From Iraqi aggression to Antarctica, from outer space to crime....

From Iraqi aggression to Antarctica, from outer space to crime ...

It would not be surprising if one takes a cursory look at the 155-item agenda of the forty-fifth session of the General Assembly and concludes that there was hardly anything new this year. The fact is that the world's main forum has dealt with nearly all of those items before. Of the new items, the one of greatest interest is likely to be that on Iraqi aggression and continued occupation of Kuwait.

But a closer look reveals that, as the UN moves towards the centre of the global political stage, the Assembly may also be starting to change. At the current session, there has been a modest shrinking in the number of items--three less than at the forty-fourth session. A far more significant phenomenon is the increasing trend to discuss matters and act on them in a co-operative, non-confrontational way.

Much of the substantive work of the Assembly is done at its seven Committees. Tucked away in smaller conference rooms, physically near the General Assembly Hall, but far from its limelight, Committee members dive into the issues with depth and attention to detail.

In the Committees, while understandings are reached, many by consensus, still failures may occur. The draft resolutions and decisions approved by the Committees are sent to plenary for final adoption.

Nuclear issues

The First Committee will grapple with nearly 30 items, including many sub-items on disarmament. There will be an item on Antarctica, while three items will deal with security matters.

The Committee's focus will continue to be on nuclear issues. Increasing attention is expected to be given to matters related to conventional disarmament. A ban on chemical weapons--the subject of intense negotiations in the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament--will also be high on the agenda. The new bilateral relationship between the United States and the USSR is expected to foster progress in many areas.

Peace-keeping

The most interesting item before the Special Political Committee is one on peace-keeping operations. At its 1989 session, the Assembly, among other things, asked the Secretary-General to invite States to identify what they would be ready to contribute to peace-keeping operations. It also called for establishment of national training programmes for military and civilian personnel for such operations.

The Committee will also tackle some long-standing items, including outer space, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Israeli practices affecting the human rights of Palestinians and other Arabs in the occupied territories, and information. An item on science and peace was added to the Committee's agenda two years ago.

New economic items

A wide range of issues relating to development and international economic co-operation will be taken up by the Second Committee. Four of the 11 items are new--the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development; international co-operation for the eradication of poverty in developing countries; international assistance for the economic rehabilitation of Angola; and implementation of the 1990 Declaration on International Economic Co-operation.

The item on the protection of global climate is two years old. At its 1989 session, the Assembly supported the request of the UN Environment Programme to begin preparations for negotiations on a framework for a global convention on climate. At the current session, the Assembly will have the Secretary-General's report on the subject. A World Climate Conference is to be held in November 1990 in Geneva.

The Assembly will also consider reports of the Secretary-General on external debt crisis and development and on "large-scale pelagic driftnet fishing and its impact on the living marine resources of the world's oceans and seas".

Other matters before the Committee will be food, energy, population problems and special economic and disaster relief assistance programmes.

Varied social agenda

The Third Committee, with the ost voluminous and varied agenda of any Main Committee, deals with items relating to social, humanitarian and human rights questions. The Committee will review various issues relating to racial discrimination, children's rights, women and assistance to refugees. Reports on the human rights situations in certain specific countries will be considered.

Issues of crime prevention will also be taken up by the Committee, which will have before it the results of the Eighth UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders held at Havana, Cuba, from 27 August to 7 September.

The Committee also deals with drug issues. This year, it will have before it the results of the Assembly's special session on drugs (20-23 February, New York) and the 100-paragraph Global Programme of Action adopted at the session. The world body will also deliberate on the request made by the Economic and Social Council for a revision in the UN system-wide plan on drugs.

The Working Group on the Drafting of an International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families, in operation for 11 years, is expected to present to the Committee a draft of the Convention, which might then be adopted by the Assembly at its 1990 session.

Decolonization 

The Fourth Committee, which deals with decolonization matters, will continue to hold hearings on the question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).

In a ceremony on 10 October, the Assembly observed the thirtieth anniversary of its Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted on 30 March 1960.

Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar told the Assembly that since the Declaration had been adopted, 59 Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories, embracing a total population of 140 million people in all regions of the world, had been enabled to exercise their right to self-determination.

The UN continued to uphold its commitment to the political, economic and social advancement of the remaining 18 Non-Self-Governing Territories, most of them in the Pacific and Caribbean regions, he stated.

Money matters

The Fifth Committee will continue to consider its traditional agenda of administrative, budgetary and personnel matters, including reports from the Joint Inspection Unit, the Committee on Conferences and the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund.

UN officials described the Organization's financial situation as "desperate", with only 57 Member States having paid in full in 1990. More than $1 billion was owed for both the regular budget and peace-keeping operations.

International Law

The Sixth Committee will consider at least two new items, one dealing with elaboration of an additional protocol on consular functions to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and another on elaboration of norms for UN conciliation rules.

The Committee will have before it reports of the International Law Commission (ILC), the UN Commission on International Trade Law, the Special Committee on the Charter and on strengthening the UN's role, and the Committee on Relations with the Host Country. The ILC has proposed an international penal code, which was debated at the Eighth Crime Congress and by the Economic and Social Council.

Other subjects to be taken up by the Committee will be diplomatic safety, status of the diplomatic courier and status of the Geneva conventions on war victims.