Economic and Social Council

The sixteenth session of the Economic and Social Council was resumed at United Nations headquarters in New York on November 30, and concluded on December 7, 1953. The Council worked out its basic program for 1954 and considered the provisional agenda for its seventeenth session drawn up by the Secretary-General (Hammarskjold). It transmitted to the Commission on Human Rights for appropriate action the resolutions of the eighth session of the General Assembly on the draft International Covenants on Human Rights and measures of implementation; the right of peoples to self-determination; and the development of the work of the United Nations for wider observance of, and respect for, human rights and fundamental freedoms. Amending its resolution of July 31, 1953, on the program of concerted practical action in the social field of the United Nations and the specialized agencies, the Council added to the list of projects on which such a program should concentrate the improvement of health, education and social welfare in the non-self-governing and trust territories. The Technical Assistance Committee, which had been instructed during the first part of the session to submit recommendations concerning the financial arrangements for the expanded program of technical assistance, informed the Council that the working party it had established had decided to refer the question to the Technical Assistance Board, and that since the Board was not due to meet until December 1953, it had received no specific proposals. Finally, the Council confirmed the members nominated by Denmark, Panama, Cuba, the Byelorussian SSR, and China to the Statistical, Social and Human Rights Commissions.