GENERAL COMMITTEE SUBMITS PROVISIONAL AGENDA TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Fifty-eighth General Assembly

General Committee

6^th Meeting (PM)

GENERAL COMMITTEE SUBMITS PROVISIONAL AGENDA TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General Committee this afternoon submitted the provisional agenda to the General Assembly and recommended the programme of work for the forthcoming plenary session, in accordance with the new approach approved by the Assembly in resolutions on the revitalization of its work.

For the first time, the provisional agenda is organized under headings corresponding to the priorities of the Organization as contained in the medium-term plan for the period 2002-2005. 

Those priorities are:  maintenance of international peace and security; promotion of sustained economic growth and sustainable development in accordance with the resolutions of the Assembly and recent United Nations conferences; development in Africa; promotion of human rights; effective coordination of humanitarian assistance efforts; promotion of justice and international law; disarmament; drug control, crime prevention and combating international terrorism in all its forms and manifestations; and organizational, administrative and other matters, which also contains cross-cutting issues.

The Committee recommended that provisional agenda and the programme of work, as orally revised (Section II and Annex I of document A/58/864), to the fifty-ninth session of the Assembly.  Those documents were drafted in accordance with resolution 58/316, adopted on 1 July.  That resolution launched the initial phase of a multi–year plan to streamline and revamp the Assembly’s working methods, approving a measure that would pare down its agenda, sharpen the focus of its six Main Committees, and begin to reduce its massive paperwork.

As it took up the proposed programme of work, the Committee also recommended conducting of a “joint, concentrated” debate on the follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit and the implementation of decisions of major conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields.  That proposal was made by the representative of the Netherlands (on behalf of the European Union), who suggested that such a decision would promote a more coherent and practical approach to the preparation for the review of the implementation of Millennium Development Goals next year.

The Committee’s recommendations will be taken up by the General Assembly on Friday, 10 September, at 10 a.m.

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