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27 October 1998

Yesterday, afternoon, the President of the fifty-third session issued a statement on the agreement reached between Ecuador and Peru. It is out as a press release in both English and Spanish, and I hope you have all seen it.

This morning, the plenary took note of the report of the International Court of Justice, covering the period from 1 August 1997 to 31 July 1998. The Court's President, Mr. Stephen Schwebel, addressed the Assembly, as did eight other speakers. The plenary then opened consideration of item 24, and the progress report of the Secretary-General on the Implementation of the New UN Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s, including measures and recommendations agreed upon at its mid-term review. There are so far 23 speakers inscribed to address the Assembly on this item, so the plenary will continue into the afternoon.

Tomorrow morning, the Assembly will first consider the second report of the General Committee containing recommendations for inclusion of two additional items into the agenda for the session, and then consider the issue of cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. There are so far 12 speakers inscribed to address the Assmebly on this issue, and there is also a draft resolution, A/53/L.12, to be introduced by Spain. Tomorrow afternoon, the plenary will meet to consider the third annual report of the International Tribunal for Rwanda.

As for the Main Committees, the First Committee is continuing this afternoon the thematic discussion of items 60 through 80 of its agenda, together with relevant draft resolutions. The Special Political and Decolonization Committee continued this morning its general debate on the International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space. The Second Committee will hold informal consultations this afternoon on three draft resolutions -- under the items of Sectoral policy questions and on Sustainable development and international economic cooperation. Under the auspices of the Committee, a panel discussion on "Adjusting the role of Governments to Globalization" will be held today from 1:15 to 2:45 in conference room 6.The panellists will be the Director of Management Development and Governance Division of UNDP and the Manager of the Public Sector Management Unit of the World Bank. The Third Committee will hold two meetings today and conclude its discussion of the Elimination of racism and racial discrimination and Right of peoples to self-determination. The Fifth Committee will hold informal consultations the whole day -- this morning on the scale of assessments and this afternoon on the pattern of conferences. The Sixth Committee met this morning to continue the consideration of the report of the International Law Commission.