UN committee approves draft resolution to expand radio coverage

The United Nations Committee on Information has approved a draft resolution that would expand the world body's international radio coverage if approved by the General Assembly at its 56th session, which begins tomorrow.

At the Committee's resumed session, which was called to consider Secretary-General Kofi Annan's final report on a pilot project to develop an international radio broadcasting capacity for the UN, the body's Chairman said that the draft resolution would push UN Radio forward and help the Organization to bring its message to the most far-flung corners of the world.

The contribution of the resumed session had been "important, profound and far-reaching," Milos Alcalay of Venezuela said during the Committee's concluding session on Friday, prior to its adoption of the draft resolution.

If it adopts the resolution, the General Assembly would decide to expand the UN's radio broadcasting capacity in all six official languages and welcome the Secretary-General's reports on implementing the pilot project, as well as the extensive partnerships the UN had established with local, national and regional broadcasters in Member States. It would also agree that the project had contributed to disseminating information about the UN among millions of listeners across the globe, and was a successful example of reorienting the UN Department of Public Information.

The resolution would also ask the Secretary-General to justify the resource requirements to expand radio coverage in the next UN budget period, and to report on new developments to the Committee's 25th session, including information from local, national and regional radio partners about the number of listeners reached.

Also on Friday, the General Assembly, nearing the end of its 55th session, adopted four draft resolutions on the International Day of Peace, Cooperation between the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the decade to roll back malaria in Africa, and the revitalization of its work.

Meanwhile it deferred consideration of agenda items on Haiti, restructuring the UN in the economic, social and related fields, Cyprus, improving the UN's financial situation, reviewing peacekeeping operations, and financing UN operations in East Timor, Somalia, Mozambique, Haiti, Liberia, Rwanda, Eastern Slovenia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, and the Civilian Police Support Group. Also deferred to the 56th session was consideration of an item on the financing and liquidation of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia, and an item on armed aggression against the Democratic Republic of the Congo.