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11 October 1999

The General Assembly meets this afternoon to consider the second report of the General Committee (A/54/250/Add.1).

The report recommends that the Assembly include in the agenda of its current session an additional item, entitled "Observer Status for the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries in the General Assembly" (A/54/232); that it include a sub-item entitled "Relocation of South Africa to the group of Member States set out in paragraph 3 (c) of General Assembly resolution 43/232" (A/54/233); and that the Assembly consider directly in plenary the sub-item entitled "Follow-up of the World Summit for Children", as requested by the Chairman of the Second Committee (A/54/438).

The Assembly will then hear the remaining five speakers on the Report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization (A/54/1), after which it will take note of the report.

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) this morning began its general debate on all disarmament and international security agenda items. Opening the discussion, the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, said the Committee would be taking up some timely and very complex issues on the international security agenda. This challenge had been rendered all the more formidable by a number of developments over the last year that had jeopardized existing disarmament agreements, while at the same time, military expenditures were once again on the rise in many countries. These events, which included a significant increase in 1998 in the frequency of intra-state wars, only further underscored the vital role that the United Nations must play in upholding existing norms of international peace and security in forging the necessary political will to establish new agreements.

He said: "Together, we must refuse to accept that war, weapons of mass destruction, or the excessive accumulation or illicit transfer of arms are now just hallmarks of the natural human condition. We must reaffirm our collective commitments to the principles of the Charter, including the peaceful settlement of disputes and the duty to protect non-combatants in wartime environments". The Committee’s debate concludes on 20 October.

At two meetings today, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) is concluding debate on macroeconomic policy questions. Various reports of the Secretary-General, on science and technology for development and on external debt crisis and development, are before the Committee.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) is meeting this afternoon to take up two items: advancement of women, and implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women.

Among documents on the advancement of women is a report of the Secretary-General on improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat (A/54/405). It states that notable progress has been made in improving the representation of women at the D-1 level. However, it continues, the progress in improving the representation of women overall is still limited, owing to the lower rate at which women are recruited into the Secretariat and the relatively small number of appointments made each year compared to the size of the staff population.

Other documents include: the report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on its twentieth and twenty-first sessions (A/54/38/Rev.1); three reports by the Secretary-General, on traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women (A/54/341), on improvement of the situation of women in rural areas (A/54/123-E/1999/66) and on violence against migrant women workers (A/54/342); a note by the Secretary transmitting reports on the activities of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)(A/54/225), and another transmitting an evaluation by the Joint Inspection Unit of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) (A/54/156-E/1999/102).

Concerning implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Committee has before it the report of the Commission on the Status of Women acting as the preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly, entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace in the twenty-first century" (E/1999/60 and Add.1). The report contains a draft resolution, for adoption by the Assembly, on preparations for the special session. A report of the Secretary-General (A/54/264) -- the third one presented this year on a rolling basis --provides updated information by intergovernmental bodies, the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations on follow-up activities.

This afternoon, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) will begin debate on the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories (A/54/325). The Special Committee, which since its establishment in 1968 has not had access to the occupied territories, says, in its concluding observations and recommendations, that the Israeli authorities have put in place a comprehensive and elaborate system of laws and regulations that affect all aspects of the lives of the Palestinian and Syrian peoples there -- laws and regulations designed to meet the policy objectives of the Israeli Government and to enhance the exercise of its control over the occupied territories and their population.

The report goes on to say that bitterness at their treatment by the Israeli authorities and the sense of dispossession, hopelessness and despair of the people of the occupied territories, caused to a large extent by lack of progress in the peace process and a lack of tangible benefits for the people, make the situation in those territories one of the greatest urgency. The Special Committee thus welcomed the recent resumption of dialogue in the peace process. It also reaffirmed its observations and recommendations of last year, that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in consultation with the Secretary-General, should establish a system of communication with the Israeli authorities to improve the very difficult circumstances in which the Palestinian and Syrian peoples of the occupied territories currently live.

In two meetings today, the Sixth Committee (Legal) is considering the report of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) on the work of its thirty-second session (A/54/17). The document reports on progress made in the drafting and elaboration of various trade law instruments, including draft uniform rules on electronic commerce.

Copies of Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab’s appointments for today are available in room 378 and on the Internet. He will preside at this afternoon’s plenary meeting. The President will later attend the opening, in the UN Secretariat Lobby, of an art exhibition, "The Message of Humanity for the New Millennium", hosted by the Foreign Minister of Slovakia, Eduard Kukan, and the Permanent Representative of Slovakia, Dr. Peter Tomka.