General Assembly Session 57 meeting 76

The Acting President

The General Assembly will resume its consideration of agenda item 23, entitled "United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage". Members will recall that the General Assembly held a debate on this agenda item at the 67th plenary meeting on 4 December 2002. In this connection, the Assembly has before it the draft resolution issued as document A/57/L.59.

I give the floor to the representative of Egypt to introduce draft resolution A/57/L.59.

Mr. Atta (Egypt)

The delegation of Egypt is pleased to introduce the draft resolution contained in document A/57/L.59 on the United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage. The draft resolution refers to the conclusion of the United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage, 2002, as set forth in General Assembly resolution 56/8 in its previous session.

The draft resolution stresses the need for the international community to make every effort to promote and preserve humankind's common cultural heritage, whether tangible, intangible, natural or man-made. The draft resolution also stresses the need to further the constructive efforts being carried out by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in this area, as it is the international organization most suited to protecting and promoting the cultural heritage for humankind. The draft resolution also calls upon the Director-General of that organization to participate in the discussion of this agenda item at the next session of the General Assembly regarding the work of the organization.

The delegation of Egypt would like to thank all the delegations that participated in the ample discussions on this draft resolution. In particular, we would like to thank the delegations that have sponsored the draft resolution, including Bangladesh, France, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Maldives, Mongolia, Nicaragua, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Thailand and Yemen.

In conclusion, I would like to comment on something that has already been mentioned several times. This draft resolution contains a number of differences from the original text as submitted to the Secretariat. They do not affect the general import of the draft resolution. But, perhaps, require an explanation. We would have liked to have been consulted, along with the other sponsors, before those changes were introduced into the draft resolution. Some of them change phrasing agreed upon in previous documents of the United Nations; others do not take into account the balance that was achieved in the text. That balance was a compromise between the divergent positions that were taken during the negotiations. We would therefore like the following corrections to be made to the text.

In the fourth preambular paragraph, we would like the word "these" to be replaced with the words "host", so that the phrase will read "host communities". In the same paragraph, the word "intensifying" should be replaced by "enhancing" so that the phrase will read "enhancing international cooperation". Those changes bring the draft text back into line with the outcome of the Johannesburg Summit.

In operative paragraph 4, we would like the word "possible" to be added after "explore", so the phrase will read "explore possible ways", in order to reflect a delicate compromise reached in the course of consultations. We would also like the Arabic translation to be revised, because we find many discrepancies between it and the English text.

The Acting President

The Assembly will now take a decision on draft resolution A/57/L.59 as orally corrected, entitled "United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage 2002". May I take it that the Assembly decides to adopt draft resolution A/57/L.59 as orally corrected?

The Acting President

May I take it that it is the wish of the Assembly to conclude its consideration of agenda item 23?

The Acting President

Members will recall that the General Assembly debated this agenda item at the 51st and 52nd plenary meetings, held on 15 and 19 November 2002. I give the floor to the representative of Denmark to introduce draft resolution A/57/L.53.