Report of the Secretary General on the Work of the Organization

Statement by Ambassador Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, on Agenda Item 102: “Report of the Secretary General on the Work of the Organization” on Monday, 2nd October 2006 at GA Plenary

Madam President,

The Pakistan delegation expresses its appreciation to the Secretary-General on the presentation of his annual report on the Work of the Organization. We note the changed format of the Report, covering the four main areas of the 2005 Summit Declaration. In this process, however, the in-depth review of some of the important political issues with which the UN is involved, such as the Middle East conflict and Palestine and South Asian relations and Kashmir, have not been adequately covered. In future, it would be advisable for the report to be assembled into the 12 thematic clusters of UN General Assembly’s Agenda.

Madam President,

  1. The United Nations is an indispensable instrument for the promotion of humanity’s shared goals. The present and emerging challenges of the 21st Century can only be overcome through multilateral cooperation. If the UN did not exist we would need to create it.
  2. It has been aptly and repeatedly stated that the United Nations must adapt and be equipped to address these new challenges and circumstances of our times. The reform initiatives of the Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the 2005 Summit decisions, and the implementation process pursued this year, were all guided by this preoccupation. The creation of the Peace Building Commission, the Human Rights Council, the Emergency Response Fund are cause for modest satisfaction. Of course, there are several areas where implementation of the Summit’s decisions remain outstanding, including the revitalization of the General Assembly and ECOSOC and the comprehensive reform of the Security Council.

Madam President,

  1. The reform exercise has been plagued not only by the multiple objectives that are sought to be simultaneously promoted, but also by the absence of agreement on the strategic objectives of these reforms. During its 60-year history, the UN has passed from the bipolar structures of the Cold War, through a period of unipolarity. It is now at the prelude to a multipolar world. We have entered an era of globalization and interdependence; but also of huge asymmetries in power, wealth and knowledge. And, despite the 2005 Summit, we – the United Nations – have yet to establish a new paradigm under which world affairs and global challenges will be managed.
  2. Our deliberations in these halls confront conflicting pulls and pressures. They have been marked by sharp suspicions between the North and the South. Some would wish our Organization to mirror the unequal asymmetries of the “real” world. Others, the more numerous developing States, wish to utilize the United Nations as the principal instrument to change and democratize the unequal realities of our globalized yet divided world. Some wish to utilize the UN as an instrument for collective enforcement of “good behaviour”; others, the more numerous, wish to use it to promote collective and cooperative solutions to political, economic, social and environmental problems. In our view, the strategic objectives, political parameters and modus operandi of the United Nations must be consistent with the principles and purposes enshrined in the UN Charter – principles and purposes whose lofty vision is as relevant today as it was sixty years ago.
  3. One important manifestation of this tension between equity and the status quo is the breakdown of the consensus on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. The 2005 Summit was unable to agree on any provisions on disarmament and non-proliferation. The Conference on Disarmament remains paralyzed. Major powers have resiled from the commitment to nuclear disarmament. An arms race may be soon underway in Outer Space. The NPT regime is riven by doubts and double standards including on the rights, obligations and scope of peaceful nuclear cooperation. A la carte solutions to proliferation problems are sought be prescribed in restrictive regimes or through the Security Council. The 3 non-NPT nuclear weapon States and the NPT remain outside international non-proliferation arrangements. Instead of evolving agreed arrangements to integrate them as partners in the non-proliferation regime, discrimination is now being introduced among the three as well, with possibly negative effects for non-proliferation and international society.
  4. Pakistan believes it is time to re-build the international consensus on both disarmament and non-proliferation and agree on effective and non-discriminatory processes to promote both. A Special Conference should be convened, under the aegis of the UN, to promote such a new international consensus.

Madam President,

  1. A few weeks ago, the General Assembly adopted a UN Strategy against Terrorism. We hope this will enhance international cooperation. Yet, the strategy will remain incomplete and, finally, infructuous, so long as it does not fully and frontally address the root causes of terrorism, State terrorism, and the misuse of terrorism to justify foreign occupation and suppression of the right of peoples to self-determination. In the process of its prescribed periodic review, the strategy should be revised to address these issues. And, the General Assembly should create the intergovernmental mechanism to assume principal responsibility for overseeing the UN’s activities relating to terrorism.

Madam President,

  1. Under the rubric of peace and security, the Secretary-General’s Report outlines the UN’s myriad actions to manage conflicts and their consequences. These are the invaluable intercessions of this Organization in the service of peace. Yet, some observations are essential.
  2. The United Nations, including the Security Council, are preoccupied today mostly with intra-state, or internal conflicts, rather than with the existentional threats posed by inter-State disputes. Conflicts – such as in the Middle East in South Asia, on the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere – are being managed largely in other formats and forums rather than the United Nations which should be actively involved to promote equitable solutions to such conflicts and disputes, in accordance with the resolutions of the UN. It possesses the mechanisms and authority under Chapters VI and VII, as well as through the ICJ, to do so.
  3. Secondly, even in case of internal conflicts, the attention of the international community is mostly aroused only after the breakdown of peace. No doubt, the UN’s intercessions – especially its Peacekeeping Operations – have proved indispensable in restoring peace. Pakistan hosts the oldest UN peacekeeping mission – the UNMOGIP – which is deployed on the Line of Control in disputed Jammu and Kashmir. Peacekeeping missions are now much more numerous and more complex and more dangerous. But, the world community’s combined forces are now perhaps reaching the limits of their capacity for collective intervention. The most recent Mission, for Lebanon, is proving difficult to organize. Another on the anvil, for Darfur, raises serious questions about the advisability and possible consequences of a UN autorized intervention against the wishes of the country’s government.
  4. The fundamental question is: why is the UN not more actively engaged in the prevention of these internal problems before they turn into full-fledged civil wars, requiring expensive and difficult peacekeeping operations? Any analysis of these conflicts would reveal that, at their root, they are the result of what I call the “politics of scarcity”. The secret to their prevention is rapid economic and social development and, in Africa’s case at least, an end to the illegal exploitation of the vast national resources of these developing countries.

Madam President,

  1. The review of the Organization’s development activities, especially follow-up to 2005 Summit, reflects a fair review of the ongoing activities. However, the report fails to offer a full analysis of the development picture and the enormous challenges confronting the developing countries. Globalization has enabled several developing countries to breakthrough the barrier of poverty, mostly as a result of their own endeavours; but it has further marginalized the most vulnerable States and communities. The promises of higher ODA and debt cancellation made at the 2005 Summit have not yet materialized. The promise of the so-called Doha Development Agenda is on life support, if not already deceased.
  2. If the promise of a North-South ‘partnership for development’ is to become reality, it is essential to ensure the full and timely implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (IADGs). Developing countries, which so request, should be assisted to formulate their national development strategies. The development ‘partners’ – the industrialized and richer nations and international institutions – must fulfill their commitments to support the success of these strategies, including through ODA, debt relief, trade and investment. To this end, a politically and technically empowered monitoring mechanism should be established, under the ECOSOC, and specific indicators developed to enable an objective monitoring of the implementation of the MDGs and IADGs by all concerned. The resolution adopted on the Follow-up to the development provisions of the 2005 Summit outlines the steps that should be taken for this purpose.
  3. While development was proclaimed to be the first priority of the 2005 Summit, it is telling and sad that of all institutional reform decisions, the one relating to the empowerment and revival of ECOSOC is the one which could not be adopted prior to the conclusion of the 60th UNGA session despite the broad agreement at the 2005 Summit. This resolution must be approved without further delay.
  4. It is also evident that the entire UN development cooperation system needs to be strengthened and streamlined, both at the country and intergovernmental level; both in the policy and operational areas. In this context, the recommendations of the High-Level Panel on System-Wide Coherence will require close and urgent attention by the General Assembly.

Madam President,

  1. As in peacekeeping, the UN’s role in coordinating the response to humanitarian emergencies has been indispensable and outstanding. This was witnessed both in the response to the Tsunami and the massive earthquake which devastated the northern regions of Pakistan and Jammu & Kashmir a year ago. We welcome the establishment of the $500 million Emergency Response Fund. We believe that the UN’s humanitarian activities would benefit from closer intergovernmental engagement and oversight under the ECOSOC.

Madam President,

  1. The first meetings of the Human Rights Council, while constructively directed, have confirmed the different dispositions of various countries and groups regarding its agenda, structures and working methods. In our view, the main issues are: the promotion of a cooperative, rather than coercive approach; the need for full integration of the right to development into the framework of the human rights matrix; the avoidance of double standards and political targeting of developing and especially Muslim countries; the composition and role of the OHCHR; the rationalization of Special Mechanism and Procedures; streamlining the role of civil society in the HRC and related forums.

Madam President,

  1. Another important outstanding issue is the reform of the Security Council. This is of vital interest to every Member State. A solution to Security Council reform would need to accommodate the interest of all, and will have to be resolved by consensus or the widest possible agreement. While Security Council reform has been discussed and debated for a decade, compromise has not been explored through negotiations. A negotiating process, pursued with political flexibility and diplomatic creativity, could evolve an agreement that accommodates the interests of all Member States and regions. This general desire for a negotiated and agreed solution was visible at the dinner-meeting on 20 September hosted by the President of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of Italy. We trust, Madam President, that you will lead this effort to open negotiations to evolve an agreed solution for the comprehensive reform of the Security Council.

Madam President,

  1. The endeavour to introduce reforms in the UN’s Management and Secretariat and to review old mandates has proved to be an extensive exercise. I was honoured to Co-Chair this enterprise, first with my former Canadian colleague and now with Ambassador David Cooney of Ireland.
  2. The mandate review exercise has produced extensive information on the almost 10,000 5-year old mandates approved by the principal UN organs. However, we have not been able in the Assembly to proceed beyond the consideration of 400 five years old non-renewed mandates. The Co-Chairs had conveyed to your predecessor that the guidelines they had circulated offered the best possibility to continue this exercise, which will be laborious and time-consuming. We shall need to decide by year-end whether and how the mandate review should be conducted.
  3. Similarly, the Secretariat and Management Reforms will need to be pursued objectively and carefully, bearing in mind the interests of all Member States. Efficiency and effectiveness are desirable and endorsed by all. But, any effort to further erode the financial and budgetary authority of the General Assembly will be resisted by the majority of States.
  4. The performance and effectiveness of the United Nations depends on the following crucial factors: (i) the quality of its human resources; (ii) the financial resources provided to support its activities; (iii) the authority vested in the Organization by the Member States; (iv) the political will to support the mandate programme and activities. All efforts for UN Reform must ensure that these pre-requisites are available to our Organization and our new Secretary-General.

Madam President,

  1. Those of us who have endeavoured to carve a central role for the United Nations in world affairs have often been obliged to temper our idealism in the face of power realities. However, this should not shake our belief that sustainable peace and universal prosperity can be secured once principles have primacy over power. The world needs a United Nations which does not always mirror the harsh and unequal power realities. The world needs a United Nations which acts with moral authority and credibility. The world needs a United Nations which can stand up for the weak and the powerless; which is a force for objectivity, fairness, equality and justice in the management of international relations.

I thank you.

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