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First Committee

Allocation of agenda items to the First Committee
 

Letter dated 15 September 1998 from the President of the General Assembly to the Chairman of the First Committee
 
 

I have the honour to transmit to you herewith the decisions taken by the fifty-third session of the General Assembly at the 3rd plenary meeting of its fifty-third session pertaining to the allocation of items to the First Committee.

I wish to draw your attention to the recommendations on the organization of the session contained in section II of the report of the General Committee (A/53/250). Those recommendations were approved by the General Assembly, also at its 3rd plenary meeting.

May I also draw your attention to paragraph 45 of section IV and to the relevant part of paragraph 59 of section V of the report concerning the agenda of the Main Committees.
 
I earnestly request your cooperation in these matters.
 

(Signed) Didier Opertti
 

Annex
 

Allocation of items to the First Committee
 

1. Role of science and technology in the context of international security, disarmament and other related fields (item 63).

2. Maintenance of international security - prevention of the violent disintegration of States (item 64).

3. Reduction of military budgets (item 65):
 
    (a) Reduction of military budgets;
 
    (b) Objective information on military matters, including transparency of military expenditures.
 
4. Role of science and technology in the context of international security and disarmament (item 66).
 
5. Establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the region of the Middle East (item 67).
 
6. Establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in South Asia (item 68).
 
7. Conclusion of effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or
    threat of use of nuclear weapons (item 69).
 
8. Prevention of an arms race in outer space (item 70).

9. General and complete disarmament (item 71):
 [The General Assembly decided that the relevant paragraphs of the annual report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (A/53/286), which is to be considered directly in plenary meeting under item 14, should be drawn to the attention of the First Committee in connection with its consideration of item 71.]
 
    (a) Notification of nuclear tests;

    (b) Further measures in the field of disarmament for the prevention of an arms race on the seabed and the ocean
          floor and in the subsoil thereof: report of the Secretary-General;
 
    (c) Measures to uphold the authority of the 1925 Geneva Protocol;
 
    (d) Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines
          and on Their Destruction;

    (e) Transparency in armaments;
 
    (f) Assistance to States for curbing the illicit traffic in small arms and collecting them;
 
    (g) Relationship between disarmament and development;
 
    (h) Observance of environmental norms in the drafting and implementation of agreements on disarmament and
          arms control;
 
    (i) Convening of the fourth special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament;
 
    (j) Consolidation of peace through practical disarmament measures;

    (k) Contributions towards banning anti-personnel landmines;
 
    (l) Prohibition of the dumping of radioactive wastes;
 
    (m) Small arms;
 
    (n) Nuclear disarmament;
 
    (o) Nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere and adjacent areas;
 
    (p) Follow-up to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use
          of Nuclear Weapons;
 
    (q) Regional disarmament;
 
    (r) Conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels;
 
    (s) Establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia;
 
    (t) Implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use
         of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction.

10. Review and implementation of the Concluding Document of the Twelfth Special Session of the General
      Assembly (item 72):
 
    (a) United Nations Disarmament Information Programme;

    (b) United Nations disarmament fellowship training and advisory services;
 
    (c) United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific;
 
    (d) Regional confidence-building measures: activities of the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on
          Security Questions in Central Africa;
 
    (e) Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear Weapons.
 
11. Review of the implementation of the recommendations and decisions adopted by the General Assembly at its
      tenth special session (item 73):
 
    (a) Report of the Disarmament Commission;
 
    (b) Report of the Conference on Disarmament;
 
    (c) Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters;
 
    (d) United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research.
 
12. The risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East (item 74).
 
13. Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be
      Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (item 75).
 
14. Strengthening of security and cooperation in the Mediterranean region (item 76).
 
15. Consolidation of the regime established by the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin
      America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco) (item 77).
 
16. Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological)
      and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (item 78).

17. Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (item 79).
 
18. Rationalization of the work and reform of the agenda of the First Committee (item 80).