General Assembly Session 62 meeting 20

The Acting President

Members will recall that the Secretary-General presented his first annual report (A/62/1) to the General Assembly at the 4th plenary meeting, on 25 September 2007.

Mr. Akram (Pakistan)

The delegation of Pakistan would like to express its appreciation to the Secretary-General for his first annual report (A/62/1) on the work of the Organization. We expressed our position on the substantive issues covered in the report during the general debate. Today, I wish to focus on the role of the United Nations itself in current international relations.

We are living in an increasingly globalized and interdependent world -- a world confronted with complex challenges as well as opportunities for war and peace, poverty and prosperity, coercion and cooperation, and terrorism and tolerance. The world -- both States and peoples -- can respond effectively to those challenges and grasp the opportunities only if they work collectively and cooperatively within the sole universal Organization, namely, the United Nations. The world Organization has the mandate, the membership and the mechanisms to promote the cooperative multilateralism that is so indispensable for peace, prosperity and survival at the dawn of the twenty-first century. However, it is quite evident that the United Nations has thus far been unable to effectively address the challenges or to exploit the opportunities. The full potential of the Organization remains to be fulfilled.

To realize that potential, Member States must reconcile their conflicting visions of the purpose and functions of the United Nations. The Organization is not an instrument to serve the unilateral objectives and interests of any Power. It is also not a mechanism to operate an oligarchic order of multipolar power relations. The United Nations, as envisaged in the Charter, is a venue and vehicle for the promotion of multilateral cooperation as a means to promote peace, security and better standards of life in larger freedoms for all peoples. The Organization was created for all its Member States and all their peoples. It must be responsive to their interests and reflect their goals and aspirations.

From the perspective of the majority of small and medium-sized States, a singular shortcoming of the United Nations is the uneven treatment of issues, catering to the interests and sensitivities of big Powers and ignoring those of small countries. That inequality of treatment is especially evident in the field of peace and security. That is evident in the Middle East, where the views of the majority of the membership of the United Nations are not reflected either in the decisions of the Security Council or the pronouncements of the Secretariat. It is also evident from the omission from the annual report of any reference to the volatile region of South Asia and the central dispute over Jammu and Kashmir, which has plagued relations in that region for six decades. It is further evident in the one-sided approach of the United Nations to issues such as disarmament and non-proliferation, as well as human rights.

To ensure greater equity, it seems essential to rebalance the powers of the Security Council and the General Assembly. The Security Council should restrict its role to the maintenance of international peace and security, and not encroach on the functions of other organs. Its proceedings and work should be open and transparent. Its composition should be more representative of the general membership, to whom the Security Council is ultimately accountable. As the Secretary-General noted in his report, the main recommendation of the reports of the facilitators last year was an intermediate approach as a compromise solution with a view to unblocking the process of reforming the Security Council. We endorse that view and approach as the most feasible. As recommended by the Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council and Other Matters Related to the Security Council, we should seek to build on the progress that was achieved at the sixty-first session of the General Assembly.

At the same time, the General Assembly must assert its authority under the Charter, including in addressing peace and security in areas where the Security Council is unwilling or unable to act. Pakistan has suggested several concrete steps to empower the General Assembly. We hope to secure wide support for those suggestions during the current session, especially from small and medium-sized States.

It is also evident that we can considerably enhance the role of the United Nations in the area of conflict prevention and dispute resolution. There is ample scope under Chapter VI of the Charter for the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Secretary-General and the International Court of Justice to promote solutions to various conflicts and disputes among Member States through the mechanisms of conciliation, mediation, arbitration and good offices. The United Nations should pursue such a role as an obligation, not a favour to one or more of the parties to a dispute. In that context, we support the Secretary-General's desire to strengthen the United Nations Department of Political Affairs.

The prevention of conflict and its recurrence can also be achieved by strengthening the newly established Peacebuilding Commission. Although the Commission has made a good beginning with the consideration of Burundi and Sierra Leone, Pakistan is disappointed that its full potential remains constrained, in particular owing to defence of the Security Council's prerogatives by some of its permanent members and the somewhat facile approach of some who perceive the Peacebuilding Commission as merely another mechanism for donors and recipients.

In recent years, peacekeeping has emerged as a United Nations success story. As the United Nations largest troop contributor, Pakistan is particularly satisfied with that success. There is now a surge in demand for United Nations peacekeepers; but with 100,000 already deployed, the United Nations may soon face difficult capacity problems in responding to new demands for peacekeepers. The United Nations must also remain cautious in committing peacekeepers in situations where there may not be any peace to keep. Nor should the United Nations become an instrument for unwanted foreign intervention in the internal affairs of States.

Many conflicts and disputes, especially within States, arise from the politics of scarcity. Poverty and hunger aggravate and ignite political, ethnic and religious differences. Growing poverty is spreading war in developing countries, as much as are the illegal exploitation of natural resources and arms smuggling. There should be greater focus on the role of economic and social development as a cost-effective approach to preventing conflicts and tensions in and among the most vulnerable countries. The Economic and Social Council should be entrusted with that mandate.

The United Nations must restore the credibility of the quest for non-proliferation and disarmament. The consensus on disarmament and non-proliferation has eroded, due in particular to the refusal of the major Powers to disarm, the negligence regarding the security concerns of other States and the application of discriminatory standards to different States. South Asia in particular may, as a result, witness an escalation of an arms race unless a discriminatory approach is avoided. Pakistan has proposed the convening of an international conference to evolve a new and balanced consensus on disarmament and non-proliferation. We encourage the Secretary-General to explore the possibility of convening such a conference.

Apart from peace and security, the United Nations has a principal role under the Charter to promote economic and social development. We are glad that the Secretary-General has accorded high priority to the development agenda. We believe that in our interdependent and globalized world, the developmental role of the United Nations is more essential than ever. This United Nations role has three dimensions, the first being policy formulation and the negotiation of norms, agreements and commitments, the second being development cooperation, including the United Nations system's operational activities for development, and the third being the monitoring and implementation of the agreed upon goals and commitments.

In the general debate in the Second Committee, Pakistan, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, will outline a series of proposed actions to advance the development agenda.

The 2005 Summit declared human rights as the third pillar of the United Nations. This pillar can be strong only if the other two pillars, security and development, are equally strong. The replacement of the Commission on Human Rights with the Human Rights Council has not yet changed the culture of political confrontation that has plagued this field. There is hope that the consensus reached on the package of decisions relating to the agenda and procedures of the new Council may lead to a more objective and judicious approach to human rights and create the climate and working methods to ensure positive outcomes in work of the Council. It would be ironic indeed if those who proposed this Council were now to spurn and reject it. At the same time, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights must be reminded that it is part of the Secretariat of the United Nations and is not an independent entity. Its work programme, staffing and operations must be reviewed and approved by the Human Rights Council before submission to the General Assembly.

Finally, the Secretariat of the United Nations also requires review, renewal and reform. We have broadly supported the various United Nations reform proposals undertaken in recent years. We are willing to consider further reforms in procurement, accountability, administration of justice, enterprise resource planning, and human resources. However, it must be said that the Secretariat cannot be expected to discharge the additional responsibilities that are being assigned to it while Member States at the same time insist on zero growth in the budget of the United Nations. The resources provided to the United Nations should be commensurate with its mandate, not the other way around.

We believe that, to be really effective, the United Nations management and administrative reforms should be pursued with a strategic vision and in a comprehensive manner. The Four Nations Initiative, including the recommendations of their Report, offers an approach which could hold promise for such a comprehensive and strategic reform of the United Nations management and administration.

Mr. Abdelaziz (Egypt)

At the outset, I wish to express Egypt's appreciation for the first report on the work of the Organization presented by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon since his assumption of office. I wish to congratulate the Secretary-General for the clarity of his assessments and the commendable ambition of the proposals he has put forward to address international challenges in a manner that further strengthens the credibility of the multilateral work conducted at the United Nations.

I would like to depart from my text by supporting what the representative of Pakistan had to say on the importance of strengthening the role of the United Nations in the peaceful settlement of chronic conflicts. We should not be content with addressing these issues outside the framework of the Organization, especially as regards the Arab-Israeli conflict.

We are all in agreement with the Secretary-General that reform is not in itself the ultimate goal but rather is the means to facilitate overcoming the obstacles that thwart the attainment of agreed goals. Egypt also values the focus put by the Secretary-General on the implementation of international obligations -- particularly those pertaining to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- attaching due priority to the African continent, as the only continent for which the realization of most of the Goals remains a distant prospect. We therefore look forward to seeing the Secretary-General transform his visions in that regard into concrete proposals to be put before the General Assembly.

Having said that, we reiterate the central importance of receiving proposals from the Secretary-General in all areas of development, especially in that of social development, which did not receive an adequate share of attention in the Secretary-General's report. It is well known that health, education and employment are polar opposites of disease, epidemics, unemployment and immigration, and that success and failure in these areas depend on a whole range of internal and external factors requiring the United Nations to muster the necessary support of the international community for the creation of an international environment conducive to and supportive of efforts of developing countries to realize the MDGs, for which trade, debt cancellation and financing for development are key.

Egypt, as a middle-income country, believes that the United Nations should remain focused on the aforementioned causes, as middle-income countries are home to the biggest number of poor people globally, which means that they require economic and social support if they are to achieve their development goals at the national level and in their regional context.

This requires the implementation of pledges made by donors at the Monterrey, Gleneagles and Heiligendamm Summits, whether they are related to Africa or to fighting disease, especially HIV/AIDS and malaria. It also requires the implementation of the Secretary-General's request concerning the provision by donors to recipient countries during 2007 and 2008 and up to 2010 of timelines for aid increase until 2010, so that the countries can integrate such data when preparing national budgets and developmental projects. We wish to learn of the proposals of the Secretary-General in this regard, including the possibility of the establishment of an implementation follow-up mechanism.

As regards the issue of climate change, the High-level Event on this subject has reflected the ever-growing importance attached to it by the international community and to its negative impact on developing countries. Accordingly, as mentioned in the report of the Secretary-General, an increased collective effort on the part of the international community is called for to limit phenomena related to climate change through the upholding and implementing of decisions taken at the Earth and Johannesburg Summits and based on the three pillars of sustainable development. This necessitates the strengthening of the role of the United Nations in implementing mandates decided upon by Member States, without seeking their reinterpretation and without adjusting the priorities of the Organization. Preserving international democratic decision-making, anchored in the purposes and principles of the United Nations, necessitates involving Member States in open, transparent and inclusive decision-making processes.

The delegation of Egypt commends the efforts of the United Nations to provide relief assistance to those affected by natural disasters. Egypt has contributed to the Central Emergency Response Fund since its establishment, and we also contribute to the Peacebuilding Fund. Both funds are examples of success in the international community's joint efforts to serve humanity. We believe that those examples should be maintained and built upon so that we can achieve similar successes in other areas.

If reform is to be effective, it is essential that the Secretariat maintain its impartiality, transparency and accountability and that it avoid addressing controversial issues as if they were objects of consensus. One example is the responsibility to protect. We decided at the 2005 World Summit that the General Assembly would continue to discuss the responsibility of Governments and States to protect their nationals, without introducing the concept of the international community's responsibility to protect peoples from their own Governments, which would represent intervention in States' internal affairs.

As we discuss this issue, our objective should remain enhancing the Organization's role in the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- whose sixtieth anniversary we are celebrating -- and to ensure compliance with the Geneva Conventions, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war. We consider the Geneva Conventions to be the fundamental pillars of the international community's responsibility to protect peoples -- particularly to protect those living in countries under foreign occupation or countries where foreign forces are present in any context from the perils and merciless practices associated with such occupation or occupiers.

In the area of peacekeeping and peacebuilding, we support all efforts by the United Nations to build its capacity to serve as an international mediator in order to help prevent political tensions from erupting into intra- or inter-State conflicts, thus reinforcing its role in the maintenance of international peace and security. While we have strongly supported the Secretary-General's proposals aimed at restructuring the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to maximize the effectiveness of the Organization's presence in conflict areas, we do not welcome the proposed initiatives on intervention to reform State security sectors and systems, because we believe that such matters are within the purview of State sovereignty and national constitutions.

With regard to respect for State sovereignty and international constitutional frameworks, we welcome the Organization's efforts to help Member States build their capacity to protect human rights in a cooperative, rather than confrontational, manner. Accordingly, we support the central role played by the Human Rights Council in strengthening respect for human rights at the international level. We invite the Secretary-General and his Special Representative on the situation of human rights defenders to refrain from criticizing the Council's decisions in the context of mutual respect for the balance of authority, as required by the Charter of the United Nations. We believe it is essential to ensure such a balance in the relationship among the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, as well as in the relationship between the Secretariat and those main organs.

At the same time, we welcome the Secretary-General's essential role in supporting the initiative of the dialogue among civilizations, cultures and religions, particularly his efforts to counter campaigns that seek to distort the religious and cultural beliefs of peoples as well as the ferocious campaigns targeting Islam and its adherents in many parts of the world, including those linking Islam with terrorism, and the false claims made against its prophets and messengers.

All Member States attach particular importance to reform of the Security Council and expansion of its membership. While the facilitators' reports concluded that interim arrangements might represent a consensus solution aimed at making progress on this issue, Member States have not yet agreed on that approach, and those reports merely listed the reform proposals presented by various parties. Member States are waiting for a State or group of States to submit a draft resolution reflecting that or any other approach. Egypt will consider any proposal that has the potential to fulfil the aspirations of the African continent. We continue to support the Ezulwini Consensus as an indivisible package that must retain all of its elements, particularly the power of the veto for new permanent members.

In the same context, I wish to welcome the Secretary-General's approach to overcoming the difficulties that are preventing the United Nations from playing a vital and fundamental role in the field of disarmament. The delegation of Egypt looks forward to concrete proposals from the Secretary-General aimed at invigorating the Organization's role in this area -- particularly following his excellent proposal to transform the post of Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs into a Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disarmament -- that we can overcome the impasse in nuclear and conventional disarmament and address the issue of the illicit spread of small arms and light weapons and its negative effects on international peace and security.

Ms. Blum (Colombia)

Permit me to congratulate Mr. Srgjan Kerim, President of the General Assembly, on the effective and appropriate manner in which he is leading the debates and activities of the Assembly. I also wish to thank the Secretary-General for drafting and submitting his report on the work of the Organization (A/62/1) and to commend him for the work he has accomplished during his mandate.

Seven years have passed since our heads of State or Government pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Although progress has been made towards those objectives, we are concerned at how far away a significant number of countries remain from such an achievement.

The African continent continues to face serious challenges in making sustained progress that will enable them to achieve the MDGs within the time frame established in 2000. We recognize the importance of the work of the Organization in that region. At the same time, we wish to emphasize the role of the United Nations and of the international community in general in addressing the priorities and needs of middle-income countries.

In the area of international cooperation, Member States must meet their official development assistance commitments and must guarantee broad and equitable access to international markets. My country calls for the continued and active incorporation of modalities supporting South-South cooperation into the Organization's programmes and activities.

Terrorism continues to pose a great threat to international peace and security. Colombia rejects terrorism in all its forms and supports regional and international initiatives to combat that scourge. We are all committed to the fight against terrorism. My delegation wishes to highlight the progress made since the adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and urges all Member States to fully implement that instrument and to strengthen international cooperation and coordination aimed at eliminating that threat.

The democratic security policy of the Government of President Uribe has enabled us to restore law and order and the institutions of the rule of law in all regions of the country. Since 2002, the homicide rate has fallen more than 40 per cent. Likewise, during the current Government the number of kidnappings in the country fell from 1,709 five years ago to 282 last year. Terrorist attacks against the infrastructure fell between 70 and 100 per cent during the same period.

As President Uribe stated during the general debate (see A/62/PV.8), Colombia has been able, in a transparent manner and with respect for freedoms and human rights, to reduce the number of terrorists financed by drug trafficking from 60,000 to 11,000 over the past five years. The Colombian Government offers every guarantee that those members of terrorist organizations who wish to abandon violence and resume their civic duties can do so within a framework that provides truth, justice and redress for the victims. Within that framework, 46,000 members of various organizations have been demobilized.

Thanks to the democratic security policy, confidence has also returned to the country and important social advances have been made. That will make it possible to achieve the MDGs in the social sector before 2015. In the past five years, the country's unemployment rate fell from 20 per cent to about 10 per cent. We hope soon to reach a single-digit unemployment rate. The number of children benefiting from our food programmes has grown from 3.7 million to 9 million. We hope to be able to reach 12 million children in the next three years. Our hope is to achieve full access to basic education and health care before 2010. We also hope to ensure that poverty, which in 2002 affected almost 60 per cent of our population, will not exceed 35 per cent by the end of the decade.

The United Nations must continue to strengthen its support to countries in eradicating poverty and achieving sustained economic growth and development. To that end, there must be greater coherence in the operational activities of the Organization. Coordination with Governments and national authorities is essential in that regard in order to promote efficient and effective efforts in the field by the United Nations.

We acknowledge the role that the United Nations can play in the area of humanitarian assistance. Issues having to do with humanitarian assistance must be addressed through a comprehensive approach in the context of the principles of impartiality, neutrality and humanity. Humanitarian assistance must contribute to the strengthening of local capacities, the rebuilding of the social fabric of affected populations and the development of structures that make it possible to move from emergency to development.

It was clear from the Assembly's general debate that Member States consider climate change to be an important issue. We agree with the Secretary-General that the Organization is in a privileged position to undertake measures that contribute to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, that phenomenon. We must take advantage of the current political will to give impetus to agreements for the post-Kyoto period on the basis of a fair and equitable regime grounded in the principle of shared and differentiated responsibilities, as well as for a greater commitment by industrialized countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.

Colombia, a country rich in biodiversity, has an important role to play in efforts to address global warming. Through its family stewards of the forest programme, the Government of Colombia will soon support nearly 80,000 families that are committed to the restoration and protection of the rain forest and the eradication of illicit crops. We expect broad support for the programme from the international community.

Moreover, we are making progress in the construction of mass transport systems in nine of our cities, as well as in the production of biofuels in accordance with environmental and food security policies. We have also succeeded in increasing the number of gas-powered vehicles from 37,000 to almost 300,000.

In conclusion, allow me to reiterate our support for the Secretary-General and his decisive efforts to confront the challenges facing the United Nations. Given his dedication and commitment to the objectives of the Organization, we are fully confident in supporting him on that path and making progress towards the goals that have been set.

Mr. Salgueiro (Portugal)

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