GENERAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS AGENDA FOR FIFTY-SEVENTH SESSION TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Fifty-seventh General Assembly

General Committee

1^st and 2^nd Meetings (AM & PM)

GENERAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS AGENDA FOR FIFTY-SEVENTH

SESSION TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Decides Not To Recommend Inclusion of Item

On ‘Representation of the Republic of China (Taiwan)’

In two meetings today, the General Committee of the fifty-seventh General Assembly recommended that the Assembly include 166 items on its agenda for the session.  The Committee recommended that the current session recess not later than Wednesday, 11 December 2002, and close on Monday, 8 September 2003. It also recommended the adoption of the Assembly’s programme of work and the allocation of new items to its substantive committees.

The Committee also recommended to the Assembly that during the main part

of the session, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) complete its work by 1 November; the Sixth Committee (Legal) complete its work by 7 November; the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) complete its work by 8 November; the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, Cultural) by

22 November; and the Second (Economic and Financial) and Fifth (Administrative and Budgetary) Committees by 6 December.

Concerning two new items being considered for inclusion in the Assembly’s agenda, the Committee decided to allocate matters related to the observer status of the Asian Development Bank, and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development to the Sixth Committee.  In addition, it decided to include on the Assembly’s agenda matters related to the observer status of various other organizations, including the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance –- which had been deferred last year -- as well as Partners in Population in Development.

In other action, the Committee decided to postpone consideration of the inclusion of the item on the “Question of the Comorian island of Mayotte” to a later date.  It also decided to defer consideration of the item “Question of the Malagasy islands of Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Europa and Bassas da India”.

Addressing the Committee on the decision to include the item “peace, security and reunification of the Korean Peninsula”, the representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea said the Assembly’s consideration of the issue would help further the shared noble aims of the Joint Declaration of 2000.  Echoing that sentiment, the representative of the Republic of Korea, said high-level dialogues had resumed between North and South Korea, as had talks for cooperation in various fields.

After a lengthy debate, which included interventions from 82 speakers, the Committee again decided not to recommend that the Assembly include on its agenda the item on the “representation of the Republic of China (Taiwan)”.

Introducing the item, the representative of the Gambia said the Committee should stop pretending that a dynamic political, economic, social entity like the Republic of China on Taiwan did not exist.  Countries round the world recognized its existence –- in trade and finance, in business and investment.  The United Nations’ failure to recognize that was a grave anomaly, and the time had come to correct it at the fifty-seventh session.  Pretending that the Republic of China on Taiwan did not exist would not make it go away.

Urging that the item be rejected from inclusion, the representative of China said that the effort made by the Gambia and a very few other countries to introduce it each year constituted a violation of the principles of the Charter.  He said that there was but one China in the world, and Taiwan had been an inseparable part of China’s territory since ancient times.  The Chinese Government had always stood for peaceful reunification.  Efforts of some countries to include this item for consideration wasted the time and resources of the Member States and the General Committee.

Those representatives speaking in favour of including the item on the agenda said that the Assembly’s refusal to acknowledge the Republic of China (Taiwan) left the 23 million inhabitants of that island unrepresented at the United Nations.  Its inclusion would contribute to the achievement of peace, stability and development in Asia, the Pacific and the world, as well as facilitate a dialogue for the peaceful reconciliation of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China.

Referring to General Assembly resolution 2758 (1971), those representatives speaking against inclusion of the item made reference to the “one China” principle and to the determination made in 1971 that the Government of the People’s Republic of China was the sole legitimate representative of the people of China.  The understanding of the question of Taiwan as an internal Chinese affair was reiterated, as was the desire that the two entities be reconciled by peaceful means.

The representative of France added that his country, while keeping its position of past years, urged the parties to commence a fruitful dialogue for reconciliation.

The following representatives spoke in support of the item:  Belize, Burkina Faso, Chad, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Nicaragua, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Sao Tome and Principe, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Swaziland and Tuvalu.

Speaking against were Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Greece, Guinea, Guyana, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Sierra Leone,

South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, United Republic of Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In the afternoon, the Committee recommended the allocation of various items to the Assembly’s substantive Committees.  It referred to the Fourth Committee matters related to the “implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples”.  The item “Question of Cyprus” was also allocated to the Fourth Committee.  The item “cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union” was allocated to the Sixth Committee. 

Items related to the follow-up of the outcome of the General Assembly special session on children were allocated to the Second and Third Committees.  It also recommended that matters related to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) be allocated to the Second and Third Committees.

The Committee also recommended that a high-level plenary meeting be held on 16 September to consider how to support the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).  It also decided to devote one day of plenary meetings, on

4 December, to mark the end of the United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage.  Two days of plenary meetings, on 9 and 10 December, would be devoted to the item “Oceans and the Law of the Sea” and the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the opening for signature of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.  It also decided to recommend two plenary meetings on 26 November be devoted to the outcome of the International Year of Volunteers and its follow-up.

The Committee also decided to draw the Assembly’s attention to its resolution 55/282 of 7 September 2001, which declared 21 September of each year as the International Day of Peace.

Speaking on other matters were the representatives of Togo and Portugal.

The memorandum on the organization of the Assembly's fifty-seventh regular session is contained in document A/BUR/57/1 dated 21 August 2002.

The General Committee will meet again at time to be announced.

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