A/44/PV.48 General Assembly
I have great pleasure in welcoming the Prime Minister of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Right Honourable
Margaret Thatcher, and inviting her to address the General Assembly.
Mrs. THATCHER (Uni ted Kingdom): It gives 1ft! great pleasure to return to
the rostrum of this Assembly. When I last spoke here - four years ago, on the
fortieth anniversary of the United Nations - the message that I and others like me
gave was one of encouragement to the Organization to play the great role allotted
to it.
Of all the challenges faced by the world coll1l\unity in those four years, one
has grown clearer than any other in both urgency and importance. I refer to the
threat to our global environment. I shall take the opportunity of addressing the
General Assembly to speak Q'\ tha t subject alone.
During his historic voyage through the South Seas on the Beagle,
Charles Darwin landed, one November morning in 1835, on the Shore of Western
Tahiti. After breakfast he climbed a nearby hill to find a vantage point from
which to survey the surrounding Pac:ific. The sight seened to him like -a franed
engraving-, with blue sky, blue lagoon and white breakers crashing against the
encircling coral reef. As he looked out from that hillside he began tn form his
theory of the evolution of coral. One hundred and fifty-four years after Darwin's
visit to Tahiti we have added little to what he discovered then.
Mhat if Qlades Darwin had been able not just to cu'lIb a foothill but to soar
through the heavens in one of the orbiting space shuttles? What would t'ile have
learned, as he surveyed our planet from thl.t al titude, from a moon 's-eye view of
that strange and beautiful anomaly in our solar system that is the Farth?
Of course, we have learned IlUCh detail about our environment as we have looked
back at it from space, but nothing has made a more profound impact on us than these
two facts.
First, as the British scientist Fred Ibyle wrote long before space travel was
a reality, :~
~nce a photograph of the earth, taken from the outside, is available ••• a
new idea as powerful as any other in history will be let loose. M
That t'Qwerful idea is the recognition of our shared inheritance on this planet. we
know more clearly than ever before that we carry common burdens, face ccmmon
prc)blema, and must respond with colllllOn action.
Secondly, as we travel through space, as we pass one dead planet after
another, we look back on our Earth - a speCk of life in an infinite void. It is
life itself, incomparably precious, that distinguishes us from the other planets.
It is life itself - human life, the innumerable species of our planet - that we
wantonly destroy. It is life itself ttiat we must battle to preserve.
For over 40 years that has been the main task of the ~ited Nationsl to bring
p8!lce where there was war, comfort where there was misery, life where there was
death. The struggle haa not always been successful. There have been years of
failure. But recent events have brought the promise of a new dawn, of new hope.
~lations between the Western nations and the Soviet Union and its allies, long
frozen in suspicion and hostility, have beg.... to thaw.
In EUrope, this year, freedom has been on the march.
(Mrs•. Thatcher, United Kingdom)
In southern Africa - Namib ia and Angola - the Uni ted Ha tiens has succeeded in
holding out better prospects for an end to war and for the beginning of prosperity.
In South-East Asia, too, we can dare to hope for the restoration of peace
after decades of fighting.
While the conventional ~litical dangers - the threat of glob&l annihilation,
the fact of regional war - appear to be receding, we have all recently become aware
of another insidious danger. It is as menacing in its way as those more customary
perils with which international diplolllllcy has cor.cerned itself for centuries. It
l,s the pcospect of irretrievable damage to the atmosphere, to the oceans, to Earth
itself.
Of course, major changes in the Earth's climate and the environment took place
in earlier centuries when the world's popUlation was a fraction of its present
size. The causes are to be found in nature itself - changes !n the Earth's orbit,
changes in the aJlOunt of radia tion given off by the sun, the conseauential effects
on the plankton in th1e ocean, and volcanic processes. All these we can observe,
and some we may be able to predict. But we do not have the power to prevent or
control them.
What we are nON doing to the world, by degrading th«!l land surfaces, by
polluting the waters and by adding greenhouse gases to the air at an unprecedented
rate - all this is new in the experience of the &uth. It is ftIlnk ind and his
activities that are changing the enyiro'\I~nt of our planet in da_ging and
dangerous ways.
(Mrs. ThatCher, United Kingdom)
we can find examples in the past. Indeed, we may well conclude that it WBS
the silting up of the River Euphrates which drove man out of the Garden of &ien.
we also have the example of the tragedy of Eas ter Island, where people arrived
by boat to find a prilHval forest. In time, the po\:,ulatlon increased to over 9,000
SOU18 Md the de.and placed upen the environment tesu! teeS in its eventual
destruction as people cut down the trees. This in turn led to warfare over the
scarce rema1ning resources, and the popula tlon crashed to a few hWldred pec:>ple
without even enough wood to make boats to escape.
'rhe difference now ls in the scale of the dsuage we are doing.
We are 8eelng a vast increase in the amount of carbon dioxide reaching the
atmsphere. 'rhe annual increase is 3 billion tonnes, and half the carbon emitted
aince the 1ndustr:1al revolution still remains in the atmosphere.
At the sa_ ti_ as thia is happening, we are seeing the des trucUon on a "ast
scale of tropical forests which are uniauely able to rellOve carbon dioxide from the
air. Bvery year an area of forest equal to the whole surface of the United Kingdom
is destroyed. At present rates of cl.ranee we shall, by the yHr 2000, have
rellOVed 65 per cent of forests in the hUllid tropical zones. The conseGuences of
this beco. clearer "'en one re.llbers that tropical forests fix llare than 10 times
as auch carbon u &» forests in the temperate zones.
We nOlI know, too, that great da_ge is being done to the ozone layer by the
prOlSuctlon of halons .-ul chlorofluorocarbona (CFCs). But at least we have
recognbed that recJucing and eventually stopping the ell18slon of cpes is one
positive thing we CM do about the _nacing aceulllla tion of «JreenhoUM gases. It
is of coune true that none of us would be here but for the greenhouse effect. It
g1ves .. the mist atmsphere which ...tains Ufe on Earth. We need the greenhoule
effect, but ~nly in the right proportions.
I
I
(Mrs. Thatcher, United kingdom)
More than anything, our environment is threatened by the sheer nullbers of
people and the plants and animals which 90 with them. When I was born the world's
populaticn was some 2 billion people. My gundson will grow up in a world of more
than 6 billion people.
Put in its blW'ltest form, the ilia in threa t to our environment is IIOre and IIOre
people and their oScttvi ties a the land they cul tiva te ever more in tensive1y, the
forests they cut down and burn, the mountain sides they lay bare, tho 6)seil fuels
they burn, the dvers and the seas they pollute.
The result is that change in future is likely to be more fUndamental and IIOre
widespread than anything we have known hitherto - change to the sea aromd us,
change to the atmosphere above, leading in turn to change in the world's climate,
which could alter the way we live in the most fundamental way of all. That
prospect is a new factor in hUl18n affairs. It is comparable in its implications to
the discovery of how to split the atan. Indeed. ~,ts results could be even IIlOre
far-reaching.
We are constantly learning more about these changes affecting our environment,
and scientists from the Polar Institute in Cambridge 8\d the British Antarctic
Survey have been at the leading edge of research in both the Arctic and the
Antarctic, warning us of the gr~jter dangers that lie ahead. Let me C1uote from a
letter I received only two weeks ago from a British scientist on board a s~ip in
the Antarctic OCean. He wrote,
"In the polar regions today, we are seeing what may be early signs of
man-induced clia tic change. Data coaing in frOll Hallf!l,{ Bay and froll
instruments aboard the ship on which I am sailing show that we are entering a
spring ozone depletion which is as deep as, if not deeper than, the depletion
in the worst year to date. It completely reverses the recovery observed
(Mu. Thatcher, United lCingdoa)
!n 1988. The lowest recording abOard this ship la only 150 Dobson thits for
oaone total content during Septe.ber col!Pared with 300 for the sa_ ••Son in
8· noral year."
That i8, of course, a v«ry 8~vere ~~pletlon.
Be alao reports on a significant thiMlng of the sea ice, and he writes that
In the Intarctic
"Our data confira confira that the first"Year lee, which for_ the bulk
of sea Ice cover, la rell&rkably thin Md so Is probably unable to sustain
significant ataospheric waraing without 8elting. Sea ice" - he continues -
"separates the ocean frOll the atilOsphere ~er an aUlI of ~re than 30 .1111oft
square kllOlleuea. It reflects .oat of the solar radiation falUng on it,
helping to cool the Earth's surface. If thla area were reduced D the waralnq
of Earth would be accelerated laue to the extra absorption of radiation by the
ocean.
"The lesson of theae polar processes" - he goes on - "is that an
environmental Ol' cllNtic change produced by man .y take on a self-sustaining
or 'runaway' Quality••• and mav be irreversible".
That is fro. thft scientists Who ate doing work on a ship th&t is at present
considering these .tter~.
These are sobering indications of what may happen, and they led my
correspondent to put forward the interesting Idea of a world Polar" teh, alllOnqilt
other initia tives wi:ich will Observe the world's cUute system and allow us to
under.tand how it works.
We also bave new acientiflc evidence fro. an entirely different area, the
tropical tOtests. Throuqh their capacity to evapora te vast volumes of • ter
vapour, and of 9ases and partic1.ea whicb asslst the fortlatlon of clouds, the
(Mrs. 'l'hateher, United 11n9doa)
for..ta serve to keep their regiona cool M4 mist by weaving a sun8hade of t;'hibt
reflecting clcuGs and by br1nCjing the rain that sutaln. th_.
A recent .tudy by our Briti.h Meteorological Office on the "zon rain forest·
shOlls that large1C&le deforestation .y reduce rainfall and thus affect the
cU.ta directly. Put experience show. us that without tr.e. thers 18 no rain~
and withoUt rain there ate roe; tr....
T~e evidence la there. The dllNge le being dene. What do we, the
interne tional COIIllUftl ty ~ do about it?
In so.. areae the action reaul~ed ie pri..rily for individual n.~ns or
groupe of natione to take. I a. thinking, for exaaple, of action to deal with the
POllution of rlvers - and ..ny of us now see the fish back in rivers fro. which
they had disappear,t(.. 'i all thine iftCJ of action to _prove agricultural Hthade -
qood husbandry w~lch ploughs back nourishment into the soil rather than the
cut-and-burn which tau da_gGd and degraded 80 IUCh land in some parte of the
world. And I aa thinking of the use of nuclear power Which, despite the attitude
of so-called Greens, is the aoet environ.entally safe fora of ener9'/.
But the prebl. of glObal cliute change is one that affecta us alL and
action wUl be effective onl)' if it is taken at the interna tional level.
It 1s no 900d squabbling over who le responsible or who should pay. Whole
areas of our planet could be subject to drought and starvation if the pattern of
rains and ROnsoon. were to change as a result of the o8struct1on of forests and the
mccu~latlon of greenhouse ga.es.
We have to look forwal'd, not backward. We 8hall succeed in dealing with the
problems only through a vast international, co-operative effort.
Before "e act, we need the best possible scientifie assess_nt, otherwise we
riSk _king _ttere "orH. We .uet use science to cast a liqht ahead 80 that we
can .ove step by step 1n the right direction.
file Qll tea KingdCII ha. agreed to tate en the ta. of co-ordina tin9 aueh an
a••••aaent within the Inter90"er..antal Panl/l on C11111te Change" an a••••••nt
which v111 be a..11able to e".ryone by the tllle of the .ecOld Wodd ell_te
Conference next y..r. But that vill take us only 80 far.. The report "ill not be
able to tell us "here the ''',1nle... .,ill be striking, who will be flooded or how
often and how .e"er8 the droughU "U1 be, yet we will need to know th~se thing. if
ve are to adapt to future ell." change. that ••ana ...e auat expansJ our capacity
to 1IOde1 and predict e11J1ate change.. we can test our *111. and _thodli by QM1ng
whether they would have .ucce.sfully predicted past cU. te ctumge fcx which
hi.torical records exlst.
Brltain ha. ea.e of the 1ead1ng expert. in this field and I aa p1.sl1d to be
able te tell thtt AaHllbly that the United IUngdoa .,U1 be e.tabUdling a nett centre
for the prediction of e1l.te chan98, which "Ul lead the effort to improve our
prophetic capac1ty. It vill also provide the advanced COMputing facilities th&t
scienti.ts need and it vl11 be open to experts froD all over the world, especially
frc. the developing countrie., "ho .,Ul be able to aOIle to the Unl ted KingdOll and
But .s wll as the science we neelS to get the eeonoaics right. That _ans,
contf'~,bute to this vital work"
first, that .,e auat have continued econc:.lc growth 1n order to genera te thf!l wealth
requ1red to PIIIY for the ~otection of thQ environMent, but It mu.t be growth "'lch
does not plunder the planet today and leave our children to deal .,ith the
con.equencos toflO!.'t'OW. Secondly, we .!.Ist r~.ist th~ sl.plt.tie tendency to blallle
lOde:n .uttina tional indulItry for the da.g_ whic:h ia being dcne to the
envlron.ent. Far fro. industry'. being the villain, it is on industry that .,e rely
to do the r.earch ard find the .olutions. It i. Indutry which .,U1 develop safl1t
alternative ch.a1eal. for refrig.ratora and air condit1cning. It is industry which
tr_t pollutants .cl _k. nuclear waste eafe - and lUny coapanl.s, as 'I. know,
vU!. devla. bi~gl'acJable plutlcs. It 18 tnc!uatry which "Ul find the _na tD
already bav.....i". res.rcb progra_ea. The aultinationala hav. to take the long
v1ew. There wUl be no profit ClC eaUafaction fer: anyono if pollution continues to
destroy our planet.
As people'. consciousn••• of environ_ental needs rises, they are turning
{ncreamingly to osone-friendly and other enviran..ntally safe product.. The .arket
itself acts a. a corrective, the new product. sell. and those which caused
enviran..ntal da_ge are disappearing fro. our shelves. And by _king those new
products widely available industry will ~ke it possibl. 60r developing countries
to avoid _ny of the aistalces whim we older, indWJtrialized countries hmve _de.
we should always reaenber that free urleets are a Mans to an end. They woola
def_t their object if by their output they did 1I01'e da_ge to the quaUty of lUe
through pollution than the well-being they achieve by the production of good. $nd
services.
On the basis, then, of sound science and sound econoaics "le need to build a
strong ~ra....,ork for interna Uonal action. It is not new institutions that we
need, rether: we need to strengthen and i.prove those which already exist, in
particular the World Meteorological Organize tion and the Uni ted NIl ticn. Envirmllent
Progra.. (WEP). The United Kingdom has recently .ore than doubled its
contribution to UNEP and we urge others, who have not done so and who can afford
it, to do tt!e SaM.
The central organs of the United Nations, like the General Assembly, aust also
be seized of a problem which reaches into virtul5ll1y all aspects of their work and
"U1 do m .till IlOre ~!ll the future. The IIOet pr•••ing t •• which fac•• u. lit the
International level i. to negoti81te • fr....orlc convention on cu.aate chenge, •
90rt of goccJ ~duct guide for .11 na tiona. fbrtuna t~y "e h.ve a md.l in the
action already taken to pcoteet the ozone layer.. '!'he Vienna Convention, in 1985 0
and the Montreal Protocol, 1n 1987, estabUahad laMlllarkll in international la"..
'!'hey al.., to prevent, rather than just cure, a global envlron_ntal probl_.
I believe .,e .lhouleS ai. to have a c:mrentlon on global ell.te mange ready by
the Uae the world conference on environ_nt and developeent Meta in 1992. '!'hat
vll1 be amng the IIOIIt mportant conferences the thi ted Ht tions hos ever held. I
hope that we shall all accept a reBp)nsibility to Met this ti_table. The U92
conference is indeed already being discuseed a.ang .any countries, in aany places.
I drav particular attention to the very valuable discussion that _amers of the
ca.aonvealth h~ un~et' the meiraanship of tho Pd_ Minister of Malaysia at our
recent c:Jo-.onwealth Beads ~f (bvernMnt Meeting 1n !uala lAJllpur.
8Jt a fra....ork ill not enough, 1t telll need to be filled out "ith specific
undertaki'lgs, or protocol. in cUplautic language, on the different aspects of
cUate change. The.. protocolll auat be binding and there Must be effecttve
reg1_s to supervise and aonitor their application, otherwise, tholSe nations whiCh
accept and abide by enviranaental agree.enta, thus adding to their industrial
oosta, will loee cut coapetitively to those wbich do not. '!'he negotiation of so.
of the.. protocol• .,Ul undOubtedl)' be diffiCUlt and no issue vUl be -e»re
contentiou8 than the need to control elli88ions of carbon dioxilJe, the _jar
contributor - apart fre:- tIltor: vapour - to the greenhouse effect.
We canr.~;·. just do nothing. But the _asures we take IlUst be hased on sound
scientific analya's of the effect of the different qaaes and the .ya 1n whlQh they
can be reduC81S. 'In the put there ha. been a t-.dMlCY to .ol"e cne problea at the
e.penu of _king oCh~r:. wor.... The Qlited lingclOll therefore propo••• that ;fe
prolong the role of the IntergO'1er.ent.al panel on eU.t. o.aftC}e after it ha•
• ubll1tted ita report next year, .0 that it can pl'O'1ide an auChodtattve acientific
ba.ill fM the negotiation of thb and other protocol... we can then aqr.. tarCjltu
to reduce the greenhou.e gase. and how auch individual countri•• should contribute
to their achieveaent. We thim it iaportent that thle should be ~one in a .y
whlch enabl•• .,11 our econoale. to coneinue to grow Md cJGvelop.
The challenge for our negotiator. on .tt•• Uke thi. i. aLl gr.t as tMt for
any di.ar...nt treaty~ The Intergovern..ntal Panel'. work .st reMin on target,
and we .ust not allow our.elves to be diverted into fruitl••• and ~ivi.ive
argu_nU. '1'1a. is too short for that.
Before leaving the area where international Gctien is needed I woul~ IIlke a
plea for ~ further global conventllQn, one to conserve the infinite 'iadety of
.pecies - of plant and ani.l Ufe - which inhabit our planet. The tropical
for~sts contain half of the apecies in the world, so their eUsappearance is doubly
da.agin~. It is astonishin~ but true that our civilization, whose imagination has
reached the boundaries of the universe, does not know to within a factor of 10 ho¥!
_ny specie. t,he 81u:th supports. What we do know is that "e are losing th_ at a
reckless rate - between 3 and 50 each day on 110_ uti_tea - species which could
perhaps he helping us to advance the f~ontiera of medical science. We should act
together to conserye t~is precious heritage.
Every nation will need to .ake its contribution to the world effort, ao I want
te tell the Asseably how Britain intends to contribute, either by laproving our own
national performance in protect.ing the environaent ot through the help which we
9 ive to others. I ~all deal with this under four h.dlngs.
PUR, we .all be 1."04110ln9 ewer the c:oulD9 .,.tbe • e-pc.b"~l•••,s..
of pollution oontro1 to dNl with all Iclncl. of I.~.trlal pctJl1utlo., ""ether to
all', _tee or land. ... lire encouraging Bdtl. 1DCJuat:y to "-e1op ftew
tecbDologl_ to 01.. up tbs ."It'on.-t an4 ainlal.. the .-.t of vallg ! t,
proc1l1C'ea - Md .. alii to recycle 50 per cent of our houaehca1d 'lute brJ tho .na of
the century.
Seconclly t we shall be draving up oveil: the coming year our own envlrcruuntal
agenda for the decade abMd. 'lh&t vll1 cover liInergy, transport, agriclilture,
industry - everything which affects the envirClllMnt.
1fi th recJard to energy, tit!! already have a 22 billion prOCJra... of 1.prove.nta
to reduce acid-rain e.iaions f,CII our power stations. We shall be looking IiIOre
clc.ely at ~,he role of non-foaail fuel sources, i;lclUl!ll'tg nuclear, in generating
.,erw. And our lat:Qat legislation require. ea.panies wbich .upp~y electdcity
positively to pro~te energy efficiency.
On transport, we shall look for ..ys to etr8l'lgtben controls ewer vebicle
••18aions end to develop the lean-burn engine, whi.Ch offers a fer better lOftfj-ter.
solution than the three..., catalyst in teru of carbon diOXide and the gre.,bouae
eUect. We haft alr_dy reduced the tax on lad-free petrol. to encourage its use.
'!'het is an exa.ple of using ..rket-b!lsed incentiv.s to prollOte good envirolUlental
practice. And ve shall 8ee whether there are other areas wher& the sa~ principle
can be applied.
"1 th regard to agriculture, we recognize that £ar_1's need not only to produce
food - which they do with great efficiency - but to conserve the beauty of the
pricele~s heritage of our countryside. We are ~erefore encouraging theca to reduce
the intensity of their Methoda and to conserve wild-lU. babitats. WQ ale planting
nev WOQCJs and forests - indeed, thare has been a 50 per cent incrHse In tree
planting in Britain in the last 10 years. We al80 ai. to reduce che.ical iillputs to
the soil and are bringing forward ~.ures to deal WiUl tho co~lex proble& of
nitrates in water:. All thtlt la part of our 0,," 10-year progra.. cOllin9 up to the
end of this century.
'l'hhdly, ... are Increasing our Invest_nt In research Into global
envirOn8ental probl.... I have already -.ntlone4 the ClI..te Change Centre that we
are .stabU.e"lng. In acldl tlon, we are suppo!'tlng our own !Jei.ntists' and in
particular the British Antarctic Survey'., crucial contribution to the WOrld Ocean
Circulation exped_nt, u well aa the "Orages of our aptly-naMd research ship,
the OIarles Darwin.. We have also provided ::acre .,ney for the cltaate and
envlron_nt satellite mnltodng progra_es of the European Space Agency.
!burthly, W. help poorer countries cope with their. envlronNntlll probl...
tbrou~ our aid progra_. We shall g1v~ special help in a.aging ...04 pr.servlng
the tropical for••ts. We are alr_dy as.bt~ng In 20 countries and hev. %t:cently
signed agree.nu "ith India and Bra.U. As a new pledge, I can annomce today
that we alII to co_I t a further elOO .1111on bilaterally to tropical foroatry
actin ties over the ne~t three years, iIOatly within the fra....ork of the Tropical
FOrestry Action Plan.
That is what we are doing In Britain under those four headings - all of those
things.
The en"lron.entall challenge Which confronts the tfhole world deunds an
equivalent response froll the whole world. Bvery co....try "Ul be affected and no
one can opt out.. 'ita shauld work through this great Organ12atlon and its agencf~e8
to secure world~lde agree_nU on ways to cope with the f}ffecte of cll_te change,
the thlMing of the Olone layer and the loss of precious species. We need a
realistic p:ogra.. of action and an equally realistic tt_table" &leh country has
to contribute, and those countries that are Industrialized ..ust contribute alore to
help thcae that afe ;'lot. The work ahead .,ill be long and exacting. We should
eJlbark on it hopefUl of success, not fearful of fa ilure.
(Mrs. Thatcher, Unlted Kln9!!oa)
I began with Ch.~les Darwin ana his work en the theory of evolution and the
origin of species. ~rwln's voYag.s wcre a.ang the hi9h~lnt8 of scientific
cUscovery. '!'hey were undertt'lken I1t a tl_ vb., Mn ana woaen felt growing
confidence that w. oould not only understand the n&\Wr.1. worlll but Mster: it, too.
'D:MSay, W. have learA" rather mre hWlUlty and reapect for the balance of nature,
but another of the beliefs of Darwin's .ra 81\0014 help to ne us through - the
belief In r ••son and the scientific _thc4. R...on 18 hu....lty·. spec1al 91ft. It
allOlifs us to understand t~e structur. of the nucleus. It enables ua to .~ploc<t} the
heavena. It helps UIS to cOnQuer di...... Now we ...t un our r ••en to Unt! a .y
in whleh we con live with nature and not doaloate natur••
At the eo4 of a boot vtlteh has helpe4 ..y young people to shape their own
••nee of stawardship of our planet, Its _erlcan author quotea ane of our gr_test
English poe••, Milton's -Paradise Loet-. ..n M.. In that poea alks abOUt the
1IIOve.nta of the heavens, Raphael the archangel refuses to .....,er. -Let It speak-,
he aays,
-the Maker's high aagn1fle»nce, who buUt
So apacioWJ, and bls line str.tcht ou t 80 far,
That un ., know he dwells not In his own,
An edifice too large for hia to fill,
ID4g'cS In a nall partition, and the rest
Ordain'd f« eM" to hia Lord beat known.-
We need our r.sen to teach .. toaay that we are not, that ve Ruat not try to
be, loEd. of all we Buney. We ate not the 10r4., ... al'. th~ Lold's er.tutea, the
t~U8teos of th18 plan.tg charge4 today with ptootving life It;eelf - preserving
Ure with all ita .ystory ancl all its wonder. May ... all be equal to that taille.
(MU. '!'hatCher, United 1I:1.oa)
The PRESIDENT, On behalf of the General Assellbly, I wish to thank the
Pr1.. Minister of the United Klngdce of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the
Mr•• Margaret Thatcher; pd_ Minister of the United Kingdoa of Great Britain
and' Northern' Ireland ~ .was .ucortlld .frCII' the l'oatrua.
AGBNDA l'1'Bl 16
Cb) Bl&Cl'J)R OF "EL. M.BES OP '1'1B "mID !!OOD alURCIL, 10ft BY 'lIB SBCRBTMY-GBNBRAL (A/441357)
(c) BLBCl' J)R 01' SBWN M.BIBS OlP 'lIB CXIUllTTBB IOR IROQUIMMB AND CX)~RDJNATJ)ll11 R)TB BY '1'8 SBmB'lMtY-GBRBRAL (A/4413S8)
The lIRE ml!R'l'. The Asseably .,ill now proceed to the electioR of 12
••Ib•• of the World IbCld Council. In thi. connectlon, the Ja••ably ha. before it.
docu-.nt A/44/357, which aonta in. the nomination. by the BoonoMlc and Social
Council.
The 12 retiring aellber. are. Argentiha" Burundi, Cblollbia, Prance, IiJngary,
India, Italy, Japan, P~kl!ltan, handa, Sweden ana 'l\Jn1sia.
The following State. have been no.inated hy the Econoate and Social Council,
Ca) Three African Stateo for three vacancie., Burundi, Egypt. and banda,
(b) 'l'hree Asian Statea for three vacanciesl nemocratic Yellen, the Ialaale
Republic of .Iran and Japan,
(c) '1\io Stetea fro. the Group of latin '-erican and Caribbean Statea for two
vacanciea, Argeiltlna and Peru,
(d) One socialist State of Baatern J!Urope for one vacancy. !lIngary,
(e) Three Statea fro. the Group of Western European and other Statea for three
vacancies. Denlllu:k, France and Italy.
The nullbel: of candidates nOl!llinated from a~n9 the Aftic:an Statea, the Asian
State., the taUn IDedeen ana Caribbean Stat.es, the eoctalist. States of Butern
IlIrope and Weatern Buopean and other States ie equal tD the numel' of SMta
allocated to eaeh of th080 :e9ion8.
In accordance with paragraph 16 of decision 34/401, the Assembly may dispense
with balloting when the number of States nominated from each region is equal to the
number of seats to be filled.
I take it that the Assenbly wishes to declare those States elected members of
the World Food Council for a three-year term beginning on 1 January 1990.
It was so decided.
I congratulate the States that have been elected.
We have concluded our consideration of sub-item (b) of agenda item 16.
The Assenbly will now turn to sub-item (c), "Election of seven members of the
Committee for Programme and Co-ordination". Document A/44/3S8 contains the
nominations by the Economic and Social Council to fill the vacancies in the
Committee which will occur as a result of the expiration on 31 December 1989 of the
terms of office of Brazil, Burkina Faso, eameroon, China, Indonesia, Japan and
Tunisia.
The following States have been nominated by the Economic and Social Council:
(a) Three African Sta tea for three vacancies: Alger ta, Cameroon and MoroccoJ
(b) Three Asian States for three vacancies: China, Japan and Sri lankaJ
(c) One Sta te from the Group of la tin American and Caribbean Sta tea for one
vacancy: Argentina.
The number of candidates nominated from among the African States, the Asian
States and the taUn American and Caribbean States is equal to the number of seats
allocated to each of those regions.
In accordance with paragraph 16 of decision 34/401, the Assembly may dispense
wi th balloting when the number of States nomina ted from among the regions is equal
to the numer of seats to be filled.
(The President)
Mly I take it that the Assembly wishes to declare those States elected menbers
of the ColIIDittee for Programme and Co-ordination for a three-year term beginning on
1 January 19901
It was so decid~.
The PlUS mFNT. I congratulate the States that have been elected.
We have concluded our consider" tion of sub-i tem (c) of agenda item 16.
The meeting rose at 11.15 a.m.
(The President)