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4 November 1998

This morning, the plenary took up item 168, Dialogue among civilizations. Just before the beginning of the briefing, the Assembly adopted by consensus draft resolution A/53/L.23/Rev.1 which had been introduced by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nine other speakers addressed the Assembly on this item. Also this morning, the Acting President informed the plenary of the revised schedule of plenary meetings for the period from 10 November until 10 December. It is available in document A/INF/53/3/Add.3. No plenary meetings are scheduled for the rest of this week and for Monday. On Tuesday morning, the Assembly will take up the report of the Credentials Committee, report of the Economic and Social Council and the issue of Culture of peace.

This morning, the 1998 UN pledging conference on development activities was opened and it is scheduled to continue through tomorrow. At the yesterday's UN/FAO Pledging Conference for the World Food Programme, close to US$ 350 million was pledged. I will keep you informed of the outcome of the pledging conference held today and tomorrow.

As for the work of the main committees, the First Committee is continuing this morning taking action on the draft resolutions before it. So far this morning, it took action on three drafts, on the Convention on the Prohibition of Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction; on Nuclear disarmament; and on the Nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere and adjacent areas. The Special Political and Decolonization Committee is expected to conclude this afternoon the general discussion of the issue of the Comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects and take action on draft resolution on this item that is before the Committee (L.8). The Second Committee will begin this afternoon the consideration of the issue of training and research, specifically of UNITAR, before holding informal consultations with the Chairman of the Committee on the assessment of the Committee's work, and later on on a series of draft resolutions. The Third Committee continued this morning the general discussions of human rights issues, including the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who introduced the report and then opened a dialogue with the members of the Committee. Also this morning, the Committee is scheduled to hear introductory statements by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iraq; on the Elimination of all forms of religious intolerance; on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and on the situation of human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This afternoon, introductory statements will be made by the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of human rights in Myanmar; Nigeria; Haiti; Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions; and on Internally Displaced Persons. Also, three draft resolutions will be introduced in the Committee, one on the promotion and protection of the rights of children (L.14/Rev.1) and two on the eliminaton of racism and racial discrimination (L.24 and L.25). The Fifth Committee continued this morning the general discussion of the UN common system and UN pension system and this afternoon it is scheduled to conclude informal consultations on programme planning. The Sixth Committee is still continuing the consideration of the report of the International Law Commission on its fiftieth session.