Fifty-seventh General Assembly

First Committee

1^st Meeting (AM)

FIRST COMMITTEE ELECTS OFFICERS, ADOPTS WORK PROGRAMME;

WILL HOLD GENERAL DEBATE 30 SEPTEMBER - 11 OCTOBER

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) this morning, in a brief organizational meeting, elected officers and adopted its programme of work and the agenda for the fifty-seventh session.

The programme of work was divided into four phases.  The first, from

30 September to 11 October, was a general debate on all disarmament- and security-related agenda items.  Those include, among others, reducing nuclear danger, the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, biological weapons, and conventional arms control.

The second phase, to be held from 14 to 18 October, would be a thematic discussion on all items, as well as the introduction and consideration of all draft resolutions and decisions.  From 21 to 29 October, the Committee will take action on the texts.  The final phase, from 30 October to 1 November, is on Antarctica.

Committee Chairman Matia Mulumba Semakula Kiwanuka (Uganda) presided over the election of officers.  Elected as Vice-Chairmen were Jamal Nassir Al-Bader (Qatar), Jose Nicolas Rivas (Colombia), and Razvan Victor Rusu (Romania).  Mehmet Samsar (Turkey) was elected Rapporteur.

      The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) will begin its general debate at 10 a.m. on Monday, 30 September.

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