INCREASE IN MEMBERSHIP AND LENGTH OF SESSIONS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION PROPOSED BY 'GROUP OF 77' DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Press Release
SOC/4404
INCREASE IN MEMBERSHIP AND LENGTH OF SESSIONS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION PROPOSED BY 'GROUP OF 77' DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
19960531 The Economic and Social Council would decide that the Commission for Social Development should meet annually, for at least eight working days, and its membership should be increased to 53 members, according to draft amendments introduced this morning by the representative of Costa Rica, as the Commission continued its special session.The new provisions, which were introduced by Emilia Castro de Barish (Costa Rica), on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, would be added to a draft resolution submitted yesterday afternoon by the representative of the Philippines, also on behalf of the Group of 77, on the functioning of the Commission. Currently, the Social Development Commission meets every two years and has 32 members.
Also this morning, the Chairman of the special session, Koos Richelle (Netherlands), proposed that a summary prepared by him of the three panel discussions on poverty eradication held during the current session should be forwarded to the substantive session of the Economic and Social Council as an annex to the Commission's report.
Stating that the idea of the panel discussions had been accepted as an experiment, the representative of Costa Rica, on behalf of the Group of 77, expressed reservations about the Chairman's proposal. She was joined by the representatives of Sudan, Syria and Colombia. The representative of Italy, on behalf of the European Union, said the Chairman's summary could provide useful contributions to the discussion on poverty eradication and that it should be transmitted as proposed by him. The representatives of the United States, Japan and Mexico agreed with Italy.
The Commission will meet again at 3 p.m. today to consider all outstanding issues before its special session.
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