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13 November 1998

No plenary meetings are scheduled for today. Yesterday afternoon, it was announced in the plenary that the consideration of item 30, United Nations reform, would be postponed to 23 November 1998.

This morning, the annual pledging conference for UNHCR is taking place. The High Commissioner, Mrs. Sadako Ogata made an introductory statement, which is available on the third floor. Soon after 1:00 p.m. the figures on the pledges received should be available and will be posted in the Spokesman's office.

On Monday, the plenary will consider in both the morning and afternoon sessions the report of the Secretary-General under item 20: Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance, as well as several sub reports of the Secretary-General and draft resolutions under this item. So far, 22 speakers have been inscribed under this item, five to introduce draft resolutions that will be before the Assembly.

As for the main committees, the First Committee is scheduled to conclude today its work at the fifty-third session, and it is meeting both in the morning and the afternoon to take action on the remaining draft resolutions before it. The Special Political and Decolonization Committee will begin this afternoon the consideration of item 86 -- questions relating to information. The Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information will deliver a statement introducing the report of the Secretary-General on questions relating to information. At 5:00 p.m. in the same conference room, following the conclusion of the formal meeting of the Committee, the Department of Public Information will inaugurate United Nations web sites in Arabic and Chinese, so the UN web site will now be available in all six official languages of the Organization. Of course, all of you are invited to attend the presentation of the new web sites at 5:00 p.m. in conference room 4. The Second Committee is holding informal consultations this morning on several draft resolutions before it. The Third Committee will take action this afternoon on several draft resolutions, including those on the promotion and protection of the rights of children, Elimination of racism and racial discrimination, and on Human rights instruments. Also, several other drafts will be introduced in the Committee. The Fifth Committee continued this morning the consideration of human resources management and concluded consideration of the report of the Secretary-General on the Office of Internal Oversight Services. It will also hold informal consultations on the Joint Inspection Unit. This afternoon, the Fifth Committee will hold informal consultations on the UN common system, as well as on the scale of assessments. The Sixth Committee is holding informal consultations this morning on the Draft guiding principles for international negotiations, under the item UN Decade of International Law, as well as on the draft regarding the report of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Organization. This afternoon, the Committee will hold a formal meeting to discuss the Status of the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and relating to the protection of victims of armed conflicts, and later in the afternoon it will hold informal consultations on the measures to eliminate international terrorism.