weekly summaries and the CD-ROM. The Chatham House Rule may not apply to public events.