Sixth Committee (Legal) — 72nd session

Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly (Agenda item 121)

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Summary of work

Background (source: A/72/100/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 its seventy-first sessions (resolutions 55/285, 56/509, 57/301, 58/126, 61/292, 62/276, 63/309, 64/301, 65/315, 66/294, 67/297, 68/307, 69/321, 70/305  and 71/323).

At its seventy-first session, the General Assembly considered the item jointly with the item entitled “Implementation of the resolutions of the United Nations”. The Assembly also approved the provisional programme of work and timetable of the First Committee for 2017 (decision 71/518), and the proposed programme of work and timetable of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) (decision 71/522), the programmes of work of the Second Committee (decision 71/543) and the Third Committee (decision 71/538) and the provisional programme of work of the Sixth Committee (decision 71/528) for the seventy-second session of the Assembly.

At its resumed seventy-first session, the General Assembly welcomed the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly and the updated inventory of Assembly resolutions on revitalization annexed thereto. It decided to establish, at its seventy-second 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 past sessions of the Assembly as well as on previous resolutions, including evaluating the status of their implementation, and to submit a report thereon to the Assembly at its seventy-second session. The Assembly also decided that the Ad Hoc Working Group would continue its review of the inventory of Assembly resolutions on revitalization annexed to the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group submitted at the seventy-first session and, as a result, continue to update the inventory to be attached to the report at the seventy-second session of the Assembly. Furthermore, the Assembly took note with appreciation of the multilingual web page devoted to the revitalization of the work of the Assembly, accessible directly from the United Nations website, and invited the Secretariat to continue updating that web page and its substantive content in a cost-effective manner (resolution 71/323).

At the same session, the General Assembly requested each Main Committee to further discuss its working methods at the beginning of every session and invited the Chairs of the Main Committees to brief the Ad Hoc Working Group at the seventy-second session on any best practices and lessons learned with a view to improving such working methods as appropriate. The Assembly called for the six Chairs of the Main Committees to meet periodically during the Assembly session to share best practices and increase the coherence and complementarity in the work of the Main Committees. The Assembly requested the President of the General Assembly at its seventy-second session to identify proposals through consultations with all Member States and the President of the Economic and Social Council, as well as through the convening of the General Committee, aimed at addressing gaps and duplication in the agenda of the General Assembly as they relate to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, taking into account the report on the strategic alignment of future sessions of the Assembly and other relevant inputs, for the consideration of Member States during the seventy-third session of the Assembly.

Also at the same session, the General Assembly encouraged the scheduling of future high-level meetings during the first half of the year, from within existing resources, taking into account the calendar of conferences and without prejudice to the current practice of convening one high-level meeting in September at the beginning of each session of the Assembly; called for strict adherence by each speaker to the time limits in the Assembly, where applicable, and in particular during the general debate, the high-level meetings of the Assembly and the high-level thematic debates convened by the President of the General Assembly; invited the Chairs of meetings of the Assembly and United Nations conferences, especially when there is very limited time available for debate, to consider recommending the “all protocol observed” principle, whereby participants are encouraged to refrain from listing standard protocol expressions during their statements; recalled the interim arrangement adopted in Assembly decision 68/505 on the pattern for the rotation of the Chairs of the Main Committees until the seventy-third session; reiterated its request that the Ad Hoc Working Group prepare long-term arrangements concerning the election of Chairs and Rapporteurs of the Main Committees of the Assembly with the aim of establishing a predictable, transparent and fair mechanism, in consultation with regional groups, and to submit them to the Assembly not later than the seventy-second session and, in that regard, invited Member States to present proposals and begin giving early attention to conclude a future arrangement which would come into effect as of the seventy-fourth session of the Assembly with the annex to resolution 68/307 containing the guidelines on the election of the Chairs and Rapporteurs of the Main Committees to be considered in this context (resolution 71/323).

Also at its resumed seventy-first session, the General Assembly requested the Co-Chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group to continue to convene the interactive and comprehensive dialogue between the Permanent Missions and the Secretariat within the framework of the Ad Hoc Working Group, aimed at identifying issues in the interaction of the Secretariat with the Permanent Missions and identifying solutions in better meeting the needs and requirements of the Permanent Missions regarding standard operating procedures used at the United Nations Headquarters in New York; decided that during the calendar year 2018, official meetings of the day, forthcoming official meetings and summaries of official meetings would be published in the Journal of the United Nations in all six official languages and that all other meetings and information, contained in the remaining part of the current version of the Journal, would be published in the languages currently used from January to August; and called upon all relevant intergovernmental bodies to review the need and content of the Journal summaries of their meetings and other announcements, and to take the steps necessary with a view to ensuring a more streamlined format of the Journal (resolution 71/323).

Consideration at the seventy-second session

At its 2nd plenary meeting, on 15 September 2017, the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the General Committee, decided to allocate the item to all the Main Committees for the purpose of discussing their working methods and considering and taking action on their respective tentative programmes of work for the seventy-first session of the General Assembly.

The Sixth Committee considered the item at its 29th meeting, on 6 November 2017 (see A/C.6/72/SR.29).

Statements were made by the representatives of El Salvador (on behalf of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)), Austria, Paraguay, Belarus, Kenya, Slovenia and Togo.

Some delegations considered the revitalization of the General Assembly to be of paramount importance for strengthening the role and authority of the General Assembly and called for full implementation of previous General Assembly resolutions on revitalizing the work of the organization. Some delegations stressed the need to avoid scheduling conflicts between the plenary sessions of the General Assembly and meetings of subsidiary bodies to ensure inclusiveness and efficiency of the work of the organization. Several delegations highlighted the principle of multilingualism under which all six official languages should be treated equally. Some delegations welcomed the new IT changes to e-deleGATE portal and electronic co-sponsorship system, as well as the sharing of provisional list of speakers before meetings. In this regard, it was suggested that e-deleGATE portal could be further improved to allow circulation of draft resolutions by coordinators to all delegates. Several delegations also appreciated the efforts to shorten the introduction of the Chairs of the International Law Commission and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law to allow more time for the debate on the items of the Sixth Committee, and called for further efforts in streamlining the oral statements during the debate on the Report of the International Law Commission. Several delegations encouraged the Secretary-General to take effective measures for the fair and equitable distribution of the posts throughout the organization, including senior posts, in accordance with gender and geographical balance, while ensuring the highest standard of efficiency, competence and integrity.

Action taken by the Sixth Committee

At the 29th meeting, on 6 November, the Chair introduced a draft decision containing the provisional programme of work of the Committee for the seventy-third session of the General Assembly, as proposed by the Bureau (A/C.6/72/L.24). At the 30th meeting, on 10 November 2017, the Committee adopted the draft decision A/C.6/72/L.24.

Subsequent action taken by the General Assembly

This agenda item will be considered at the seventy-third session (2018).

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