General Assembly Session 55 meeting 85

The President

Before we take up the items on our agenda, it is my sad duty to pay tribute to the memory of the late Prime Minister of Tuvalu, His Excellency Mr. Ionatana Ionatana, who passed away on 8 December 2000.

It was only in September this year that the General Assembly heard his statement on the occasion of the admission of Tuvalu as the one hundred eighty-ninth Member State of the United Nations.

On behalf of the General Assembly, I wish to convey our condolences to the Government and the people of Tuvalu and to the bereaved family of Mr. Ionatana Ionatana.

I invite representatives to stand and observe a minute of silence in tribute to the memory of Mr. Ionatana Ionatana.

The President

The General Assembly will now proceed to consider draft resolution A/55/L.56/Rev.1.

I call on the representative of the Secretariat.

Mr. Jin Yongjian (Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Services)

Before action is taken on draft resolution A/55/L.56/Rev.1, I should like to inform members that the draft resolution, inter alia, calls for an integrated, coordinated, comprehensive and balanced approach in the implementation of the Millennium Declaration. It calls upon all relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system to be involved in the follow-up to the Summit. It invites specialized agencies and related organizations of the United Nations system to strengthen and adjust their activities, programmes and medium-term strategies as appropriate to take into account the follow-up to the Summit. And it requests the appropriate bodies to consider urgently how the implementation of the Declaration should relate to the biennium budget process and medium-term plan.

Should the General Assembly adopt draft resolution A/55/L.56/Rev.1, the Secretary-General would ensure system-wide coordination to assist with the implementation of the Declaration and would identify, within the framework of the Administrative Committee on Coordination, innovative ways of enhancing cooperation and coherence throughout the United Nations system. In this context, he would request the appropriate bodies of the relevant United Nations system to consider how the implementation of the Declaration should relate to the biennium budget process and the medium-term plan.

The outcome of consultations with organizations within the United Nations system would be reported to the General Assembly in the context of the annual and the quinquennial reports called for in paragraphs 18 and 19 of draft resolution A/55/L.56/Rev.1, which would be prepared by the Office of the Secretary-General.

Should the General Assembly adopt draft resolution A/55/L.56/Rev.1, no additional resource requirements are currently anticipated to arise in the biennium 2000-2001. Should any additional requirements be later identified, these would be reported to the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly in the context of its consideration of the agenda items related to the programme budget for the biennium 2000-2001 and for the biennium 2002-2003.

The President

The Assembly will now take a decision on draft resolution A/55/L.56/Rev.1.

May I take it that the Assembly decides to adopt draft resolution A/55/L.56/Rev.1?

The President

We have just adopted the draft resolution on the follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit. The consensus would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of all delegations. I believe that the membership has shown that the Millennium Summit has indeed created a momentum and new spirit of political will that will help us to achieve the goals set in the Declaration.

I should like to thank once again all delegations for their flexibility. I think that through this kind of consensus-building and teamwork we can achieve progress on many issues, and I look forward to continuing to work with delegations on the follow-up to the Summit.

The Assembly has thus concluded this stage of its consideration of agenda item 182.

The President

I should like to remind the Assembly that the debate on agenda item 20 and its sub-items (a) to (c) was held at the 72nd plenary meeting, on 27 November 2000.

In connection with draft resolution A/55/L.63, I should like to draw the Assembly's attention to two technical errors.

The original languages should include English and French instead of only English;

In operative paragraph 11, after the words "29 April 1994", the word "and" should be replaced by a comma.

I now give the floor to the representative of France to introduce draft resolution A/55/L.64.

Mr. Levitte (France)

On behalf of the European Union and all the sponsors, I have the honour to present the draft resolution entitled "Safety and security of humanitarian personnel and protection of United Nations personnel", contained in document A/55/L.64.

May I first of all inform the Assembly that the following countries have joined the list of sponsors: Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Guyana, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Togo.

Allow me, in response to the wishes of all the Members of the United Nations who have asked me to do so, to repeat our strong appreciation for the report that the Secretary-General has submitted to the Assembly together with the recommendations he deems necessary. Indeed, it is his responsibility to ensure the security of United Nations staff and associated personnel, and the provisions adopted in this respect at Headquarters and in the field can also benefit humanitarian personnel in general.

We wish to express our gratitude to the Secretary-General for the task he is undertaking, but this is also part of our responsibility as Member States. It is with this in mind that the European Union and the sponsors of the draft resolution have pursued this initiative.

We welcome the spirit of cooperation, understanding and consensus shown by all delegations throughout this work, which allowed us to reach a fully satisfactory result in keeping with our duties.

The aim was, first, to pay tribute to the personnel, whoever they may be, and to express our firm condemnation of any actions carried out against them in the exercise of their functions. Such actions are unacceptable, and it is the primary responsibility of the State concerned to prevent them, in accordance with international humanitarian law, and also to bring their authors to justice, especially by adopting the necessary legislation, as required by the text of the draft resolution submitted this year to the Assembly.

Allow me to take this opportunity also to remember all those who have lost their lives in humanitarian service or in the service of the United Nations, as sadly referred to in the report of the Secretary-General, and to hope that the draft resolution we are about to adopt will strengthen the security they need in order to be able to fulfil their missions.

Among the elements introduced this year, we should mention the appeal to all States to promote a climate of respect for all United Nations and humanitarian personnel. The text also emphasizes the need to ensure adequate training before deploying field personnel who are at risk, as well as to provide the Secretary-General with the necessary means for this purpose for personnel under his authority.

Moreover, the General Assembly wishes to confirm the need for a full-time Security Coordinator, as was already emphasized in a previous resolution, and the need to strengthen his Office and the current United Nations security system. We emphasize that these intentions should be put into effect quickly and translated into decisions to be adopted by the relevant organs in response to these requests, on the basis of the Secretary-General's recommendations.

Furthermore, note is taken of the Secretary-General's report on expanding the scope of implementation of the 1994 Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, and it is proposed that the General Assembly refer the comprehensive consideration of this matter to the Sixth Committee as a specific agenda item of the fifty-sixth session.

In conclusion, allow me to make a positive correction to the draft resolution before us in document A/55/L.64. In the sixteenth preambular paragraph it is stated that the number of States parties to the 1994 Convention is 45; it is now 46, and that is the figure that should be recorded as the exact number at the time of adoption. We welcome this development, and we hope that this draft resolution, on a subject that should mobilize us all, will be able to be adopted by consensus.

In this context, the European Union has noted with optimism the commitment shown by Member States to continue to strengthen texts on this subject in the future, as the situation requires. The European Union reaffirms its gratitude, in particular to the sponsors, and its appreciation for the support and cooperation shown by all delegations that actively participated in the negotiations on this important question.

The President

I call on the representative of Nigeria to introduce draft resolution A/55/L.38/Rev.1.

Mr. Osio (Nigeria)

Thank you, Mr. President, for the honour of introducing draft resolution A/55/L.38/Rev.1, entitled "International cooperation on humanitarian assistance in the field of natural disasters from relief to development", on behalf of its original sponsors, the Group of 77 and China, and Mexico.

Nigeria feels further honoured by the opportunity we were given to facilitate the informal formal consultations between the original sponsors and other partners -- including the European Union, the Japan, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand group (JUSCANZ) and the Russian Federation -- some of which have since indicated interest in joining the list of sponsors. The list, we are confident, will keep growing. Why will the list keep growing? The answer is not far-fetched: the negotiations were very frank, and flexibility was mutual, leading to consensus.

Natural disasters are neither people-friendly nor always country-specific. Thousands of lives and much property, as well as means of livelihood, are always lost in their wake, at a very high cost. That these events happen in developing countries, where development problems are enormous, is noteworthy. Also noteworthy is the fact that the primary responsibility for the initiation, organization, coordination and implementation of humanitarian assistance lies within each developing country's territory. These occurrences are also important because they reverse all gains made through the development efforts of developing countries. Therefore, the need for international cooperation cannot be overemphasized.

In the face of declining official development assistance flows and of the external debt burden, all huge problems of development that militate against the efforts of developing countries to initiate preparedness, even efforts to mitigate disasters, have to be very seriously considered in order to augment the efforts of developing countries.

We have discovered -- and this is the truth -- that natural disasters are one factor that joins humanity in common agreement. Natural disasters are a great cause of need, and humanity must be united when it comes to need.

It is on this basis that we have decided that there is a need for at least a partnership among Governments of affected countries, relevant humanitarian organizations and specialized agencies to promote training in, access to and the use of technologies, to strengthen preparedness for and response to natural disasters and to enhance the transfer of current technologies and corresponding know-how, in particular to developing countries, on concessional and preferential terms, as may be mutually agreed.

The Assembly has before it a draft resolution that enjoys consensus its 22 operative paragraphs, which have spelled out what needs to be done in the hope of having proper guidance from the guiding principles and from the Secretary-General's report, which we hope will guide our future endeavours in this regard.

Let me thank all those who took part in the negotiations for their willingness and flexibility, and particularly those who are going to join the list of sponsors.

The President

I call on the representative of Sweden to introduce draft resolution A/55/L.54.