Further Measures for the Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly

A/RES/58/316View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 55 Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly, published in 2004.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

20 reports · 2006–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/80/900	Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/58/316
2025	A/79/900	Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/58/316
2024	A/78/900	Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/58/316
2023	A/77/900	Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/58/316
2022	A/76/903	Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/58/316

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 subjects

Administrative Reform Consultations Coordination Within UN System Decision-Making Information Dissemination Policy Making Report Preparation Reporting Procedures

What’s in this document?

3 operative paragraphs

Decides to adopt the text contained in the annex to the present resolution;

Determines to continue with efforts for the revitalization of its work;

Requests the Secretary-General to report on all aspects of the implementation of resolution 58/126 and the present resolution to the General Assembly at its sixtieth session.

Annex I

Reordering the work of the General Assembly

Recalling section B, paragraph 2, of the annex to General Assembly resolution 58/126 of 19 December 2003, and having reviewed the note by the Secretariat entitled “Options for the rescheduling of the Main Committees of the General Assembly”,² it is decided that:

²A/58/CRP.3.

The consideration of the implementation of paragraph 2 of section B of the annex to resolution 58/126 shall be deferred until its fifty-ninth session, taking into account the views expressed as well as the suggestions made by Member States in the context of the deliberations of the open-ended meetings of the General Committee during the fifty-eighth session;

With effect from the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly, the meetings of the plenary Assembly shall normally be held on Mondays and Thursdays.

Organization of the agenda of the General Assembly

Recalling section B, paragraph 4, of the annex to resolution 58/126, and having reviewed the note by the Secretariat entitled “Illustrative agenda of the General Assembly”,³ and taking into account the views expressed by Member States on the matter, it is decided that:

³A/58/CRP.4.

Pursuant to paragraph 4 of section B of the annex to resolution 58/126, the agenda of the General Assembly shall be organized under headings corresponding to the priorities of the Organization, as contained in the medium-term plan for the period 2002–2005⁴ (or in the strategic framework, as appropriate), with an additional heading for “Organizational, administrative and other matters” for the purpose of giving a sense of structure to the work of the Assembly, achieving a better presentation of the issues and challenges with which the Assembly deals and making the work of the Assembly more accessible, with the understanding that the new arrangement will not prejudge the way in which the work of the Assembly is organized and carried out;

⁴Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 6 (A/55/6/Rev.1).

The headings of the agenda shall consequently be:

Maintenance of international peace and security;

Promotion of sustained economic growth and sustainable development in accordance with the resolutions of the General Assembly and recent United Nations conferences;

iii

Development of Africa;

Promotion of human rights;

Effective coordination of humanitarian assistance efforts;

Promotion of justice and international law;

vii

Disarmament;

viii

Drug control, crime prevention and combating international terrorism in all its forms and manifestations;

Organizational, administrative and other matters;

The General Committee shall make recommendations, after consultation with Member States, to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session on the placement of the agenda items for the fifty-ninth session under the headings set out above, with a view to making the new arrangement effective;

The provisions of the present section shall be reviewed by the General Assembly at its sixty-first session with a view to making further improvements, as appropriate.

Practices and working methods of the Main Committees

Recalling section B, paragraph 8, of the annex to resolution 58/126, and having reviewed the note by the Secretariat entitled “Historical and analytical note on the practices and working methods of the Main Committees”,⁵ recalling that the Main Committees are bound by the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, and taking into account the views expressed by Member States on the matter, it is decided that:

⁵A/58/CRP.5.

Each Main Committee shall give specific attention to the rationalization of their future agendas by the biennialization, triennialization, clustering and elimination of items, and make recommendations to the plenary Assembly for its decision by 1 April 2005;

Each Main Committee shall adopt a provisional programme of work at the end of the session for the next session to help them better to plan, prepare and organize and, in this context, review the related documentation requirements;

The practice of interactive debates and panel discussions shall be utilized or expanded, as appropriate, by all Main Committees so as to enhance informal, in-depth discussions and to bring together experts from various fields without prejudicing the progress of the substantive work of the Main Committees;

The practice of “question time” shall be introduced, as appropriate, in all Main Committees to enable a dynamic and candid exchange with heads of departments and offices, representatives of the Secretary-General and special rapporteurs;

The web sites of the Main Committees shall be enhanced and thereafter regularly updated and their content maintained by the secretariats of the Main Committees;

The bureaux-elect of the Main Committees shall meet immediately after their election in order to discuss the organization and division of their work;

With a view to ensuring the continuity and the effective organization of their work, the incoming bureaux of the Main Committees shall, no later than two weeks after their election, meet with the outgoing bureaux in order to consult on and review issues relating to the efficient functioning of the Main Committees;

Prior to the opening of each session, informal briefings of each Main Committee shall be convened to discuss the organization of work.

Review of the agenda of the General Assembly

Recalling section B, paragraph 5, of the annex to resolution 58/126, having reviewed the note by the Secretariat entitled “Analysis of the agenda of the General Assembly”,⁶ which provides factual information on the frequency of consideration, origin and history of action on the 333 items and sub-items on the agenda, taking into account the views expressed by Member States, and following consultations with concerned Member States, it is decided that:

⁶A/58/CRP.6.

The items entitled “Launching of global negotiations on international economic cooperation for development” and “Restructuring and revitalization of the United Nations in the economic, social and related fields” shall be eliminated from the agenda;

The items entitled “Question of Cyprus”, “Armed aggression against the Democratic Republic of the Congo”, “Question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas)”, “The situation of democracy and human rights in Haiti”, “Armed Israeli aggression against the Iraqi nuclear installations and its grave consequences for the established international system concerning the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and international peace and security”, “Consequences of the Iraqi occupation of and aggression against Kuwait”, and “Declaration of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity on the aerial and naval military attack against the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya by the present United States Administration in April 1986” shall remain on the agenda for consideration upon notification by a Member State;

The item entitled “Report of the Economic and Social Council” shall be considered in its entirety in plenary;

While remaining on the agenda of the plenary, the sub-item entitled “Sport for peace and development: Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal” shall be considered every other year and the items entitled “Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin” and “Elimination of unilateral extraterritorial coercive economic measures as a means of political and economic compulsion” shall be considered every three years;

The item entitled “Information and communication technologies for development” and the sub-item entitled “Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance: Special economic assistance to individual countries or regions” shall be allocated for annual consideration in the Second Committee;

The item entitled “Towards global partnerships” shall be allocated for consideration every other year in the Second Committee;

The sub-item entitled “Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance: Participation of volunteers, ‘White Helmets’, in the activities of the United Nations in the field of humanitarian relief, rehabilitation and technical cooperation for development” shall be allocated for consideration every three years in the Second Committee;

The item entitled “Global road safety crisis” shall be allocated for consideration every other year in the Third Committee;

The item entitled “Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples” shall be allocated for annual consideration in the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee);

The item entitled “Assistance in mine action” shall be allocated for consideration every other year in the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee);

The item entitled “University for Peace” shall be allocated for consideration every three years in the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee);

Bearing in mind that the General Assembly decided in resolution 55/285 of 7 September 2001 to cluster all cooperation items under one item, to make individual cooperation items sub-items and to hold a joint debate for all sub-items, the Secretary-General shall submit a single consolidated report under the item entitled “Cooperation between the United Nations and regional and other organizations”;

The adjustments outlined in the paragraphs above shall take effect beginning with the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly;

The General Assembly shall monitor the effects of the adjustments outlined in the paragraphs above and continue to make efforts, as appropriate, to further streamline the agenda of the plenary.

General Committee

Recalling section B, paragraph 1, of the annex to resolution 58/126, having conducted a review of the work of the General Committee, and taking into account the views expressed by Member States on the matter, it is decided that:

The work of the General Committee shall be carried out in accordance with section VI of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly;

The General Committee shall continue to meet throughout the session and to play the leading role in advising the General Assembly on the efficient organization, coordination and management of its work;

To ensure the effective implementation of rule 42 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, the General Committee shall meet regularly throughout the session with the bureaux of the Main Committees to review the progress of the work of the Main Committees and to make recommendations for furthering such progress;

In July of each year, the General Committee shall conduct a review of the proposed programme of work for the forthcoming session of the General Assembly, on the basis of a report to be submitted by the Secretary-General, and submit recommendations on the matter to the forthcoming Assembly. The report of the Secretary-General shall include information on the status of documentation to be issued during the forthcoming session;

The General Committee, meeting in open-ended consultations, shall continue to consider the further biennialization, triennialization, clustering and elimination of items of the customary agenda of the General Assembly and make recommendations thereon to the Assembly during its fifty-ninth session;

On the basis of proposals from the President of the General Assembly, and in the light of the positive experience during the fifty-eighth session, the General Committee shall be encouraged, as appropriate, to continue to schedule informal briefings on topical issues;

At the beginning of each session, the General Committee, following recommendations from the President of the General Assembly, shall recommend to the Assembly a programme of, and format for, interactive debates on the items on its agenda;

The General Committee shall continue to consider ways and means to further improve its working methods to increase its efficiency and effectiveness in all aspects, and make recommendations on the matter to the General Assembly for its decision by 1 April 2005.

Documentation

In the light of its decision in section B, paragraph 7, of the annex to resolution 58/126 that the heavy volume of documentation that is submitted to the General Assembly for its consideration should be reduced, the Secretary-General is requested:

To update the note by the Secretariat, entitled “Control and limitation of documentation”,⁷ in the light of the provisions of the present resolution;

⁷A/58/CRP.7.

To submit the updated version of the note by the Secretariat for the consideration of the General Committee, meeting in open-ended consultations, so that it may make recommendations to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session;

To take the necessary action to initiate the implementation of the provisions of paragraph 20 of resolution 57/300 of 20 December 2002, in which the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to start, on a trial basis, a consultative process with the President of the General Assembly and the Chairmen of the Main Committees of the Assembly at the end of the main part of each session of the Assembly, with a view to consolidating reports on related subjects, if decided by the Main Committees.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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