A/65/PV.89 General Assembly

In connection with draft decision A/65/L.73, entitled “Opening plenary meeting of the 2011 comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realizing the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS”, I wish to put on record the following statement of financial implications on behalf of the Secretary-General, in accordance with rule 153 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly. By the draft decision, the General Assembly would decide that the opening plenary meeting of the 2011 comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realizing the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS will be held on Wednesday, 8 June 2011, from 9.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m., on the understanding that such arrangements in no way create a precedent for the scheduling of future plenary meetings of the General Assembly. It is recalled that, in the oral statement (see A/65/PV.69) originally made by the Secretariat before the adoption of draft resolution A/65/L.49, entitled “Organization of the 2011 comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realizing the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS” , which was adopted as resolution 65/180, it had been determined that the plenary meetings would form part of the programme of work of the General Assembly. As such, the costs would be met by the existing budgetary appropriation provided to service the General Assembly during normal working hours, which are — and I emphasize — from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. and from 3.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. on weekdays, with interpretation and verbatim record services in all six official languages. As the opening plenary meeting of 8 June will begin at 9.00 a.m. instead of 10.00 a.m., additional costs of $10,800 would arise under section 2 (General Assembly and Economic and Social Council Affairs and Conference Management) for the provision of interpretation services in all six official languages for an additional hour beyond the existing budgetary appropriation provided to service the General Assembly during normal working hours. However, the Secretariat has made an arrangement with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS in which the latter has agreed to reimburse the cost of $10,800 for the additional hour of interpretation services to be provided. Consequently, should the General Assembly adopt draft decision A/65/L.73, no programme budget implications would arise under the programme budget for the biennium 2010-2011.

The General Assembly will now proceed to take action on draft decision A/65/L.73, entitled “Opening plenary meeting of the 2011 comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realizing the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS”. May I take it that the Assembly wishes to adopt draft decision A/65/L.73?

The Assembly has thus concluded this stage of its consideration of agenda item 10.

Accordingly, the election shall be held by secret ballot and there shall be no nominations. Again, I should like to repeat that the 15 vacant seats are to be filled from among the regional groups as follows: four seats from among the Group of African States, four seats from among the Group of Asian States, two seats from among the Group of Eastern European States, three seats from among the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, and two seats from among the Group of Western European and other States. The ballot papers reflect that pattern. In addition, I have been informed by the Secretariat that the voluntary pledges and commitments made by Member States in accordance with paragraph 8 of resolution 60/251 were accordingly issued as official documents of the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly. Before we begin the voting process, I should like to remind members that, pursuant to rule 88 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, no representative shall interrupt the voting except on a point of order on the actual conduct of the voting. I should like to seek the usual cooperation of representatives during the General Assembly’s conduct of elections. I remind them that, during the voting procedure, all campaigning should cease in the General Assembly Hall. This means that, once the meeting has begun, no campaign material may be distributed in the Hall. Representatives are also requested to remain at their seats so that the voting process can proceed in an orderly manner. I thank members for their diligence and cooperation. We shall now begin the voting process. Ballot papers marked “A”, “B”, “C”, “D” and “E” will now be distributed. Each ballot paper is assigned to one of the five regional groups and has the corresponding number of blank lines for the seats assigned to that region. I request representatives to use only those ballot papers and to write on them the names of the States for which they wish to vote. A ballot paper containing more names from the relevant region than the number of seats assigned to it will be declared invalid. A ballot will also be declared invalid if all the names of the Member States on that ballot do not belong to the relevant region. If a ballot paper contains names of Member States that do not belong to the relevant region, that are not eligible for re-election or that already members of the Council, the ballot remains valid but those names will not be counted.

The result of the voting is as follows: Group A — African States (4 seats) Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 3 Number of members voting: 188 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: Burkina Faso 182 Botswana 177 Congo 176 Benin 174 Democratic Republic of the Congo 3 South Africa 1 Egypt 1 Group B — Asian States (4 seats) Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 2 Number of members voting: 189 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: Indonesia 184 Philippines 183 India 181 Kuwait 166 Syrian Arab Republic 5 Group C — Eastern European States (2 seats) Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 3 Number of members voting: 188 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: Czech Republic 148 Romania 131 Georgia 89 Group D — Latin American and Caribbean States (3 seats) Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 0 Number of members voting: 191 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: Chile 159 Costa Rica 138 Peru 136 Nicaragua 98 Group E — Western European and other States (2 seats) Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 190 Abstentions: 9 Number of members voting: 181 Required absolute majority: 97 Number of votes obtained: Italy 180 Austria 177 Australia 2

I congratulate those States that have been elected members of the Human Rights Council, and I wish them every success in the Council. I thank the tellers for their assistance in this election. The General Assembly has thus concluded its consideration of sub-item (c) of agenda item 112.