General Assembly adopts work plan for Fifty-Ninth Session

 

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

With the adoption of its organization of work and agenda, contained in document A/59/250, the Assembly decided that its current session would recess on Tuesday, 14 December, and close on Monday, 12 September 2005.

The agenda also sets the work schedule of the Assembly’s substantive Committees.  During the main part of the fifty-ninth session, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) and Sixth Committee (Legal) should all complete their work by 11 November; the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) by 24 November; and the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) by 10 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 Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Southern African Development Community and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.  Those items would be considered in plenary after the matter of their observer status had been taken up by the Sixth Committee (Legal).

Acting on a proposal by the Secretary-General, following numerous requests from delegations, the Assembly approved the General Committee’s recommendation that during the final two weeks of Ramadan -- from 1 to 11 November 2004 -- the hours of plenary meetings and meetings of the Main Committees would be held from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the latest.

The Assembly also approved the recommendation to shift the categorization of the item on an international convention against the reproductive cloning of human beings from “organizational, administrative and other matters” to that of the “promotion of justice and international law”.

Also during the fifty-ninth session, the Assembly will conduct a plenary review of the progress made in the implementation of the recommendations of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) in October.  As 2004 marks the tenth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, the Assembly will also devote one day during this session to commemorate that meeting.

In other commemorative and conference review-related actions, the Assembly plans to hold an interactive dialogue on 10 December -- Human Rights Day -- to review the achievements of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, 1995-2004.  It will also devote one plenary meeting to observe the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family, and on 2 June 2005 it will hold a high-level review of the progress made regarding the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.

The Assembly also decided that the item on declaration by the United Nations of 8 and 9 May as days of remembrance and reconciliation would be considered directly in plenary meeting.  Introducing the item on Wednesday, the representative of the Russian Federation told the General Committee that he hoped such a dedication would lead the Assembly to hold a “special and solemn plenary meeting”, commemorating the unity of mankind around the goals of peace throughout the world.

The Assembly will begin its general debate on Tuesday, 21 September 2004 at 10 a.m.

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