ASSEMBLY APPOINTS VLADIMIR KOUZNETSOV (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) TO ACABQ, AUTHORIZES MEETINGS PRIOR TO SPECIAL SESSION, ACTS ON ASSESSMENTS

Press Release
GA/9582

ASSEMBLY APPOINTS VLADIMIR KOUZNETSOV (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) TO ACABQ, AUTHORIZES MEETINGS PRIOR TO SPECIAL SESSION, ACTS ON ASSESSMENTS

The General Assembly this morning appointed Vladimir Kouznetsov (Russian Federation) to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) for a term beginning on 2 September and ending on 31 December. It took that action as a result of the resignation of Leonid Bidnyi (Russian Federation), whose term of office in that body would expire on 31 December.

Also this morning, the Assembly took note of a recommendation from the Committee on Conferences to authorize the Commission on Sustainable Development, acting as the preparatory body for the twenty-second special session of the Assembly, to hold a two-day resumed session on 9 and 10 September in order to complete its work.

Under the item on the scale of assessments, the Assembly took note of the fact that Dominica and Togo had made the necessary payments to reduce their arrears below the amount specified in Article 19 of the United Nations Charter.

[Article 19 of the Charter states that a Member of the United Nations which is in arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the Organization shall have no vote in the Assembly if the amount of its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding two full years. The Assembly may nevertheless permit such a Member to vote if it is satisfied that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the Member.]

The Assembly was also informed that following the payments by Togo and Dominica, 27 Member States were still in arrears in the payment of their financial contributions to the Organization within the terms of Article 19. Those countries are: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Burundi; Central African Republic; Comoros; Congo; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Equatorial Guinea; Gambia;

General Assembly Plenary - 2 - Press Release GA/9582 106th Meeting (AM) 2 September 1999

Georgia; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Iraq; Kyrgyzstan; Liberia; Mauritania; Mongolia; Nicaragua; Niger; Republic of Moldova; Sao Tome and Principe; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Somalia; Tajikistan; Turkmenistan; Vanuatu; and Yugoslavia.

In other action this morning, the Assembly took note of a letter from the Chairman of the Committee on Contributions on the provision of an exemption for Georgia under Article 19, so that it should be permitted to vote in the Assembly until a final decision on the matter was taken by that body.

The letter referred to Assembly resolution 53/36 G, which requested the Committee to consider, taking into account the views of Member States, the provision of an exemption for Georgia under Article 19 as a matter of priority, and to transmit the Committee's views to the Assembly before the end of its current session.

On the possibility of seeking the views of Committee members by correspondence, the letter states that it had been concluded that any such recommendations or advice would not constitute a Committee decision, since that would require a meeting of that body. The Committee would therefore consider the Assembly's request at its next meeting in New York scheduled for 5 to 30 June 2000.

The representative of Finland, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said that the Union stood by its statement made on the subject in the Assembly’s Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary). Georgia's case should be reconsidered at the earliest opportunity. Temporary exemption was an extraordinary measure and should not create a precedent.

The Assembly will meet again at a date to be announced.

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