|
28 September 2000
The President and the Chairpersons of the main committees
briefed the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) community
on the main issues they anticipate for this General Assembly
session. The President reiterated the importance of follow
up to the Millennium Summit and implementation of the Declaration.
He also stressed the importance of NGO participation: "the
United Nations and governments cannot do the work alone,"
he said. The full text is available on the "Statements and
Messages" page.
The Chairman for the First Committee, U Mya Than, of Myanmar,
mentioned the elimination of nuclear weapons, outer space
issues, illicit traffic in small arms and preservation of
Anit-Ballistic Missile Treaty as four of the main issues of
his Committee. According to the Chairman of the Second Committee,
Alexandru Niculescu, of Romania, preparations for next year's
conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC III), the
Financing for development process, the Habitat II review conference
as well as the Rio+10 Conference are among the main issues
of his Committee.
The Chairwoman of the Third Committee, Yvonne Gittens-Joseph,
of Trinidad and Tobago, also listed some upcoming events that
are important to the work of her Committee. Among those mentioned
were a world conference on youth which Turkey has offered
to host, a world conference on ageing which Spain has offered
to host and a conference, to be held in Palermo, Italy 12-15
December, on a new treaty expected to be adopted by the General
Assembly shortly on transnational organized crime. The Committee
will also take action in follow-up to the General Assembly
special session on Beijing +5 and continue preparations for
another special session of the General Assembly in September
next year in follow up to the 1990 World Summit for Children.
On the agenda of the Fifth Committee, chaired by Gert Rosenthal
of Guatemala, are 45 items, many of which are recurrent. Among
the new or contentious issues he mentioned the scale of assessments,
human resources management and the medium-term plan for the
next 5 years. The Sixth Committee will be focusing on legal
issues relating to human rights and international humanitarian
law. The Chairman, Mauro Politi, of Italy, mentioned international
terrorism (the Committee Working Group is discussing a draft
for a new treaty on this issue) and the establishment of the
International Criminal Court as two of the main agenda items.
The President had a working luncheon with Chairpersons of
the Main Committees where they discussed their work programme
and how the outcome of the Millennium Summit could be reflected
in the work of each Committee. There was also a discussion
on how the Committees could cooperate on common themes such
as information and communications technologies, development
and peacekeeping.
The General Assembly Plenary concluded it's discussion of
the report of the UN Secretary-General on the work of the
Organization. Speakers included the representatives from the
Republic of Moldova, Iraq, Iran, Jamaica, Tanzania, Bangladesh,
Tajikistan, Indonesia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Namibia, Australia,
Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa,
Albania, Kyrgyzstan and Oman.
Mr.Holkeri met with the Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General
for the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention,
Mr. Pino Arlacchi. The discussion centered on the signing
event of the Convention on transnational organized crime,
which will take place in Palermo, Italy 12-15 December. Mr.
Arlacchi briefed the President on the high-level participation
to the signing event; several Presidents from European countries
and some Prime Ministers are expected to participate.
The President attended a reception hosted by the Permanent
Representative of the Republic of Belarus, H.E. Mr. Alyaksandr
Sychou.
Later on Mr. Holkeri attended reception hosted by the Permanent
Representative of the People's Republic of China, H.E. Mr.
Wang Yingfan, on the occasion of the 51st Anniversary of the
Founding of the People's Republic of China.
|
