Sixty-seventh General Assembly

Plenary

2^nd Meeting (AM)

General Assembly Approves Work Programme for Sixty-Seventh Session

 

The General Assembly, convening the second meeting of its sixty-seventh session and acting on the recommendations of its General Committee, adopted a programme of work which contained nearly 170 items.

Among the topics that the 193-member body is slated to consider this year are several agenda new items, including one — “Financing of the United Nations Supervision Mission in the Syrian Arab Republic” — which was proposed by the United Nations Secretary-General. A second new item, “Cooperation between the United Nations and the Central European Initiative” was proposed by Ukraine.

Other new items on the Assembly’s agenda included “Women, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control”, “Financing of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals” and “Addressing the socioeconomic needs of individuals, families and societies affected by autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disorders”.

As approved, the agenda of the sixty-seventh session also included items on “People’s empowerment and a peace-centric development model”, “Observer status for the Andean Development Corporation in the General Assembly”, “Observer Status for the International Chamber of Commerce in the General Assembly”, “Observer status for the European Organization for Nuclear Research in the General Assembly” and “Cooperation between the United Nations and the Central European Initiative”. 

As for the “Question of the Comorian Island of Mayotte”, the Assembly included that matter on the agenda  — under that item’s traditional heading “Maintenance of international peace and security” — but on the understanding that there would be no consideration of the issue.  On the “Question of the Malagasy Islands of Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Europa and Bassas da India” the Assembly deferred that item to its sixty-eighth session and decided that it would be included on next year’s provisional agenda.

The Assembly also allocated a host of agenda items under nine subheadings. During that discussion, the representative of Armenia took the floor to disassociate his delegation from the consensus decision to transfer the item on “the situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan” to the Assembly’s sixty-seventh session. 

In other action, the Assembly, also acting on the recommendation of its General Committee, decided to rename the agenda item “Implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development” as “Implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes on Sustainable Development and of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development”.

It decided that the delegations of the Holy See would participate in the sixty-seventh session as an Observer State, and that Palestine and the European Union would participate in the work of the session as observers.

With the adoption of its work programme and agenda (document A/67/250), the Assembly decided that its current session would recess on Tuesday, 18 December 2012, and close on Monday, 16 September 2013.  It further decided that its general debate would be held from Tuesday, 25 September, to Monday, 1 October, and continue on Saturday, 29 September.

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 Wednesday, 7 November; the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) by Thursday, 15 November; the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) by Friday, 30 November; the Third Committee (Social, Cultural and Humanitarian) by Wednesday, 28 November; the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) by Friday, 14 December; and the Sixth Committee (Legal) by Friday, 16 November.

The General Assembly will reconvene on Monday, 24 September, to hold a high-level meeting on the rule of law.

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For information media • not an official record