Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Improvement of the Methods of Work of the General Assembly

XVIII. RESOLUTION ADOPTED WITHOUT REFERENCE TO A COMMITTEE
1898. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Improvement of the Methods of Work of the General Assembly

The General Assembly, Recalling with appreciation the initiative taken by the President of the sixteenth session of the General Assembly in his memorandum of 26 April 1962 on the methods of work of the Assembly,[1] Recalling its decision of 30 October 1962 establishing the Ad Hoc Committee on the Improvement of the Methods of Work of the General Assembly and its resolution 1845 (XVII) of 19 December 1962, by which it decided to continue the Committee, Having considered the report submitted by the Ad Hoc Committee in pursuance of the above-mentioned resolution,[2] Conscious of the need to adapt its methods of work to the changed circumstances in the General Assembly, in particular those resulting from the recent increase in the number of Member States, Concerned however to avoid reducing in any way the possibilities for action available to the General Assembly under the Charter of the United Nations and the rules of procedure of the Assembly, Convinced that it is in the interests of the Organization and of Member States that the work of the General Assembly should be carried out as efficiently and expeditiously as possible and that, save in quite exceptional cases, the duration of regular sessions should not exceed thirteen weeks, Takes note of the observations contained in the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Improvement of the Methods of Work of the General Assembly and approves the recommendations submitted by the Committee, in particular those which provide that:

(a) The President of the General Assembly should make every effort to ensure that the general debate proceeds in a methodical and regular manner, and should close the list of speakers, with the consent of the Assembly, as soon as he considers it feasible;

(b) All the Main Committees, except the First Committee, should begin their work not later than two working days after they have received the list of agenda items referred to them by the General Assembly;

(c) The First Committee should meet as soon as possible to organize its work, determine the order of discussion of the items allocated to it and start the systematic consideration of its agenda; at the beginning of the session, such meetings might be held when there is an interruption in the general debate; later, plenary meetings might be held during one part of the day, the other part being reserved for the First Committee, thus enabling the Committee to proceed with its regular work as soon as possible after the opening of the session;

(d) Each of the Main Committees should establish its programme of work as soon as possible, including the approximate dates on which it will consider the various items referred to it and the date on which it proposes to conclude its work, on the understanding that this programme will be transmitted to the General Committee to enable it to make such recommendations as it may deem relevant, including, when the General Committee considers it appropriate, recommendations as to the dates by which Main Committees should conclude their work;

(e) Each of the Main Committees should consider the establishment, in the circumstances referred to in paragraphs 29 to 32 of the report of the Ad Hoc Committee, of sub-committees or working groups of limited size but representative of its membership, for the purpose of facilitating its work;

(f) The General Committee should fulfil its functions tinder rules 40, 41 and 42 of the rules of procedure and, in particular. make appropriate recommendations for furthering the progress of the Assembly and its Committees, in such a way as to facilitate the closing of the session by the date fixed; to this end, the General Committee should meet at least once every three weeks;

(g) Presiding officers should make use of the resources provided by the rules of procedure and exercise their prerogatives under rules 35 and 108, in order to accelerate the work of the General Assembly; to that effect they should, inter alia:

(i) Open meetings at the scheduled time;

(ii) Urge representatives to take the floor in the order in which they were inscribed on the list of speakers, it being understood that representatives prevented from so doing will normally be placed at the end of the list, unless they have arranged to change places with other representatives;

(iii) Apply the rules of procedure in such a way as to ensure the proper exercise of the right of reply, explanations of votes and points of order.

1256th plenary meeting,
11 November 1963.

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[1] Ibid., Seventeenth Session, Annexes, agenda item 86, document A/5123. [2] Ibid., Eighteenth Session, Annexes, agenda item 25, document A/5423.