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14 March 2000

The General Assembly meets today and tomorrow to take decisions on assistance to Madagascar, the Millennium Summit and NGO participation in its special session on women.

At 3 p.m. today, the Assembly will take action on a draft resolution calling for assistance to Madagascar following the tropical cyclones. The draft (A/54/L.80) requests States and international organizations to provide additional emergency support to Madagascar to alleviate the economic and financial burden which the people of that country will have to bear during the emergency period and in the subsequent rehabilitation process. The Secretary-General is requested to make all necessary arrangements to continue mobilizing and coordinating humanitarian assistance from the specialized agencies, other organizations and the UN system in supporting the efforts of the Government of Madagascar. The Secretary-General, acting in conjunction with the relevant organizations and UN system bodies and in close cooperation with government authorities, is also requested to assist Madagascar in carrying out its rehabilitation efforts. The draft resolution is sponsored by Madagascar but is expected to gain many co-sponsors.

Tomorrow afternoon, 15 March, the Assembly will consider a draft resolution submitted by the President on the Millennium Summit of the United Nations. In that text (A/54/L.81), the Assembly decides that the Summit will be held from 6 to 8 September 2000 in New York under the overall theme "The United Nations in the Twenty-first Century"; that the Summit will be composed of plenary meetings and of four interactive roundtable sessions, each session held concurrent with a plenary meeting; and that, owing to the unique symbolic moment of the Summit, the country holding the presidency of the fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly and the country holding the presidency of the fifty-fifth session will jointly co-chair the Summit. The Assembly requests its President to hold consultations with all Member States in an open-ended process to take decisions on all outstanding issues relating to the Summit, including its outcome.

The two draft decisions before the Assembly deal with arrangements on the participation and the accreditation of non-governmental organizations for its twenty-third special session entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century", which will take place from 5 to 9 June here in New York. They were approved, on 3 March, by the Commission on the Status of Women acting as the preparatory committee for the special session. In the text on NGO participation (A/54/L.77), the Assembly decides that those accredited to the special session may make statements in the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole; that, given time, those NGOs in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council may also make statements in plenary; and that NGOs should select spokespersons among themselves and submit the list to the President of the Assembly through the Secretariat, for approval by Member States. By the second draft (A/54/L.78), the Assembly decides that non-accredited NGOs interested in the special session may participate, and should submit their application for accreditation to a committee composed of the Bureau of the preparatory committee and the Secretariat by 5 April. The Bureau would submit to the members of the preparatory committee, by 10 April, a list of the NGOs for approval. The Secretary-General is requested to disseminate widely to the NGO community all available information on accreditation procedures, as well as information on supportive measures for participation in the special session.