General Assembly Session 49 meeting 107

The President

In a letter contained in document A/49/838/Add.5, the Secretary-General informs me that, since the issuance of his communications dated 26 January, 28 February, 24 May, 21 June and 12 July 1995, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania have made the necessary payments to reduce their arrears below the amount specified in Article 19 of the Charter.

May I take it that the General Assembly duly takes note of this information?

The President

I wish, on behalf of all the members of the Assembly, to extend our sympathy to the Governments and the peoples of Antigua and Barbuda, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Morocco and Pakistan for the tragic loss of human life and extensive material damage that have resulted from the recent floods and hurricanes in those countries.

May I also express the hope that the international community will show its solidarity and respond promptly and generously to any request for assistance.

The President

The Assembly will first consider draft resolution (A/49/L.68), entitled "Strengthening of the United Nations system", which I have the honour to introduce.

The consensus text before the General Assembly this morning is the result of intensive consultations held on my behalf by His Excellency Mr. Sreenivasan of India. I wish to reiterate my special gratitude to him and to express my satisfaction at the spirit of cooperation that prevailed during the consultations. I believe this text reflects the importance accorded by Member States to the need to enhance the role of the United Nations in these challenging times. Before we proceed to consider the draft resolution, I should like to recall some important understandings that must be taken into account in the implementation of the resolution.

By operative paragraph 1, the Assembly would decide to establish the Open-ended High-level Working Group, under the chairmanship of the President of the General Assembly and with two vice-chairmen to be elected by the Working Group. During the discussions, it was agreed that the Working Group would hold a meeting during the forty-ninth session of the General Assembly. By the terms of the same paragraph, the Assembly would decide that the Working Group may establish sub-groups open to the participation of all Member States.

With regard to operative paragraph 2, which describes the type of reports and studies that should be reviewed by the Working Group, there was agreement that, given the complexity and exceedingly high volume of documentation available, work to systematically gather information would have to begin as soon as possible. Thus it would be necessary for the Working Group or, as appropriate, its Bureau, to meet for organizational purposes during the period September to December. It would be specially important for the Working Group or, as appropriate, its Bureau, to provide guidance to the Secretariat before it began the task of preparing material for the Working Group. The studies and reports of commissions and institutions, some of which have made far-reaching proposals, encompass many aspects of the United Nations system in the political, economic, social and other fields. Synthesizing and classifying all these studies and reports will be a significant undertaking. It is therefore necessary to channel efforts so that the material presented responds to a work plan. As stated in operative paragraph 4, the Working Group would commence its substantive work during the fiftieth session. However, it is important to note that the bulk of the substantive work would begin in 1996, thus giving the Secretariat some time to carry out initial research and gather information to be placed before the Working Group at the earliest opportunity in 1996.

The request contained in operative paragraph 3 that the Working Group maintain regular contacts with the bureaux of the working groups mentioned in the fifth preambular paragraph is essential to avoid duplication, and is designed to ensure that the work of the other working groups can continue unimpeded. A transparent mechanism would be devised to facilitate those contacts. The Working Group should submit a report on its work before the conclusion of the fiftieth session. It would thus have to organize its work and calendar of meetings so that it can prepare and submit a report in due time, and no later than Monday, 16 September 1996, the date when the fiftieth session will come to a close.

The draft resolution, in operative paragraph 5, requests the Secretary-General to provide, within existing resources, to be supplemented by a trust fund to which voluntary contributions could be solicited, full assistance to the Working Group, including the facilities and support services necessary for it to conduct its work. The trust fund would be used for securing the services of experts to review and analyse the existing related work, and Member States are urged to contribute to this fund.

The Assembly will now take a decision on draft resolution A/49/L.68.

The report of the Fifth Committee on the programme budget implications of draft resolution A/49/L.68 is contained in document A/49/961.

May I take it that the Assembly decides to adopt draft resolution A/49/L.68?

I see no objection.

Mr. Birenbaum (United States)

The United States was pleased to join the consensus on draft resolution A/49/L.68, entitled "Strengthening of the United Nations system".

Our delegation thanks you, Mr. President, for your vision leading to today's consensus resolution. We also wish to express our gratitude to Ambassador Sreenivasan of India for his inspired leadership in bringing the work of the drafting committee to a successful conclusion.

Your initiative, Mr. President, has encouraged Member States to think beyond today's issues, to contemplate a United Nations system organized to address the challenges of the future with far greater effectiveness and efficiency and a clearer focus on its essential missions.

As President Clinton said last June at the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter, "The United Nations must become more flexible, operate more rapidly, waste less and produce more and, most importantly, inspire confidence among our Governments and peoples."

Today's consensus provides a vehicle for Member States to develop a blueprint for such a United Nations system. The Working Group will not have to start from scratch. Fortunately, it will be able to draw upon a rich body of literature on reforming the United Nations, as well as submissions by Member States. The job of the Working Group will be to harvest the best of these ideas and incorporate them into its report to the fiftieth session of the General Assembly. In so doing, the Working Group should avoid duplicating the work of other working groups. The resolution so stipulates, and the United States is fully committed to focusing the efforts of this new Working Group on matters which are not being addressed by such bodies.

This fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations is the best possible occasion for us to undertake this work. What greater gift could we bestow upon our successors than a revitalized, strengthened and reformed United Nations system? The United States looks forward to working with all Member States in the spirit of partnership to assure that the high promise of this resolution is realized.

As President Clinton emphatically affirmed in his San Francisco address, the United States is fully committed to the United Nations system. We want to do everything in our power to help it fulfil the timeless purposes and principles of the Charter. It is in that spirit that we dedicate ourselves to joining with all delegations in working constructively to produce a blueprint for the United Nations of the twenty-first century by the end of the historic fiftieth session of the General Assembly.

The President

I now call on the representative of Spain, who will make a statement on behalf of the European Union.