GOVERNING COUNCIL OF UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION COMMISSION CONCLUDES ITS SIXTY-SECOND SESSION

The Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission, under the Presidency of Ambassador Alex Van Meeuwen (Belgium), today concluded its sixty-second session. At this session, the Council elected Belgium as President, and Indonesia as one of the Vice-Presidents of the Governing Council. Belgium and Indonesia replace Greece and Japan, which held the presidency and vice-presidency of the Governing Council for the period 2005-2006. The Republic of the Congo currently holds the other vice-presidency.

Representatives of Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, India and Jordan addressed the fifteen-member Governing Council at its opening plenary meeting.

The Council considered a number of reports and information notes prepared by the secretariat on the activities of the Commission since the last session; distribution by Governments and international organisations of payments to successful claimants; the transparency of the distribution process and the return of undistributed funds.

The Governing Council considered the issue of inaccurate awards involving overpayments, and approved a number of claims for correction pursuant to article 41 of the Provisional Rules for Claims Procedure. The Council noted that the investigation into the issue of overpayments had been concluded and recalled its earlier decisions on measures to recover the overpayments, including the requirement that all affected Governments and submitting entities must undertake best efforts to recover the overpaid amounts and return them to the Commission.

During the session, the Council also heard a briefing from the secretariat on the status of the implementation of the follow-up programme approved by the Council at its fifty-eighth session in December 2005 to monitor the technical and financial aspects of the environmental remediation projects. The Council noted that the claimant Governments (Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia) and Iraq, are making progress in relation to the creation of a regional environmental advisory group, to which the UNCC is an observer, aimed at enhancing regional cooperation on the remediation of environmental damages and assisting Iraq in the presentation of its war-related environmental rehabilitation projects.

The Council decided to hold its next regular session from 20 to 22 June 2007.

The next payment to successful claimants pursuant to decision 256 is scheduled to be made in April 2007. There are now 43 approved claims (in categories E and F), with a total outstanding balance of approximately US$30.6 billion, that have not been paid in full. The overall amount of compensation made available to date by the United Nations Compensation Commission is approximately US$21.8 billion.


Further information about the Commission, including the text of Governing Council decisions and reports and recommendations of the panels of Commissioners, can be found on the United Nations Compensation Commission website located at www.uncc.ch.


For use of the information media; not an official record


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