Sixty-seventh General Assembly

Fourth Committee

1^st Meeting (AM)

Fourth Committee, Meeting Briefly in Organizational Session, Approves Work

 

Programme, Ahead of Debate Monday on Decolonization

 

In a brief organizational meeting today, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) approved its work programme for the current session, containing more than a dozen topics for consideration, including the effects of atomic radiation, questions relating to the University of Peace, and the granting of independence to Non-Self-Governing Territories and peoples.

Committee Chair Nelson Messone ( Gabon) welcomed the Vice-Chairs of the Committee for the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly, Ayesha Borland ( Belize), Dimitrios Felopoulos ( Greece) and Maratee Nalita Andamo ( Thailand) and the Rapporteur, Zulfi Ismail (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).

According to its work programme (document A/C.4/67/L/1), the Committee would first consider a collection of items relating to decolonization during a general debate, from 8 to 15 October.

The Chair informed the Committee that he had received an aide-memoire (document 01/12) containing 73 requests for hearings related to the questions of Guam, Turks and Caicos, and Western Sahara, to be circulated in the room at the next meeting.  Further, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar and the President of the Government of New Caledonia would be addressing the Committee under the agenda item relating to Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

The Committee would devote one meeting on 17 October to consider the University for Peace, followed by two meetings, from 18 to 19 October, on the peaceful uses of outer space.  The Committee also agreed, as in previous years, to establish a working group on outer space, to be chaired by the delegation of Japan.

During three meetings, from 23 to 25 October, the Committee would consider questions relating to information.  The Committee would then hold a comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations, from 29 October to 1 November.  On 2 November, it would consider the effects of atomic radiation.  Concerning the Middle East, the Committee would consider aspects related to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), from 6 November to 7 November.  On 9, 12, and 13 November, the Committee would take up the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.

The Committee was expected to conclude its work by 15 November.

The Fourth Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. on Monday, 8 October, to begin its consideration of the issues relating to the implementation of the decolonization Declaration.

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For information media • not an official record