AGENDA ITEM ON SEABED AUTHORITY'S MEMBERSHIP IN STAFF PENSION FUND RECOMMENDED BY GENERAL COMMITTEE
Press Release
GA/9358
AGENDA ITEM ON SEABED AUTHORITY'S MEMBERSHIP IN STAFF PENSION FUND RECOMMENDED BY GENERAL COMMITTEE
19971121 The General Committee this morning recommended that the General Assembly include in its agenda for the current session an additional item entitled "Admission of the International Seabed Authority and Membership in the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund" and that it be allocated to the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).Addressing the Committee, Patricia Durrant (Jamaica), speaking also on behalf of Guyana, said her Government had made the request for the inclusion of the agenda item, on behalf of the States members of the International Seabed Authority, in accordance with the decision of the Assembly of the International Seabed Authority. The request is contained in a letter from Ms. Durrant and Samuel R. Insanally (Guyana) dated 18 September to the President of the Assembly (document A/52/233 and Add.1).
An explanatory memorandum, annexed to the letter, states that the Assembly of the Authority at its second session of August 1996 decided that it would be within the Authority's interest to become a member of the Pension Fund. The Standing Committee of the Pension Fund agreed to recommend the admission of the Seabed Authority in the Fund effective 1 January 1998, on the understanding that the Authority adhered to the United Nations common system of salaries and allowances.
Article 11, paragraph 3, of the relationship agreement between the United Nations and the International Seabed Authority provides that, pursuant to the decision of the Assembly of the Authority, and upon the approval of the General Assembly, the Authority shall participate in the Fund in accordance with the Regulations of the Fund and shall accept the jurisdiction of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal in matters involving applications alleging non-observance of those regulations.
The International Seabed Authority, whose seat is in Jamaica, is an autonomous international organization established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
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