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28 October 1998

This morning, the plenary decided to include two additional items into the agenda of the fifty-third session, bringing the agenda of the session to 168 items. It agreed that the item entitled "Dialogue among civilizations" be discussed in the plenary at the date to be determined, while further consultations would ensue on the allocation of the item entitled "Armed aggression against the Democratic Republic of the Congo". The Assembly then proceeded with the consideration of the cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. A representative of Spain introduced the draft resolution A/53/L/12, and 19 speakers were inscribed to address the plenary in the debate of this item, with one additional speaker inscribed to address the Assembly after the vote.

This afternoon, the plenary will consider the third annual report of the International Tribunal for Rwanda. So far, six speakers have been inscribed under this item. The Assembly will then resume consideration of item 24, entitled "Implementation of the UN New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s, including measures and recommendations agreed upon at its mid-term review". There are still nine additional speakers to address the plenary in the debate of this issue.

Tomorrow morning, the plenary will take up first the request by the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, through the Committee on Conferences, to meet during main part of the current session, specifically next week, and then will consider the cooperation between the United Nations and the following organizations: Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee; Economic Cooperation Organization; Organization of Islamic Conference; Organization of African Unity; and the Caribbean Community. Draft resolution on all these items, except the one dealing with the cooperation with OAU have already been circulated.

As to the Main Committees, the First Committee resumed this morning its ongoing discussion of items 63 through 80 of its agenda and relevant draft resolutions; In the Second Committee this afternoon, a draft resolution on sustainable development and international economic cooperation will be introduced (Renewal of dialogue on strengthening international economic cooperation through partnership), as will four additional drafts on environment and sustainable development. The Committee will then open the discussion on the UN University, as well as on item 97 -- Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources. The Third Committee began this morning the consideration of the Programme of activities of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. The Fifth Committee is holding informal discussions this morning on Development planning, and this afternoon it will first take up the issue of Human resources management and specifically the Human resources management reform, with the introductory statement by the Secretary-General. It will then resume the consideration of the scale of assessments for the apportionment of expenses of the United Nations. And finally, the Sixth Committee resumed this morning the consideration of the report of the International Law Commission on the work of its fiftieth session.