Further to General Assembly resolutions 45/175 of 18 December 1990 and 46/140 of 17 December 1991, on the rationalization of the work of the Third Committee, statements made by delegations and by Secretariat officials, unless decided otherwise by the Committee at the beginning of the session, should not exceed seven minutes. Statements made on behalf of a group of delegations or made in connection with the sub-items of the agenda item on human rights questions should not exceed fifteen minutes. These time limits will be applied with a degree of flexibility towards all speakers. With a view to saving time, all speakers are encouraged to exercise self-discipline, in particular delegations associated with group statements. For practical reasons, group statements are encouraged for the first day of the discussion of an item or a sub-item. In this connection, it is important to emphasize the timely distribution of documentation in accordance with the rules of procedure of the Assembly, in order to enable delegations to inscribe themselves on the list of speakers at an early stage.
