ENB:03:03
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A SUMMARY OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S DISCUSSIONS ON UNCED-: RELATED ISSUES
Five months after the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) began to consider a series of specific recommendations the Conference made to ensure effective follow-up. This process began on Monday, 2 November 1992 with a week-long debate in the General Assembly Hall (see Earth Negotiations Bulletin, Vol.3, No.1 for a summary of this debate). The focus then shifted to the Second Committee of the UNGA, which is responsible for negotiating resolutions on economic and social issues. The Second Committee decided that all negotiations on UNCED-related resolutions would take place in a special open-ended ad hoc working group, under the Chairmanship of Malaysian Ambassador Razali Ismail.
Ambassador Razali's working group began its negotiations on Thursday, 5 November 1992 and continued at a frenetic pace for three weeks until the final meeting was gaveled to a close on Wednesday, 25 November. During the course of these meetings, the Razali Group negotiated a total of seven resolutions: the Report on the UNCED; a Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island States; the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Convention to Combat Desertification; a Conference on Straddling and Highly-Migratory Fish Stocks; Institutional Follow-up to UNCED, including the Commission on Sustainable Development; World Water Day; and Capacity Building for Agenda 21.
The following report is a resolution-by-resolution summary of the UNGA's negotiations on UNCED-related issues. These resolutions were adopted by consensus at the 51st meeting of the Second Committee on 16 December 1992.