Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly
74th Session (2019-2020)
Mandate
By of 12 September 2019, the General Assembly decided to establish at its 74th session an ad hoc working group on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly (AHWG), open to all Member States, “to identify further ways to enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency of the Assembly, inter alia, by building on the progress achieved in past sessions as well as on previous resolutions, including evaluating the status of their implementation” and to submit a report thereon to the Assembly at its 74th session.
By the same resolution, the General Assembly also decided that the AHWG shall continue its review of the (see p.30 of document A/73/956) of General Assembly resolutions on revitalization annexed to its report submitted at the 73rd session of the Assembly.
Among specific mandates for the 74th session, the Assembly:
- Requested the President of the General Assembly to reconsider the timing of the plenary meetings of the Assembly on the report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization and on the report of the Security Council, in close coordination with the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council, so that discussions of these important reports are not conducted in a perfunctory manner;
- Reiterated its decision to hold an interactive and comprehensive dialogue between the Permanent Missions and the Secretariat as mandated in resolution 71/323 of 8 September 2017,during the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group, and strongly emphasizes the importance of the follow-up on issues raised during the dialogue aimed at improving the work of the Secretariat in its interaction with Permanent Missions, including the circulation of these follow-up measures to Permanent Missions;
- Requested the Department of Global Communications of the Secretariat to continue to take appropriate measures to further enhance public awareness of the role and activities of the Assembly, including on as many platforms as possible;
- Decided to continue the consideration of the issue of the cost of the use of the Delegates’ Dining Room and other venues at United Nations Headquarters in New York by delegations during its seventy-fourth session;
- Requested the Secretariat to brief the Ad Hoc Working Group at the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly on past decisions regarding the streamlining of the agenda of the Assembly to further address the issue of the increasingly overloaded agenda of the Assembly;
- Requested each Main Committee to further discuss its working methods, and in this regard invites the Chairs of the Main Committees to continue briefing the Ad Hoc Working Group during the seventy-fourth session on any best practices and lessons learned with a view to improving working methods, and to coordinate their briefings through, inter alia, possible identification of commonalities in the working methods and the lessons learned;
- Reiterated the need to produce the Journal of the United Nations in all six official languages in strict compliance with rule 55 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, and in that regard emphasizes the importance of the extension of the information in the Journal published in the six official languages, reiterated its request to the Secretary-General to brief the Ad Hoc Working Group, on a yearly basis, on the progress achieved in this regard, and requested the Secretariat to continue to explore cost-neutral options to that effect;
- Decided to further assess during the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly the selection and appointment process of the Secretary-General, consolidate the advances gained in the relevant Assembly resolutions and explore possible steps to further improve the process, including the collaboration between the Assembly and the Security Council, consistent with Article 97 of the Charter, as well as to explore the possibility for the incumbent Secretary-General to present a vision statement for the next term and to brief the Member States on its content;
- Requested the Secretariat to continue with the practice of providing a briefing to the Ad Hoc Working Group on the gender and geographical balance of the executive heads of the United Nations system and the Senior Management Group of the Organization, as well as with a breakdown showing those originating from the States that are permanent members of the Security Council;
- Requested the Secretary-General to continue to provide to the President of the General Assembly, within existing resources, adequate administrative, technical, logistical and protocol-related support necessary to effectively execute his or her mandates as president of a principal organ of the United Nations;
- Requested the Secretary-General to take the measures necessary to preserve and further strengthen the institutional memory of the Office of the President of the General Assembly, through utilizing existing United Nations record-keeping and archiving facilities;
- Requested the Secretariat to issue, within existing resources, in coordination with the Office of the President of the General Assembly, a compendium of best practices of past Presidents that could serve to contribute to strengthening the institutional memory of the Office.
Letters
- Letter from the Co-chairs of the AHWG on the revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly, enclosing informal summary of the general and thematic discussions on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly at its 74th session
(10 September 2020)
- Letter from the co-chairs of the AHWG, informing that the silence procedure on the draft text of AHWG concluded without any objections (2 September 2020)
- Invitation to a virtual meeting of the process on Monday, 24 August 2020 (17 August 2020)
- Forthcoming thematic debates of the AHWG on the Office of the President General Assembly and Secretary General Selection Process (2 June 2020)
- Invitation to a virtual meeting of the AHWG on 5 May 2020 (27 April 2020)
- Proposed way forward regarding the work of the AHWG in view of the challenges related to COVID-19 (25 March 2020)
- Tentative programme of work of the AHWG on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly? (14 February 2020)
- Appointment of Co-Chairs of the AHWG on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly (7 November 2019)
Updated inventory chart
- Draft updated inventory chart of General Assembly resolutions on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly to be issued pursuant to resolution 73/341 (as of 10 September 2020)