GENERAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS INCLUSION OF TWO ADDITIONAL ITEMS IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S AGENDA

Fifty-eighth General Assembly

General Committee

3^rd Meeting (AM)

GENERAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS INCLUSION OF TWO ADDITIONAL

ITEMS IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S AGENDA

Also Recommends Assembly Consider Draft Corruption Convention Directly in Plenary

The General Committee, this morning, recommended that two additional items be included in the agenda of the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly, and that the agenda item on crime prevention and criminal justice be considered directly in plenary meeting.

The Committee, presided over by Assembly President Julian R. Hunte (Saint Lucia), recommended the inclusion of an additional agenda item related to the financing of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), at the request of the Secretary-General, contained in document A/58/233.  The Committee also recommended that the item be allocated to the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).

The Security Council unanimously approved UNMIL in mid-September for an initial 12-month period with 15,000 military personnel and over 1,000 civilian police officers.  At the time, the Secretary-General’s top envoy for Liberia said a force of that strength was vital to bring the war-shattered West African nation back from "hellish limbo" and end the cycle of brutality and violence.

The Committee also recommended the inclusion and allocation to the Fifth Committee, of an additional agenda item related to the admission of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to membership in the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF), at the request of the Netherlands, contained in document A/58/034.

The Court had submitted a formal application for membership in the Fund on 11 April, subsequent to the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board’s decision to authorize its Standing Committee to consider such an application in 2003.  At its meeting, held from 7 to 11 July, the Standing Committee had agreed by consensus to recommend to the Assembly that the Court be admitted to the Fund.

Finally, at the request of Mexico, contained in document A/58/412, the General Committee recommended that the agenda item on crime prevention and criminal justice be considered directly in plenary meeting, for the sole purpose of ensuring that the draft “United Nations Convention against Corruption” could be adopted in a timely manner and transmitted for signing to the high-level political conference to be held from 9 to 11 December 2003, in Mérida, Mexico.  That item had previously been allocated to the Third Committee (Social, Cultural, Humanitarian).

Speaking in favour of the item’s consideration directly in plenary meeting, Patricia Olamendi, (Mexico), requested that the Convention be brought up for approval, and dates established for its consideration, so that it could be signed in December.

By its resolution 55/61 of 4 December 2000, the Assembly had recognized the necessity of an international legal instrument against corruption, independent of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.  And, as the Intergovernmental Open-Ended Expert Group established by the Assembly had concluded its negotiations on 1 October, the Assembly had accepted with appreciation the offer made by the Government of Mexico to host a high-level political conference for the purpose of signing the Convention.

The General Committee will reconvene at a time to be announced.

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