UNGA SECOND COMMITTE ADOPTS TEN RESOLUTIONS BY

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 002234 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EFIN ETRD SENV KCOR UNGA SUBJECT: UNGA SECOND COMMITTE ADOPTS TEN RESOLUTIONS BY CONSENSUS, DECEMBER 6 REF: A. STATE 195622 ¶B. KLEIN-KIRKPATRICK EMAIL ¶C. STATE 195050 ¶1. Summary: On December 6, the UN's Second Committee on economic and financial affairs passed nine resolutions by consensus, including one on external debt. None had program budget implications. The other resolutions were on commodities, the international year of forests, disaster reduction, UN Habitat, a UN conference on least developed countries, microcredit, UN University, and corruption. A draft decision on ECOSOC support was adopted as well. End Summary. DEBT CRISIS OR NO? -------------- ¶2. On December 6, the UN's Second Committee on economic and financial affairs passed Resolution A/C.2/61/L.54, introduced by Portugal, on "external debt crisis and development." The representative of Finland, speaking for the EU, objected to the language calling for the "cancellation of one hundred percent of official multilateral and bilateral debt" of highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs). She also said the word "crisis" in the title was no longer warranted. USDEL (ref A) and the delegates of Switzerland and New Zealand (speaking for Canada and Australia as well) all said they agreed with the EU statement and further amplified their views on specific problems in this resolution. The South African representative, speaking for the Group of 77 countries, responded that there was "still a debt crisis among many countries" and that the word "crisis" would continue to be used in the title of this annual resolution. About resolution A/C.2/61/L.56 on commodities, which included references to the WTO Doha round, USDEL (ref B) said that the resumption of the Doha round "requires that we break the current deadlock." Other Resolutions -------------- ¶3. The Committee then adopted the following 8 resolutions and 1 decision by consensus, none with any program budget implications: A/C.2/61/L.21/Rev. 1: International year of forests, 2011 A/C.2/61/L.58: International strategy for disaster reduction A/C.2/61/L.57: Implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and strengthening of the United Nations Human Settlements Program A/C.2/61/L.64: Third United Nations conference on the least developed countries A/C.2/61/L.63: Role of microcredit and microfinance in the eradication of poverty A/C.2/61/L.36/Rev.1: United Nations University A/C.2/61/L.53: Preventing and combating corrupt practices and transfer of assets of illicit origin and returning such assets, in particular, to the countries of origin, consistent with the United Nations Convention against Corruption (ref C) A/C.2/61/L.50: Program Planning (Committee for Program and Coordination-derived decision on ECOSOC support) BOLTON