THIRD COMMITTEE ELECTS OFFICERS, ADOPTS PROGRAMME OF WORK
Press Release
GA/SHC/3463
THIRD COMMITTEE ELECTS OFFICERS, ADOPTS PROGRAMME OF WORK
19980916 In an organizational meeting this morning, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) elected Luis Carranza (Guatemala), Roger Ball (New Zealand) and Victoria Sandru (Romania), as Vice-Chairmen and Hassam Najir (Lebanon) as Rapporteur. It also adopted, as orally amended, its programme of work for the current session, which is scheduled to conclude on 20 November.Committee Chairman Ali Hachini (Tunisia), addressing the Committee before it began considering its work programme, said its work would be particularly inspired during this session by the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- a document that raised awareness of human rights to the highest level of consideration within the international community. The anniversary provided an opportunity to reaffirm international commitment to the defence of human rights as a whole.
Any discussion of human rights must include issues such as social development, rights of the child, advancement of women, the right to self- determination and the situation of refugees, he said. Human rights could not be achieved unless the priority was the right to a decent life, and the right to a homeland.
He noted that the General Assembly had allocated the agenda items on the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and on the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights directly to plenary meetings, both for discussion and action. There would be no meetings of the Third Committee during the plenary discussions of those items, he added.
Other issues to be considered by the Committee, under a total of eleven agenda items, include; crime prevention and criminal justice; international drug control; and the elimination of racial discrimination. It will also discuss the reports of various human rights rapporteurs; the implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women; the programme of activities of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People; and the implementation of human rights instruments.
The Committee will begin its substantive work at 3 p.m. on Monday, 5 October, when it will commence discussing social development, including questions relating to the world social situation and to youth, ageing, disabled persons and the family. * *** *