Sixth Committee (Legal) — 67th session
Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly (Provisional Agenda item 116)
Summary of work
Background (source: A/67/100/Add.1)
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-fourth sessions (resolutions 55/285, 56/509, 57/301, 58/126, 58/316, 61/292, 62/276, 63/309 and 64/301).
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; and decided to review the provisions of the reorganized agenda at its sixty-first session with a view to making further improvements (resolution 58/316).
At its sixty-sixth session, the General Assembly adopted the proposed programme of work and timetable of the First Committee for 2012 (decision 66/519), the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) (decision 66/523), the draft programmes of work of the Second Committee (decision 66/551) and the Third Committee (decision 66/540) and the provisional programme of work of the Sixth Committee (decision 66/525) for the sixty-seventh session.
At its resumed sixty-sixth session, on 17 September 2012, the General Assembly decided to establish, at its sixty-seventh session, an Ad Hoc Working Group on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly, open to all Member States, to identify further ways to enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency of the Assembly, inter alia, by building on the progress achieved in the past General Assembly sessions as well as on previous resolutions and evaluating the status of their implementation, and to submit a report thereon to the Assembly at its sixty-seventh session (resolution 66/294).
Consideration at the sixty-seventh session
At its 2nd plenary meeting, on 21 September 2012, 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-eighth session of the General Assembly.
The Sixth Committee considered the item at its 25th meeting, on 16 November 2012 (see A/C.6/67/SR.25).
Action taken by the Sixth Committee
At the 25th meeting, on 16 November, the Chair introduced a draft decision containing the provisional programme of work of the Committee for the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly, as proposed by the Bureau (A/C.6/67/L.18). Statements were made by the representatives of Chile (on behalf of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) and Cuba.
At the same meeting, the Committee adopted draft decision A/C.6/67/L.18. 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-eighth session of the General Assembly, as proposed by the Bureau.
Subsequent action taken by the General Assembly
- Report of the Sixth Committee: A/67/474
- GA decision: 67/523 [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-eighth session (2013).
