General Assembly Session 59 meeting 111

The President

I should like, in keeping with established practice, to draw the attention of the General Assembly to document A/59/861. It contains a letter dated 1 July 2005 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the General Assembly, in which he informs the Assembly that 10 Member States are in arrears in the payment of their financial contributions to the United Nations within the terms of Article 19 of the Charter.

I should like to remind delegations that, under Article 19 of the Charter,

"A Member of the United Nations which is in arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the Organization shall have no vote in the General Assembly if the amount of its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding two full years."

May I take it that the General Assembly duly takes note of the information contained in document A/59/861?

The President

Members will recall that the General Assembly held a joint debate on agenda items 11 and 53 at its 24th through 29th plenary meetings, from 11 to 13 October 2004. In connection with agenda item 53, the Assembly now has before it a draft resolution issued as document A/59/L.64.

I now give the floor to the representative of Brazil to introduce draft resolution A/59/L.64.

Mr. Sardenberg (Brazil)

I have the honour to introduce draft resolution A/59/L.64 on behalf of the following sponsors: Afghanistan, Belgium, Bhutan, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Fiji, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, India, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, the Maldives, Nauru, Palau, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Ukraine and Brazil, as well as the sponsors that have joined the initiative since Thursday, 7 July, namely, Lithuania and the Marshall Islands.

At the outset, I express our sincere thanks to you, Mr. President, for convening this timely debate, and I commend your outstanding leadership in conducting the work of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session, in particular the preparatory process for the September summit.

As we approach the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations, the membership as a whole shares a sense of urgency in promoting the Organization's effectiveness in all areas, particularly in the field of the maintenance of international peace and security. Awareness of the need for change is especially pronounced among all of us.

The sponsors are keenly aware that the consideration of this draft proposal by 191 Members of the United Nations constitutes an historic step in multilateral diplomacy. Its provisions would significantly strengthen this world Organization and truly reform the Security Council, the main organ entrusted by the Charter with the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

Accumulated experience acquired since the founding of the United Nations demonstrates that in the eyes of our peoples, the realities of power in 1945 were superseded long ago. The security structure established then is now glaringly outdated. The Security Council, in order to effectively carry out its functions and exercise its powers, needs to undergo thorough reform that includes expanding the category of permanent members in order to bring it in line with the contemporary world. Such reform would ensure a better response to the evolving nature and characteristics of threats to peace, as well as more systematic and effective compliance with the Council's decisions. Representativeness and equitable participation must be clearly reflected in the composition of the Security Council. Only through the updated observance of those principles will the legitimacy of the Council's decisions be ensured.

Draft resolution A/59/L.64 aims to expand the membership of the Security Council to reflect new realities. As expressed in the draft, that would shape a balance of forces capable of enhancing the Council's responsiveness to the views and needs of all Member States, in particular developing countries, and of ensuring the adoption of improved working methods.

The draft resolution would objectively establish the mechanisms required to achieve such an outcome, which include making full use of the democratic and universal decision-making processes of the General Assembly. It would also determine future consideration of the question of the veto, and it foresees a review of the Council's effectiveness and composition 15 years after the entry into force of the changes proposed.

As is widely known, our draft builds upon a proposal put forward by the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change and reiterated by the Secretary-General in his report "In larger freedom" (A/59/2005). It allows for enhanced participation of all regional groups in the Council's composition.

The group of sponsors comprises countries rich and poor, large and small, islands and landlocked States, as well as a permanent member of the Security Council. In preparing the draft, the sponsors engaged in open, transparent and extensive dialogue with all Member States of the United Nations, both in New York and in capitals. The result reflects the broadest possible scope of views on the matter -- indeed, the views of those who strive for genuine, meaningful reform of the Security Council and, in that spirit, constructively participated in the process.

Our draft is being presented to the General Assembly in time for decisions to be taken before September. Its submission after the conclusion of two major summit meetings allowed countries in both Africa and the Caribbean to carefully ponder the pros and cons of the proposed expansion. We have been greatly encouraged by the fact that the African heads of State, speaking with one voice at Sirte, have taken a stand so similar to ours, and by the meeting of the heads of Government of the Caribbean Community in Saint Lucia, at which a significant number of those States indicated that they are inclined to support the proposal.

The purpose of establishing a more balanced composition of the Security Council can be realized only through democratic expansion of both the permanent and non-permanent member categories. That can be achieved through the selection of new permanent members by the General Assembly in order to redress the current situation and to ensure permanent representation for developed and developing countries alike. Moreover, the addition of new permanent members selected by the Assembly would establish a direct link of accountability between the new permanent members and the general membership. The envisaged review mechanism constitutes an additional guarantee to that effect. Promoting substantive and meaningful structural changes in the Security Council will also result in a revision of its practices and working methods.

Taking a decision on this draft will mean setting in motion a process that will, no doubt, give tremendous impetus to multilateralism and to the democratization of international relations and bring about a more balanced and more efficient Council. It is a process that, once started, will be owned by the entire United Nations membership.

As the United Nations prepares for the convening of the September summit, it has become increasingly evident that security and development are interconnected in a manner that does not allow for progress in one area without consistent advances in the other. A more comprehensive, updated definition of the present-day threats confronting mankind is essential to ensure that the social, economic and human rights concerns of the peoples of the United Nations are duly taken into account as the United Nations advances towards more efficiently ensuring peace and security.

The ghastly threat of terrorist attacks -- which, once more, have revealed in a shocking manner the indiscriminate brutality and cruelty of that scourge -- is another, sadly recurrent, reminder of the need to update our threat perceptions and appropriately adapt appropriate structures to deal with them. It is clear that the Council's future effectiveness is also contingent upon the permanent presence of major financial contributors and those who are most willing and able to contribute to the work of the United Nations.

Criticism of our proposal so far has failed to realistically address the core issue of permanent membership. Restricting the expansion of the Council to the category of non-permanent members would not only mean maintaining the status quo, but also risk increasing the disparity in its composition. It would do nothing to correct its structural imbalances. Some have also stated that a proposal such as ours should be subject to a unanimous decision -- a claim the true objective of which is plain for all to see: it is designed simply to block the process.

Our response is to let the General Assembly make use of its universal and democratic decision-making process, the same method by which parliaments daily go about their business. As for the argument that working to bring this issue to a conclusion after 12 years of discussion is somehow still premature, we can only consider it an attempt to beguile.

I must emphasize the shared perception among the sponsors and beyond that the successful conclusion of the effort to reform the Security Council would enhance that body's legitimacy and representativeness and constitute a very important boost for the strengthening of the Organization, as well as ensure the successful outcome of the September summit meeting. We are convinced that, both in substance and in procedure, our proposal effectively and unambiguously promotes, in a direct and concrete manner, the democratization of international relations under the auspices of the United Nations and facilitates the achievement of peace and security in full harmony with the observance of the purposes and principles of the Charter. That goal is now within reach. An opportunity such as this must not be missed.

In conclusion, it is important to recall the remark made by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, that no United Nations reform effort would be complete without the reform of the Security Council, and his recommendation that we deal with the issue before September. Perhaps more than anyone else, he has been aware of the dire need to preserve and strengthen the United Nations as the only multilateral universal instrument for addressing and resolving the multifaceted and increasingly complex crises that affect humanity. Once more, we would do well to heed his advice.

I wish to make clear in this regard that we do not seek to impose a vote on this matter before it has been comprehensively discussed by Member States in this debate. As has been the case since the establishment of the group of four 10 months ago, and particularly now, with the participation of all of the sponsors, we stand ready to advance the dialogue with all those groups that genuinely wish to promote the strengthening of the Organization and of its capacity to deal with contemporary threats to peace and security. The Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Germany, India, Japan and my own country stated in London last Friday, 8 July,

"Against the backdrop of the decisions of the recent Summit of the African Union in Sirte and the CARICOM Summit in Saint Lucia, the ministers reiterated their readiness to continue dialogue with the African Union and CARICOM, as well as the co-sponsors of the draft resolution and the United Nations membership at large."

Putting this decision into practice, they met on that occasion with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his capacity as member of the core group of the follow-up mechanism on the reform of the United Nations established by the African Union to review developments at the African Union Summit and to discuss prospects for common action in the immediate future with regard to the expansion and reform of the Security Council.

In presenting the present proposal, the sponsors have taken a bold step that paves the way for real, meaningful change in the Organization. Let us all follow through in our determination to bring about a better world.

Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein (Jordan)

I should like at the outset to thank you, Mr. President, for having convened this important meeting and to express my delegation's gratitude for your efforts to advance the United Nations reform agenda. In this context, I should also like to reiterate Jordan's support for all efforts aimed at achieving the hoped-for reforms and to express our utmost appreciation for all the valuable ideas presented in that regard.

United Nations reform will not be complete unless we reform the Security Council by enhancing its working methods and expanding the membership. In general, therefore, Jordan supports draft resolution A/59/L.64, which is before us today. We are utterly convinced that the draft resolution is a step in the right direction to sustainable and effective reform. Furthermore, in supporting the framework set out in the draft resolution, Jordan is upholding its prior commitments regarding Security Council expansion and reform. Nevertheless, we believe that there is still room to improve the language on enhancing the working methods of the Council by using more of the ideas put forward in the debate over the past few months.

We agree with the view that the membership of the Council should be expanded in both the permanent and the non-permanent categories. The draft resolution provides a democratic basis for expanding the membership in which, we believe, the Group of Arab States should be represented at all times.

Today, we have an historic opportunity to make a change for the better. Let us take advantage of the existing momentum and capitalize on this opportunity to do what is in the best interests of our Organization.

Mr. Oshima (Japan)

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