GENERAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS INCLUSION OF 169 ITEMS ON AGENDA OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY; RECOMMENDS VARIETY OF PROCEDURAL DECISIONS
Press Release
GA/9752
GENERAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS INCLUSION OF 169 ITEMS ON AGENDA OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY; RECOMMENDS VARIETY OF PROCEDURAL DECISIONS
20000906Committee to Meet Tomorrow Evening To Consider Including 22 Further Items on Assemblys Agenda
The General Committee tonight recommended that the General Assembly include 169 items on the General Assembly's agenda for its fifty-fifth session. It postponed until tomorrow evening its recommendations on 22 additional agenda items.
The Committee also recommended that the General Assembly authorize the Committee on Relations with the Host Country, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the Executive Board of the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), and the Preparatory Committee for the High-level International Intergovernmental Event on Financing for Development to meet during the main part of the current session of the General Assembly.
Further, it recommended inclusion of a new agenda item on "Cooperation between the United Nations and the Council of Europe", after the representative of Italy, on behalf of the current presidency of the Council for Europe, observed that there had been a long history of cooperation between the United Nations and the Council. As the only pan-European organization, the Council was in a position to make a substantial contribution to the United Nations in fields where its expertise was well recognized, in particular with regard to the building of pluralistic democracies based on the rule of law and respect for human rights.
The Committee further decided to recommend the deletion of an item entitled World Drug Problem, following a proposal by the President of the Economic and Social Council.
In other action, the Committee decided to recommend that the Assembly defer consideration of the Question of the Comorian island of Mayotte to the fifty- sixth session (2001) of the General Assembly, following the recommendations of the representatives of Italy and Burkina Faso, and to defer consideration of the "Question of the Malgasy islands of Glorieuses, Jaun de Nova, Europa and Bassa da India, following proposals by the representatives of Burkina Faso and Turkey.
The recess date for the Assembly's current session was recommended for 5 December. The Committee drew the attention of the General Assembly to the fact that the closing date of the current session would be subject to a later decision
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of the Assembly. The Committee also recommended the following closing dates for the Main Committees: First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) -- 3 November; Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) -- 9 November; Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) -- 10 November; Sixth Committee (Legal) -- 21 November; and the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) and Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) - 1 December.
The General Committee will meet again at 8 p.m. tomorrow, 7 September, to continue consideration of the agenda of the fifty-fifth regular session of the General Assembly, and the allocation of agenda items to the plenary and the Assemblys Main Committees.
General Committee Work Programme
The General Assembly's General Committee met this evening to consider the organization of work of the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly, the Assemblys agenda and the allocation of items for the session.
The Committee had before it a memorandum by the Secretary-General on these questions (document A/BUR/55/1 and Add.1), according to which the Committee would recommend that the fifty-fifth session recess not later than Tuesday, 5 December. The closing date of the fifty-fifth session will be subject to a decision of the Assembly.
The document contains the list of the items recommended for inclusion in this year's agenda of the Assembly. Items proposed for the agenda include the situation in East Timor during its transition to independence; the scale of assessments for the apportionment of the expenses of United Nations peacekeeping operations; cooperation between the United Nations and the Council of Europe; observer status for the Inter-American Development Bank in the General Assembly; observer status in the Assembly for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance; the need to examine the exceptional international situation pertaining to the Republic of China on Taiwan, to ensure that the fundamental right of its 23 million people to participate in the work and activities of the United Nations is fully respected; towards global partnerships; world drug problem; the role of the United Nations in promoting a new global human order; the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict; and financing of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).
Statement by Italy
BRUNELLA BORZI (Italy), representing the current presidency of the Council for Europe, said that there had been a long existing cooperation between the United Nations and the Council. The main aims of the Council were to achieve greater unity between its member States through cooperation in all fields, except military matters, and on the basis of shared values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The protection of human rights was a basic element for the functioning of a democratic and free society.
As far as the membership of the Council was concerned, the enlargement of its membership to 41 countries had extended significantly the geographical area of
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the Council and given it a pan-European dimension. The cooperation between the Council and the United Nations had existed for a long time and had started in 1951. The Council had also concluded agreements with the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Health Organization (WHO), among other United Nations bodies and specialized agencies.
The Council, as the only pan-European organization, was in a position to make a substantial contribution to the United Nations in fields where its expertise was well recognized, in particular with regard to the building of pluralistic democracies based on the rule of law and the respect of human rights. In that way, the Council could enhance on the European continent the ideals laid down by the United Nations Charter and contribute to their promotion in other parts of the world. Therefore, it would be appropriate and timely for the General Assembly to take note of the cooperation undertaken by those two organizations and to examine ways of strengthening it.
The Committee then decided to recommend the inclusion of the item in the General Assemblys provisional agenda.
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