Sixty-fourth General Assembly

Plenary

2^nd Meeting (AM)

General Assembly Adopts Work Programme for Sixty-Fourth Session

Acting on the recommendations of its General Committee, the United Nations General Assembly this morning adopted the work programme and agenda for its sixty-fourth session, which contained more than 160 items.

Among the topics to be considered during the current session are nine new agenda items, one of which –- agriculture development and food security -– would be included under the heading of “Promotion of sustained economic growth and sustainable development in accordance with the relevant solutions of the General Assembly and recent United Nations conferences”.

The other new items to be considered are:  Global health and foreign policy; Cooperation between the United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization; Observer status for the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission in the General Assembly; Observer status for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in the General Assembly; Observer status for the International Olympic Committee in the General Assembly; Cooperation between the United Nations and the Collective Security Treaty Organization; Sixty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War; and Observer Status for the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region of Africa in the General Assembly.

The Assembly also decided to postpone its consideration of the traditional item on the “Question of the Comorian Island of Mayotte”.  It deferred to its sixty-fifth session an item on the “Question of the Malagasy Islands of Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Europa and Bassas da India”.

The Assembly also decided to allocate to its plenary and Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), the report of the Human Rights Council, on the understanding that the Committee consider and act on all of the Council’s recommendations, including those dealing with the development of international law in the field of human rights, without prejudice to States’ rights to present resolutions and decisions on all issues in the report.

In the Assembly’s plenary consideration of the report, it would be understood that the current agreement was in no way a reinterpretation of resolution 60/251 (2006) and that it would be reviewed before the start of the sixty-fifth session.  On that point, Cuba’s delegate requested that language in the Spanish version of document A/64/250 be the same as language contained in document A/63/252/Add.2.

Taking note of paragraphs 69 (a), (b), and (c) under the “Allocation of Items to the Third Committee” heading of its work programme and agenda (document A/64/250), the Assembly also decided to devote a special meeting at the end of the International Year of Human Learning, to be held on 9 or 10 December 2009.

With the adoption of its work programme and agenda (document A/64/250), the Assembly decided that its current session would recess on Tuesday, 15 December 2009, and close on Monday, 13 September 2010.  It further decided that its general debate would be held on Wednesday, 23 September, to Saturday, 26 September, and from Monday, 28 September, to Wednesday, 30 September 2009.

The Assembly also set the meeting schedule for its Main Committees.  During the main part of the session, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) would complete its work by Tuesday, 3 November; the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) by Wednesday, 11 November; the Sixth Committee (Legal) by Thursday, 12 November; the Second (Economic and Financial) and Third Committees (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) by Tuesday, 24 November; and the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) by Friday, 11 December 2009.

The General Assembly will reconvene at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, 23 September, to begin its general debate.

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For information media • not an official record