Rules of procedure

Annex VI a

Conclusions of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations
and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization
concerning the rationalization of the procedures of the General Assembly (a)

1. The agenda of the sessions of the General Assembly should be simplified as much as possible by grouping or merging related items, after consultation and with the agreement of the delegations concerned. [The view was expressed that the agreement of the delegations concerned was not an essential condition.]

2. Specific items should be referred, where relevant, to other United Nations organs or to specialized agencies. The right of States to request that specific items be discussed in the General Assembly should remain unimpaired.

3. The recommendation in paragraph 28 of annex IV to the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, according to which the Assembly should ensure, as far as possible, that the same questions, or the same aspects of a question, are not considered by more than one Main Committee, should be more fully implemented, except when it would be helpful for the Sixth Committee to be consulted on the legal aspects of questions under consideration by other Main Committees.

4. The General Committee should play more fully its role under rule 42 of the rules of procedure and paragraphs 1 and 2 of General Assembly decision 34/401, reviewing periodically the work of the Assembly and making the necessary recommendations.

5. The Chairmen of the Main Committees should take the initiative, in the light of past experience, to propose the grouping of similar or related items and the holding of a single general debate on them.

6. The Chairmen of the Main Committees should propose to the Committee the closing of the list of speakers on each item at a suitably early stage.

7. Agreed programmes of work should be respected. To this end, meetings should start at the scheduled time and the time allotted for meetings should be fully utilized.

8. The officers of each Main Committee should review periodically the progress of work. In case of need, they should propose appropriate measures to ensure that the work remains on schedule.

9. Negotiation procedures should be carefully selected to suit the particular subject matter.

10. The Secretariat should facilitate informal consultations by providing adequate conference services. [The view was expressed that the agreement of the delegations concerned was not an essential condition.]

11. The mandate of subsidiary organs should be carefully defined in order to avoid overlapping and duplication of work. The General Assembly should also review periodically the usefulness of its subsidiary organs.

12. Resolutions should be as clear and succinct as possible.

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(a) By resolution 39/88 B of 13 December 1984, the General Assembly approved the conclusions of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization concerning the rationalization of the procedures of the General Assembly and decided that they should be annexed to the rules of procedures these conclusions are reproduced in the present annex.

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