General Assembly Session 62 meeting 2

The President

May I invite the General Assembly to direct its attention to section I of the report of the General Committee. In that section, the Committee took note of the information contained in paragraph 2.

May I request the General Assembly to now direct its attention to section II, entitled "Organization of the session", which contains a number of recommendations concerning the General Committee, rationalization of work, the opening and closing dates for the session, the schedule of meetings, the general debate, the conduct of meetings, et cetera. All of those recommendations concern established practice. Therefore, rather than going through them one by one, I believe it would be better and much more efficient to address all of those organizational matters concerning the General Assembly as a whole. Are there any comments on this approach?

As there are no comments, we shall proceed accordingly.

May I take it that it is the wish of the General Assembly to take note of all of the information that is requested to be taken note of and to approve all the recommendations that the General Committee has made in section II of the report?

The President

Having just adopted the recommendation contained in paragraph 15, on waiving the requirements of rule 67 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly to declare a meeting open, I should like to endorse the practical suggestion that has been made at previous sessions, namely, that each delegation designate someone to be present in the meeting rooms at the scheduled time.

May I take it that it is the wish of the General Assembly to take note of the information contained in paragraph 36, concerning the timely submission of draft proposals for the review of their programme budget implications?

The President

May I now invite members to turn their attention to section III, dealing with the adoption of the agenda. The question of the allocation of items will be dealt with subsequently, in section IV.

In section III, the General Committee took note of the information contained in paragraphs 44 to 49.

In paragraph 50, the General Assembly is informed that the General Committee decided to postpone to a later date its consideration of the question of the inclusion of item 21 of the draft agenda, "Question of the Comorian island of Mayotte".

In paragraph 51, the General Committee recommends that the consideration of item 42 of the draft agenda, "Question of the Malagasy islands of Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Europa and Bassas da India", be deferred to the sixty-third session and that the item be included in the provisional agenda for that session. May I take it that the Assembly approves that recommendation?

The President

In paragraph 52, in connection with sub-item (f) of item 116 of the draft agenda, "Appointments to fill vacancies in subsidiary organs and other appointments: appointment of members of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee", the General Committee recommends that sub-item (f) of item 116 be included in the agenda of the current session under heading I, "Organizational, administrative and other matters". May I take it that the Assembly approves that recommendation?

The President

In paragraph 53, in connection with item 160 of the draft agenda, "Observer status for the Regional Centre on Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa in the General Assembly", the General Committee recommends that item 160 be included in the agenda of the current session under heading I, "Organizational, administrative and other matters". May I take it that the Assembly approves that recommendation?

The President

In paragraph 54, in connection with item 161 of the draft agenda, "Observer status for the Italian-Latin American Institute in the General Assembly", the General Committee recommends that item 161 be included in the agenda of the current session under heading I, "Organizational, administrative and other matters". May I take it that the Assembly approves that recommendation?

The President

In paragraph 55, in connection with item 162 of the draft agenda, now entitled "Celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights", the General Committee recommends that item 162 be included as an additional sub-item of item 72, "Promotion and protection of human rights", in the agenda of the current session under heading D, "Promotion of human rights". May I take it that the Assembly approves that recommendation?

The President

In paragraph 56, in connection with item 163 of the draft agenda, "Observer status for the Energy Charter Conference in the General Assembly", the General Committee recommends that item 163 be included in the agenda of the current session under heading I, "Organizational, administrative and other matters". May I take it that the Assembly approves that recommendation?

The President

In paragraph 57, in connection with item 164 of the draft agenda, "Financing of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur", the General Committee recommends that item 164 be included in the agenda of the current session under heading I, "Organizational, administrative and other matters". May I take it that the Assembly approves that recommendation?

The President

With respect to paragraph 58, the General Committee recommended not to include item 165 of the draft agenda, entitled "Urging the Security Council to process Taiwan's membership application pursuant to rules 59 and 60 of the provisional rules of procedure of the Security Council and Article 4 of the Charter of the United Nations". I wish to recall for members that the General Committee adopted its recommendation without objection.

In connection with this matter, I should like to inform members that there are already more than 50 speakers inscribed on my list. Before giving the floor to the first speaker, I wish to emphasize that if the General Assembly is to adhere to its programme of work, we must finish our consideration of the report of the General Committee today. I should like to remind members that we still have to consider the inclusion of other items, as well as section IV of the report, concerning the allocation of items.

In addition, members are further reminded that the Assembly is not discussing the substance of this item. The subject of discussion before us now concerns only the recommendation of the General Committee not to include the item in the agenda of the sixty-second session. I would therefore strongly appeal to members to be as brief as possible in their statements on this subject.

Mr. Jallow (Gambia)

My delegation has always maintained consistency in lending support to the entry of Taiwan to the United Nations. Over the years, the results have always been like this: a sort of refusal, and in some cases, a refusal that is baseless, without any legal or procedural support, as we witnessed in the latest action, with all due respect to the General Committee.

For the friends of Taiwan, the reasons for our continuous support to the cause of Taiwan's membership are very clear and have been reiterated year after year. The fact that 52 speakers have thus far requested to make statements on this item signifies its importance to this international body.

This year, unlike other years, the approach we used was to apply directly for membership; this was done by His Excellency the President of Taiwan. To the disappointment of the friends of Taiwan, the United Nations Secretariat unilaterally took the decision to return Taiwan's membership application, which constitutes an ultra vires action with regard to rule 59 of the provisional rules of procedure of the Security Council. The Secretary-General has gone beyond his prerogative, to my mind, in accordance with the relevant sections of the Charter and the provisional rules of procedure I have just cited.

Taiwan is not part of China. That is an indisputable fact. The reasons for this have been advanced: Taiwan is a country of its own, it has its own Government, it runs its own economy and it is a highly industrialized country. At this stage, and over the past 50 years, the claimant to this island, the People's Republic of China, has never had any jurisdiction over Taiwan, and that is very clear. Taiwan has an independent Government and therefore is a sovereign State under article 4 of the Charter.

The Government of the Gambia feels Taiwan is qualified for membership. Taiwan runs an independent economy, being the eighteenth largest economy in the world. Unfortunately, because of the obstruction of one Member, which seems to hold very powerful influence in the Security Council, this matter is always thrown back at us.

Taiwan is a country. It is a country that is under constant military threat. We are all aware of that threat. Relations across the Strait in the past years have remained strained because of China's persistent refusal to give up the use of military force against Taiwan. China has in fact deployed almost 1,000 tactical missiles, a number which increases annually by 100.

Excluding Taiwan from the United Nations infringes upon the basic human rights of 23 million people, which is clearly a breach of article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Applying for United Nations membership under the name of Taiwan does not change the status quo. Resolution 2758 (XXVI), which was adopted in 1971, has been disputed because it did not respect the rules of procedure for elections and adopting resolutions. That resolution has been misinterpreted purely for convenience's sake. Nor did the resolution address the issue of representation.

In an article published by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in July 2007 -- and I crave the indulgence of members for citing this to the Assembly -- John Bolton, who until recently was Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, cogently argued that resolution 2758 (XXVI) is wholly illegitimate, by its own terms violating the Charter of the United Nations in multiple respects, and is a virtually dispositive rebuttal to the contention that the United Nations functions within the rule of law.

To conclude, for 14 years, this issue of Taiwan's entry into the United Nations has returned, year after year after year. It is apparent that it will not die a natural death, because those people are determined. To deny them their self-determination by rules that have been misinterpreted for convenience's sake would be to not give this Organization the respect it deserves.

It is our view that Taiwan has been unjustifiably treated, especially when it took the legal procedures to apply for membership, which was illegally denied. On this note, excluding Taiwan from the United Nations infringes on the basic human rights, I repeat once more, of 23 million people, which is clearly a breach of article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On that note, I urge this house to consider the issue of Taiwan more seriously than it has done in the past.