Question of New Caledonia A/RES/73/115 Welcoming with appreciation also the release of the report of the visiting mission, 5 Noting with gratitude the strengthened cooperation of the administering Power with regard to the work of the Special Committee relating to New Caledonia and its readiness for and concurrence with the dispatching o f the 2018 visiting mission, Recalling the dispatch of a United Nations visiting mission to New Caledonia in March 2014, including the statement by the Chair of the visiting mission, the examination of the report of the visiting mission 6 and the letter addressed by the Special Committee to the administering Power soliciting the dispatch of a new visiting mission, Recalling also the statement by the representative of the administering Power regarding the March 2014 visiting mission, Acknowledging the successful conduct by New Caledonia of municipal and provincial elections in May 2014, Taking note of the information presented to the Pacific and the Caribbean regional seminars on the implementation of the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism, held in Nadi, Fiji, from 21 to 23 May 2014, and in Managua from 19 to 21 May 2015, on the situation in the Territory, including on the issues related to the 2014 elections, Taking note also of the recommendations adopted by the Pacific regiona l seminar held in Managua from 31 May to 2 June 2016, which are annexed to the report of the Special Committee for 2016, 7 Taking note further of the information provided at the Caribbean regional seminar held in Kingstown from 16 to 18 May 2017 by the administering Power as well as by New Caledonian parties on developments in the Territory, including progress towards the referendum on self-determination to be held in 2018, and the recommendations adopted by the seminar, which are annexed to the report of the Special Committee for 2017, 8 Aware of the challenges encountered in the 2014 provincial electoral process, particularly with regard to the work of the special administrative commissions in updating the special electoral roll, the non-existence of the supplementary electoral roll from 1998 and the unavailability of the 1998 general electoral roll prior to 2014, and their potential impact on the referendum on self-determination, and taking note of the positive progress made since 2014 on the electoral process for the selfdetermination referendum, Welcoming the invitation from the administering Power to the Electoral Assistance Division of the Department of Political Affairs of the Secretariat to dispatch an electoral expert observer mission to New Cale donia in May 2016 to observe the work of the special administrative commissions and the advisory committee of experts for the establishment and revision of the special electoral list, including, in particular, for the self-determination referendum in New Caledonia in 2018, consistent with the Nouméa Accord, Welcoming also the transmission by the administering Power to the Special Committee of the final report of the electoral expert observer mission to New __________________ 5 6 7 8 18-21503 A/AC.109/2018/20. A/AC.109/2014/20/Rev.1. Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-first Session, Supplement No. 23 (A/71/23). Ibid., Seventy-second Session, Supplement No. 23 (A/72/23). 3/7