Fifty-ninth General Assembly

Fourth Committee

1^st Meeting (AM)

fourth committee adopts agenda, approves work programme

 

during organizational meeting

 

Body Also Establishes Working Group

On Outer Space, Introduces New Agenda Item on Mine Action

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) this morning adopted its agenda and approved its timetable and programme of work for the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly.

It also approved its working procedures, established a Working Group of the Whole on Outer Space and considered requests for hearings related to other questions under its purview.

At the outset of the meeting, Committee Chairman Kyaw Tint Swe (Myanmar) paid tribute to his predecessor, Enrique Loedel (Uruguay) and to members of the previous Bureau.  He also congratulated the new Bureau, which had been elected in June under new procedures, and charged them with their responsibilities.  The Bureau compromises:  Vice-Chairpersons Helfried Carl (Austria), Eduardo Calderon (Ecuador) and Andrej Droba (Slovakia); and Rapporteur Kais Kabtani (Tunisia).

According to the work programme (document A/C.4/59/L.1), a new item -- assistance in mine action (item 22) -- will be introduced in the Committee on 28 and 29 October.  In the future, that item will be considered in alternate sessions.

The current session will be opened by issues from the Committee’s annual roster, the first being issues relating to the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (item 20), which will be considered from 4 to 8 October.  Those issues include information from Non-Self-Governing Territories transmitted under Article 73 of the United Nations Charter (item 80); and economic and other activities that affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories (item 81).  Others are implementation of the decolonization Declaration by United Nations specialized agencies and associated international institutions (item 82); and offers by Member States of study and training facilities for inhabitants of Non-Self-Governing Territories (item 83).

The Committee is expected to consider international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space (item 75) from 11 to 13 October, the effects of atomic radiation (item 74) on 14 and 15 October, and questions relating to information (item 79) from 19 to 21 October.  From 25 to 27 October, the Committee is expected to take up the comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects (item 78).

On 1 and 2 November, the Committee will consider the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) (item 76).  On 4 November, it will begin its consideration of the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the OccupiedTerritories (item 77).  The Committee expects to conclude its work for the current session on 8 November.

With respect to the requests for hearings, an aide-memoire containing 23 requests relating to the questions of Gibraltar and Western Sahara, respectively was distributed.  There being no comments on the requests, it was decided that they would be circulated as a document for consideration at a later meeting.  It was also decided that any such requests from representatives from Non-Self-Governing Territories must be submitted by the chief elected representative of the people of each Territory.  In that vein, the Chairman informed the Committee that he had received communications from the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, who wished to speak before the Committee.

The Fourth Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. on Monday 4 October to take up issues relating to implementation of the decolonization Declaration.

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