Fifty-ninth General Assembly

Fourth Committee

26^th Meeting (AM)

FOURTH COMMITTEE APPROVES RECOMMENDATIONS ON RATIONALIZING FUTURE AGENDA

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) this morning approved, as amended, a non-paper containing recommendations to the General Assembly on the rationalization of its future agenda.

According to the non-paper, which will now be forwarded to the President of the Assembly, members of the Committee agreed that greater use should be made of interactive debates, panel discussions and “question time” with representatives of the Secretariat, United Nations experts and, in informal meetings, with other stakeholders.

Also, the interactive debate on “Comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects” should be divided up by chapters according to the reports of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping.  In that context, special attention should be given to the subject of peace-building in addressing post-conflict situations.

In order to retain and strengthen the political character of the Committee’s work, members agreed that the Assembly should consider allocating items of such nature to the Committee in order to allow for a more in-depth exchange of views and to benefit from the proposed interactive methods of work in the Committee.  In that context, items such as “prevention of armed conflict” should be considered.

Among other things, members noted that considerable progress had been made over the last years in streamlining the resolutions on the item “United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)”, and the importance of exploring the possibility of further streamlining.  They also agreed that the Committee should request the Special Committee on Decolonization to continue to examine possibilities to streamline its work and to present concrete proposals for further consideration by the Fourth Committee.

Committee Chairman Kyaw Tint Swe (Myanmar) said that, once adopted by the Assembly, the recommendations in the non-paper would serve to guide the work of the Committee in future sessions.  He thanked all members for their cooperative spirit in reaching consensus.

The next meeting of the Fourth Committee will be announced.

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