General Assembly Session 55 meeting 55

The President

I call on the representative of India to introduce draft resolution A/55/L.20.

Mr. Sharma (India)

I have the honour of introducing the draft resolution contained in document A/55/L.20 entitled "Cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union". The text of the draft resolution has been jointly prepared by members of the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) itself, and I hope that it can be adopted by consensus, as in previous years, especially at this juncture, when we constantly seek to imbue our work with that much sought after element, political will, which obviously resides in parliaments.

The report prepared by the Secretary-General (A/55/409) highlights the intensification of cooperation between the United Nations and the IPU, in several areas of concern to the international community. Apart from describing the actions taken by the IPU to support and complement the work of the United Nations, it "demonstrates the potential for a greater contribution by national parliaments, through IPU, to the work of the United Nations, and to disseminating an understanding of that work and ensuring the requisite follow-up". These sentiments are fully reciprocated by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and the final declaration entitled "The parliamentary vision of international cooperation on the eve of the third millennium" adopted by consensus at the Conference of the Presiding Officers of National Parliaments, organized by the IPU in cooperation with the United Nations at New York from 30 August to 1 September 2000, pledged the commitment of the speakers and presiding officers to "international cooperation with a stronger United Nations at its core". The Millennium Declaration adopted by our heads of States and Government also identified the need to further strengthen cooperation between the United Nations and national parliaments through their world organization, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in various fields, including peace and security, economic and social development, international law and human rights and democracy and gender issues. We, therefore, fully share the Secretary General's hope that "the increasingly close and productive relationship between the United Nations and the IPU may soon also be recognized through a new, strengthened and formalized relationship between IPU and the General Assembly".

Substantially, the concerns of the United Nations and the IPU are common: equitable economic growth, the achievement of international peace and security, democracy, respect for human rights, sustainable development and social progress. There is an essential similarity in approach, convergence of actions and, most importantly, a congruence of the objectives of the two organizations. It is for this reason that the draft resolution in its preambular part, having recalled resolution 54/12 of 27 October, 1999, and having considered the report of the Secretary-General (A/55/409), notes with appreciation the resolutions adopted and the activities carried out by the Inter-Parliamentary Union during the past year in support of the United Nations. It furthermore welcomes the unanimous adoption of the Declaration "The parliamentary vision of international cooperation on the eve of the third millennium" at the Conference of the Presiding Officers of National Parliaments and recalls with satisfaction the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which contains the resolve of the Member States to further strengthen cooperation between the United Nations and national parliaments through their world organization, the Inter-Parliamentary Union. It also recalls the unique inter-State character of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. In its operative part, the resolution welcomes the efforts of the IPU to provide for greater parliamentary contribution and enhanced support to the United Nations and calls for further consolidation of cooperation between the two organizations. The second paragraph, as originally drafted, requested the Secretary-General, in the true spirit of transparency and openness characterizing all democracies, to explore ways, in consultation with Member States and the IPU, in which a new and formalized relationship, as recommended by the Secretary-General, might be established between the IPU, the General Assembly and its subsidiary organs, and to report thereon to the General Assembly by May next year. However, in order to achieve consensus on the text, it has been decided to change one word in paragraph 2, namely, the word "formalized", which would be replaced by the word "strengthened". In paragraph 3, the draft resolution requests the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session on various aspects of cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the last paragraph decides to include the item entitled "Cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union" in the provisional agenda of the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly.

In conclusion, given the fact that the draft resolution that I have just introduced has no financial implications for the programme budget, and in view of the resolve of our heads of State and Government expressed at the Millennium Summit, as well as the desire of speakers and presiding officers of national parliaments to strengthen cooperation between the IPU and the United Nations, I wish to propose on behalf of all the sponsors that the draft resolution be adopted by consensus.

I should like to announce that, since the publication of the draft resolution, the following additional countries have become sponsors of the draft resolution: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Gabon, Germany, Guatemala, Guyana, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritania, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Surinam, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.

Mr. Ling (Belarus)

The delegation of the Republic of Belarus is grateful to the Permanent Representative of India for introducing the draft resolution entitled "Cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union".

We also welcome the Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and thank him for the coordination of the work between the United Nations and the Union.

The Republic of Belarus attaches great importance to the problems of cooperation between the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the United Nations. In this context, this past year has been particularly important. The unprecedented number of leaders of national legislative organs that took part in the Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments, which preceded the United Nations Millennium Summit. This remarkable event helped create the important background for fruitful discussion during the Millennium Summit. Both the Conference and the Summit demonstrated to the international community the unanimity of the legislative and executive power of the United Nations Member States on the most important aspects of the international agenda. The heads of both Chambers of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus who took part in the Conference made their contribution to the process by creating this unanimity. I have been instructed by the National Assembly to reassure the Members of the General Assembly that the members of the Parliament of the Republic of Belarus are ready to continue their work in close cooperation with the United Nations in order to implement the final decisions of the Conference of Presiding Officers of National Parliaments and the Millennium Summit.

The report of the Secretary-General on cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (A/55/409) makes it clear that the fields of interaction of both important bodies are constantly broadening. The Inter-Parliamentary Union is becoming a more active partner of the United Nations in all its activities and undertakings and implements many of United Nations initiatives at the level of national parliaments. We believe this to be a very significant aspect of the IPU's work. Strengthening of the United Nations initiatives at the level of national legislative bodies means taking practical steps which provide greater effectiveness for such work. We welcome new elements in this year's resolution related to further improvement of cooperation between the IPU and the General Assembly, as well as the proposal of the Secretary-General concerning formalization of the relationship between two unique forums in the international relations system.

This year is of particular significance for further development of parliamentarianism in Belarus. There were the first ever large-scale elections to the Lower House of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus. The electoral campaign was preceded by enormous work by all Belarusian political institutions. The result of this work was the adoption of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus that accumulated most of the experience of the advanced parliamentary democracies of the world.

The elections were monitored by around 200 independent international observers, representing over 20 countries of the world. Two rounds of elections led to the formation of a new legal body of representative power that will start its work on 21 November.

The new Belarusian Parliament will certainly be an active participant in all activities of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The Republic of Belarus is convinced that interaction and growing cooperation between the United Nations and the IPU will serve the benefit of the people of our States. We see a high meaning and the necessity to continue intensive work in this field and will do our best to encourage its progress.

Mr. H nningstad (Norway)

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