WOMEN FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 'VIRTUALLY ABSENT' AT SECRETARIAT'S TOP LEVELS, BURKINA FASO TELLS FIFTH COMMITTEE

24 October 1996

Press Release
GA/AB/3099

WOMEN FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 'VIRTUALLY ABSENT' AT SECRETARIAT'S TOP LEVELS, BURKINA FASO TELLS FIFTH COMMITTEE

19961024 Committee Also Discusses Budget Reduction, Pattern of Conferences; Speakers Say Zeal for Reform Should Not Keep UN from Priority Objectives

Addressing the status of women in the staff of the United Nations Secretariat, the representative of Burkina Faso reminded the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning that women from developing countries were virtually absent at the levels of Under-Secretary-General, Assistant Secretary-General and Director, and said the situation of women at those levels should be adjusted.

Speaking as the Committee continued its discussion of human resources management, the pattern of conferences and the 1996-1997 programme budget, the representative said the Secretariat must avoid marginalizing women from underrepresented States and stressed the need to increase the number of women in posts subject to equitable geographical representation. However, he added, the goals of gender parity by the year 2000 should be pursued within the framework of the Charter and by recruiting qualified candidates.

"The zeal for reform or cost reductions should not in any way be an excuse for eroding the role of the General Assembly", said Kenya's representative, speaking on the proposed reductions from the regular budget. "Budget reductions must never prevent the Organization from achieving its priority objectives." The budget process must accord priority to the United Nations crucial role in coordinating development. Also, the medium-term plan should address the allocation of funds to the United Nations Centre in Nairobi and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Nicaragua's representative expressed concern that the vacancy rate of 11.8 per cent proposed by the Secretary-General would hamper the full implementation of mandated programmes. The Secretariat should be reminded that it should follow established priorities and that the elimination of posts required specific decisions by the Assembly.

Fifth Committee - 1a - GA/AB/3099 13th Meeting (AM) 24 October 1996

On the pattern of conferences, the representative of Costa Rica, speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, 111stressed that priority should be given to providing interpretation services for Member States' meetings. The use of conference rooms by Member States should continue to have precedence over the Secretariat's needs. She called on editors of verbatim and summary records and press releases to ensure that the records and press releases fully and accurately reflected the positions of Member States. She also called on the Secretariat to continue improving the quality of translation services in all six official languages.

The limitation of documentation and efforts to improve conference servicing should not undermine the principle of the equality of the United Nations languages, the representative of the Russian Federation said. The Secretariat should prevent cases of discrimination against the Russian language from recurring.

The Committee is scheduled to meet again at 3 p.m. Friday, 25 October, to take up the financing of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNPROFOR), the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP), the United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia (UNCRO), and the United Nations Peace Forces (UNPF). It is also expected to continue discussing savings in the regular budget, human resources management, pattern of conferences and programme planning.

Committee Work Programme

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met this morning to continue its consideration of the Secretary-General's proposals for savings in the 1996-1997 programme budget. It will also continue discussing the pattern of conferences. (For background on the relevant reports on the programme budget and on pattern of conferences see Press Release GA/AB/3093 of 15 October.)

Statements on Pattern of Conferences

NARAZETH A. INCERA (Costa Rica), speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said she appreciated the commendable efforts of all staff members in providing intergovernmental bodies with services, despite the ever decreasing resources made available to them. The efficient and timely delivery of conference services was important to the work of delegations and to improving the Organization's performance, especially as it faced a growing demand for services in the midst of budgetary restrictions.

However, she was concerned about the quality of services in all six official languages in an international organization where multilingualism was a key feature of its functioning. She was also concerned about the repercussions of decreased meeting services in an organization whose aim was to harmonize divergent positions. She was further concerned by the denial of 35 per cent of the requests made by regional and major groups for interpretation services. Priority should be given to the provision of those services for Member States' meetings, and the use of conference rooms by Member States should continue to have precedence over the Secretariat's needs. The Secretariat should ensure the provision of conference services to the regional and other major State groups without detriment to the services provided to the entire Organization in the revised 1997 calendar of conferences and meetings.

She requested information on the cost involved in providing conference and documentation services to the Assembly's five working groups, as well as information on the impact that delaying the introduction of technological innovations would have on envisaged productivity gains. Noting that the overall and average utilization factors of meeting services were below 80 per cent, she said statistics should be used with caution, since they might not necessarily reflect all the factors that contributed to underutilization of services. Consultations should continue with the chairmen of the bodies that had underutilized their allocated resources for the past three years.

Regarding the experiment with the use of unedited verbatim transcripts by one committee, she said such experiments did not constitute a substitution for the records entitled to each body. Furthermore, access to the optical

Fifth Committee - 3 - Press Release GA/AB/3099 13th Meeting (AM) 24 October 1996

disk system (ODS) or to the Internet did not constitute an alternative to the use of traditional documents. The provision of hard copies to Member States should continue until all 185 Member States had access to the Internet.

She called on the Secretariat to spare no effort in improving the quality of translation services in all six official languages. Verbatim and summary editors should be reminded of the necessity of referring to the original text in the language in which the statements were made in order to reflect Member States' positions in both summary and verbatim records. The editors of press releases should also be encouraged to make every effort to reflect as much as possible the statements delivered by Member States. She recalled that the Assembly had not yet approved the Secretary-General's proposals on savings in the 1996-1997 budget. Therefore, any measures with regard to conference services and its ability to meet mandated requirements should not be applied until the Assembly took a final decision on the matter.

Turning to the issue of the recording of certain informal consultations, she requested information on the meetings that were recorded, who requested the recordings and the mandate for such action. She also wanted to know the fate of those recordings and whether they were transcribed or delivered to a Secretariat department or to a Member State. She reserved the right to take further action on the matter after receiving the information requested.

YEVGENY N. DEINEKO (Russian Federation) said that the Secretariat and Member States should make mutual efforts to improve the use of conference servicing resources in an agreed and balanced manner. The coordination of the conference servicing activities between the Organization's various units, on the one hand, as well as between the Secretariat and Member States, on the other, should be developed. He welcomed the positive coordination role of the Committee on Conferences. Noting the contents of paragraph 49 of the Committee's report concerning coordination, he said that the conclusions of that Committee should be implemented quickly. Japan' proposal on the establishment of a conference servicing coordination mechanism in Vienna should be studied closely and was an idea that should be supported. Member States should show reasonable restraint in exercising the right to hold the meetings of various bodies.

He said that the Secretariat and Member States were making constant efforts to increase the cost-efficiency of conference servicing resources. Those efforts were, however, sporadic, while the comprehensive and accurate cost accounting system for conference servicing requested by the Assembly had not been developed. He expressed hope that the system would be completed in the near future, and he called for continuing assessments on the usefulness of investments in the new conference servicing technologies. He recalled that his delegation had last year asked for a substantive analysis of the effectiveness of financial investments in technical innovations in translation

Fifth Committee - 4 - Press Release GA/AB/3099 13th Meeting (AM) 24 October 1996

services, referring to translation services proper and not to text processing and publishing units. He supported the conclusions of the Committee on Conferences on the control and limitation of documentation, as contained in paragraphs 85 to 96 of its report on the issue. He highlighted, for instance, the need to help developing countries have access to the ODS.

He recalled that his delegation had co-sponsored General Assembly resolution 50/11 on multilingualism in the United Nations. He had always insisted that any steps taken to limit documentation and improve conference servicing must not undermine the principle of the equality of the United Nations languages. However, some cases of discrimination against certain languages, namely Russian, had taken place this year. Those cases had nothing to do with the Office for Conference and Support Services. Eventually, the management of the respective unit of the Secretariat, assisted by that Office, had done their best to quickly resolve the problems that had arisen. Nevertheless, such cases had taken place, and he called on the Secretariat to prevent similar occurrences in the future. In addition, tape recordings of the informal consultations of intergovernmental bodies should be stopped, unless the body concerned decided otherwise.

Statements on Proposed Savings from Regular Budget

PHILIP OWADE (Kenya) associated his delegation with the statement made by the representative of Costa Rica on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. Assembly resolution 41/213 remained the basic framework for approving the United Nations regular budget, he said. The resolution, repeatedly reaffirmed by subsequent resolutions, had underscored the role of the Assembly and established the procedures for approving the budget. While the Assembly's resolution 50/214, on the 1996-1997 regular budget, had approved provisional total expenditures of $2.71 billion, it had also decided that $104 million would be saved, without affecting the full implementation of mandated programmes. To ensure that, the Assembly had also decided that it would have approve any savings proposed.

He said the Secretariat should remain faithful to the Charter's Article 100 -- which, among other things, bars staff members from receiving instructions from any government or authority outside the Organization -- and to be sensitive to Member States' collective will. "The zeal for reform or cost reductions should not in any way be an excuse for eroding the role of the General Assembly", he said. "Budget reductions must never prevent the Organization from achieving its priority objectives."

He said that the Secretary-General should justify the savings he was proposing and provide clear indications of their impact on programmes. His proposals must also be made in the light of the priorities identified by Member States. The role of the intergovernmental process could not be reduced

Fifth Committee - 5 - Press Release GA/AB/3099 13th Meeting (AM) 24 October 1996

to a mere formality. "Member States must not be presented with a fait accompli", he said.

Having studied the budget allocation for the United Nations Centre in Nairobi, he said it showed a cut of $823,800 for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He was also concerned that programmes funded voluntarily continued suffering from lack of funds. That situation must not be allowed to continue. He nursed the hope that the medium-term plan would address such issues comprehensively. Member States must not only be clear on the Organization's priorities, but must put them into effect. The budget process must also accord priority to programmes on the crucial role of the United Nations in coordinating development, a fact emphasized at recent international conferences.

DANILO ROSALES (Nicaragua) said she was concerned that despite the resolutions of the Assembly repeating its exclusive competence to prepare or change the programmes of the United Nations, there was a growing tendency in the Secretariat to carry on with some changes. The Assembly had decided that the savings from the budget should not affect the full implementation of mandated programmes. As the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) had stated, the Secretary-General's report lacked information adequate enough to guide Member States' deliberations on the budget cuts proposed. The report had not clearly described how the cuts would affect the full implementation of mandates. Such a paucity of information would not facilitate a full intergovernmental analysis of the decisions being proposed by the Secretariat, sometimes in violation of some rule governing the operation of the United Nations.

She expressed concern that the proposed vacancy rate of 11.8 per cent was much greater than what had been established in one of the Assembly's resolutions on the budget. That would negatively affect the full implementation of programmes mandated by the Assembly. The Secretariat had been reminded that it should follow established priorities and that the elimination of posts required the specific decision of the Assembly, but some actions had been taken to reduce staff to the detriment of the principle of equitable geographical representation in the Organization. The maintenance of high vacancy rates in, for instance, the regional commissions and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) would affect the implementation of programmes. Replacing permanent staff with short-term personnel would lead to disadvantages for the Organization. The Member States should forestall the imposition of a fait accompli, she said.

Statement on Human Resources

MAMADOU SERME (Burkino Faso) said the Secretary-General's report on the improvement of the status of women showed an imbalance between men and women

Fifth Committee - 6 - Press Release GA/AB/3099 13th Meeting (AM) 24 October 1996

in the composition of the Secretariat's staff. His country had encouraged the active participation of women in all aspects of life in the country. He, therefore, supported the Secretary-General's efforts in that regard in the Secretariat. However, the goals for parity by the year 2000 should be pursued within the framework of the Charter and through the recruitment of qualified candidates. The goals should not seek to achieve balance for the sake of balance. Even the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women had denounced such action in attempts to achieve gender balance.

Referring to the need to increase the number of women in posts subject to the principle of equitable geographical representation, he said it was important to understand the sociological reasons behind the statistics. Women's placement in posts at the higher levels -- D-2 and above -- still needed to be adjusted. Women from developing countries were virtually absent at those levels. He also noted the non-inclusion of special language posts in calculating parity.

Stating that he was pleased with the measures taken to achieve gender equality, he said posts that were advertised internally in the Secretariat should be advertised in the same way at Headquarters and in the field. The Secretariat must avoid marginalizing women from underrepresented States. The use of traditional postings of vacancies must be retained, alongside the use of the Internet. Regarding the safety of United Nations personnel, he said he was aware of the difficult conditions under which some staff worked. He appealed to Member States and staff to respect Article 100 of the Charter -- which calls on staff not to receive instructions from any government or authority outside the United Nations.

* *** *

Fifth Committee - 7 - Press Release GA/AB/3099 13th Meeting (AM) 24 October 1996