UNITED
NATIONS
GENERAL
ASSEMBLY
News and Highlights from the President
The
General Assembly met in plenary this afternoon
27 March 2002
The General Assembly met in plenary this afternoon. The first issue is the elimination of racial discrimination regarding which the Assembly has reports of the Third and Fifth Committees (A/56/581 and A/56/883). The Fifth Committee report is among other things recommending that the Assembly not approve funds for regional meetings on the issue.
The Assembly is then expected to take action on a draft resolution which would welcome the proposal of the Government of Mongolia to hold the Fifth International Conference of New or Restored Democracies in Ulaanbaatar from 18-20 June next year. The previous conference was held in Cotonou, Benin.
The Assembly will
also take up a number of reports and draft resolutions from the Fifth
Committee which held its first resumed session from the 4th to the 19th
of March.
It is expected to adopt a resolution which will ask the Committee on Contributions
to report to the next Assembly on what should be done with the arrears
of the former Yugoslavia. When Yugoslavia ceased to be a member on 1 November
2000, it still had outstanding contributions totaling some $16 million.
There is more information on this matter in a letter from the Secretary-General
dated 27 December 2001 (doc. A/56/767).
A draft resolution will express concern at the fee-splitting arrangements in the Rwanda and Yugoslavia Tribunals and ask the Secretary-General to follow up on the investigation conducted by the Office of Internal Oversight Services. Two other draft resolutions will approve resources for the continuation of oversight functions at the Tribunals (doc. A/56/730/Add.1 and A/56/731/Add.1).
The Assembly is furthermore
expected to adopt a draft resolution which will urge member states to
pay their assessed contributions to the UN mission in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo. Only two per cent of Member States have paid so far. The
resolution also contains some general recommendations regarding the financing
of peacekeeping operations (A/56/713/Add.1).