A/51/PV.2 General Assembly

I should like to inform members that the following representatives have been elected Chairmen of the six Main Committees of the Assembly and are accordingly members of the General Committee for the fifty-first session: First Committee: Mr. Alyaksandr Sychou (Belarus) Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee): Mr. Alounkèo Kittikhoun (Lao People’s Democratic Republic) Second Committee: Mr. Arjan Hamburger (Netherlands) Third Committee: Mrs. Patricia Espinosa (Mexico) Fifth Committee: Mr. Ngoni Francis Sengwe (Zimbabwe) Sixth Committee: Mr. Ramón Escovar-Salom (Venezuela) I congratulate the Chairmen on their election. Item 6 of the provisional agenda Election of the Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly

Pursuant to rule 31 of the rules of procedure, we shall now proceed to the election of the Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly. All members of the General Assembly are eligible in this election except those already represented in the General Committee, namely, those countries whose representatives have been elected to the presidency of the General Assembly or to the chairmanships of the Main Committees. In accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3 of the annex to resolution 33/138, the 21 Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly at its fifty-first session shall be elected according to the following pattern: (a) Six representatives from African States; (b) Four representatives from Asian States; (c) One representative from an Eastern European State; (d) Three representatives from Latin American and Caribbean States; and (f) Representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council. In accordance with paragraph 16 of annex VI to the rules of procedure, the election of the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly by secret ballot will be dispensed with when the number of candidates corresponds to the number of seats to be filled. We shall proceed accordingly. I shall now read out the names of the endorsed candidates: African States: Angola, Burundi, Ghana, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Niger, Sudan Asian States: Cyprus, Pakistan, Philippines, United Arab Emirates Eastern European States: Latvia Latin American and Caribbean States: Bahamas, Honduras, Paraguay Western European and other States: Andorra, Turkey Since the number of candidates corresponds to the number of seats to be filled in each region, I declare those candidates elected, in addition to the representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council. The following States have therefore been elected to vice-presidencies of the General Assembly: Andorra, Angola, Bahamas, Burundi, China, Cyprus, France, Ghana, Honduras, Latvia, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Niger, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Sudan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate the States which have been elected Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly. The first meeting of the General Committee will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, 18 September 1996, at 10 a.m. in Conference Room 4. Letter from the Chairman of the Committee on Conferences (A/51/337)

The Assembly will now turn its attention to document A/51/337, which contains a letter dated 6 September 1996 from the Chairman of the Committee on Conferences addressed to the President of the Assembly. As members are aware, the Assembly, in paragraph 7 of resolution 40/243, decided that no subsidiary organ of the General Assembly should be permitted to meet at United Nations Headquarters during a regular session of the Assembly unless explicitly authorized by the Assembly. As indicated in the letter I have just mentioned, the Committee on Conferences has recommended that the General Assembly authorize the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to meet from 16 to 19 September 1996 and also to authorize the Committee on Conferences, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, as well as the Special Committee on Peace- keeping Operations to meet during the fifty-first session, beginning 19 September 1996. Bearing in mind that one of the dates overlaps with the fifty-first session of the Assembly, and that the others will take place in two days’ time, may I take it that the General Assembly adopts the recommendation of the Committee on Conferences? It was so decided.