Back to top

Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly

Background

This item, which was included in the agenda of the forty-sixth session of the General Assembly, in 1991, had originally been proposed for inclusion in the draft agenda of that session by the President of the Assembly at its forty-fifth session (see decision 45/461 [page 24]).

The General Assembly considered the question at its forty-sixth to forty-eighth, fifty-second and fifty-third sessions (resolutions 46/77, 47/233 and 48/264 and decisions 52/479 [page 62] and 53/491 [page 62]).

At its fifty-fourth session, the General Assembly decided to defer consideration of the item and to include it in the draft agenda of its subsequent session (decision 54/491 [page 83]).

General Assembly continued its consideration of the item from its fifty-fifth to fifty-eighth sessions (resolutions 55/285, 56/509, 57/301 and 58/126, annex).

At its resumed fifty-eighth session, in July 2004, the General Assembly adopted a number of measures, inter alia, to reorganize the agenda of the Assembly; and decided to review the provisions of the reorganized agenda at its sixty-first session with a view to making further improvements (resolution 58/316).

its sixty-first session, the General Assembly adopted the proposed programme of work and timetable of the First Committee for 2007 (decision 61/516 [page 20]), the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) (decision 61/523 [page 21]), the programmes of work of the Second Committee (decision 61/544 [page 22]) and the Third Committee (decision 61/532 [page 28]) and the revised provisional programme of work of the Sixth Committee (decision 61/553) for the sixty-second session.

its resumed sixty-first session, in August 2007, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to submit, at its sixty-second session, an update to his report on the implementation of resolutions on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly (A/61/483); and decided to establish, at its sixty-second session, an ad hoc working group on the revitalization of the General Assembly, open to all Member States, to evaluate and assess the status of implementation of relevant resolutions, to identify ways to further enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency of the General Assembly and to submit a report thereon to the Assembly (resolution 61/292).

Documents
References for the sixty-first session (agenda item 110)

[Source: Annotated preliminary list of items to be included in the provisional agenda of the sixty-second regular session of the General Assembly (A/62/100, Corr. 1 and Add.1)]