IO Files: US/A/C.2/11
United States Delegation Working Paper
Memorandum
representation of specialized agencies at meetings of the general assembly and of its main committees
In view of the fact that this subject has been raised in the General Committee (October 28, 1946), and may come up in the Assembly or in one or more of the committees, the following background information may be found useful. Each of the draft agreements on the agenda for General Assembly approval contains an article on reciprocal representation. The status of representatives of the specialized agencies in respect of plenary meetings of the General Assembly is dealt with in one paragraph, and their status at meetings of the Main Committees of the General Assembly is dealt with in another paragraph.
Plenary Meetings of the General Assembly
Three of the agreements (FAO, UNESCO, and PICAO) contain essentially similar provisions to the effect that representatives of the agencies shall be invited to attend meetings of the General Assembly “for purposes of consultation” on matters within the scope of their activities (see attachment giving the texts of paragraph 3, Article II or III, in each of the four draft agreements). The corresponding provision in the draft agreement with the ILO provides that representatives of that organization shall be invited to attend meetings of the General Assembly “in a consultative capacity” and, unlike the other three agreements, goes on to state that they “shall be afforded full opportunity for presenting to the General Assembly the views of the ILO on questions within the scope of its activities”.
[Page 512]These provisions in the agreements with FAO, UNESCO, and PICAO do not appear to confer upon these agencies a right to take the initiative in presenting general statements about the work of their organizations at plenary meetings of the General Assembly. The corresponding provision in the agreement with the ILO, however, might be interpreted as granting such a right. On the other hand, a case can be made that the wording of paragraph 3, Article II, of the ILO draft agreement should be taken to mean that the ILO shall be afforded full opportunity for presenting its views to the General Assembly only when questions within the scope of ILO’s activities are under discussion in the General Assembly.
Meetings of Main General Assembly Committees
The paragraphs in the four agreements dealing with the question of representation of the specialized agencies at meetings of the Main Committees are essentially similar. (See attachment giving the texts of paragraph 4, Article II or III, in each of the four draft agreements.) They provide that representatives of the agencies shall be invited to attend meetings when matters within the scope of their activities are under discussion and “to participate, without vote, in such discussions”. The wording of the paragraph in the agreement with the ILO is slightly more favorable to that Organization than the corresponding wording in the other three agreements; that is, it provides the ILO with a somewhat better basis for claiming that it “has an interest” in matters under discussion.
Comments
It will be seen from the foregoing and from the texts reproduced in the attachment to this memorandum, that neither the word “guests” nor the word “observers” adequately describes the status of representatives of the specialized agencies, under their draft agreements with the UN, in respect of plenary meetings of the General Assembly or meetings of the Main Committees of the Assembly.
Pending the coming into force of the agreements between the specialized agencies and the UN, the General Assembly and its Main Committees need not accord to representatives of the four specialized agencies the treatment provided for in the draft agreements but may make ad hoc arrangements to hear them on matters within the compentence of the agencies.
Although it might be argued that some differentiation should be made between the privileges accorded to representatives of specialized agencies with which agreements have been concluded and those representing agencies with which negotiations are still in progress or contemplated, it is believed that any such differentiation in treatment at [Page 513] meetings of the General Assembly or of its Main Committees probably would serve no useful purpose.42
- There seems to have been no further discussion of this subject by the United States Delegation. The report of the General Assembly’s Joint Committee 2 and 3 recommending approval of the draft agreements is found in United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, First Session, Second Part, Plenary Meetings, pp. 1576 ff., annex 85; hereafter cited as GA(I/2), Plenary. The General Assembly on December 14 in Resolution 50 (I) approved the draft agreements with the proviso “that, in the case of the agreement with the International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO, successor to the PICAO], that Organization complies with any decision of the General Assembly regarding Franco Spain,” GA(I/2), Plenary, pp. 1381 and 1382 and United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, First Session, Second Part, Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly during the Second, Part of Its First Session, p. 78; hereafter cited as GA(I/2), Resolutions. For documentation regarding the Spanish question at the United Nations, see vol. v, pp. 1023 ff.↩