LIECHTENSTEIN REQUEST IN 61ST UNGA GENERAL

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 001768 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: UNGA XG SUBJECT: LIECHTENSTEIN REQUEST IN 61ST UNGA GENERAL COMMITTEE FOR GRANTING OBSERVER STATUS ¶1. Action Request. Para 2. ¶2. Liechtenstein Mission is circulating a proposal to inscribe a generic item on the General Assembly agenda under which all requests for UNGA Observer Status could be considered . They are proposing that the item be allocated to the Sixth Committee. The Sixth Committee has in recent years considered individual items requesting such status and applies criteria which the Committee developed in the late nineties to determine eligibility. Action request: The Liechtenstein proposal makes sense and consistent with our liberal inscription policy, USUN plans, unless otherwise instructed, to agree to inscription of the item and its allocation to the Sixth (Legal) Committee. ¶3. Begin text. The General Committee of the 61st session has before it, once again, requests for the inclusion of agenda items related to the granting of observer status in the General Assembly (A/61/141 and A/61/191). Agenda items relating to this issue are allocated to the Sixth Committee, which then deals with the substance of the matter. In fact, dealing with the question of observer status has become a standard activity of the Sixth Committee. The current practice of including a specific agenda item for every single organization requesting observer status in the General Assembly seems unnecessarily burdensome and bureaucratic. On a number of occasions in the he past, the General Committee had to schedule a separate meeting for no other purpose than the inclusion of such a specific agenda item, which is mainly administrative in mature. The Liechtenstein delegation notes that many other delegations have criticized this practice. In the spirit of revitalization of the General Assembly and its working methods, it would indeed be simpler if the Sixth Committee could deal with the merits of such requests directly, without the need to involve the General Committee in every such request. The Liechtenstein delegation therefore intends to propose to the General Committee upon its first meeting on Tuesday 12 September 2006, to include a generic item on this matter in the agenda, and to allocate it to the Sixth Committee. "Requests for granting observer status" This agenda item would replace the two related items requested for inclusion in the agenda (A/61/141 and A/61/191),and make it unnecessary in the future to bring specific requests for observer status to the General Committee. Such requests would have to be brought to the attention of the Sixth Committee directly. We hope that this simple procedural improvement would not pose any problems to other members of the General Committee, and invite them to discuss any questions or concerns regarding this matter within the next few days. 01/09/06 End text. BOLTON