| Date | 26 November 1996 |
|---|---|
| Started | 15:00 |
| Ended | 17:10 |
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Mr. Konishi (Japan)
I would like to thank the President of the Security Council, His Excellency Ambassador Nugroho Wisnumurti, for his presentation of the annual report of the Security Council to the General Assembly.
In today's world, peace and stability cannot be achieved and maintained solely on the basis of political or military power. Attention to humanitarian concerns, as well as to the need for social and economic development and national reconstruction, have also come to be recognized as increasingly essential components of the effort to secure peace and stability. On the basis of this recognition, Japan is determined, as a member of the Security Council beginning next year, to contribute to the achievement of the Council's objective of ensuring peace and stability in various parts of the world.
While the United Nations Charter has entrusted the Security Council with the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, we must not forget that the General Assembly also has an important and meaningful role to play in this regard. It is thus important that these two bodies forge a coordinated and complementary relationship.
My delegation has on numerous occasions emphasized the need to strengthen the effectiveness and legitimacy of the Security Council by restructuring its composition as well as by improving its working methods and transparency. We continue to believe that these two aspects of reform should be addressed in a comprehensive package of measures. The entire United Nations membership should make every effort to reach agreement in the near future on concrete measures for the comprehensive reform of the Security Council.
For the purposes of today's discussion, however, I would like to focus on the goal of greater transparency in the Council's work and improved interaction between the Council and those States which are not members.
My delegation is gratified that the Council has in fact introduced numerous constructive changes in this regard. More needs to be done, however. Japan believes that this is an endeavour in which the members of the Council and the wider United Nations membership can, and indeed should, work together, inasmuch as improved working methods and greater transparency will benefit not only the Council but the Organization as a whole. In working towards that goal, however, care must be taken lest the Council's efficiency and the flexibility it needs in carrying out its duties be diminished. Japan intends to devote its energies to improving two-way communication between the Council and non-members when it begins its two-year term on the Council in 1997.
Allow me now to comment on some specific measures of reform in this area. My delegation continues to attach importance to the commendable practice introduced in late 1994 of briefings by the Council presidency to delegations which are not Council members. These briefings are a valuable mechanism in the effort to enhance transparency and to keep non-members apprised of developments in the work of the Council. But it is important that they provide truly substantive information and that the President hold them daily whenever the Council conducts informal consultations of the whole. Japan intends to do so when it assumes the Council presidency for the month of January 1997.
Consultations between the Council and troop-contributing countries are another area where practical arrangements are developing. We welcome, in particular, the presidential statement of 28 March 1996 (S/PRST/1996/13) outlining improved arrangements, which we hope will be implemented in a consistent manner. It is especially important that such consultations be held before the Council commences its consideration of a mission mandate in its informal consultations of the whole. During the month of its presidency, Japan will see to it that this practice too is followed. At the same time, troop-contributing countries should also be encouraged to participate more actively in these consultations by offering their own comments and ideas on policy matters.
Throughout the past year there seems to have been increased recourse to holding formal meetings of the Council which are open to non-members. Many delegations, including my own, have taken advantage of these valuable opportunities. We welcome this trend, and would encourage the convening of formal meetings in the orientation debate format before the Council begins its substantive consideration of an item.
Transparency in the work of the Council might also be achieved through the circulation of its tentative monthly programme of work as an official document, through consultations between the Council President, the President of the General Assembly and the chairmen of the regional groups, and so on. We note with appreciation that this year the sanctions committees issued annual reports, and we hope that additional measures will be considered in an effort to improve transparency in their work. Japan intends to keep these issues in mind as it participates in the work of the Council next year.
With regard to the call for the formalization or institutionalization of measures for improving the Council's transparency, my delegation is of the opinion that this question requires a case-by-case consideration, according to the merits of each of the suggested measures. While some measures might prove more effective if they were formalized, others might require the flexibility that is inherent in informal practices. Our objective in this respect should be the achievement of the best substantive results.
It has often been said that the report of the Security Council should contain an analytical component. On the other hand, it has also been argued that it is not possible, practically or politically, for the Council to agree on a narrative or post-mortem assessment of its activities. The Japanese delegation would welcome any substantive improvements in the report, and believes it is useful to that end to discuss it in the General Assembly. Even if the Council as a whole is unable to present analytical assessments in its report, the insights of its individual members could enhance the Assembly's discussion. We would therefore like to encourage Member States to present their views on the activities of the Council and to urge more Council members -- current, recent and permanent -- to speak on this issue. Our thanks go to the members of the Council which are doing so today.
Over the past several years, my delegation has, as a non-member, closely followed the work of the Security Council. It is well aware of the need for greater transparency in the work of the Council and for greater interaction between the Council and the general membership of the United Nations. Japan is looking forward to its membership on the Council as an opportunity to examine and explore, in practical terms and in cooperation with other members, how the Council can best respond to that need.
Mr. Tello (Mexico)
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| <type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'> | Python 2.6.6: /usr/bin/python Tue May 21 16:19:03 2013 |
A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in |
| 194 if __name__ == "__main__": |
| 195 pathpart = os.getenv("PATH_INFO") |
| 196 maintrunk(pathpart) |
| 197 |
| 198 |
| maintrunk = <function maintrunk>, pathpart = '/generalassembly_51/meeting_66' |
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in maintrunk(pathpart='/generalassembly_51/meeting_66') |
| 131 elif pagefunc == "gameeting": |
| 132 LogIncomingDB(hmap["docid"], hmap["gadice"] or "0", referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| 133 WriteHTML(hmap["htmlfile"], hmap["pdfinfo"], hmap["gadice"], hmap["highlightdoclink"]) |
| 134 elif pagefunc == "agendanumexpanded": |
| 135 LogIncomingDB(pagefunc, hmap["agendanum"], referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| global WriteHTML = <function WriteHTML>, hmap = {'docid': 'A-51-PV.66', 'gadice': '', 'gameeting': 66, 'gasession': 51, 'highlightdoclink': None, 'htmlfile': '/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-51-PV.66.html', 'pagefunc': 'gameeting', 'pdfinfo': <pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>} |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteHTML(fhtml='/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-51-PV.66.html', pdfinfo=<pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>, gadice='', highlightth=None) |
| 322 if dclass == "spoken": |
| 323 if not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice: |
| 324 WriteSpoken(gid, dtextmu, councilpresidentnation) |
| 325 elif dclass == "subheading": |
| 326 if agendagidcurrent and (not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice): |
| global WriteSpoken = <function WriteSpoken>, gid = u'pg002-bk01', dtextmu = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Tell...all the States Members of the United Nations.</p>', councilpresidentnation = None |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteSpoken(gid=u'pg002-bk01', dtext=u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Tell...all the States Members of the United Nations.</p>', councilpresidentnation=None) |
| 69 print '</cite>' |
| 70 |
| 71 print dtext[mspek.end(0):] |
| 72 |
| 73 print '</div>' |
| dtext = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Tell...all the States Members of the United Nations.</p>', mspek = <_sre.SRE_Match object>, mspek.end = <built-in method end of _sre.SRE_Match object> |
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args =
('ascii', u'\n\t<p id="pg002-bk01-pa01">Mexico attaches partic...all the States Members of the United Nations.</p>', 9101, 9102, 'ordinal not in range(128)')
encoding =
'ascii'
end =
9102
message =
''
object =
u'\n\t<p id="pg002-bk01-pa01">Mexico attaches partic...all the States Members of the United Nations.</p>'
reason =
'ordinal not in range(128)'
start =
9101