ENB:03:02

AD HOC WORKING GROUP ON UNCED ESTABLISHED

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), which concluded on 14 June 1992, left a series of specific recommendations to be considered by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at its 47th Session. Deliberations on UNCED follow-up are the responsibility of the Second Committee of the UNGA, which deals with economic and social issues. To save time, the Second Committee agreed that all negotiations on UNCED-related issues would take place in a special open-ended ad hoc working group of the Second Committee under the Chairmanship of Malaysian Ambassador Razali Ismail (the Coordinator of the institutions working group during UNCED).

Shortly after his appointment, Ambassador Razali prepared a discussion paper (dated 8 October 1992) in which he identified the key UNCED-related matters to be taken up for discussion and eventual negotiation by the General Assembly. At the organizational session of the open-ended ad hoc working group (hereby referred to as the Razali Group) on 16 October, the workload and the scope of the negotiations were discussed, as presented in Razali's discussion paper. The various components of Agenda 21 that require "further elaboration and/or decisions by the Assembly" include:

• Chapter 12: UNCED requested the UNGA in its 47th Session to establish an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a convention to combat desertification (12.40);

• Chapter 17: The UNGA should provide for intergovernmental consideration of marine and coastal issues (17.118);

• Chapter 17: The UNGA should hold meetings on sustainable development of small island states with the first global conference to be held in 1993 (17.131);

• Chapter 17: The UNGA should convene a conference on straddling and highly migratory fish stocks (17.50);

• Chapter 17: A conference on integrated coastal zone management should be held before 1994 (17.11);

• Chapter 33: Developed countries should report on their financial commitments toward implementing the decisions of UNCED at the 47th Session of the UNGA (33.21) and that a review of funding and mechanisms be set up (33.23);

• Chapter 34: Consideration of the role of patent protection and intellectual property rights and their impact on the access to and transfer of environmentally-sound technology (34.10);

• Chapter 38: The UNGA should review the implementation of Agenda 21 and consider holding a special session by 1997 for an overall review and appraisal of Agenda 21 (38.9);

• Chapter 38: The UNGA should determine the organizational modalities of the Commission on Sustainable Development and the Secretary-General was to prepare a report with recommendations and proposals (38.12);

• Chapter 38: The UNGA is to consider the recommendations of the Secretary-General on a high level advisory board (38.18) and continued secretariat support for follow-up to UNCED (38.19):

• Chapter 38: The UNGA should "examine ways of enhancing the involvement of the NGOs within the UN system in relation to the UNCED follow-up process... with accreditation based on the procedures used in UNCED". (38.44)

• Chapter 40: UNCED called on the UN system to consider strengthening the coordination of activities to ensure the full integration of environment and development concerns.

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