Statement by Irfan Soomro, Third Secretary Pakistan Permanent Mission to the United Nations in the informal meeting of the Ad hoc Working Group on Revitalization of the General Assembly; Implementation of the GA Resolution and GA Agenda (3 June 2009)

Co-Chairs,

Thank you for convening the informal consultations. I would like to extend my delegations’ appreciation to both, Ambassador Fernanda Espinosa and Ambassador Wetland, for their great personal interest and determination in carrying the process forward. We assure you of our full cooperation and support.

  1. Pakistan has consistently held that issue of Revitalization of the General Assembly is a political not procedural issue. Assembly must be enabled, not disabled, from considering the priority issues and serve the primary locus of the discussions and actions of the General Assembly. And all the Member States should commit themselves to observe and implement the Assembly’s resolutions.
  1. Revitalization of the General Assembly’s authority and role can happen only if Member States agree to allow it plays this role, and to make a real difference, a renewed political commitment across the board is essential to implement General Assembly’s resolutions on a non-selective and non-discriminatory basis.
  2. It is not surprising that General Assembly’s agenda is long and often over-loaded. Each of the UN member States has a sovereign and democratic right to bring before this Assembly its difficulties and despair, its ideas and initiatives. Consideration of these issues by the General Assembly is an expression of solidarity which binds together the international community.
  3. Our Agenda would be shorter, if the problems and issues brought before the Assembly could be speedily resolved. They cannot because, often, they are complex and intractable. They cannot, because, more often, action is not taken to implement the Assembly’s decisions – for political financial or practical reasons. The concerned Member State has no choice but to keep reminding the world of the existence of these issues.

Co-Chairs,

  1. The proposals for reforms of the General Assembly should not run counter to the principles of democracy and sovereign equality. Such as the proposals for creating more restricted bodies – an executive committee, steering committee, or other select or privileged groups within the General Assembly, ostensibly to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. Such bodies like Security Council may be able to adopt decisions more quickly and perhaps more clearly; but these will lack universality and legitimacy, they will deprive the majority of a voice on the most important issues, they will increase inequality within the UN, they will transform the Assembly into a rubber-stamp.
  2. This is not to say that procedural improvements should not be made in the General Assembly. In our debates over the past few years, a number of useful suggestions have been advanced which merit positive consideration.
  3. Firstly, rationalization of the Assembly’s agenda is a desirable objective. Similar items can be amalgamated. Related items can be grouped. Some items – which are no longer of interest to any Member State can be eliminated. Several items presently taken up by plenary could be assigned to a Main Committee. At the same time, the agenda must remain open to the insertion of new issues which may arise. However, it must be borne in mind that rationalization of the Agenda is essentially a political exercise. Discussions will have to be held in consultations with states interested in the concerned items and any criteria utilized to guide these decisions will have to equitably apply to all. Rationalization of General Assembly’s Agenda; time management and length of resolutions can help save money and time but it is not the only means to revitalization of the General Assembly. The revitalization of the Assembly is about manifestation of political will by Member States to enable Assembly to discharge its role as envisaged in the United Nations Charter.
  4. Secondly, Assembly can do much more to improve the content of the resolutions. We should attempt to restrict to the shorter resolutions perhaps limited to three or four operative paragraphs at least for items which have been previously considered by the Assembly or on which there are substantive recommendations from other bodies or organizations, which need not be repeated, but either endorsed, amended or commented upon. When the reports from the Secretariat offer recommendations, these could be subsequently endorsed or amended in a short resolution. New issues or proposals may have to be addressed more substantively. It could also be a requirement for resolutions on “old” references to be submitted and circulated a few days before consideration of the item, so that discussion could be focused on it, rather than a repetition of general problems. On “new” issues, debates may be necessary before the drafting of the decisions.
  5. Thirdly, the Main Committees of the Assembly have developed their own entrenched cultures. There is a need to harmonize their work. As a general rule, general debates could be restricted in the Committees; and discussions focused on specific resolutions or proposals. There is also a need to introduce uniformity in the decision making process in various Committees. Some of them e.g. Second and Sixth or Fifth Committees work on the basis of consensus. The First Committee resorts to the voting as necessary; the Third Committee more often than not. A uniform process should be evolved for intensive consultations to build consensus, with the option of voting where consensus becomes impossible to achieve.
  6. Fourth, the timings of the Committee meetings require fresh thinking concerning simultaneous meetings of the plenary and six Main Committees is beyond the capacity of most of the smaller delegations. It also stretches the conference services. In this regard, the management of the Plenary and the Main Committees entrusted to the President of the General Assembly and to enable them to discharge this responsibility it would be essential to strengthen the President’s Executive Office.

    Co-Chairs,

  7. Apart from the political will, the decisions of the Member States cannot be realized without adequate resources. It is ironic that while military budgets are rising, parsimony is practiced only when it comes to financing the operations and actions of the United Nations. The political and moral justification for constraining the United Nations to virtual zero growth must be questioned – by the Member States and by all those, including civil societies, which are committed to the ideal of multilateral but democratic management of international relations. The commitment of UN Reform must be a political commitment by all States to fund its approved activities.

    Co-Chairs,

  8. We look forward to a substantive and constructive debate on this important item, which has far reaching implications for the future of our Organization. We assure you of our full cooperation and support in evolving positive and generally acceptable decisions to strengthen the United Nations and Revitalize the General Assembly.

I thank you.