ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT SEES SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE PREVAILING OVER TYRANNY OF BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS IN FIFTY-THIRD SESSION
UNITED-NATIONS
Press Release
GA/9540
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ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT SEES SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE PREVAILING OVER TYRANNY OF
BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS IN FIFTY-THIRD SESSION
19981218
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__Nuclear Disarmament, Financial Crisis, Human Rights Defenders,
Terrorism, Wye River Memorandum Impact, 2000-2001 Budget Outline among
Session Highlights
The financially constrained situation in which the Organization
continues to survive and carry out its tasks has adversely affected
the work and the outcome of the deliberations of the General
Assembly's fifty-third session on some important items, Didier Opertti
(Uruguay), the Assembly President stated on the occasion of the
conclusion of the session's first part.
"It is to be hoped that the Organization's largest debtors will soon
make the payments they owe and that forthcoming sessions will not be
held under the tyranny of budgetary constraints", he added.
Offsetting that difficulty, Mr. Opertti said, a spirit of cooperation
and compromise among all delegations had prevailed in the debates. He
cited, as an eloquent illustration of the spirit of understanding and
tolerance that seemed to be pervading the international community, the
resolution on the dialogue among civilizations. "In adopting it, the
General Assembly has opened another window to understanding and
solidarity among the peoples of the world", the Assembly President
declared.
He also cited the resolution on the question of equitable
representation on the Security Council as an example of "how much can
be achieved where there is a willingness to understand and
compromise". Progress on the substance of the matter was not expected
at this session, he said. "But this very brief resolution, 53/30,
whose significance is in inverse proportion to its size, will no doubt
be a contributing factor in creating a climate of mutual confidence,
and thus will promote what I hope will be fruitful negotiations", he
added.
During the first part of the fifty-third session, the underground
nuclear tests conducted in South Asia last spring by India and
Pakistan sharpened the nuclear disarmament debate in the Assembly's
First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), as the
overwhelming majority of speakers said the tests highlighted the
dangers of nuclear proliferation and changed the security landscape.
The texts on nuclear testing, a new agenda
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Assembly Highlights - 1a - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
for a nuclear-weapon-free world, and reducing nuclear danger provoked
particularly intense debate. Although discussion centred on the
nuclear question, the Committee also considered the regional and
international security threat posed by the illicit traffic in, and
proliferation of, small arms.
The world financial crisis triggered lively debate in the Second
Committee (Economic and Financial) on a number of macroeconomic policy
questions, focusing particularly on the role of the United Nations in
addressing them. Committee debate intensified over how to address the
threat of unregulated flows of private investment capital.
Disagreement centred on whether to simply strengthen the Bretton Woods
financial architecture or completely restructure it. The Committee
also took up the issue of corruption and bribery, considered an
impediment to national economic development. Socio-economic costs of
bribery were said to be enormous, and the greatest victims of
corruption, the Committee was told, were usually the poor.
The impact of poverty on the enjoyment of human rights was a recurrent
theme in the deliberations of the Third Committee (Social,
Humanitarian and Cultural), as many speakers addressed the
socio-economic impact of globalization on developing countries. That
led to great emphasis on the importance of the right to development,
which was reaffirmed as an integral part of fundamental human rights.
After 13 years of deliberations, the Assembly adopted on the
Committee's recommendation the document known as the Declaration on
Human Rights Defenders, stating that everyone has the right to discuss
and advocate human rights ideas. An eight-part resolution on the
rights of the child urged States and other parties to armed conflict
to adopt measures to end the use of children as soldiers.
During the deliberations of the Assembly's Fourth Committee (Special
Political and Decolonization), much attention was paid to the 23
October signing of the Wye River Memorandum between the Government of
Israel and the Palestinian Authority, by which Israel would withdraw
from another 13 per cent of the West Bank. However, besides the noted
progress, the Assembly continued to view the Israeli settlements as
illegal and an obstacle to peace. Acting on questions relating to
information, the Assembly asked the Secretary-General to report on the
design and scope of a pilot project on the development of the United
Nations international radio broadcasting capacity. It encouraged
exploration of ways of improving global access to airwaves of United
Nations Radio, noting that radio was one of the most cost-effective
and far-reaching media available to the Department of Public
Information (DPI).
The United Nations would enter the twenty-first century with about
$2.545 billion at its disposal, according to the budget outline for
2000-2001 that the General Assembly adopted on the recommendation of
its Fifth Committee
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Assembly Highlights - 1b - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
(Administrative and Budgetary). It also resolved to appropriate $1.261
billion for 1999 and, of that amount, assess almost $1.218 billion on
Member States. The same resolution endorsed the Secretary-General's
proposal to treat expected expenditures for special political missions
within the budget outline in future, rather than consider them
separate from the United Nations regular budget.
Setting the groundwork for the complex undertaking of devising a
comprehensive, global means of fighting terrorism, the Assembly, on
the recommendation of its Sixth Committee (Legal), decided that it
would discuss, during its next regular session, the question of
convening a high-level conference in the year 2000, under United
Nations auspices, to formulate an organized, international response to
terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. By another text, the
Assembly requested the Secretary-General to convene the Preparatory
Commission for the International Criminal Court, which will finalize
arrangements for the commencement of the Court's operations.
Highlights of the fifty-third session follow.
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Plenary
The General Assembly plenary opened its deliberations on 17 September
with a high-level dialogue, to review the social and economic impact
of globalization. During the two-day debate, which incorporated a
series of ministerial round table on international and national
responses to globalization, speakers acknowledged that, although the
process of globalization had opened up tremendous opportunities for
creating wealth, its rewards seemed reserved for the strongest of
economies. Speakers, among them many heads of State and government and
foreign ministers, warned that if that trend continued, globalization
would further widen the economic gap between the richer and poorer
countries.
While many speakers emphasized the "irreversible" nature of
globalization, others called for urgent steps to manage and reduce its
harmful effects. The need to develop a mechanism to address the
shortcomings of the process and facilitating access to markets by the
most marginalized countries, particularly African States, was stressed
repeatedly, not only during the opening segment, but throughout the
three-month regular session of the Assembly.
Closing that discussion, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the
international community must find a way to maximize the benefits of
globalization and "protect those who are in danger of becoming
victims". The Secretary-General said the United Nations broad mandate,
near-universal membership and ability to involve non-State actors made
it uniquely well equipped to help forge an international response to a
global crisis. Thus, the United Nations had a special responsibility
to insist on global solutions, based on global rules that were fair to
all.
The Assembly also held two weeks of general debate during which 160
representatives presented views on matters including: global trade and
development; international terrorism; peacekeeping, conflict
prevention and resolution; global disarmament; international
assistance and humanitarian support; as well as United Nations
activities and operations. During the debate -- concluded in two,
rather than three, weeks -- addresses were made by 26 heads of State,
one Vice-President, one Crown Prince, 15 Prime-Ministers, 14 Deputy
Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers and 105 Foreign Ministers.
Nelson Mandela, in what was likely his last address to the Assembly as
President of South Africa, told the general debate that even as he
grew "as ancient as the hills", he would continue to hope that a cadre
of leaders would emerge in his country and region, on his continent
and across the world, which would not allow any to be denied their
freedom, turned into refugees, condemned to go hungry or be stripped
of their human dignity.
In his first address to the Assembly, Iranian President Seyed Mohammad
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Assembly Highlights - 3 - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
Khatami said: "Let us hope that in the coming century the essence of
political power be compassion and justice, externally manifested in
dialogue between civilizations." Responding to remarks from the
President of Iran, the Assembly met later during its session and
expressed its firm determination to facilitate and promote dialogue
among civilizations, and it dedicated the year 2001 as the United
Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations.
Before the opening of the general debate, the Secretary-General
presented his annual report on the work of the Organization, in which
he stated that the "quiet revolution" of reform was happening: that
the United Nations family had begun to act with greater unity of
purpose and coherence of effect than it had a year ago. However, the
financial straitjacket within which the United Nations was obliged to
operate was the greatest impediment to its good performance.
The newly elected President of the Assembly, Didier Opertti (Uruguay),
on the role of the United Nations, said the Organization would be able
to do very little about the many pressing issues if Member States did
not fulfil their commitments to it. Noting that some challenges could
only be met if tools were upgraded, both at the political and
Secretariat level, he said the United Nations should continue "without
haste, but steadily", along the path of modernization and fine tuning
of the United Nations.
After two and a half days of debate on Security Council reform, the
Assembly decided no resolution or decision on equitable representation
or increased Council membership and related matters would be adopted
without the affirmative vote of at least two thirds of General
Assembly members. The Assembly took that action by adopting a
presidential text introduced near the close of the debate; a text
which the President said was the result of broad consultations and
which reflected the shared intentions of all delegations to reach
consensus on the sensitive issue.
The discussion that preceded -- which had, in past years, focused on
the mechanisms of enlargement of Council membership -- was dominated
by debate on a draft resolution introduced by Egypt. That draft
proposed that any resolution with Charter amendment implications,
among which would be a decision to change the Security Council
membership, must be adopted by a two- thirds majority of United
Nations Members, as referred to in Article 108 of the Charter. That
draft was subsequently withdrawn.
Article 108 of the Charter states that for an amendment to the present
Charter to enter into force -- in addition to being adopted by a vote
of two thirds of the General Assembly -- the amendment must be
ratified by two thirds of the Organization's membership, including all
permanent Council members, in accordance with their respective
constitutional processes.
During a related debate which followed the presentation by the
Security
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Council of its annual report to the Assembly, many speakers focused on
the need to add transparency to the work of the Council and enhance
the relationship between the two bodies. Speakers stressed the need
for better information on the Council's activities, with several
noting that non-Council members deserved better access to information
about the Council's work than the media.
Again this year, discussing the need to end the embargo imposed by the
United States against Cuba, the Assembly urged States, which applied
laws and measures with extraterritorial effects on the sovereignty and
the freedom of trade and navigation of other States, such as the
United States Helms-Burton Act against Cuba, to take the necessary
steps to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible.
In another action, the Assembly, calling for the immediate repeal of
laws which impose sanctions on corporation and nationals of other
States, urged States not to recognize or apply such extraterritorial
coercive economic measures.
Addressing an issue of concern to both the Assembly and the Security
Council, the Assembly discussed the causes of conflict and the
promotion of durable peace in Africa. Many speakers urged the
international community to focus on the root causes of African
tensions, such as entrenched socio-economic problems, chronic poverty
and ethnic tensions. It was, however, almost universally agreed that
the primary responsibility for assuring lasting peace and stability in
Africa lay in the hands of African leaders. In that regard, the
Assembly called on African nations to create an enabling domestic
environment for sustainable development and on the international
community to substantially increase the flow of financial resources to
implement suggestions of the Secretary-General on enhanced stability
on the continent.
Focusing on the economic condition of Africa, the Assembly discussed
progress being made in implementing the United Nations New Agenda for
the Development of Africa in the 1990s. Many African nations continued
to urge additional international efforts, including: debt relief;
support for greater market access; and enhanced levels of foreign
direct investment and of official development assistance (ODA). The
European Union said its members would work to improve market access
for all least developed countries by 2000 and to have in place by 2005
means by which those African nations would benefit from duty-free
access to the European Economic Community markets.
In related action, the Assembly urged the United Nations, States,
financial institutions and other bodies to fully implement
recommendations made during the mid-term review of implementation of
the New Agenda.
The Assembly also took action relating to specific African nations,
among them, it urged States and organizations to continue to assist
the people of
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Somalia in efforts to rehabilitate their basic social and economic
services, and it appealed to the international community to provide
resources and operational support to refugees and countries of asylum
in Central and Eastern Africa.
In line with the international community increased concern about the
year 2000 computer date conversion -- known as the "millennium bug" --
the Assembly appealed to Member States to collaborate on means of
effectively responding to the challenge before the deadline of 31
December 1999. It also requested the Secretary-General to ensure that
all parts of the United Nations system take steps to make their
computers and equipment with embedded microprocessors year
2000-compliant.
The Assembly again this year held broad debates on the situation in
the Middle East and the question of Palestine, during which many
speakers expressed support for the Wye River Memorandum signed by
Israel and Palestine in October. The parties were urged to sustain
political commitment so that the Memorandum could be fully
implemented. The need to curtail violence by extremist factions from
both sides was also underscored.
In a series of actions, the Assembly stressed the need for commitment
to the principle of land for peace, and the need for the immediate and
scrupulous implementation of the agreements reached between the
parties. Calling on all involved to work to bring the peace process
back on track, the Assembly stressed the need for the Palestinian
people to realize their right to self-determination and for the
withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
Also, the Assembly deplored the transfer by some States of their
diplomatic missions to Jerusalem. By a resolution on the situation in
the Middle East and the Syrian Golan, it called on Israel to resume
the talks on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks and to respect the
commitments and undertakings reached during previous talks.
Further, the Assembly urged the United Nations to intensify assistance
to the Palestinian people, in accordance with priorities established
by the Palestinian Authority. It also called on the international
donor community to expedite the delivery of pledged assistance to the
Palestinian people. In other action, the Assembly called on the
international community to increase assistance to ensure the success
of the Bethlehem 2000 Project, a commemoration of the new millennium
to be held in Bethlehem from Christmas 1999 to Easter 2001. The
Secretary-General was asked to mobilize support for the event launched
by the Palestinian Authority. Some 2 million visitors are expected at
the historic site, which is being promoted as a symbol of peace among
all people. During the debate on the matter, Israel said it stood
ready to cooperate with the Christian and Arab communities on the
project.
Addressing the situation of democracy and human rights in Haiti, the
Assembly renewed the mandate of the United Nations component of the
International Civilian Mission to Haiti (MICIVIH) until 31 December
1999. Urging leaders to
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continue efforts to resolve a lingering political crisis in the
country, the Assembly called on those authorities to mobilize
political will to reform and strengthen Haiti's system of justice.
Following debate on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the
Assembly demanded the full implementation by all parties of the
General Framework Agreement for Peace in that country, including
aspects on cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia. Specifically, the Assembly demanded that
parties hand over to the Tribunal all indicted persons in territories
under their control.
During the two-day commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, statements were made by 120
Member States, five Permanent Observers, the Secretary-General, the
Assembly President and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights. Six United Nations Human Rights Prizes were also presented and
a resolution on the Declaration and a decision on the observance of
the fifty-fifth anniversary adopted. By the resolution, the Assembly
reaffirmed the need for international assessment of the progress in
human rights since the Declaration's adoption and identification of
obstacles and ways to overcome them.
The Assembly also re-elected Sadako Ogata (Japan) to a further
two-year term as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Upon completion of her new term, which will run from 1 January 1999 to
31 December 2000, Mrs. Ogata would have served in her post for 10
years.
During a special commemorative meeting to mark the fiftieth
anniversary of United Nations peacekeeping, the Assembly paid tribute
to the hundreds of thousands of men and women who had participated in
peacekeeping missions and some 1,500 who had lost their lives in the
service of peace. Reaffirming the commitment of Member States to aid
peacekeepers in carrying out their mission, the Assembly welcomed all
efforts undertaken to assist them. As part of the Assembly's
continuing effort to enhance safety and security of humanitarian and
United Nations personnel, the Assembly called on governments and
parties in complex emergencies to cooperate fully with the United
Nations and other agencies to allow those personnel to safely assist
the affected civilian population, including refugees and internally
displaced persons.
The Assembly, also this session, marked the fiftieth anniversary of
the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide, which defines genocide and states -- whether committed in
time of peace or in time of war -- genocide is a crime under
international law. Governments were invited to identify ways to
overcome obstacles to implementing the Convention at the national and
international levels.
The Assembly also marked the twentieth anniversary of the Buenos Aires
Plan of Action -- an international framework to support technical
cooperation
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among developing countries. During that commemorative meeting, Deputy
Secretary-General Louise Fréchette said that, two decades later,
developing countries still needed: external capital and development
assistance; access to export markets and foreign exchange; new
technologies; and a fair and stable external environment. The "Group
of 77" developing countries and China proposed that the Organization
declare a United Nations day for South-South cooperation.
Reaffirming the commitments adopted by heads of State and government
at the 1995 World Summit for Social Development, the Assembly decided
that a special session on the implementation of Social Summit goals
would be held in Geneva from 26 to 30 June 2000. The special session
would provide the opportunity for a comprehensive evaluation of the
fulfilment of pledges made to give the highest priority to programmes
in support of social progress, social justice, the betterment of the
human condition and social integration.
Also this year, the Secretary-General presented the first Dag
Hammarskjöld medals, established by the Security Council in July 1997,
to the families of United Nations officials who lost their lives in
service of the Organization.
During the current session, the year 2002 was also proclaimed the
International Year of Mountains. The Assembly also proclaimed the
period 2001-2010 as the International Decade for a Culture of Peace
and Non-violence for the Children of the World.
The Association of Caribbean States and the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) were invited to participate in the
sessions and work of the Assembly in the capacity of observers.
The Assembly, fulfilling its Charter duty to elect non-permanent
Security Council members, elected Argentina, Canada, Malaysia, Namibia
and the Netherlands to two-year terms effective 1 January 1999. The
five other non-permanent members, which will serve for another year,
until 31 December 1999, are Bahrain, Brazil, Gabon, Gambia and
Slovenia.
Three judges were elected to the International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia by the Assembly. They were Mohammed Bennouna
(Morocco), David Hunt (Australia),and Patrick Robinson (Jamaica). The
newly elected judges will perform their duties at the third Trial
Chamber of the Tribunal, established by the Security Council this year
to try the large number of accused awaiting trial. The judges will
serve until 16 November 2001, when the terms of office of the current
judges of the Tribunal expire. By that election, the Assembly also
fully established the Third Trial Chamber of the Tribunal.
Eighteen members were elected to fill vacancies on the 54-member
Economic and Social Council. The new members, who will begin their
three-year terms on
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1 January 1999, are: Bolivia, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Denmark, Guinea- Bissau, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco, Norway, Rwanda,
Saudi Arabia, Syria and Venezuela. Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech
Republic, Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom were re-elected.
Among other elections on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee
(Administrative and Budgetary), the Assembly appointed Nazareth A.
Incera (Costa Rica), Ahmad Kamal (Pakistan), Rajat Saha (India),
Nicholas A. Thorne (United Kingdom), Fumiaki Toya (Japan) and Gian
Luigi Valenza (Italy) as members of the Advisory Committee on
Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), for a three-year term
beginning on 1 January 1999.
The President of the General Assembly is Didier Opertti (Uruguay), and
its Vice-Presidents are: Brunei Darussalam, Cameroon, China, France,
Georgia, Germany, Lesotho, Liberia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua,
Russian Federation, San Marino, Senegal, Suriname, Syria,
Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States and Yemen.
First Committee
The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) focused,
with particular intensity, on nuclear-related issues, including
nuclear testing, non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. The
underground nuclear tests conducted in South Asia last spring by India
and Pakistan sharpened the nuclear disarmament debate, as they
highlighted the dangers of nuclear proliferation. As a result,
traditional texts were subjected to renewed scrutiny, while new
resolutions sought to address the changing security landscape.
On the Committee's recommendation, the General Assembly adopted 49
disarmament drafts and decisions, of which 18 concerned nuclear
weapons.
By underlining the urgency for speedy nuclear disarmament through
comprehensive measures, a resolution, entitled "Towards a
nuclear-weapon-free world: the need for a new agenda", marked a new
dimension in efforts by the non-nuclear-weapon States to negotiate the
complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Introducing the text, the
representative of Ireland said it charted an agenda contingent upon
the unequivocal commitment by the nuclear-weapon States to approach
their responsibilities from a new perspective. Timetables could be set
and alternative approaches explored, but very little could be done
until those States demonstrated a commitment to the speedy elimination
of their nuclear weapons.
Representatives from some of the nuclear-weapon States, including
France and the United Kingdom, rejected the proposed agenda as neither
timely nor realistic, and said that the text failed to recognize their
progress in nuclear disarmament. The United States representative
objected to the
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"alarmist tone" of the text, and said that what was in fact alarming
-- yet not addressed in the text -- was nuclear testing by India and
Pakistan.
Indeed, the testing in South Asia was a central theme in the
Committee's debate. Consistent with the alarm expressed
internationally, regionally and nationally, the Committee approved,
and the Assembly adopted, a draft resolution expressing grave concern
over, and strongly deploring, those tests. While the draft's
co-sponsors said the resolution merely echoed international sentiment,
some delegations strongly opposed it. India's representative said the
text was discriminatory; it isolated India and Pakistan and did not
address all aspects of nuclear testing.
India, along with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe,
offered a broad range of amendments to the nuclear-testing resolution,
seeking to broaden seeking to broaden its focus to include all forms
of nuclear testing, nuclear non-proliferation, and the goal of the
total elimination of nuclear weapons. In response, the supporters of
the text, including members of the European Union, requested a series
of "no action" votes on the amendments. The Committee approved the "no
action" votes on four amendments, and the co-sponsors subsequently
withdrew three others. In the end, the text was adopted unamended by
the Assembly.
A draft resolution calling on all States to adhere to the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was withdrawn by its
co-sponsors, in the absence of consensus. India and Pakistan withdrew
their amendments, which had focused on the goal of nuclear
disarmament, and all forms of nuclear testing for the qualitative
development of nuclear weapons, respectively. Subsequently, a decision
was approved by the Committee and adopted by the Assembly, by a
recorded vote, to take up the item at the Assembly's fifty-fourth
session.
The events in South Asia also stimulated debate on nuclear non-
proliferation. According to one text, the tests challenged
international efforts to strengthen the global nuclear
non-proliferation regime and reaffirmed the importance of universal
adherence to the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
(NPT). Pakistan's representative objected to the reference on the
resolution to the South Asian nuclear tests and the omission of
subcritical nuclear testing by nuclear-weapon-States. The call for
universal adherence to the NPT was totally unacceptable, he said, as
South Asia had already been nuclearized. Still, many States supported
the text as a realistic vision of accomplishments and future
challenges.
A disputed text on a nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere drew
attention to South Asia's nuclearization by calling on States to
consider all relevant proposals for nuclear-weapon-free zones,
including in the Middle East and South Asia. In this case, Pakistan's
representative said that singling out South Asia for consideration as
a nuclear-weapon-free zone contradicted the established principle that
the zone's creation should be based on
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arrangements freely arrived at among the regional States. In a
separate recorded vote, the Committee retained the reference to South
Asia, as well as the paragraph that contained it.
The nuclear-weapon States opposed the text for different reasons. They
said that, since the land territory in the southern hemisphere, with
the exception of a few islands, was already covered by
nuclear-weapon-free zones, the draft sought to create a new
nuclear-weapon-free zone that included international waters. That
would be inconsistent with international law and unacceptable to all
delegations that respected the United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea, they said.
The Committee also approved a new text on reducing nuclear danger,
which called for a review of nuclear doctrines and for immediate and
urgent steps to reduce the risks of unintentional and accidental use
of nuclear weapons. Introducing the text, the representative of India
said that, despite all the talk of assured second-strike capability in
cold-war nuclear doctrines, the actual configuration for nuclear
weapons was launch-on-warning. The accidental use of that hair-trigger
alert posed a horrendous risk to humankind, he said.
During debate on the text, the United States representative called the
text yet another unrealistic nuclear disarmament resolution that
failed to acknowledge progress being made on unilateral, bilateral and
multilateral levels to reduce nuclear dangers. Using the same tired
rhetoric would not promote nuclear disarmament, he said. France's
representative said nuclear deterrence was an essential element in the
politics of national defence. Her country did not agree with the
draft's position that the existence of nuclear weapons was a threat to
international security and a contradiction to the principles of the
United Nations Charter.
By a narrow margin, a new text on regional disarmament was also
approved and subsequently adopted by the Assembly. Welcoming the fact
that there are currently no nuclear weapons stationed in Central and
Eastern Europe, the Assembly urged all concerned States to continue
making it possible to have no intention, no plan and no reason to
deploy nuclear weapons on that territory. Several representatives said
the text sought to impose a reality on an entire region against the
explicitly expressed will of the countries of the region. The
representative of Ukraine said the text failed to reflect positive
regional and international developments, including the new European
security architecture.
Although the nuclear question dominated the debate, the Committee also
took up the regional and international security threat posed by the
illicit traffic in, and proliferation of, small arms. General
agreement emerged on the need for a comprehensive approach to the
problem. Two texts were approved without a vote on curbing illicit
trafficking. Consensus could not be reached on a new text calling for
an international conference on the illicit arms trade, with
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disagreement arising over a provision affirming the right of
self-determination of all peoples. Some representatives stated that
the provision could be used to justify the misuse of small arms and
undermine the peaceful settlement of disputes. By a recorded vote,
however, the provision was retained and the draft was approved.
The Chairman of the First Committee is André Mernier (Belgium). Vice-
Chairmen are: Akmaral Kh. Arystanbekova (Kazakhstan); Raimundo
Gonzales (Chile); and Aleg Laptsenak (Belarus). The Rapporteur is
Motaz M. Zahran (Egypt).
Second Committee
The early tremors of a world financial crisis during the 12 months
preceding the convening of the Second Committee (Economic and Finance)
made steering the global economy safely through the crisis a central
focus of the Committee's work. The crisis triggered lively debate on a
number of macroeconomic policy questions and the role of the United
Nations in addressing them. International financial issues were
featured in eight of the 32 resolutions the Committee recommended to
the Assembly. The same spirit of cooperation which had characterized
the Committee's work throughout the fifty-third session prevailed, as
31 of the resolutions were adopted by consensus in the General
Assembly.
Committee debate intensified over how to address the threat of
unregulated flows of private investment capital, which was
destabilizing the economic systems of developing countries and risking
the marginalization of national economies. Disagreement centred on
whether to simply strengthen the Bretton Woods financial architecture
or completely restructure it.
The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social
Affairs, Nitin Desai, said Committee discussions about a new
architecture came at a time of a crisis of greater magnitude than any
of a similar nature over the previous 50 years. The Group of 77
developing countries and China favoured restructuring the Bretton
Woods institutions, and argued that a new, transparent, accountable
and participatory architecture was needed to strengthen international
management of the world economy, particularly in the monetary and
financial fields.
Other delegations, including the United States, favoured strengthening
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to deal with the
difficult financial conditions threatening many countries. They said
it should not be supplanted by agencies such as the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), nor should Member States
create a new world financial organization.
From that debate came a resolution by which the Assembly invited the
IMF to consider the possibility of establishing a regulatory framework
for short-term capital flows and trade in currencies, and it stressed
the need to endow the Fund
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with adequate resources to provide emergency financing to countries
affected by financial crises.
A number of draft resolutions concerning the Economic and Social
Council were also approved. By one, the Assembly decided that,
starting from the year 1999, proposals for the proclamation of
international years would no longer be submitted to the Assembly
through the Economic and Social Council, but would be submitted
directly to the Assembly, unless it decides to bring them to the
attention of the Economic and Social Council for evaluation. By
another draft, the Assembly proclaimed 2002 as the International Year
of Ecotourism. Those actions complement the Economic and Social
Council's increasing role in addressing concerns about globalization
and the world financial crisis.
The Committee also discussed effective mechanisms for small island
developing States in the areas of science and technology,
information-sharing and capacity-building, waste management, and
maintenance of freshwater, land and biological resources. In related
action, the Assembly urged those States to continue preparations for
the seventh session of the Commission on Sustainable Development and
its special session in September 1999 for the review and appraisal of
the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable
Development of Small Island Developing States.
In a related action, the Assembly invited donor countries and
multilateral financial and development institutions to continue to
help the landlocked States in Central Asia, and their transit
developing neighbours, with financial and technical assistance for the
improvement of their transit environment. The Committee's focus on
economic issues affecting African States resulted in a recommendation
that the Assembly strongly underline the importance of an enabling
environment for investment to achieve sustainable development in all
African countries, and facilitate the integration of African countries
into the world economy.
The Committee also recommended that the Assembly urge developed
countries to support the commodity diversification and liberalization
efforts of developing countries, especially African countries, in a
spirit of common purpose and efficiency. It expressed the urgent need
for supportive international policies to improve the functioning of
commodity markets through efficient and transparent price formation
mechanisms.
The Committee recommended seven resolutions to the Assembly on
sustainable development and international cooperation, including a
text in which the Assembly decided to hold biennially a high-level
renewal of its dialogue on strengthening international economic
cooperation for development through partnership. All were adopted
without a vote.
The Committee gave considerable attention to the subject of
operational activities for development, and recommended two draft
resolutions to the
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Assembly, both of which were adopted. A text on the triennial policy
review of operational activities for development of the United Nations
system stressed the need for all organizations of the United Nations
development system to focus field-level efforts on priority areas to
avoid duplication, and enhance the complementarity and impact of their
work.
The Assembly decided to postpone until its next session consideration
of arrangements for the special Assembly session to be held in the
year 2001 to review the achievement of the goals of the World Summit
for Children.
Also at the Committee's recommendation, the Assembly requested the ad
hoc open-ended working group on intergovernmental consideration of
financing for development to consider appropriate modalities to ensure
the completion of its work and the submission of specific
recommendations to the General Assembly at its next (fifty-fourth)
session.
Addressing the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, delegations argued that fulfilment of
commitments made by developed countries had not been satisfactory.
Despite pressure to involve the developing countries in new
commitments, the developed countries had failed to implement their own
obligations. On this and related topics regarding environment and
sustainable development, the Assembly adopted seven resolutions, and
stressed the need to accelerate full implementation of Agenda 21
(adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development --UNCED -- at Rio de Janeiro in 1992) and the Programme
for the Further Implementation of that agenda.
The Committee also took up the issue of corruption and bribery, an
impediment to national economic development. Socio-economic costs of
bribery were said to be enormous, with corruption raising transaction
costs and economic uncertainty, leading to inefficiency and
undermining a State's legitimacy. The greatest victims of corruption,
the Committee was told, were usually the poor. To combat the problem,
the Committee recommended, and the Assembly adopted, two texts on
sectoral policy questions.
In the only contested action of the Committee's session, a draft
resolution on the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in
the occupied Palestinian territory was adopted by the Assembly by a
recorded vote of 114 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States),
with 12 abstentions. The Assembly called on Israel not to exploit
natural resources in occupied Palestinian territory, including
Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan. During the Committee's
deliberations, representatives of the United States and Israel
expressed concern that the resolution may predetermine the outcome of
negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to settle
outstanding issues.
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At the Committee's concluding meeting, the Chairman, Bagher Asadi
(Iran), noted that the Committee had worked tirelessly to achieve
consensus on the elements of its work, rather than resort to voting on
issues. He attributed the Committee's success, in part, to a feeling
of all members being in the same boat during the debates on
globalization and the world financial crisis, as well as the
open-mindedness of the Committee members. The Vice-Chairmen of the
Second Committee are: David Prendergast (Jamaica), Burak Ozugergin
(Turkey), and Odyek Agona (Uganda).
Third Committee
Absolute poverty that inhibits the full and effective enjoyment of
human rights was a major theme in the deliberations of the Third
Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), as the world celebrated
the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and confronted the impact of globalization on the economies of many
developing countries. Those factors, combined with the difficulties
posed by the increasing fall in ODA and the burdens stemming from the
foreign debt problem, resulted in great emphasis during the
Committee's deliberations on the importance of the right to
development.
A resolution on the right to development -- reaffirming that right as
an integral part of fundamental human rights -- came close to being
adopted without a vote, but after intense debate it was opposed by the
United States. Explaining its position, the representative of the
United States said that while there was much to support in the
resolution, international macroeconomic policy-making, globalization
and debt relief should not be linked to rights, adding that it was
wrong and dangerously misleading to pin the blame for long- standing
problems of States in delivering basic amenities to its citizens on
current international financial difficulties.
The Committee once again adopted a resolution reaffirming that extreme
poverty and exclusion from society constitute a violation of human
dignity, that urgent national and international actions are required
to eliminate them, and that the poorest people should be involved in
the promotion of human rights and efforts to combat extreme poverty.
Speakers repeatedly stressed the indivisibility and interdependence of
all human rights, as well as the interlink between human rights,
development and democracy. Sanctions were broadly criticized because
of the harm they cause to the most vulnerable members of societies.
States were urged to refrain from adopting unilateral coercive
measures by another resolution. The Assembly reaffirmed that the
promotion, protection and full realization of all human rights and
fundamental freedoms should be guided by the principles of
non-selectivity, impartiality and objectivity, and should not be used
for political ends.
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On the recommendation of the Committee, the Declaration on the Right
and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to
Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms, which had been under negotiation for 13 years,
was adopted by the Assembly. The document, also known as the
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, states that everyone has the
right to assemble peacefully, to form, join and participate in
non-governmental organizations, associations or groups, and to
communicate with non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations,
as well as to develop, discuss and advocate acceptance of human rights
ideas.
The representative of Egypt, on behalf of 28 countries, told the
Committee that although it supported the Declaration, the exercise of
human rights and fundamental freedoms by individuals should not
undermine the sovereignty of States, their territorial integrity or
the principles of non- interference. Such rights were governed by the
Charter of the United Nations and by international human rights
instruments. In any case, no interpretation of human rights and
freedoms should be allowed that was not provided for by domestic law.
The exercise of such rights and freedoms must also be weighed in the
context of the cultural, economic and social backgrounds of the
concerned country.
The coincidence of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights with the five-year review of the Vienna
Declaration and Programme of Action provided an opportunity to asses
the progress that had been made in human rights work, United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, told the Committee.
She said the events of 1998 were not a cause for celebration, but for
a renewed commitment to the protection of human rights. Although the
world had come closer to making human rights the common language of
mankind, and progress since Vienna was unquestionable, in the last
five years there had been genocide, famine and disease, torture, and a
growing discrepancy between those who enjoyed the fruits of
development and those who did not.
Also addressing the Committee, Under-Secretary-General for Economic
and Social Affairs Nitin Desai said, while the world focused its
attention on the global financial crisis, the crucial issues of social
development should not be placed on the back burner. The highlight of
social development discussions this year was the launch, on 1 October,
of the International Year of Older Persons (1999), with the theme "A
society for all ages". Amid widespread agreement on the importance of
taking action in the face of the global trend towards ageing
societies, the Assembly adopted a text encouraging all States, the
United Nations system and other actors, to take advantage of the Year
to increase awareness of the ageing of societies, the contribution of
older persons to society and the need for a change in attitudes
towards older persons.
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Assembly Highlights - 16 - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
Many speakers praised the adoption of the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court. The designation of rape, enforced
prostitution, forced pregnancy and other forms of sexual violence as
crimes against humanity was particularly welcome. Women and children,
the Committee agreed, were victims of massive violations of human
rights in armed conflicts. Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the
Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, called for pressure
to be brought to bear on those who were abusive to women and children
in conflict situations. Members of the Committee agreed that children,
in particular, needed to be protected, as the victims of today were
likely to turn into the aggressors of tomorrow. An eight-part
resolution adopted by the Assembly on the rights of the child urged
States and other parties to armed conflict to adopt measures to end
the use of children as soldiers.
There was still far to go on the implementation of the Platform for
Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in
1995, many speakers noted. The Assistant Secretary-General and Special
Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Angela King, told
the Committee that the global financial crisis only made
implementation of the Platform more challenging. With the five-year
review approaching in the year 2000, the Committee adopted a
resolution deciding that the special session of the General Assembly
to review the implementation of the Beijing outcome should be entitled
"Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-
first century".
Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of the United Nations Office for
Drug Control and Crime Prevention, told the Committee that significant
breakthroughs had been made in the fight against organized crime, and
the myth of the invincibility of criminal cartels had been destroyed.
In a resolution on transnational organized crime, the Assembly decided
to establish an open-ended intergovernmental ad hoc committee to
elaborate a comprehensive international convention against
transnational organized crime, which had been widely supported by
speakers in the Third Committee. The Assembly also adopted a
resolution on the preparations for the Tenth United Nations Congress
on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, to be held
in Vienna from 10 to 17 April 2000, which will consider the theme
"Crime and Justice: meeting the challenge of the twenty-first
century".
Following the landmark special session of the General Assembly on the
drug problem, many speakers were optimistic about new measures of drug
control, and a resolution was adopted reaffirming that the fight
against the world drug problem is a common and shared responsibility
which must be addressed in a multilateral setting. On international
cooperation, the text urged authorities at all levels to implement the
outcome of the special session within the agreed time frames.
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Assembly Highlights - 17 - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
Regarding the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People
(1994-2004), governments were urged to participate in the open-ended
inter- sessional ad hoc working group set up to consider the
establishment of a permanent forum for indigenous people within the
United Nations system. The Assembly also recommended that the United
Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations be used to assist
representatives of indigenous communities to participate in the
deliberations of the working group.
The Assembly also decided to observe the year 2001 as the
International Year of Mobilization against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, aimed at drawing
the world's attention to the objectives of the World Conference
against Racism, that the Assembly's fifty-second session decided to
convene not later than the year 2001.
More than half of the 52 meetings of the Third Committee were devoted
to human rights questions, and on the recommendation of the Committee,
the Assembly adopted 64 resolutions and decisions, 30 of which were on
a broad range of human rights issues.
The officers of the Third Committee are: Chairman, Ali Hachani
(Tunisia); Vice-Chairmen, Victoria Sandru (Romania), Roger Ball (New
Zealand), Luis Fernando Carranza-Cifuentes (Guatemala); and
Rapporteur, Hassan Kassem Najem (Lebanon).
Fourth Committee
Based on recommendations of its Fourth Committee (Special Political
and Decolonization), the General Assembly again demanded this year
that Israel cease its construction of a new settlement at Jabal Abu
Ghneim, along with all its settlement activities in the occupied Arab
lands, including Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan.
Acting on issues presented by the Fourth Committee, the Assembly
adopted 23 draft resolutions and decisions concerning Israeli
practices in the occupied territories, Palestinian refugee relief,
decolonization, information questions, peacekeeping, the peaceful uses
of outer space, and the effects of atomic radiation.
During the session, much attention was paid to the 23 October signing
of the Wye River Memorandum between the Government of Israel and the
Palestinian Authority. Implementation of the accord -- by which Israel
would withdraw from another 13 per cent of the West Bank -- ended
almost a two-year deadlock in peace talks, and was supposed to be
followed immediately by intensive negotiations on a final settlement
that would resolve the thorny questions of Palestinian statehood and
the future status of Jerusalem. However, besides the noted progress,
the Assembly continued to view the Israeli settlements as illegal and
an obstacle to peace. It also called on Israel to guarantee the safety
and protection of Palestinian civilians in the occupied territory.
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Assembly Highlights - 18 - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
Also posing a serious threat to the peace progress was the structural
deficit problem confronting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The Agency's
financial straits portended an almost certain decline in the living
conditions of the Palestine refugees, with possible consequences for
the peace process. The Assembly, therefore, called upon all
governments, as a matter of urgency, to make the most generous efforts
possible to meet the anticipated needs of the Agency. Stressing the
1993 Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
Arrangements, the Assembly also expressed hope for an accelerated
return of displaced people through the mechanism agreed upon by the
parties. It reaffirmed that the Palestine refugees were entitled to
their property and to the income derived from their losses.
Concerning decolonization matters, the Committee discussed such
questions as the activities of foreign and other interests, military
activities in the 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories, the role of the
United Nations specialized agencies, information provided by
administering Powers, and offers by Member States of study facilities
for inhabitants of the Territories.
During the Committee's deliberations, delegates highlighted the
progress made in New Caledonia, and touted the Territory as a
successful model for decolonization. The Assembly, therefore, invited
all the parties involved to continue promoting a framework for the
peaceful progress of the Territory towards self-determination,
according to the letter and spirit of the Matignon and Noumea Accords,
which were based on the principle that New Caledonians should be able
to choose how to control their destiny.
Controversy arose during the Committee's consideration of Guam, which
was initially brought before the Fourth Committee in the context of a
stand- alone draft resolution. On 13 October, that text was deferred
at the request of the United States and, after extensive
deliberations, the Committee incorporated it into an omnibus draft
resolution, which addresses issues related to 11 territories, on 17
November. Following the compromise and adoption of that text, the
Assembly requested that the United States, as Guam's administering
Power, should cooperate in establishing programmes specifically
intended to promote the sustainable development of economic activities
and enterprises, noting the special role of the Chamorran people in
Guam's development.
On the subject of Western Sahara, many delegates expressed concern and
disappointment over the difficulties impeding the implementation of
the proposed settlement plan reached last year between Morocco and the
Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia el-Hamra y de Río de Oro
(Frente POLISARIO). The Assembly had taken note with satisfaction of
the progress achieved in the plan and had called upon the two parties
to cooperate fully with the Secretary-General, his Personal Envoy,
James A. Baker III, and his Special Representative, Charles Dunbar, in
implementing the various phases of the plan.
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Assembly Highlights - 19 - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
The Assembly also dealt with specific and general conditions in
Gibraltar, Tokelau, and the 11 Non-Self-Governing Territories grouped
together in the omnibus draft. Those were: American Samoa, Anguilla,
Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guam, Montserrat,
Pitcairn, St. Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United States
Virgin Islands.
Addressing the Committee twice during its consideration of questions
relating to information, the Under-Secretary-General for
Communications and Public Information, Kensaku Hogen, stressed that
the Department of Public Information (DPI) needed to harness the
latest information technology within the limited resources available.
Reorientation of the Department must meet the growing challenges
inherent in the advent of the age of information. Due to budgetary
constraints, the DPI needed to harness the latest information
technology within the limited resources available.
By a text on information in the service of humanity, the Assembly
urged all countries, organizations of the United Nations system and
all others concerned to ensure for journalists the free and effective
performance of their professional tasks and to condemn resolutely all
attacks against them; and to support the continuation and
strengthening of practical training programmes for broadcasters and
journalists from public, private and other media in developing
countries.
A second information resolution included a compromise worked out by
the Committee on Information, which was unable to reach an agreement
during its spring meetings and had resumed its session later in the
year. Following a consensus between the concerned parties, the
Assembly asked the Secretary- General to report on the design and
scope of a pilot project on the development of the United Nations
international radio broadcasting capacity, and encouraged exploration
of ways of improving global access to airwaves of United Nations
Radio, bearing in mind that radio was one of the most cost- effective
and far-reaching media available to DPI. The DPI was asked to maintain
and improve its activities in the areas of special interest to the
developing countries. It also decided to add Angola, the Republic of
Moldova and Solomon Islands to the Information Committee.
In action related to the Fourth Committee's work, the Assembly also
took decisions on two texts submitted directly by the Special
Committee on decolonization.
By the first text, on implementation of the Declaration on
decolonization, the Assembly called upon the administering Powers to
eliminate remaining military bases in the Non-Self-Governing
Territories in compliance with the relevant resolutions, and urge them
not to involve those Territories in any offensive acts or interference
against other States. The Assembly would call upon the administering
Powers to take all necessary steps to enable the peoples of the
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Assembly Highlights - 20 - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
Territories concerned to exercise fully, as soon as possible, their
right to self-determination, including independence.
By the second draft, on the dissemination of information on
decolonization, the Assembly asked the Department of Political Affairs
and the DPI to take into account the suggestions of the Special
Committee on decolonization to continue their efforts to publicize the
United Nations work in the field of decolonization through all
available media, including publications, radio and television, and the
Internet.
During the session, the Fourth Committee also took note that 1998
marked the fiftieth anniversary of United Nations peacekeeping, and
conveyed a draft declaration presented to the President of the
Assembly in commemoration of all those who had served in United
Nations peacekeeping operations. The declaration paid tribute to
hundreds of thousands of men and women who had, in the last 50 years,
served under the United Nations flag in more than 40 peacekeeping
operations around the world, and it honoured the memory of more than
1,800 peacekeepers who had died in the cause of peace. It also
recalled the awarding of the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize to United Nations
peacekeeping forces.
Bernard Miyet, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations,
addressed the Committee and said threats against United Nations
peacekeeping operations, as well as hostage-taking and killings of
mission members, had not prevented the Organization from deploying new
operations. He also noted that the United Nations Mission in the
Central African Republic (MINURCA), deployed last April, was playing a
decisive role in the consolidation of democracy and the promotion of
national harmony and economic recovery in that country. The deployment
in July of the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone
(UNOMSIL) was also a new example of the Organization's capacity to
collaborate constructively with subregional or regional efforts in
restoring the legitimate institutions of a State.
The Assembly also took action on Fourth Committee recommendations
relating to the report of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer
Space. The Assembly, among other things, endorsed the recommendations
of the Outer Space Committee in preparation for the Third United
Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
(UNISPACE III), to be held in Vienna from 19 to 30 July 1999. It also
agreed that, in view of the abbreviated schedule of work of the Outer
Space Committee at its forty-second session and the preparatory work
to be conducted for UNISPACE III, the Committee should suspend its
work on the following items for one year, to be resumed at its
forty-third session: consideration of ways and means of maintaining
outer space for peaceful purposes; and consideration of the item
entitled "Spin-off benefits of space technology: review of current
status".
The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic
Radiation was asked by the Assembly to continue its work, including
its
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Assembly Highlights - 21 - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
important activities to increase knowledge of the levels, effects and
risks of ionizing radiation from all sources. The Assembly also
invited Member States, United Nations bodies and non-governmental
organizations to provide the Scientific Committee with data about
doses, effects and risks from various sources of radiation.
The officers of the Fourth Committee were: Chairman, Pablo Macedo
(Mexico); Vice-Chairmen, Chun Hae-jin (Republic of Korea), Tomas Hrbac
(Slovakia) and Ferden Carikel (Turkey); and Rapporteur, Bernard
Tanoh-Boutchoue (Côte d'Ivoire).
Fifth Committee
The United Nations would enter the twenty-first century with about
$2.545 billion at its disposal, according to the budget outline for
the biennium 2000-2001 adopted by the Assembly on the recommendation
of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary). It also
resolved to appropriate $1.261 billion for 1999 and, of that amount,
assess almost $1.218 billion on Member States. The same resolution
endorsed the Secretary-General's proposal to include provisions within
the budget outline for special political missions that were expected
but not yet mandated.
The United Nations programme budget for 1998-1999 will be reduced from
some $2.532 billion to about $2.527 billion to reflect revised cost
estimates and the cost of resolutions adopted by the Assembly during
the current session, according to another resolution, on the programme
performance report.
On the issue of results-based budgeting, the Fifth Committee
recommended that the next programme budget proposal, for 2000-2001, be
prepared according to existing procedures, but the Secretary-General
was requested to submit prototypes using results-based techniques. He
was also requested to furnish the Assembly's fifty-fourth session with
a proposal comparing the two budget formats and justifying his
proposal to change the existing procedure.
The Assembly also approved two draft resolutions on financing the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and for the Former
Yugoslavia in 1999. For the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal, the Assembly
will appropriate a total of some $102.5 million gross, while for the
Rwanda Tribunal, it will appropriate nearly $75.8 million.
As a part of its consideration of the United Nations common system,
the Assembly approved a 2.48 per cent increased base salary scale for
Professional and higher categories staff. By a resolution on the
Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), the Assembly approved
an additional appropriation of $3.3 million, while also requesting
that the Secretary-General take action to ensure that related
activities are performed efficiently and economically
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Assembly Highlights - 22 - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
and that adequate and qualified staff are assigned to implement and
operate IMIS in all user departments.
On the scale of assessments, the Fifth Committee had agreed, as an
exception, to recommend exemptions to Article 19 of the United Nations
Charter, which strips Member States of voting rights when their
arrears equal or exceed the amount of contributions due from them for
the past two years, to two Member States -- Georgia and Guinea-Bissau
-- as the Contributions Committee's session had concluded. After
receiving three additional requests, it approved a resolution asking
the Contributions Committee to hold a special session in early 1999 to
consider those requests.
On pattern of conferences, the Assembly noted with appreciation that
the two holidays of Id al-Fitr and Id al-Adha are to be observed as
official holidays, and requested the Secretary-General to ensure their
strict implementation when preparing all future draft calendars.
The General Assembly appropriated funds for several peacekeeping
operations, including the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in
Western Sahara (MINURSO), the United Nations Mission of Observers in
Tajikistan (UNMOT), the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force
(UNPREDEP), and the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA).
Human resources management and the Development Account were two key
issues that the Fifth Committee decided to defer until its first
resumed session.
The Fifth Committee's first and second resumed sessions will be held
from 8 to 26 March and from 10 to 28 May.
The officers of the Fifth Committee are: Movses Abelian (Armenia),
Chairman; Manlan Ahounou (Cote d'Ivoire), Sharon Brennen-Haylock
(Bahamas) and Miles Armitage (Australia), Vice-Chairmen; and Tammam
Sulaiman (Syria), Rapporteur.
Sixth Committee
The Assembly, acting on recommendations of its Sixth Committee
(Legal), continued to develop an international legal mechanism for
combating terrorism by deciding: to finalize a draft convention on the
suppression of nuclear terrorism; to begin drafting a convention on
suppression of terrorist financing; and to, subsequently, begin work
on a comprehensive international convention to combat terrorism.
The Assembly charged its Ad Hoc Committee on international terrorism
-- established in 1996 to further develop a comprehensive body of
legal conventions dealing with international terrorism -- with those
efforts. Specifically, the
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Assembly decided the Ad Hoc Committee will meet from 15 to 26 March
1999 to resolve pending matters relating to the nuclear terrorism
convention and to initiate drafting of the convention on terrorist
financing. The Assembly recommended that work not concluded during the
March meeting be addressed during the next Assembly session by the
Sixth Committee's working group on terrorism, and that the Ad Hoc
Committee be reconvened in 2000 to further continue the process.
Setting the groundwork for the complex undertaking of devising a
comprehensive, global means of fighting terrorism, the Assembly also
decided that it would discuss, during its next regular session, the
question of convening a high-level conference in the year 2000, under
United Nations auspices, to formulate an organized, international
response to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
During debate in the Committee on the draft convention on nuclear
terrorism -- which, in its current form, defines offences which States
would be required to criminalize and outlines a
prosecution-or-extradition scheme for offenders -- the hope was
expressed that the new convention could be finalized within the next
year. Whether the draft convention would exclude official activities
of armed forces from the acts it defines as nuclear terrorism is among
matters to be resolved by the Ad Hoc Committee.
The drafting of the two new conventions is part of a practical
sectoral approach to combating terrorism adopted by the international
community, under which 11 international instruments have been
concluded dealing with specific manifestations of terrorism -- such as
hijacking, bombings and hostage-taking. Although address of
contentious issues, such as an internationally accepted definition of
terrorism, has been postponed, the international community has been
able to strengthen the legal mechanism for fighting terrorism and set
the stage for formulating a comprehensive approach to the matter.
Regarding the establishment of the International Criminal Court, the
Assembly requested the Secretary-General to convene the Preparatory
Commission for the Court, which will finalize arrangements, without
undue delay, for the commencement of the Court's operations. Accepting
the recommendations of the Sixth Committee, the Assembly requested
that the Commission hold three meetings in 1999 -- 16 to 26 February;
26 July to 13 August; and 29 November to 17 December.
The Commission's mandate includes preparation of rules of procedure
and evidence; elements of crimes; a relationship agreement between the
Court and the United Nations; basic principles governing a
headquarters agreement to be negotiated between the Court and the host
country (Netherlands); and a budget for the first financial year. The
Assembly called for the completion of the draft texts of the rules of
procedure and evidence and of the elements of crimes before 30 June
2000.
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The Secretary-General was asked to invite organizations and other
entities to participate in the sessions and work of the Court's
Preparatory Commission. The Chairman of the Sixth Committee,
Jargalsaikhany Enkhsaikhan (Mongolia), said that the way had been
opened for participation of all States in the work of the Commission,
including those that had voted against the Statute of the new Court in
Rome.
As of mid-December, 68 countries had signed the Court's Statute,
adopted by the international community in Rome in July.
Following other recommendations of the Sixth Committee, the Assembly,
in an effort to enhance the protection of diplomats and
representatives of consular missions, urged States to strictly
observe, implement and enforce the principles and rules of
international law governing diplomatic and consular relations. States
were also asked to take all measures at the national and international
levels to prevent any acts of violence against missions,
representatives or other diplomatic officials. While voicing alarm
about recent acts of violence which have endangered or taken innocent
lives and seriously impeded the normal work of such officials, the
Assembly urged States to ensure that such acts are fully investigated
with a view to bringing offenders to justice.
In regard to the Committee on Relations with the Host Country, which
reports to the Assembly through the Sixth Committee, the Assembly
accepted the Host Country Committee's request that its membership of
15 be increased by four members, including one each from Africa, Asia,
Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern European States. The new
members of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country will be
chosen by the General Assembly President, in consultation with the
regional groups.
Reviewing work of international legal bodies which report annually to
the Assembly, the Sixth Committee discussed efforts of the
International Law Commission and specifically reviewed draft articles
of a convention on jurisdictional immunities of States and their
property adopted recently by the International Law Commission. As
recommended by the Committee, the Assembly took note of the
Commission's recommendation that an international conference of
plenipotentiaries be convened to examine the draft articles and
conclude a convention on the subject. It decided to establish an
open-ended working group of the Sixth Committee to consider any
substantive outstanding matters relating to the draft articles on
jurisdictional immunities.
Following the Committee's review of the work of the United Nations
Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Assembly
stressed how important the conventions of UNCITRAL were for
harmonizing international trade law. To that end, States were urged to
sign, ratify or accede to UNCITRAL conventions. The Assembly,
reaffirming UNCITRAL's mandate to coordinate legal activities in the
field of international law, called on the United Nations and
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Assembly Highlights - 25 - Press Release GA/9540 18 December 1998
other international organizations to avoid duplication, while
promoting harmonization of international trade law.
In all, the Sixth Committee approved 13 draft resolutions and one
draft decision, which the Assembly adopted without a vote.
The Committee's Chairman is Jargalsaikhany Enkhsaikhan (Mongolia); its
Vice-Chairmen are: Phakiso Mochochoko (Lesotho), Socorro Flores Liera
(Mexico) and Hendrikus Verweij (Netherlands); and its Rapporteur is
Rytis Paulauskas (Lithuania).