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Statement submitted by the Secretary-General on the Programme Budget Implications of Draft Resolution A/C.1/68/L.37 (Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security)

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United Nations
General Assembly

A/c .1/68/L.54
Distr.: Limited
4 November 2013
Original: English

Sixty-eighth session
First Committee
Agenda items 134 and 94
Proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015
Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security

Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security

Programme budget implications of draft resolution A/C.1/68/L.37

Statement submitted by the Secretary-General in accordance with rule 153 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly

I. Requests contained in the draft resolution

1. Under the terms of operative paragraph 4 of draft resolution A/C.1/68/L.37, entitled "Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security", the General Assembly would request the Secretary-General, with the assistance of a group of governmental experts to be established in 2014 on the basis of equitable geographical distribution, taking into account the assessments and recommendations contained in the report of the Group of Governmental Experts referred to in paragraph 3 of the draft resolution, to continue to study, with a view to promoting common understandings, existing and potential threats in the sphere of information security and possible cooperative measures to address them, including norms, rules or principles of responsible behaviour of States and confidence-building measures, the issues of the use of information and communications technologies in conflicts and how international law applies to the use of information and communications technologies by States, as well as the concepts referred to in paragraph 2 of the draft resolution, and to submit to the General Assembly at its seventieth session a report on the results of the study.

II. Relationship of the requests to the biennial programme plan for the period 2014-2015 and to the programme of work in the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015

2. The requested activities to be carried out relate to programme 1, General Assembly and Economic and Social council affairs and conference management and subprogramme 4, Information and outreach, of programme 3, Disarmament, of the biennial programme plan for the period 2014-2015. They also fall under section 2, General Assembly and Economic and Social council affairs and conference management, and section 4, Disarmament, of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015.

III. Activities by which the requests would be implemented

3. Pursuant to operative paragraph 4 of draft resolution A/C.1/68/L.37, the Office for Disarmament Affairs would provide the substantive services necessary for the convening of the group of governmental experts.

4. It is envisaged that the group, consisting of 20 experts, will hold a total of four one-week meetings during 2014 and 2015: the first in July 2014 in New York, the second in January 2015 in Geneva, and the third and fourth in April and June 2015, respectively, in New York. The four one-week meetings would require interpretation and documentation in all six official languages of the United Nations.

IV. Modifications required in the programme of work and the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015

5. In order to meet the provisions of the draft resolution, the narrative of section 4, Disarmament, of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015 would be modified to amend the outputs in respect of the information and outreach activities. Subject to the decision of the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session, that narrative would be incorporated into a revised version of the programme of work of section 4 of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015. The required modifications are as follows:

Paragraph 4.60

Under "(a) Servicing of intergovernmental and expert bodies (regular budget)", add:

"(iii) Group of governmental experts on developments in information and telecommunications in the context of international security:

"a. Substantive servicing of meetings: 2014 10 sessions, 2015 30 sessions (40);

"b. Parliamentary documentation: final report of the group of governmental experts on developments in information and telecommunications in the context of international security (1);"

V. Estimated additional requirements

A. Conference-servicing requirements

6. The adoption of draft resolution A/C.1/68/L.37 and the convening of a group of governmental experts would constitute an addition to the calendar of conferences and meetings for 2014 and 2015 adopted by the Committee on Conferences. It is estimated that additional conference-servicing and documentation requirements would be required in the amount of $654,300 under section 2, General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference management, of the proposed programme budget.

B. Non-conference-servicing requirements

7. It is estimated that a total amount of $785,100 would be required under section 4, Disarmament, of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 20142015 to provide for (a) travel of 20 experts and the secretary to the group, including airfare and daily subsistence allowance, $738,100; and (b) cost of the services and related travel of a consultant to provide technical and substantive support to the Office for Disarmament Affairs, in connection with the preparations and substantive servicing of the group, $47,000.

8. Should the General Assembly adopt the draft resolution, total additional requirements of $1,439,400, as shown in the table below, would arise under the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015.

	United States dollars
	2014	2015	Total
Section 2, General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference management
Interpretation (40 meetings)	111 400	334 200	445 600
In-session documentation (2)	18 000	-	18 000
Post-session documentation (4)	46 600	144 100	190 700
Subtotal, section 2	176 000	478 300	654 300
Section 4, Disarmament
Consultants	11 800	35 200	47 000
Travel of experts	192 200	545 900	738 100
Subtotal, section 4	204 000	581 100	785 100
Total (sections 2 and 4)	380 000	1 059 400	1 439 400

VI. Potential for absorption during the biennium 2014-2015

9. No provision has been made in the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015 for the activities requested under draft resolution A/C.1/68/L.37. It is not possible at this stage to identify activities within sections 2 and 4 of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015 that could be terminated, deferred, curtailed or modified during the biennium in order to meet the additional requirements of $1,439,400. The adoption by the General Assembly of draft resolution A/C.1/68/L.37 would therefore entail additional requirements of $1,439,400 under the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015.

VII. Contingency fund

10. It will be recalled that, under the procedures established by the General Assembly in its resolutions 41/213 and 42/211, a contingency fund is established for each biennium to accommodate additional expenditure derived from legislative mandates not provided for in the programme budget. Under this procedure, if additional expenditures were proposed that exceeded the resources available from the contingency fund, the activities concerned would be implemented only through the redeployment of resources from low-priority areas or the modification of existing activities. Otherwise, such additional activities would have to be deferred to a later biennium.

VIII. Summary

11. Should draft resolution A/C.1/68/L.37be adopted by the General Assembly, additional resource requirements in the total amount of $1,439,400 would arise under the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2014-2015, including $654,300 under section 2, General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference management, and $785,100 under section 4, Disarmament. This would represent a charge against the contingency fund and, as such, would require additional appropriations of $1,439,400 for the biennium 2014-2015 to be approved by the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session.

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