Concluding the main part of its seventy-fourth session, the General Assembly adopted 22 resolutions and one decision recommended by its main Committees, including a $3.07 billion regular budget for the Secretariat in 2020, some $200 million more than the amount requested by the Secretary-General.

The budget — contained in a package of 19 draft resolutions submitted by the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), which concluded its work earlier in the day — marks the Secretariat’s return to single-year fiscal cycles after more than four decades of biennial budgets.

Among the texts the Assembly adopted was one relating to $710.2 million for 39 continuing special political missions authorized by the Assembly and/or the Security Council for 2020. It also adopted a text entailing $1.42 million for the share of special political missions enveloped in the 2020 budget of the Regional Service Centre at Entebbe, Uganda.

The Assembly also approved $17.81 million in funding for the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011, created by the Assembly’s adoption of resolution 71/248 on 21 December 2016.

Delegates rejected oral amendments proposed by the Russian Federation and Syria by recorded votes after their delegates said that the Assembly lacked the authority to establish the Mechanism and that it was constituted without Syria’s consent.

The Assembly also decided to defer several issues, including questions relating to the Capital Master Plan and human resources management, until March, when the Fifth Committee is expected to begin the first part of its resumed seventy-fourth session.

At the outset, the Assembly took up three drafts that had been pending due to their budget implications. From its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), it adopted a resolution expressing grave concern about reports of serious human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, by a recorded vote of 134 in favour to 9 against (Belarus, Cambodia, China, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Philippines, Russian Federation, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe), with 28 abstentions. By that text, it urged the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar to advance its work swiftly and requested that the Secretary-General extend the appointment of his Special Envoy on Myanmar.

Myanmar’s representative, speaking in explanation of position, described the draft as yet another classic example of double standards and selective application of human rights considerations. The text also grossly mischaracterizes the complex issue of Rakhine State, he added, noting that his country’s Government is preparing to put suitable conditions in place for the safe and voluntary return of verified displaced people from Bangladesh.

The Assembly adopted another Third Committee draft — “Countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes” — by a recorded vote of 79 in favour to 60 against, with 30 abstentions. In doing so, it decided to establish an open-ended ad hoc intergovernmental committee of experts to elaborate a comprehensive international convention on that subject.

The Russian Federation’s representative said the text aims to create a negotiating platform, under United Nations auspices, to begin work on a convention dealing with cybercrime, taking into account the work of the intergovernmental expert group that is due to submit its report in 2020.

However, the representative of the United States said the resolution would stifle global anti-cybercrime efforts and prejudges the outcome of the expert group’s work. It is wrong to make political decisions on a new treaty before hearing advice from cyber experts, she added.

Acting without a vote, the Assembly also adopted a resolution requesting that the Secretary-General reappoint the Eminent Person investigating the conditions and circumstances resulting in the tragic 18 September 1961 death of Dag Hammarskjöld, then Secretary-General, and members of the party accompanying him in an airplane crash in what is today Zambia.

Tijjani Muhammad Bande (Nigeria), President of the General Assembly, delivered closing remarks, saying the proposed programme budget for 2020 not only provides the necessary resources for the United Nations to implement its various tasks, but also prepares the Organization for its entry into the decade of action for implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In other business, the Assembly appointed Hungary to the board of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns for a term beginning on 16 September 2019 and ending on 15 September 2021.

Speaking in exercise of the right of reply were representatives of Syria and Qatar.

The General Assembly will reconvene at a date and time to be announced.

For further details please see SOURCE below.
MEETINGS COVERAGE

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