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2 March 2000

The General Assembly will meet this afternoon, simultaneously with the Security Council, to elect one member of the 15-member International Court of Justice. The Assembly will also approve the appointment of the new Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, on the recommendation of the Secretary-General. Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab, who returned to New York last night after spending two weeks in Namibia, will preside.

The meeting is being held later today, at 5 p.m., to accommodate the UNIS-UN 1999-2000 Conference that is taking place in the General Assembly Hall today and tomorrow. The theme of the two-day Conference, which brings together students from all over the world, is "A Changing World: Examining Global Interdependence and Inequalities".

Addressing the students this morning, the President said: "Your generation is a product of an extraordinary age of knowledge and information on a global scale unlike anything ever known to humankind. You are born with computers in your brains and the Internet and website.com in your mouths. You are standing at the crossroads between a somewhat unremarkable past and shattering breakthroughs, brought about by science and technology, biotechnology, cyberspace and mind-boggling inventions in medicine, animal husbandry, explorations in space and the seabed". "But let us not forget today’s real world out there", the President continued, "the world of hunger, poverty, disease, illiteracy and man’s inhumanity to man…. I wish it were otherwise, but you will inherit this mess". "Each generation has its moment under the sun and is given an opportunity to make its own history. Now is your time and opportunity". Copies of the statement will be made available as soon as possible after the briefing.

The sole candidate for the ICJ post is Mr. Thomas Buergenthal of the United States, who has been nominated by the national groups of 15 States parties to the Statute of the Court. If elected, Mr. Buergenthal would fill the vacancy in the Court caused by the resignation, effective 29 February 2000, of Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, also of the United States. He would serve out the remainder of Judge Schwebel’s term, through 5 February 2006. Mr. Buergenthal is the Lobinger Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence, and Presiding Director of the International Rule of Law Center at the George Washington University Law School. He is also Vice-Chairman of the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland. His curriculum vitae appears in A/54/752; other related documents are A/54/750, 751 and Add. 1 and 2.

The Assembly will also act on the recommendation of the Secretary-General that it approve his appointment of Mr. Dileep Nair of Singapore as Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) for one fixed term of five years, effective 24 April 2000. Mr. Nair, who is Managing Director of the Development Bank of Singapore, the country’s largest, would replace Karl T. Paschke of Germany, whose term of office expired last November. The note of the Secretary-General is in document A/54/109.

The Assembly will take up the Secretary-General’s request on the allocation of the agenda item on the financing of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (A/54/237).

The President is also expected to comment, at the outset of the meeting, on the disastrous floods that have hit southern African, particularly Mozambique, and to urge the international community to respond promptly and generously to any request for assistance from the affected countries. He will also make an announcement concerning the law of the sea and ocean affairs.

Further, the President is expected to draw attention to the updated list of Member States in arrears in the payment of their financial contributions to the Organization, under Article 19 of the Charter (A/54/750/Add.1). Eight more States have made payments since 31 January, reducing to 44 the number of countries still in arrears. Document A/54/730/Add.1 should be available today.

Next week will be a busy one for several General Assembly bodies. On Monday, 6 March, the second meeting of the Open-ended Informal consultations of the Plenary on the Millennium Summit will take place. On Tuesday, 7 March, the President will open the first session of the Open-ended Working Group on the Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa. And from 6 to 15 March, the Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council and Other Matters will hold meetings. Also next week, the President travels to Asia, for official visits to Japan and Singapore.