Fifty-eighth General Assembly

Plenary

2^nd Meeting (AM)

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS WORK PLAN FOR FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION

Acting on the recommendations of its General Committee, the General Assembly this morning adopted its work plan for the fifty-eighth session.

With the adoption of its organization of work and agenda, contained in document A/58/250, the Assembly decided that its current session would recess on Tuesday, 16 December and close on Monday, 13 September 2004.

The agenda also sets the work schedule for the Assembly’s substantive Committees.  During the main part of the fifty-eighth session, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), and Sixth Committee (Legal), should all complete their work by 7 November; the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) by 21 November and the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) by 9 December.

The Assembly also approved the allocation of agenda items to its six main committees.  Among the 158 items the Assembly will consider this year are a number of new issues related to Observer status for the Eurasian Economic Community; GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Republic of Moldova); and the East African Community in the General Assembly.  Those items were referred to the Sixth Committee (Legal).

Another new item, proposed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the financing of the United Nations Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (MINUCI), will also be examined.  The Security Council authorized that Mission last May to help guide the country’s fledgling transitional government and assist with proposed elections in 2005.  That item was referred to the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).

The Assembly also approved the General Committee’s recommendation to amend item 23 of its proposed agenda -– on the Olympic ideal -- to become “Sport for peace and development”.  That new item now includes two sub-items:  (a) “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal”; and (b) “International Year of Sport and Physical Education”.

Prior to beginning its work today, the Assembly took note of a communication, contained in document A/58/360/Addendum 1, which notes that Vanuatu has made the necessary payment to reduce its arrears below the amount specified by Article 19 of the Charter.  Under the article, a Member State in arrears cannot vote in the General Assembly “if the amount of the arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding two years”.

The General Assembly will meet again at 11 a.m. today, in a resumed emergency special session on Illegal Israeli Actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

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