Economic and Social Council

2008 Organizational Session

2^nd Meeting (AM)

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL DECIDES TO CONVENE HIGH-LEVEL MEETING WITH BRETTON

WOODS, WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE 14 APRIL

Council Approves Provisional Agenda for 2008 Substantive Session, Adopts

Working Arrangements, Including Dates for High-Level Segment, 30 June to 3 July

Acting on a number of organizational issues, the Economic and Social Council this morning decided that its special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development would be held at Headquarters on 14 April.

The Council also approved, as orally corrected, the provisional agenda for its 2008 substantive session and took note of the list of questions for inclusion in the basic programme of work for 2009.

Adopting the working arrangements for this year’s substantive session, the Council agreed that it would include a high-level segment (30 June to 3 July); a dialogue with Executive Secretaries of the Regional Commissions (7 July); a coordination segment (7 to 9 July); an operational activities segment (10 to 14 July); a humanitarian affairs segment (15 to 17 July); and a general segment (18 to 24 July).  The substantive session would conclude on 25 July.

It was also decided that the operational activities segment would be devoted to progress on and implementation of General Assembly resolution 62/208 on the triennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system.  The Council would revert, at a later date, to the theme of the 2008 substantive session on regional cooperation, as well as the possible joint event of the operational activities and humanitarian affairs segments.

While the provisional agenda for the organizational session (document E/2008/2) was adopted at the first organizational meeting on 14 January, Council members were provided with additional information relating to that document and proposed basic programme of work for 2008 and 2009 (document E/2008/1).

The Council’s Secretary noted that, by its resolution 2007/39, the Council had asked the Secretary-General to prepare a comprehensive report addressing the financing of the work of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, for consideration during the Council’s 2008 organizational session.  By its decision 2007/213, the Council had decided to include a discussion on promoting an integrated approach to rural development in developing countries for poverty eradication and sustainable development as part of this year’s substantive session.  The Secretary also presented oral corrections to the list of documents related to the follow-up to policy recommendations of the General Assembly and the Council in document E/2008/1.

The Council also took note of the report of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on its thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh sessions (document E/2007/22), and postponed to a later date its consideration of the question of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters and the application of an intergovernmental organization, International Emergency Management Organization, for observer status with the Council.

In connection with Council decision 2007/247, by which consideration of the draft annex to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of Specialized Agencies relating to the World Tourism Organization had been deferred to the Council’s 2008 substantive session, with the proviso that the item could be taken up earlier and a decision adopted without any debate, the Council President, Leo Merores of Haiti, said that he would be consulting with the Bureau as to the timing of further consideration of the matter.

Turning to a number of vacancies in its subsidiary bodies, the Council elected, by acclamation, Slovakia to the Commission for Social Development for the term expiring at the close of the Commission’s forty-ninth session in 2011.  It approved the Secretary-General’s nomination of Jennifer Dorn of the United States to serve, in her personal capacity, on the Committee of Experts on Public Administration for a term expiring on 31 December 2009.

Following the resignation of three members of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, the Council took note of the Secretary-General’s appointment of Christian Comolet-Tirman of France, Liselott Kana of Chile, and Robin Oliver of New Zealand to that body.   Denmark was elected to the Programme Coordination Board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS for the term expiring on 31 December of this year.

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For information media • not an official record