Appointing New Members to Subsidiary Bodies, General Assembly Takes Action on Budget Committee Recommendations, Filling More than 20 Vacancies

The General Assembly today filled more than 20 vacancies in subsidiary bodies, acting on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), and also appointed new members to the Committee on Conferences, Joint Inspection Unit and the Economic and Social Council.

Acting by secret ballot vote, the Assembly elected Turkey and Spain as members of the Economic and Social Council to fill the remainder of the three-year terms of office that had been held by Greece and Portugal.  Turkey and Spain would join the 54-member body on 1 January 2017 until the expiration of those terms on 31 December 2017.

For that election, the Assembly had before it a letter dated 4 November 2016 from the Permanent Representative of San Marino to the United Nations (document A/71/604), announcing that, based on the Group of Western European and Other States’ rotation scheme, Greece had intended to relinquish its seat to Turkey and Portugal had intended to relinquish its seat to Spain.

The Assembly also appointed six members of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions: Takeshi Akamatsu (Japan), Marcel Jullier (Switzerland), Mahesh Kumar (India), Carlos Ruiz Massieu (Mexico), Catherine Vendat (France) and Ye Xuenong (China).  They would serve three-year terms of office beginning 1 January.  The Assembly acted on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee, as outlined in a report titled “Appointment of members of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions” (document A/71/589).

It also appointed five members of the Committee on Contributions — Chiekh Tidiane Dème (Senegal), Gordon Eckersley (Australia), Bernardo Greiver del Hoyo (Uruguay), Ugo Sessi (Italy) and Alejandro Torres Lépori (Argentina) — to serve three-year terms of office beginning on 1 January 2017.  In that regard, it was also acting on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee, contained in a report entitled, “Appointment of members of the Committee on Contributions” (document A/71/590).  It postponed the appointment of one remaining vacancy to the body, to be conducted at a later date.

Turning to the Investments Committee, it appointed eight members to serve three-year terms of office, beginning on 1 January 2017.  They were:  Masakazu Arikawa (Japan), Madhav Dhar (India), Simon Jiang (China), Achim Kassow (Germany), Nemir Kirdar (Iraq), Michael S. Klein (United States), Linah K. Mohohlo (Botswana), Gumersindo Oliveros (Spain) and Luciane Ribeiro (Brazil).  In doing so, it acted on the recommendation of the Fifth Committee, contained in a report titled “Confirmation of the appointment of members of the Investments Committee” (document A/71/591).

Acting on a report of its Fifth Committee, titled “Appointment of members of the International Civil Service Commission” (document A/71/592), the Assembly appointed five members to serve four-year terms of office beginning on 1 January 2017.  They were:  Larbi Djacta (Algeria), Mohammed Farashuddin (Bangladesh), Sergey V. Garmonin (Russian Federation), Wang Xiaochu (China) and El Hassane Zahid (Morocco).

The Assembly also reappointed two members of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee, Patricia Arriagada Villouta (Chile) and Natalia A. Bocharova (Russian Federation, for three-year terms beginning on 1 January 2017.  It did so on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee, contained in a report titled “Appointment of members of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee” (document A/71/593).

Turning to the appointment of eight members of the United Nations Staff Pension Committee, and acting on the recommendation of the Fifth Committee contained in a report of the same name (document A/71/594), the Assembly appointed the following members or alternate members of the Committee for four-year terms of office beginning 1 January 2017:  Dmitry S. Chumakov (Russian Federation), Hitoshi Kozaki (Japan), Lovemore Mazemo (Zimbabwe), Philip Richard Okanda Owade (Kenya), Pía Poroli (Argentina), Md. Mustafizur Rahman (Bangladesh), Thomas Repasch (United States) and Jörg Stosberg (Germany).

Acting on the recommendation of the Chairs of the Groups of the African States, Asia-Pacific States, Latin American and Caribbean States and Western European and Other States, the Assembly took note of the appointment of Austria, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Morocco and the United States to serve three-year terms of office on the Committee on Conferences beginning on 1 January 2017.  It did so based on information provided in a note by the Secretary-General (document A/71/107), which the Assembly had before it.  One seat from the Asia-Pacific States and two seats from the Latin American and Caribbean States still remained to be filled.

Turning to the appointment of members of the Joint Inspection Unit — for which the Assembly had before it two notes by the Secretary-General (documents A/71/178 and A/71/178/Add.1) — Assembly Vice-President Elliston Rahming (Bahamas) reminded Member States that they were required to fill four vacancies on the oversight body arising from the expiration of four terms of office on 31 December 2017.  While the Asia-Pacific States, Eastern European States and Latin American and Caribbean States had each endorsed one country for their vacant seats — namely, India, Russian Federation and Haiti — the African Group had endorsed two candidates, Gambia and Libya.  Therefore, the Assembly held an advisory vote by secret ballot, ultimately selecting Gambia as the proposed candidate from the African Group.  Gambia, India, Haiti and the Russian Federation would therefore be requested to submit to the Assembly the names and curricula vitae of their candidates to the Joint Inspection Unit.

The General Assembly will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Friday, 11 November, to hold a joint debate on “Integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields”, “Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit”, “Strengthening of the United Nations system” and “United Nations reform”.