GA/10410
28 October 2005
General Committee Recommends Inclusion of Item on Observer Status for Ibero-American Conference in Assembly's Current Agenda
Also Recommends Deferring 'Question of Comorian Island of Mayotte' to Assembly's Sixty-Second Session
NEW YORK, 27 October (UN Headquarters) -- The General Assembly's General Committee decided this morning to recommend that an additional item, entitled the "Granting of observer status in the General Assembly to the Ibero-American Conference", be included in the Assembly's agenda for the current session.
The General Committee also recommended allocating the item to the Assembly's Sixth Committee (Legal). The Assembly is expected to consider the General Committee's recommendations on Monday, 31 October.
According to a letter from Spain's Permanent Representative addressed to Assembly President Jan Eliasson (Sweden), contained in document A/60/233, the Ibero-American Conference was established in 1991 by the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking States of the Americas and Europe. Its purpose is to promote cooperation and ties among the Ibero-American countries with a value on the diversity of their peoples. Observer status for the Conference in the Assembly would strengthen and institutionalize relations between the two bodies, leading to better cooperation on activities.
Expressing support for the proposal during this morning's meeting were the representatives of Paraguay, Brazil and Venezuela.
In other action, the General Committee decided to recommend, on the proposal of Mali, that the consideration of an item entitled "Question of the Comorian Island of Mayotte" be deferred until the sixty-second session of the Assembly.
Speaking in favour of that proposal were the representatives of the United Kingdom and India.
The General Committee's next meeting will be announced in the Journal.
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