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9 NOVEMBER 1999

The General Assembly will vote shortly – it may have done so already – on a draft resolution, sponsored by Cuba, on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.

At the start of the meeting, the President of the National Assembly for the People’s Power of Cuba, Mr. Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, introduced a draft resolution (A/54/L.11), which would have the Assembly reiterate its call on all States to refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures, the extraterritorial effects of which affect the sovereignty of other States, the legitimate interests of entities or persons under their jurisdiction and the freedom of trade and navigation. The Assembly would again urge States that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to take the necessary steps to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime.

Draft L.11 is identical to resolution 53/4, adopted last year, except that it adds references to the latter text and requests the Secretary-General to prepare and submit a report on its implementation to the fifty-fifth session

In this morning’s debate, speaker after speaker criticized the United States policy against Cuba and called on Washington to lift its 40-year unilateral embargo against Cuba. All indicated their intention to vote in favour of the draft resolution. Twenty-one delegations were inscribed on the list.

[It was subsequently announced that, in the voting, the Assembly adopted the resolution by a vote of 155 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 8 abstentions (Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Micronesia, Morocco, Nicaragua, Senegal and Uzbekistan).]

Also before the Assembly is the report of the Secretary-General (A/54/259) contains the replies received from 58 Governments, including Cuba, plus the European Union and eight UN system organs and agencies, on their implementation of resolution 53/4.

Tomorrow, the Assembly takes up the item on Bethlehem 2000. A draft resolution on the subject (A/54/L.20) would welcome the impending arrival of the global, historic celebration in Bethlehem of the birth of Jesus Christ and the onset of the third millennium as a symbol of the shared hope for peace among all peoples of the world. It would call for the acceleration of assistance and engagement of the international community as a whole to ensure the success of the Bethlehem 2000 project and the fruition of this monumental commemoration.

Also tomorrow, the Assembly will consider a letter by the Secretary-General (A/54/531), in which he informs that body that, pending the completion of consultations for a successor to the current Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, he has requested Hans Corell, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, the Legal Counsel, to oversee the Office of Internal Oversight Services. This is a temporary arrangement, the Secretary-General points out, adding that he intends to submit a name to the Assembly shortly for its consideration and approval.

In Monday’s selection process for four members of the Joint Inspection Unit, the countries chosen to nominate candidates were Austria, Burkina Faso, Germany and Romania.

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) is concluding action today on the remaining five draft texts before it, dealing with nuclear weapons and confidence-building measures, including transparency in armaments. Altogether, there are 48 draft resolutions and four draft decisions. The Committee will next consider the question of Antarctica (A/54/339) before completing its work on Friday.

This afternoon, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) takes up the report of the Economic and Social Council (A/54/3). In a foreword, Council President Francesco Paolo Fulci writes that 1999 can rightly be considered a signal year both substantively and symbolically: substantively, because the Council is increasingly able not only to conduct oversight, give guidance to its subsidiary bodies and substantively increase interrelationship with the Bretton Woods institutions, but also to achieve effective decision-making on a wide range of policy issues; and symbolically, because it has been able to restore its rightful place among the principal organs under the Charter by having reclaimed its own Chamber from which it was for so long practically banned.

The eradication of poverty was the leitmotif of this year’s Council’s work, he continues. The year had also seen much progress in reviving the Council’s role as envisaged in the Charter and in restoring its identity. But much remained to be done. In particular, its coordination functions vis-à-vis the United Nations funds and programmes and the specialized agencies needed to be revitalized and strengthened. This was a task to which the Council should turn its priority attention in the year ahead. Chapter I of the report summarizes the resolutions and decisions adopted by the Council in 1999 and which call for action by the Assembly.

This morning, the Committee discussed training and research, focusing on the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) (A/54/480) and the United Nations Staff College in Turin, Italy (A/54/481). It also considered a report prepared by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on the economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan (A/54/152-E/1999/92). Draft resolutions were introduced on implementation of the outcome of the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (A/C.2/54/L.23) and on the United Nations Staff College of Turin (A/C.2/54/L.26).

At two meetings today, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) is concluding its discussion of human rights questions and situations, having considered the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as reports of the human rights experts on the situations in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Yugoslavia, Burundi, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Rwanda and the Sudan, and also reports on torture, internally displaced persons and religious intolerance.

The Committee will hear the introduction of two draft resolutions -- on the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination and the convening of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (A/C.3/54/L.28/Rev.1) and on the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (A/C.3/54/L.53) -- and will take action on two other texts -- on the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (A/C.3/54/L.45) and on International Covenants on Human Rights (A/C.3/54/L.52).

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning heard final comments by the Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, Karl Paschke, on the report on the activities of his Office. This afternoon, the Committee will continue its section-by-section discussion of the proposed programme budget for 2000-2001, taking up sections 19 through 25.

Regarding the appointments of the Assembly President, he is presiding over today’s plenary meeting on Cuba. This afternoon, he will meet with the Permanent Representatives of Sri Lanka and Sweden, Ambassadors John de Saram and Hans Dahlgren, to discuss Security Council reform. This evening, he will attend a reception and concert at Carnegie Hall, hosted by Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby of Norway.

Question: Article 109 of the Charter of the United Nations states that a General Conference for the purpose of reviewing the present Charter may be held at a date and place to be fixed by a two-thirds vote of the Assembly and the Council. Is the President of the General Assembly interested in the question of Charter review?

Answer: The President is interested in the question of Security Council reform, and that entails a review of the Charter. He has been holding meetings with Ambassadors, as he will again this afternoon, to discuss this very subject. He is, indeed, very much interested in the matter.