Art. 3 of the Convention states that the Centre shall maintain a Panel of Conciliators and a Panel of Arbitrators. Section 4 of the Convention's Chapter I is headed “The Panels”. It consists of Arts. 12–16 and deals with the designation of Panel members, their qualities, their periods of service, the relationship of the two Panels to each other and notification requirements.

The drafts leading to the Convention all contained provisions substantively similar to what eventually became Art. 12 (History, Vol. I, pp. 66, 68). The idea was based on Art. 44 of the Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes of 1907 establishing the Permanent Court of Arbitration (History, Vol. II, p. 145). Arts. 12–16 of the Convention bear some resemblance to that provision. During the Convention's drafting, the creation of Panels of Conciliators and Arbitrators was never cast into doubt (History, Vol. II, pp. 107, 110, 143, 145, 486/7, 753). But there were extensive debates on the Chairman's right to designate members of Panels (see Art. 13, para 4), the number of persons to be designated (see Art. 13, paras. 1, 4), the qualifications of Panel members (see Art. 14, paras. 2, 3, 5, 9–11), the periods of service on the Panels (see Art. 15, paras. 2, 3, 5, 6) and some modalities of appointment (see Art. 16, paras. 2, 3, 5).