A/55/PV.93 General Assembly

I should like to draw the attention of the General Assembly to document A/55/745/Add.3. In the letter contained in that document, the Secretary- General informs the President of the General Assembly that, since the issuance of his communications contained in document A/55/745 and addenda 1 and 2, Guatemala and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya have made the necessary payments to reduce their arrears below the amount specified in Article 19 of the Charter. May I take it that the General Assembly duly takes note of the information contained in that document? It was so decided.

I should like to inform the Assembly that a correction should be made to document HIV/AIDS/CRP.2/Corr.1. The line in that document that reads “Hong Kong, China”, should read “Hong Kong, SAR, China”. The Assembly will now take a decision on list of civil society organizations not in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council seeking accreditation to the special session of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS and its preparatory process, as contained in document HIV/AIDS/CRP.2 and corrigendum 1, as corrected. I call on the representative of the United States, who wishes to raise a point of order.

General Assembly resolution 55/13 mandated in its paragraph 13 that United Nations special session on HIV/AIDS should provide for participation by a broad range of civil society, including persons living with AIDS, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the business sector, including pharmaceutical companies. My Government is disappointed to note that the list before us today — at least the copy that we have — does not accord with that mandate. It does not reflect the full panoply of views on these important questions. I therefore recommend that interested NGOs be allowed to participate provisionally in this week’s activities, and that we take up approval of the list when it is complete.

I call on the representative of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS to provide some clarification regarding the statement just made by the representative of the United States.

After some confusion, I can say that the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA), which represents the research-based pharmaceutical companies, has Economic and Social Council status and is, therefore, ex officio, accredited to the whole process. I am sorry that it is not on the list that was submitted to Member States. As the Assembly knows, in addition to those organizations that have Economic and Social Council status, there are some that are members of the Programme Coordinating Board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and on the list of additional civil society representatives. I hope that the confusion has been clarified.

I thank the representative of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS for that clarification. Was that explanation sufficient for the representative of the United States?

I suppose so. But I note that the list is not as broadly based as might have been anticipated. There are not very many representatives of the business sector. I hope that, when these groups propose to be included, the second list will be approved without controversy.

I call on the representative of Canada on a point of order.

I do not want to prolong this discussion, but I would like to express my understanding of the situation. I recall that when, a couple of weeks ago, this list was released and shared in the informal consultations, chaired by your facilitator, Mr. President, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS explained that it had not been able to process all the requests from various non- governmental organizations (NGOs), and that it recommended — and it was agreed in principle at that time — that there could be a second exercise — and a second document issued — whereby we could approve another group of NGOs. If that is indeed the situation, my delegation would strongly recommend that we proceed to approve this list on the understanding that we will be considering another list at a future point.

I have just been advised by the Secretariat that there will be a second opportunity to add to the list. I suggest that we proceed on this basis, and come back to the final list when the opportunity is available. May I take it that the Assembly decides to approve the list under consideration, as corrected, and to return to the same issue at a later stage? It was so decided.

We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of agenda item 179. The meeting rose at 3.25 p.m.