General Assembly Session 54 meeting 83

The President

The Assembly will now take a decision on the two draft resolutions recommended by the Third Committee in paragraph 11 of its report.

The General Assembly shall first turn to draft resolution I, entitled "Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action". The Third Committee adopted draft resolution I without a vote. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to do likewise?

The President

We now turn to draft resolution II, entitled "Preparations for the special session of the General Assembly entitled Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century'". The Third Committee adopted draft resolution II without a vote. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to do likewise?

Ms. Kangaskorpi (Finland)

I have the honour, on behalf of the European Union, to explain our position in connection with the two resolutions just adopted.

The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union -- Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia -- and the associated countries Cyprus and Malta, as well as the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) country member of the European Economic Area (EEA), Iceland, align themselves with this explanation of vote.

The European Union would like to share our views regarding the arrangements for the participation of non-governmental organizations in the Beijing + 5 special session. The European Union has joined the consensus in adopting the resolutions and can support their content.

While paragraph 16 of draft resolution II and corresponding paragraph 15 of draft resolution I remain valid, further discussion, in light of the new developments concerning non-governmental organization participation in the follow-up processes, is required. Since the adoption of draft resolution II in March of this year, new experience has been gained and new developments have taken place. Agreement was reached regarding the arrangements for accreditation and participation of non-governmental organizations in the ICPD + 5 special session held in June and later, in August, for next year's Copenhagen + 5 special session.

In light of these recent developments, we feel that it is important that women's organizations are treated on an equal basis with non-governmental organizations which are participating in other, similar follow-up processes.

The European Union discussed the issue of participation by non-governmental organizations informally during the negotiation process in the Third Committee but decided not to pursue the issue, as it is a matter to be addressed by the Preparatory Committee. Non-governmental organization participation was discussed during the Beijing + 5 informal consultations a couple of weeks ago, and the European Union also raised the question of accreditation of those non-governmental organizations not covered by the existing arrangements.

Since the Beijing Conference in 1995, new non-governmental organizations have emerged as a result of the momentum created by the Conference itself. These include a number of small national organizations which are unable to participate in the work of the United Nations on a regular basis. For these organizations, the process of applying for the Economic and Social Council consultative status to participate in this particular special session only would not be reasonable and, indeed, would not be meaningful from a practical point of view, especially taking into account the workload faced by the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations. To widen the accreditation for non-governmental organizations other than those having Economic and Social Council consultative status or which participated in the Beijing Conference would provide the interested non-governmental organizations or women's groups with the possibility to attend this particular special session.

Only a short while ago, consensus was reached among delegations on the arrangements for participation by non-governmental organizations in the context of the ICPD + 5 conference and the Copenhagen + 5 preparatory process, including addressing the participation of organizations which did not attend those Conferences or which do not have Economic and Social Council consultative status.

We believe that these arrangements would provide us with a good basis for our discussions. As regards the arrangements concerning the participation of the non-governmental organizations in the plenary, the African Group made a proposal in the informal consultations of the Preparatory Committee which we welcomed. We hope that a final agreement on all the arrangements for participation by non-governmental organizations in the Beijing + 5 special session will be reached before we enter the substantive negotiations in the Preparatory Committee in March 2000.

After all, non-governmental organizations, in particular women's organizations, play a vital role in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and continue to be an indispensable force for gender equality. Therefore, wide attendance at the special session is essential.

The President

I give the floor to the representative of Algeria, who has asked to speak on a point of order.

Mrs. Mesdoua (Algeria)

It was not my delegation's intention to take the floor on this item. However, having heard the statement made by the representative of the European Union on this subject, we deeply regret that this question is being brought up now, at a time when we are adopting two draft resolutions on which the Third Committee reached consensus.

In connection with the accreditation of non-governmental organizations and their participation in the special session to be held next year for Beijing+5, it is clear to the Algerian delegation -- and we want this to be clearly reflected in the records of the Assembly -- that the accreditation of non-governmental organizations to the General Assembly has already been the subject of discussion and of consensus not only in the Preparatory Committee and the Economic and Social Council, but also in the Third Committee. We feel that the statement made just now by the European Union is an attempt to reopen this question. We hope that this is not the case. In any event, it is clear to the Algerian delegation that the question of accreditation is a matter that has already been discussed and negotiated and on which consensus has been reached. The Algerian delegation does not intend to reopen this issue.

The participation of these non-governmental organizations in the special session is a question that is now being negotiated. We do not believe that the question should be raised now, at the time of the adoption of the report of the Third Committee. I would ask, therefore, that the statement made by the Algerian delegation be reflected in the records of the Assembly.

The President

I call on the representative of Suriname on a point of order.

Mr. Kerpens (Suriname)

I would like to call to the Assembly's attention that in document A/54/599, entitled "Implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women", on the top left of page 1 in the English version, we see "Fifty-fourth session, Agenda item 10". I presume it should read "Agenda item 110".

The President

The General Assembly has thus concluded this stage of its consideration of agenda item 110.