General Assembly Session 62 meeting 56

The President

Before taking up the items on our agenda for today, I would like to inform members that consideration of agenda item 50, "The role of the United Nations in promoting a new global human order", which was scheduled for today, 26 November, has been postponed to a later date to be announced.

Also, I would like to inform members that the reports of the First Committee will be considered on Wednesday afternoon, 5 December.

The President

Today we will consider a subject of great importance to us all, the agenda item on the "Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly". Under this title, our efforts to impart new vigour into this great institution have been ongoing for over 16 years. We now need to ask ourselves what our ultimate objective is. How can we enhance the authority and the efficiency of the Assembly? Our leaders have called for a stronger United Nations. Could we not instead call this exercise: "The role of the General Assembly in strengthening the United Nations system"?

The 2005 World Summit Outcome Document reaffirmed our central position as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations. It also recognized our role in setting standards and codifying international law. We should strive to live up to this mandate in our everyday work. To promote more effective multilateralism, to find global solutions to global problems, it is incumbent upon all of us to bolster the authority and the international standing of this Assembly.

At the opening of the general debate, two months ago, I suggested that the General Assembly should be more of a dialogue, not a monologue; more focused on substantive results; more engaging and insightful; and exemplify this through greater cooperation and mutual respect. I would like to thank all Member States for delivering on these suggestions through your active contribution and proposals.

Member States are the driving force of our success and I encourage members to take the initiative. It is first and foremost by systematically tackling the challenges that we face together and achieving results that the General Assembly makes itself stronger, more effective and more relevant to the lives of the global public.

In this regard, I would like to thank Kyrgyzstan for bringing forward a draft resolution on social justice, which has been sponsored by over 80 Member States. Additionally, I note the cooperative way the Czech Republic and the Dominican Republic approached elections to the Security Council. I call on all Member States to continue to work together in this manner, enthusiastically and in cooperation, as we have also done on mandate review, so that we can make progress on other important issues, such as climate change, the Millennium Development Goals, and Security Council and management reform.

This means that on system-wide coherence, for example, the practical success of the pilot countries, at the country level, should sway the opinion of the Assembly in New York, rather than the other way around. To give all Member States the opportunity to demonstrate our renewed leadership on priority issues, I shall, inter alia, convene debates on counter-terrorism in December, on climate change in February 2008 and on management reform in April.

As the Charter stipulates, the relationship between the General Assembly and other principal organs must be complementary, not competitive. We must continue to develop our relationship in an open, transparent and cooperative manner to strengthen the Organization and better accomplish our common goals. In this regard, I maintain regular contact with the Secretary-General on substantive issues and supported his request to brief the Assembly on recent developments. I would like to thank the Secretary-General for his support and cooperation.

I have also met periodically with the Presidents of the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, as well as with the chairs of the Main Committees to enhance cooperation and spread best practices. Additionally, I have promoted the Assembly's interaction with civil society and the private sector and our cooperation with parliaments, particularly through the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Our outreach with these and other important constituencies, including the media, must continue to be developed. Our message must be consistent, compelling and relevant to everyday life and we must resist giving the perception of institutional introspection.

The effectiveness of the presidency, and his or her office, has an important impact on the quality and organization of the General Assembly's work. This is contingent not only on his or her political and diplomatic skills, but also on the support and cooperation of Member States and the Secretariat.

Commensurate with the role envisaged of the presidency in the Charter, the budget of the presidency, including his or her office, should be financed entirely from the regular budget, rather than from the current makeshift arrangements. In addition, and in proportion to the growing responsibilities of the presidency, the Office of the President should be appropriately staffed and properly situated within United Nations Headquarters. That would ensure that each elected President -- whether from a developed or developing country, no matter how large or small -- has an equal opportunity to deliver results. An entirely United Nations-funded budget would enhance the independence of the presidency and increase transparency and accountability to Member States.

In Assembly resolution 61/292, Member States decided:

"to establish, at its sixty-second session, an ad hoc working group on the revitalization of the General Assembly, open to all Member States, to evaluate and assess the status of implementation of relevant resolutions, to identify ways to further enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency of the Assembly, inter alia, by building on previous resolutions, and to submit a report thereon to the Assembly."

I believe that it is particularly important that the Working Group focus on ensuring that existing resolutions are fully implemented. It could also consider other practical steps to improve our working methods, such as finalizing a repository of best practices for the General Assembly and its subsidiary bodies and periodically updating the rules of procedure to include recent Assembly decisions.

The Working Group will begin to consider these and other issues shortly. Today, I am very pleased to announce that His Excellency Ambassador Towpik, Permanent Representative of Poland, and His Excellency Ambassador Loizaga, Permanent Representative of Paraguay, have agreed to act as Co-Chairs of the Working Group. I would like to ask all Member States to extend your fullest cooperation and support to the Co-Chairs and invite members to bring forward constructive proposals and practical suggestions.

Mr. Lemos Godinho (Portugal)

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The candidate countries Turkey, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the countries of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia, align themselves with this statement.

The European Union wishes to thank you, Mr. President, for convening this meeting and for providing the membership with an opportunity to look ahead to our discussion of General Assembly revitalization during the sixty-second session.

But before doing so, we would also like to express our appreciation for the efforts undertaken during the sixty-first session by the former President of the General Assembly, Her Excellency Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, aimed at revitalizing the General Assembly, and specifically the convening of thematic debates on issues of particular relevance to the membership.

We are grateful as well to the co-facilitators, Ambassador Daniele Bodini of San Marino and Ambassador Paul Badji of Senegal, for their hard work and widespread consultations, which have drawn active participation from the European Union (EU).

The EU supports efforts aimed at strengthening the General Assembly's role and authority, in line with the Charter of the United Nations, the principles and objectives outlined in the 2005 World Summit Outcome document and the measures adopted in several relevant General Assembly resolutions.

At this stage we believe that efforts at the practical level are paramount to ensure an overhaul of the General Assembly's performance.

The EU strongly believes that the General Assembly revitalizes itself, first and foremost, when it takes up issues of genuine concern to our peoples and to the international community as a whole. It is our collective duty to engage in meaningful initiatives, to live up to the expectations of our peoples and to make the work of the General Assembly ever more relevant.

Furthermore, it is the responsibility of each and every member State to apply in its daily business what has already been agreed by all and considered useful and necessary to revitalize this body. We recall that the revitalization of the General Assembly has been an ongoing process over several years and that numerous resolutions have already been adopted in the past. What was agreed at that time should be implemented, as was acknowledged by this Assembly when it adopted resolution 61/292.

Implementation will also be at the core of the proceedings of the ad hoc working group to be established at this session, as foreseen in the resolution I mentioned earlier. The mandate given to the ad hoc working group is, inter alia, "to evaluate and assess the status of implementation of relevant resolutions" (resolution 61/292, para. 2).

Not all the EU's well-known views and positions on General Assembly revitalization are fully reflected in those resolutions. On many occasions we would have liked to see the General Assembly adopt bolder and more ambitious decisions that reflected our positions better.

We believe, however, that promoting the implementation and the consolidation of existing resolutions and decisions will bring real added value and will impact significantly on the way the General Assembly, and the United Nations as a whole, conducts its work.

At the end of the current session we may well come to the conclusion that some of the shortcomings we recognize in the way that the General Assembly carries out its work and in the way that the major United Nations bodies relate to each other can be addressed by means of effective implementation of existing resolutions and decisions. To this end we look forward to the timely submission of a comprehensive report by the Secretary-General, as envisaged in paragraph 1 of resolution 61/292, so that that report can constitute a valuable basis for an informed and action-oriented discussion in the framework of the ad hoc working group.

We look forward to working with the persons you have appointed to conduct our work in the current session, under your overall leadership.

The EU undertakes to engage, in a constructive and pragmatic manner, in the proceedings of the ad hoc working group with a view to contributing to a successful outcome of our collective efforts aimed at further revitalizing the General Assembly.

Mr. Benmehidi (Algeria)

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

First of all, I would like to express NAM's appreciation for the hard work done by Ambassador Badji of Senegal and Ambassador Bodini of San Marino, the co-facilitators during the sixty-first session.

In adopting resolution 61/292 the General Assembly decided to assess during the current session the extent to which all its previous resolutions and decisions related to the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly have been implemented.

At the outset of this debate, the Non-Aligned Movement would like to recall the validity and relevance of its principles and positions regarding this matter.

The Non-Aligned Movement reiterates that the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly, which must be guided by the principles of democracy, transparency and accountability and must be achieved through consultations, is a critical component of the comprehensive reform of the United Nations. Its objectives should continue to be to strengthen the role and position of the General Assembly as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations.

The NAM also emphasizes that the improvement of the Assembly's procedural and working methods is only a first step towards more substantive improvements aimed at restoring and enhancing the role and authority of the General Assembly, including in the maintenance of international peace and security as stipulated in Articles 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 35 of the Charter.

The NAM, while expressing its readiness to continue to support all ongoing efforts to strengthen the central role and authority of the Assembly, wishes to underline that it will continue to oppose any reform proposal that seeks to contradict this objective. It will also continue to oppose any approach that seeks to or could result in undermining or minimizing the achievements of the General Assembly, diminishing its current role and functioning or raising questions about its relevance and credibility.

The Non-Aligned Movement expresses its concern that during the previous rounds of consultations, recurrent proposals were made, aimed at undermining the central role of the Assembly and its authority, including in relation to its prerogatives regarding administrative and budgetary questions. It is the hope of the NAM that any forthcoming proposals aimed at upgrading the revitalization of the work of the Assembly will be made in a spirit which excludes any such challenges.

With respect to assessing the status of implementation of all prior resolutions on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly, in particular landmark resolutions 58/126, 58/316, 59/313 and 60/286, the NAM is deeply disappointed that, at this stage of the sixty-second session, the report requested by the General Assembly in paragraph 1 of its resolution 61/292 in continuation of the reporting requirements established by resolutions 59/313 and 60/286 has not been made available to the membership, thus depriving participants in the forthcoming consultations of the necessary political guidance that was expected to emanate from the Assembly on the occasion of this debate. Nonetheless, the NAM wishes at this stage to make the following comments on a number of aspects.

The Non-Aligned Movement notes with growing concern the continuous attempts on the part of the Security Council to encroach upon other principal organs of the United Nations and their subsidiary bodies with respect to issues that clearly fall within the functions and powers of those latter structures. That was, again, the case recently when the Security Council held a thematic debate on the effects of climate change (see S/PV.5663), thus departing not only from the provisions of the Charter but also from the agreement reached among Member States to increase coordination and cooperation among the principal organs as well as complementarity in their work programmes.

The NAM underscores, once again, the need for full respect for the functions and powers of the principal organs, in particular the General Assembly, and for maintaining the balance among them in accordance with the Charter. In this respect, the NAM welcomes the proposals of the President of the General Assembly to convene a panel discussion on climate change and an informal meeting of the General Assembly on the implementation of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, and we look forward to making a substantive contribution at those events. Further, the NAM remains particularly concerned about the exercise of the Security Council setting norms and establishing definitions in areas beyond its competence.

The NAM expresses its satisfaction that the General Assembly has played a central role, both during the preparatory process of the 2005 World Summit and during the follow-up phase; this has allowed the Assembly to reassert its prerogatives. It also expresses its satisfaction at the progress made in implementing previous decisions, such as the improvement of transitional arrangements between the outgoing and incoming Presidents of the General Assembly and at the level of the bureaux of the Main Committees, the reinforcement of the Office of the President of the General Assembly and its increased media exposure, the valuable contribution made by the Main Committees in improving their methods of work, in particular by improving the interactive nature of their debates, and in many other areas.

However, NAM members remain convinced that genuine revitalization of the work of the General Assembly cannot afford to avoid addressing the main issue: the lack of implementation of all General Assembly resolutions and the underlying cause for that, namely, the lack of adequate resources made available to that end.

In this regard, the NAM is encouraged by the fact that Member States have been able to reach a common understanding on how to reinvigorate the discussion on mandates review, with a view to rationalizing the reallocation of freed resources. It is the hope of the NAM that the issue of providing adequate resources for the implementation of the decisions of the General Assembly will be addressed in a similar spirit.

Finally, the NAM looks forward to the convening of the Open-ended Working Group on the Revitalization of the General Assembly, as called for by resolution 61/292, and expresses its readiness to participate in the Group's work in order to arrive at a detailed and fair assessment of the status of implementation of all previous decisions and, if deemed necessary, to work towards the adoption of a new resolution aimed at further improvements.

Before I conclude, allow me to congratulate the Permanent Representatives of Poland and Paraguay for their appointments as co-Chairs of the Open-ended Working Group for the sixty-second session. I thank them for agreeing to assume this heavy task.

Mr. Ali (Malaysia)

My delegation is pleased to participate in this debate on agenda item 121, on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly. Malaysia wishes to associate itself with the statement just made by the representative of Algeria on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

I would like to recall paragraph 30 of the Millennium Declaration, whereby our heads of State or Government resolved to restore the central position of the General Assembly as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations, and to enable it to play that role effectively. That call was reaffirmed by our heads of State or Government during the 2005 World Summit, where they reaffirmed the central position of the General Assembly as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations, as well as the role of the Assembly in the process of standard-setting and the codification of international law. They also called for strengthening the relationship between the General Assembly and the other principal organs to ensure better coordination on topical issues that require coordinated action by the United Nations, in accordance with their respective mandates.

We have been discussing the issue of the revitalization of the General Assembly since 1991, and we have made some progress over the years. It is important that this process continue as it is part of the ongoing process of United Nations reform. As the General Assembly is the most representative organ of the United Nations, we must dedicate ourselves to finding consensus on measures to revitalize the Assembly so that it can fulfil its mandate in accordance with the Charter. We must build upon the work done at previous sessions; the key to success is the implementation of their resolutions. We look to your leadership in this process, Mr. President.

In this regard, we share the sentiments of the Non-Aligned Movement about the absence of the status report that has been requested since the fifty-ninth session on the implementation of all resolutions regarding the revitalization of the General Assembly. This call was most recently reiterated in resolution 61/292. The status report would be an important input for our discussions, as it would allow us to take stock of what has been implemented and how to move forward. In the absence of such a report, we will be unable to take effective steps and measures to revitalize the General Assembly. We call for the timely issuance of the status report to enable Member States to study it and prepare for the Ad Hoc Working Group that has just been established.

We would also like to hear from you, Mr. President, concerning your proposals on the work plan for the Ad Hoc Working Group. It is important that the discussions on this item, like those on other agenda items, be held in an open, transparent and inclusive manner.

Any reform process should lead to the strengthening of the central role of the General Assembly, as well as restoring and enhancing its role, including in the maintenance of international peace and security, as provided for in the Charter. That entails strengthening its relationship and coordination with other organs. That has been adequately addressed in previous resolutions, which have stressed the need to fully respect and maintain the balance among the principal organs of the United Nations within their respective purviews and mandates under the Charter.

Efforts to enable the General Assembly to perform its functions as set out in the Charter must not be limited to procedural measures pertaining to its working methods. Improving the Assembly's procedures and working methods is only a step towards further substantive improvements in and revitalization of the Assembly, as stipulated in resolution 55/285.

If the General Assembly is to maintain its central position as the chief deliberative and representative organ of the United Nations, it must be cognizant of the current developments and take steps to address them. We welcome the initiative to have thematic debates, panel discussions and high-level segments with a view to producing concrete, practical and action-oriented results. We welcome the identification of the themes for the present session. In that regard, Mr. President, we are pleased that you organized the high-level event on climate change in September and have identified the continued consideration of the agenda item on climate change as a matter of priority for the General Assembly.

In conclusion, I wish to reiterate that my delegation will work constructively with you, Mr. President, in launching the process of consultations among Member States in the Ad Hoc Working Group concerning the status report on the implementation of General Assembly resolutions.

Mr. Mansour (Tunisia)

At the outset, on behalf of my delegation, I wish to congratulate you, Mr. President, on the manner in which you are conducting this debate, which is particularly important to Member States. I also wish to congratulate the representatives of Senegal and San Marino on their considerable efforts during the sixty-first session as facilitators on the issue of the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly.

My delegation associates itself with the statement made by the representative of Algeria on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement concerning the agenda item before the Assembly today. We wish to make the following additional comments.

With regard to strengthening the role and the authority of the General Assembly, this year, once again, we continue to debate the issue of the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly. Again, we must emphasize that this is a rather sensitive process that should be pursued with resolve, seriousness and commitment by all Member States. It was in that spirit that our heads of State or Government reaffirmed, at the September 2005 World Summit, the Assembly's central role as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations.

My delegation believes that strengthening the role and the authority of the General Assembly involves, inter alia, including in its agenda obvious issues that are of particular importance, both to the Organization and to the international community at large. It also involves holding major thematic debates so that Member States can come to agreement on major substantive and timely issues. In that context, we welcome the quality of the thematic debates held at the previous session -- a practice that, we are convinced, will continue under your presidency, Sir.

Furthermore, we believe that strengthening the role and the authority of the General Assembly also requires that we recognize its role regarding the maintenance of international peace and security. Indeed, while it is generally acknowledged that Article 24 of the Charter entrusts the Security Council with primary responsibility in this area, that responsibility is not exclusive. The General Assembly should thus give greater consideration to issues of international peace and security, in accordance with the relevant articles of the Charter and the historic resolution 377 (V), "Uniting for Peace".

The issue of the relationship between the General Assembly and other principal organs of the United Nations should be the object of in-depth consideration. Such consideration should be carried out in plenary meetings and within the framework of an approach based on cooperation, maintaining balance and respect for the Charter roles of each organ.

In that spirit, while we appreciate the cooperation between the presidency of the Economic and Social Council and that of the General Assembly, we believe that greater coordination between the two organs would be useful, particularly in the choice of thematic debate subjects -- a choice that must respect the old and new mandates recognized for the Economic and Social Council.

The issue of the reports that the Security Council must submit to the General Assembly under the relevant Charter articles continues to be a focus of our attention. Indeed, despite repeated appeals by Member States, the Council continues to present annual reports of a factual nature. The Council should also be able to present to the Assembly analytical reports, including on specialized subjects.

On another note, I wish to revisit the issue of the implementation of General Assembly resolutions. It must be noted that respect on the part of all Member States for the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly would greatly contribute to the strengthening of the Assembly's authority. My delegation supports the various ideas put forward in that regard, aimed at identifying the factors that are hindering the implementation of resolutions.

Our second subject concerns improving the working methods of the General Assembly. We are pleased that a number of measures related to improving the Assembly's working methods have been implemented -- particularly the Main Committees' use in recent years of interactive debates, round tables and question-and-answer sessions. Those practices have made it possible to enrich the deliberations and the decision-making process of the Main Committees. However, these efforts still fall short of Member States' expectations.

Likewise, my delegation recognizes the merits of the recommendations made by the Secretary-General in his report on revitalization of the General Assembly issued in October 2006 (A/61/483), calling on Member States to draft more concise, targeted and concrete resolutions and decisions and to limit the length of statements in the General Assembly and the Main Committees. However, we believe that that in no way affects the sovereign rights of Member States with regard to taking the floor and submitting draft resolutions.

At another level, we believe that several of the measures proposed during debates on improving the General Assembly's working methods -- measures on which no decision has yet been made -- should be reconsidered. That applies to, inter alia, the proposal aimed at organizing the work of the Assembly's Main Committees in two substantive periods per session and harmonizing the Committees' best practices, which, it should be recalled, differ from Committee to Committee.

My third category of comments concerns the General Assembly's role in selecting the Secretary-General. The issue of selecting the Secretary-General has been debated over the past two years in the Open-ended Working Group, but no concrete measures have been decided upon. We continue to believe that, together, we should consider how Article 97 of the Charter should be interpreted in terms of greater involvement by Member States, through the General Assembly, in selecting the Secretary-General. Preferably, that should be done before the next election in that regard.

Finally, I wish to express my delegation's support for the mandate adopted by the General Assembly in August to establish, at the sixty-second session, an ad hoc working group on the revitalization of the General Assembly to

"evaluate and assess the status of implementation of relevant resolutions, to identify ways to further enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency of the Assembly, ... and to submit a report thereon to the Assembly." (resolution 61/292, para. 2)

Mr. President, my delegation is very pleased with the establishment of the Working Group that you have just announced, and we congratulate the Co-Chairs, the Ambassadors of Poland and Paraguay, pledging to them the full support of the Tunisian delegation.

We hope that, in the context of this Working Group, the Member States will look into ideas and innovations that could return the General Assembly to its central place in the United Nations system. It is time to commit to this path seriously and with determination.