Revitalization of the General Assembly

A/RES/60/286View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 116 Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly, published in 2006.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2006

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2006	A/61/483	Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/60/286

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 subjects

Administrative Reform Consultations Decision-Making Organizational Change Programme Planning Reporting Procedures Subsidiary Bodies Working Groups

What’s in this document?

32 operative paragraphs

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

Reaffirms the role and the authority of the General Assembly, including on questions relating to international peace and security, as stipulated in Articles 10 to 14 and 35 of the Charter of the United Nations, where appropriate using the procedures set forth in rules 7 to 10 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, which enable swift and urgent action by the Assembly, bearing in mind that the Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in accordance with Article 24 of the Charter;

Urges the Presidents of the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council to meet periodically to ensure increased cooperation and coordination of their work programmes in accordance with their respective responsibilities under the Charter; the President of the Assembly shall inform Member States about the outcome of those meetings on a regular basis;

Encourages the holding of thematic interactive debates on current issues of critical importance to the international community in the General Assembly, and invites the President of the Assembly to propose themes for such interactive debates, in consultation with Member States;

Invites the Security Council to further its initiatives to improve the quality of its annual report to the General Assembly, mandated by Article 24, paragraph 3, of the Charter, in order to provide the Assembly with a substantive and analytical report;

In carrying out the assessment of the debate on the annual report of the Security Council called for in paragraph 12 of the annex to resolution 51/241 of 31 July 1997, the President shall inform the General Assembly of his decision regarding the need for further consideration of the report of the Council, including in respect of the convening of informal consultations, on the need for, and content of, any action by the Assembly based on the debate, as well as on any matters to be brought to the attention of the Council;

Invites the Security Council to update the General Assembly on a regular basis on the steps it has taken or is contemplating with respect to improving its reporting to the Assembly;

Also invites the Security Council to submit periodically, in accordance with Articles 15 and 24 of the Charter, special subject-oriented reports to the General Assembly for its consideration on issues of current international concern;

Invites the Economic and Social Council to continue to prepare its report to the General Assembly in accordance with Assembly resolution 50/227 of 24 May 1996, striving to make it more concise and action-oriented by highlighting the critical areas requiring action by the Assembly and, as appropriate, by making specific recommendations for consideration by the Member States;

Requests the President of the General Assembly, at the end of his/her tenure, to provide an informal, short report on best practices and lessons learned to his/her successor;

Takes note of paragraph 3 (b) of its resolution 59/313 of 12 September 2005, and also takes note of paragraph 9 of its resolution 60/246 of 23 December 2005, by which two additional positions at management and senior levels were made available to the Office of the President of the General Assembly, within the programme budget for the biennium 2006–2007, as part of the effort to strengthen the Office of the President;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to make the necessary arrangements for the provision of transitional office accommodation and other support to the President-elect of the General Assembly, in accordance with resolution 58/126 of 19 December 2003;

Encourages enhanced interaction, as and where appropriate, with civil society, including non-governmental organizations, in particular those from developing countries, on relevant issues, while fully respecting the intergovernmental nature of the General Assembly and in conformity with the relevant rules of procedure;

Also encourages, where appropriate, continued cooperation between the General Assembly and national and regional parliaments, particularly through the Inter-Parliamentary Union;

Requests the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat, in cooperation with countries concerned and with the relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, to continue to take appropriate measures to enhance world public awareness of the work of the General Assembly;

Urges the Secretariat to continue its endeavours to raise the visibility of the General Assembly and, to that end, requests the rearrangement of items in the Journal of the United Nations so that listings of plenary meetings and other major events of the General Assembly may appear alongside those of the meetings of the Security Council;

Encourages the Presidents of the General Assembly to increase their public visibility, including through enhanced contacts with representatives of the media and civil society, thus promoting the activities of the Assembly, and encourages the Secretary-General to continue the practice of providing to the Office of the President of the Assembly a Spokesperson for the President of the Assembly and an assistant to the Spokesperson;

Cluster II. Selection of the Secretary-General

Recalls Article 97 of the Charter, as well as the provisions of General Assembly resolutions 11(I) of 24 January 1946 and 51/241, as relevant to the role of the Assembly in appointing the Secretary-General, upon the recommendation of the Security Council;

Emphasizes, bearing in mind the provisions of Article 97 of the Charter, the need for the process of selection of the Secretary-General to be inclusive of all Member States and made more transparent and that, in the course of the identification and appointment of the best candidate for the post of Secretary-General, due regard should be given to regional rotation and gender equality, and invites the Security Council to regularly update the General Assembly on the steps it has taken in this regard;

Encourages, without prejudice to the role of the principal organs as enshrined in Article 97 of the Charter, the President of the General Assembly to consult with Member States to identify potential candidates endorsed by a Member State and, upon informing all Member States of the results, to forward those results to the Security Council;

Also encourages formal presentation of candidatures for the position of Secretary-General in a manner that allows sufficient time for interaction with Member States, and requests candidates to present their views to all States members of the General Assembly;

Recalls paragraph 61 of its resolution 51/241, in which it is stated that, in order to ensure a smooth and efficient transition, the Secretary-General should be appointed as early as possible, preferably no later than one month before the date on which the term of the incumbent expires;

Emphasizes the importance of candidates for the post of Secretary-General possessing and displaying, inter alia, commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, extensive leadership, and administrative and diplomatic experience;

Cluster III. Working methods

Reaffirms the sovereign right of Member States to submit proposals in the context of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, and encourages Member States to submit draft resolutions in a more concise, focused and action-oriented form;

Requests the Secretary-General to issue the rules of procedure of the General Assembly in a consolidated version in all official languages, in print and online, and requests the Office of Legal Affairs of the Secretariat to make precedents and past practice available in the public domain with respect to rules and practices of the intergovernmental bodies of the Organization;

Requests the Main Committees to continue their efforts to further rationalize their agendas and to improve their working methods, and invites the Bureaux of the Main Committees to enhance their cooperation, in conformity with the rules of procedure;

Decides, in that respect, to give due consideration to those recommendations of the Main Committees regarding the improvement of their working methods and the allocation of agenda items which require the approval of the General Assembly for their implementation;

Reiterates its call for the effective implementation of rule 42 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly;

Requests an update on its recommendation, in paragraph 15 of its resolution 59/313, regarding consideration of the use of optical scanners as a means of expediting the counting of votes cast through secret ballots during elections, taking due account of the security requirements in this regard and the credibility, reliability and confidentiality of such means, and requests the Secretary-General to report on the modalities thereof to the General Assembly;

Requests the Secretary-General to implement further the measures set out in paragraph 20 of resolution 57/300 of 20 December 2002 on the consolidation of reports and in paragraph 6 of the annex to resolution 58/316 of 1 July 2004 on documentation;

Recalls paragraph 19 of its resolution 59/313, and requests the Secretary-General to submit a status report with a factual chart to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session on the implementation of all resolutions regarding the revitalization of its work, including resolutions 58/126, 58/316 and 59/313, and the present resolution;

Decides to invite the President of the sixty-first session of the General Assembly to convene consultations among Member States to decide on the establishment of an ad hoc working group on the revitalization of the Assembly, open to all Member States: to identify ways to further enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency of the Assembly, inter alia, by building on relevant Assembly resolutions and reviewing the agenda and working methods of the Assembly; and to submit a report to the Assembly at its sixty-first session.

Reissued for technical reasons.

Annex I