Year 2000 Review Preparation

Special session of the General Assembly in the year 2000 for the overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development

Preparatory Committee for the Special Session -
Organizational session, New York, 19-22 May 1998

Calendar of Meetings

In its resolution 51/202, the General Assembly recalled its decision to hold a special session in the year 2000 for an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the outcome of the Summit and to consider further actions and initiatives.

Regarding the preparatory process of the special session, the General Assembly decided that the Commission for Social Development, as the functional commission of the Economic and Social Council with the primary responsibility for follow-up to the Summit, and for review of the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action, would undertake work in 1999-2000 for the preparations of the special session. It also decided that a preparatory committee of the whole of the Assembly would be established at its fifty-second session, which would hold an organizational session in 1998, and would initiate its substantive activities in 1999 on the basis of inputs by the Commission for Social Development and the Economic and Social Council, and would also take into account contributions by other relevant organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system.

Towards that end, the Secretariat is in the process of drawing up proposals for the necessary preparations and actions to support to the process. Looking ahead to the year 2000, the following timetable sets out the preparatory process already agreed upon by the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council.

Taking the above timetable into account, the Secretariat envisages the following preparatory steps:

• The convening of expert group meetings with the view to enhancing the Secretariat’s substantive input to the preparatory process and the special session;

• The exchange of experience among Governments in implementing the outcome of the Summit will be facilitated;

• The holding of special events by non-governmental organizations, academic and research organizations, the business community and local and provincial governments, to make an input to the intergovernmental preparatory process will be promoted;

• The consideration by the Commission for Social Development at its thirty-sixth session, in 1998, of the establishment of an in-session open-ended working group during its thirty-seventh session in 1999, to review and decide on the type of input/contribution that the Commission would make to the substantive sessions of the Preparatory Committee in 1999 and 2000.

Finally, an ad hoc inter-agency mechanism will be established within the United Nations system to ensure that the inputs from the United Nations Secretariat, funds, programmes and agencies of the United Nations system are included and well coordinated throughout the preparatory process.