Fourth Committee Approves Programme of Work for Seventy-Eighth Session
The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization Committee) approved its programme of work for the General Assembly’s seventy-eighth session today, covering topics ranging from the decolonization of the 17 remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories and United Nations peacekeeping operations to the plight of Palestinian refugees and the peaceful uses of outer space, among other items.
Opening the meeting, Committee Chair Mathu Joyini (South Africa) said the Committee has received 215 requests for hearings relating to the questions of the British Virgin Islands, French Polynesia, Gibraltar, New Caledonia, the United States Virgin Islands and Western Sahara, under agenda item 58, entitled “Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples”. The British Virgin Islands, French Polynesia, Gibraltar, Guam and New Caledonia also expressed their desire to send representatives to address the Committee under that same agenda item, she added.
According to the timetable contained in its organization of work (document A/C.4/78/L.1), the Committee will consider a cluster of decolonization issues from 2 to 11 October, hearing statements from representatives and petitioners of the Non-Self-Governing Territories followed by a joint general debate on the issue.
Among other items, the Committee will consider assistance in mine action on 12 October and the effects of atomic radiation on 13 October. It will then turn its attention to the questions relating to information from 17 to 19 October; international cooperation on the peaceful uses of outer space from 24 to 27 October; peacekeeping operations in all their aspects from 30 October to 1 November; and special political missions on 2 November.
The agenda items titled “United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)” and “Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories” will be on the Committee’s agenda from 6 to 9 November.
In other business, the Committee decided to establish a Working Group of the Whole to consider proposals submitted under the agenda item “International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space”. Acting without a vote, it elected Omran Sharaf (United Arab Emirates) as Chair of that working group.
The Fourth Committee will reconvene at 3 p.m. on Monday, 2 October, for introductory statements and its joint general debate on decolonization items.