| Date | 24 May 1995 |
|---|---|
| Started | 10:00 |
| Ended | 13:20 |
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Agenda item 112 (continued)
Scale of assessments for the apportionment of the expenses of the United Nations
Article 19 of the Charter (A/49/838/Add.2)
The President
In a letter contained in document A/49/838/Add.2, the Secretary-General informs me that, since the issuance of his communications dated 26 January 1995 (A/49/838/Add.1) and 28 February 1995 (A/49/838/Add.1), Haiti has made the necessary payment to reduce its arrears below the amount specified in Article 19 of the Charter.
May I take it that the General Assembly duly takes note of this information?
Agenda item 44 (continued)
Commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations in 1995:
(a) Report of the Preparatory Committee for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations (A/49/48/Add.1)
(b) Draft resolution (A/49/48/Add.1, para. 4
The President
Members will recall that, at its 55th plenary meeting held on 9 November 1994, the General Assembly adopted resolutions 49/11 and 49/12 under agenda item 44.
The Assembly now has before it the report of the Preparatory Committee for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations circulated in document A/49/48/Add.1. In this connection, the Assembly has before it a draft resolution contained in paragraph 4 of that report.
At the request of the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee and in view of the desire of the Members to dispose of this item expeditiously, I should like to consult the Assembly with a view to proceeding immediately to consider the draft resolution contained in document A/49/48/Add.1. In this connection, since the draft resolution was circulated only this morning it would be necessary to waive the relevant provision of rule 78 of the rules of procedure, which reads as follows:
"As a general rule, no proposal shall be discussed or put to the vote at any meeting of the General Assembly unless copies of it have been circulated to all delegations not later than the day preceding the meeting."
Unless I hear any objections, I shall take it that the General Assembly agrees with this proposal.
The President
I now request Mr. Zbigniew Wlosowicz, one of the Vice-Chairmen of the Preparatory Committee for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations, to introduce the Committee's report.
Mr. Wlosowicz (Poland)
On behalf of the Bureau of the Preparatory Committee, I should like to introduce the report of the Committee contained in document A/49/48/Add.1 of 23 May 1995.
Members will recall that the Preparatory Committee has been considering the organization of the list of speakers. This has been the subject of extensive consultations of the Committee. It is my honour today to introduce the Committee's recommendation to the General Assembly that it should adopt the following draft resolution:
"Organization of the list of speakers for the Special Commemorative Meeting of the General Assembly on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations
"The General Assembly,
"Recalling its resolution 48/215 B of 26 May 1994, in which it decided to convene a special commemorative meeting on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the entry into force of the Charter of the United Nations, to be held at United Nations Headquarters from 22 to 24 October 1995,
"Also recalling paragraph 8 of the report of the Preparatory Committee for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations, in which the modalities for inviting Palestine and, if they so request, other observers to attend the Special Commemorative Meeting were agreed upon,
"1. Decides that the Special Commemorative Meeting shall be held for a total of six meetings on the basis of two meetings a day;
"2. Also decides that the list of speakers for the Special Commemorative Meeting shall be organized in accordance with the procedure set forth in the annex to the present resolution."
"ANNEX
"Organization of the list of speakers for the Special Commemorative Meeting of the General Assembly on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations
"1. The list of speakers for the Special Commemorative Meeting will be established on the basis of six meetings, each meeting having 25 speaking slots with the exception of the meeting on Tuesday, 24 October 1995, in the afternoon, which will have 60 speaking slots.
"2. The first speaker in the Special Commemorative Meeting will be the Head of State of the host country of the Organization.
"3. The list of speakers for the Special Commemorative Meeting will be initially established as follows:
"(a) The Secretary-General or his representative will draw one name from a box containing the names of all Member States, observer States and Palestine, in its capacity as observer, participating in the Special Commemorative Meeting. This procedure will be repeated until all names have been drawn from the box, thus establishing the order in which participants will be invited to choose their meetings and select their speaking slots;
"(b) Six boxes will be prepared, each one representing a meeting and each one containing numbers corresponding to speaking slots at that meeting;
"(c) Once the name of a Member State, observer State or Palestine in its capacity as observer has been drawn by the Secretary-General or his representative, that Member State, observer State or Palestine in its capacity as observer, will be invited to first choose a meeting and then draw from the appropriate box the number indicating the speaking slot in the meeting;
"(d) A number of speaking slots at each meeting will be reserved for observers participating in the Special Commemorative Meeting. They will be invited to participate in the initial establishment of the list of speakers in the same manner as Member States, observer States and Palestine, in its capacity as observer, but from a different set of six boxes.
"4. The establishment of the initial list of speakers for the Special Commemorative Meeting as outlined in paragraph 3 of the present annex will take place at a meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations to be held on 7 June 1995.
"5. Subsequently, the list of speakers for each meeting will be rearranged in accordance with the established practice of the General Assembly when organizing each category of speakers, following the order resulting from the selection process outlined in paragraph 3 of the present annex:
"(a) Heads of State will thus be accorded first priority, followed by vice-presidents, crown princes/princesses, heads of government, the highest ranking official of the Holy See and Switzerland as observer States and Palestine in its capacity as observer, ministers, permanent representatives and other observers;
"(b) In the event that the level at which a statement is to me made is subsequently changed, the speaker will be moved to the next available speaking slot in the appropriate category at the same meeting;
"(c) Participants may arrange to exchange their speaking slots in accordance with the established practice of the General Assembly;
"(d) Speakers who are not present when their speaking turn comes will be automatically moved to the next available speaking slot within their category.
"6. In order to accommodate all speakers at the Special Commemorative Meeting, statements should be limited to five minutes, on the understanding that this will not preclude the circulation of more extensive texts.
"7. The full text of all speeches provided to the Special Commemorative Meeting will be subsequently published in a bound book."
On behalf of the Preparatory Committee, I should like to express my appreciation to all members of the Committee for their cooperation in producing this draft resolution, which has been adopted unanimously by the Preparatory Committee and which I recommend for adoption by the General Assembly this morning.
The President
The Assembly will now take a decision on the draft resolution entitled "Organization of the list of speakers for the Special Commemorative Meeting of the General Assembly on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations", which is contained in paragraph 4 of the report of the Preparatory Committee (A/49/48/Add.1). May I take it that the Assembly decides to adopt the draft resolution?
The President
Before calling on the first speaker in explanation of position, may I remind delegations that explanations of vote or position are limited to 10 minutes and should be made by delegations from their seats.
I shall now call on those representatives who wish to explain their positions on the resolution just adopted.
Mr. Jacob (Israel)
Israel is looking forward to the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. With regard to the resolution just adopted, we understand that this document does not represent any change in the status of the Palestine Liberation Organization as an observer organization within the United Nations system.
Mr. Birenbaum (United States)
The United States delegation has joined in the consensus to adopt the resolution before us, which sets out the modalities of and arrangements to be made for the upcoming Special Commemorative Meeting to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations.
The six special meetings and the other events that will take place in conjunction with the unprecedented gathering of world leaders will truly be an historic occasion. As host country and as host city to the United Nations, the United States Government and the city of New York are honoured to be in a position to welcome Heads of State and Government and are proud to serve as their hosts at several functions to be held in honour of the Commemorative Meeting.
Because of the importance of the Special Commemorative Meeting, we are pleased that the speaking arrangements were formulated in the spirit of cooperation and now meet the protocol needs of all concerned. We are pleased to have agreed on a revised speakers' list for this occasion on a basis that does not affect the status of observer States or any other observer. These special arrangements have been made in recognition of the unique character of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations and should not be seen as a precedent for any other purpose.
The President
We have heard the last speaker in explanation of position.
We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of agenda item 44.
Agenda item 164
Election of judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighbouring States between 1 January and 31 December 1994
Letter from the President of the Security Council (A/49/889)
Memorandum by the Secretary-General (A/49/893)
Curricula vitae (A/49/894)
The President
As members may recall, by its resolution 955 (1994) of 8 November 1994 the Security Council adopted the statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda.
Pursuant to article 12, paragraph 2 of the statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, the members of the Appeals Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 shall also serve as the members of the Appeals Chamber of the International Tribunal for Rwanda.
According to article 12, paragraph 3 of the statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, the six judges of the Trial Chambers of the International Tribunal for Rwanda shall be elected by the General Assembly from a list of candidates submitted by the Security Council.
In connection with this election, I should like to bring the following matters to the attention of the General Assembly.
Firstly, at its 3524th meeting, on 24 April 1995, the Security Council, in accordance with article 12, subparagraph 3 (c) of the statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, established in resolution 989 (1995) a list of 12 candidates, taking due account of adequate representation of the principal legal systems of the world. The list was formally conveyed to the President of the General Assembly by letter dated 24 April 1995 from the President of the Security Council. The letter was issued as document A/49/889.
Secondly, in accordance with article 12, subparagraph 3 (a) of the statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, the Holy See and Switzerland, the two non-Member States which were invited to nominate judges for the Trial Chambers of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, shall participate in the election in the same manner as the States Members of the United Nations. On this occasion, I am happy to welcome here the representatives of the Holy See and Switzerland.
Thirdly, in accordance with article 12, paragraph 5 of the statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, the judges shall be elected for a term of four years. They will serve on a full-time basis and therefore cannot engage in any other occupation of a professional nature during their tenure. Moreover, the judges of the International Tribunal for Rwanda will take office, upon two months' notice, shortly before the commencement of trial proceedings. However, they may be convened beforehand for an extraordinary session for the purpose of adopting the rules of procedure and evidence of the International Tribunal for Rwanda.
Finally, I should like to draw the Assembly's attention to the documents relating to the election. The memorandum by the Secretary-General concerning the election of judges of the International Tribunal for Rwanda is contained in document A/49/893. The list of candidates for judges of the Trial Chambers of the International Tribunal for Rwanda is to be found in paragraph 8 of document A/49/893.
The curricula vitae of the candidates are found in document A/49/894. In that connection, I wish to direct the Assembly's attention to the provision of article 12, paragraph 1 of the statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, which reads as follows:
"The judges shall be persons of high moral character, impartiality and integrity who possess the qualifications required in their respective countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices. In the overall composition of the Chambers due account shall be taken of the experience of the judges in criminal law, international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights law." (S/1994/1168, annex, article 12, para. 1)
As delegates know, the election of judges will take place in accordance with the relevant provisions of article 12 of the statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda.
Furthermore, given the similar nature of the election of judges of the International Court of Justice and the election of judges of the Trial Chambers of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, the Secretary-General suggests in his memorandum that the General Assembly proceed in the same manner as it did in the election of the judges of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
May I take it that the Assembly agrees to that suggestion?
I hear no objection.
The President
In accordance with article 12, subparagraph 3 (d) of the statute of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, the candidates who receive an absolute majority of the votes of States Members of the United Nations and of the non-Member States maintaining permanent observer missions at United Nations Headquarters will be declared elected.
The practice of the United Nations has always been to interpret the words "absolute majority" as meaning a majority of all electors, whether or not they take part in the voting. The electors, for this purpose, are all 185 Member States and two non-Member States -- the Holy See and Switzerland. Accordingly, 94 votes constitute an absolute majority for the purpose of electing judges of the Trial Chambers of the International Tribunal for Rwanda.
If, in the first ballot, fewer than the required number of candidates obtain an absolute majority, there will be a second ballot, possibly to be followed by other rounds of balloting until the required number of candidates have obtained an absolute majority.
Following the practice in the election of judges of the International Court of Justice, the Secretary-General suggests in his memorandum that, after the first ballot, other rounds of balloting should be unrestricted.
He suggested also that, in accordance with the practice followed in the elections of the judges of the International Court of Justice, if more than the required number of candidates obtain an absolute majority of votes in the first ballot, all candidates will be included in a second ballot and balloting will continue until the exact number of candidates required, and no more, have obtained an absolute majority.
May I take it that the Assembly agrees to the procedures I have just outlined?
I hear no objection.
The President
I now call on the observer of the Holy See.
Monsignor Mamberti (Holy See)
First of all, I wish to thank you, Mr. President, for your words of welcome to the non-member States that have been called upon to take part in this meeting.
The Holy See followed with anguish and alarm the events that covered Rwanda in blood last year. On many occasions, His Holiness Pope John Paul II has deplored the mindless violence and called for an end to the massacres, which were sometimes even committed in churches, where innocent, unarmed people thought they had found sanctuary.
The Holy See approved of the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which is an expression of the international community's commitment to fighting violations of human rights, and it expressed its support by making a symbolic contribution to the special fund established by the Secretary-General to finance the activities of the Tribunal.
The Holy See appreciates the invitation from the United Nations to join in the appointment of the judges of the Tribunal. None the less, considering its special position and special role in the community of nations, the Holy See does not intend to take active part in choosing the people who will exercise these functions. Consequently, its delegation will abstain in the voting. The General Assembly will recall that the Holy See took the same position when the judges of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia were elected in September 1993.
The President
We shall now proceed to the election.
The voting process has now begun.
Ballot papers will now be distributed. I request representatives to use only the ballot papers distributed. Only those candidates whose names appear on the ballot papers are eligible. Representatives will indicate the six candidates for whom they wish to vote by placing crosses to the left of the names on the ballot papers. Any ballot paper on which more than six names are marked will be considered invalid. Votes may be cast only for those candidates whose names appear on the ballot papers.
The President
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| <type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'> | Python 2.6.6: /usr/bin/python Mon May 20 20:44:01 2013 |
A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in |
| 194 if __name__ == "__main__": |
| 195 pathpart = os.getenv("PATH_INFO") |
| 196 maintrunk(pathpart) |
| 197 |
| 198 |
| maintrunk = <function maintrunk>, pathpart = '/generalassembly_49/meeting_103/highlight_S-RES-955(1994)' |
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in maintrunk(pathpart='/generalassembly_49/meeting_103/highlight_S-RES-955(1994)') |
| 131 elif pagefunc == "gameeting": |
| 132 LogIncomingDB(hmap["docid"], hmap["gadice"] or "0", referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| 133 WriteHTML(hmap["htmlfile"], hmap["pdfinfo"], hmap["gadice"], hmap["highlightdoclink"]) |
| 134 elif pagefunc == "agendanumexpanded": |
| 135 LogIncomingDB(pagefunc, hmap["agendanum"], referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| global WriteHTML = <function WriteHTML>, hmap = {'docid': 'A-49-PV.103', 'gadice': '', 'gameeting': 103, 'gasession': 49, 'highlightdoclink': 'S-RES-955(1994)', 'htmlfile': '/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-49-PV.103.html', 'pagefunc': 'gameeting', 'pdfinfo': <pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>} |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteHTML(fhtml='/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-49-PV.103.html', pdfinfo=<pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>, gadice='', highlightth='S-RES-955(1994)') |
| 322 if dclass == "spoken": |
| 323 if not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice: |
| 324 WriteSpoken(gid, dtextmu, councilpresidentnation) |
| 325 elif dclass == "subheading": |
| 326 if agendagidcurrent and (not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice): |
| global WriteSpoken = <function WriteSpoken>, gid = u'pg006-bk05', dtextmu = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">The Pres...ulungwe Mainga 53 Mr. Kevin Haugh 26</blockquote>', councilpresidentnation = None |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteSpoken(gid=u'pg006-bk05', dtext=u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">The Pres...ulungwe Mainga 53 Mr. Kevin Haugh 26</blockquote>', councilpresidentnation=None) |
| 69 print '</cite>' |
| 70 |
| 71 print dtext[mspek.end(0):] |
| 72 |
| 73 print '</div>' |
| dtext = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">The Pres...ulungwe Mainga 53 Mr. Kevin Haugh 26</blockquote>', mspek = <_sre.SRE_Match object>, mspek.end = <built-in method end of _sre.SRE_Match object> |
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encoding =
'ascii'
end =
335
message =
''
object =
u'\n\t<p id="pg006-bk05-pa01">The result of the voti...ulungwe Mainga 53 Mr. Kevin Haugh 26</blockquote>'
reason =
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start =
334