Sixth Committee (Legal) — 66th session
Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly (Agenda item 121)
Summary of work
Background (source: A/66/100)
This item, which was included in the agenda of the forty-sixth session of the General Assembly, in 1991, had originally been proposed for inclusion in the draft agenda of that session by the President of the Assembly at its forty-fifth session (see decision 45/461).
The General Assembly considered the question at its forty-sixth to forty-eighth, fifty-second and fifty-third sessions (resolutions 46/77, 47/233 and 48/264 and decisions 52/479 and 53/491). At its fifty-fourth session, the General Assembly decided to defer consideration of the item and to include it in the draft agenda of its subsequent session (decision 54/491).
The General Assembly continued its consideration of the item from its fifty-fifth to sixty-fifth sessions. At its resumed fifty-eighth session, in July 2004, the General Assembly adopted a number of measures, inter alia, to reorganize the agenda of the Assembly under headings corresponding to the priorities of the Organization, including the subheading “promotion of justice and international law” and to require each Main Committee to adopt a provisional programme of work for the next session (resolution 58/316, annex).
At its sixty-fifth session, the General Assembly adopted the provisional programme of work of the Sixth Committee for the sixty-sixth session.
Consideration at the sixty-sixth session
At its 2nd plenary meeting, on 16 September 2011, the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the General Committee, decided to allocate the item to all the Main Committees for the sole purpose of considering and taking action on their respective tentative programmes of work for the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly.
The Committee considered the item at its 30th meeting, on 11 November 2011 (see A/C.6/66/SR.30).
Action taken by the Sixth Committee
At the 30th meeting, the Chair introduced a draft decision containing the provisional programme of work of the Committee for the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly, as proposed by the Bureau (A/C.6/66/L.27). Statements were made by the representatives of Chile (on behalf of the Rio Group), the European Union, Iran (Islamic Republic of) (on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, as well as in its national capacity), Tunisia, Sweden and Cuba.
At the same meeting, the Committee adopted draft decision A/C.6/66/L.27. Under this draft decision, the General Assembly would note the decision of the Sixth Committee to adopt the provisional programme of work for the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly, as proposed by the Bureau.
Subsequent action taken by the General Assembly
- Report of the Sixth Committee: A/66/479
- GA decision: 66/525 [for the text of the decision, see the Sixth Committee's report to the General Assembly]
This agenda item was subsequently considered at the sixty-seventh session (2012).
