GENERAL ASSEMBLY BEGINS FIFTY-SECOND SESSION

The fifty-second General Assembly could be "a watershed session" in which Member States would have the chance to revitalize the United Nations and enable it to address the mounting challenges it faced, its newly-elected President, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said at the opening meeting this afternoon.

Mr. Udovenko said the Secretary-General's programme for reform would be at the centre of the session. It was a sound basis for further deliberations by the Assembly. As President, he would encourage action-oriented discussion on the measures and proposals for United Nations reform. Calling on all Member States to facilitate the reform process and to building a broad consensus, he said the success of reform depended on their political wisdom and their will to act promptly, constructively and decisively.

Noting that, recently, the Organization had come under heavy criticism, he said not all of it was unjustified. Despite all its shortcomings, the United Nations remained a unique and indispensable mechanism for addressing new challenges, including those related to international peace and security and to promoting sustained economic growth and sustainable development.

In addition to electing its a new President, the Assembly elected its 21 Vice-Presidents and appointed nine members of the Credentials Committee. The Assembly's six Main Committees held brief consecutive meetings to elect their Chairmen.

The 21 Vice-Presidents of the Assembly are China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guinea, Ireland, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Panama, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Togo, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe.

The nine Members appointed to the Credentials Committee were Argentina, Barbados, Bhutan, China, Cote d'Ivoire, Norway, Russian Federation, United States and Zambia.

Also this afternoon, the Assembly's Main Committees held meetings to elect their Chairmen. The following were elected by acclamation: Mothusi D.C. Nkgowe (Botswana), First Committee (Disarmament and International Security); Oscar R. de Rojas (Venezuela), Second Committee (Economic and Financial); Machivenyika Tobias Mapuranga (Zimbabwe), Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization); Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh), Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary); and Peter Tomka (Slovakia), Sixth Committee (Legal). The Chairman of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), Alessandro Busacca (Italy) was elected by secret ballot, as two candidates were nominated for the post. The other candidate was Ross Hynes (Canada).

Also this afternoon, the Assembly was informed that the following 12 Member States were in arrears in the payment of their contributions to the Organization under Article 19 of the United Nations Charter: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Central African Republic, Chad, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Iraq, Republic of Moldova, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, Togo and Yugoslavia. [By Article 19, a Member State in arrears in the amount equal to, or exceeding, contributions due for the preceding two years shall have no vote in the General Assembly.]

At the beginning of the session, the Assembly observed a minute of silent prayer or meditation, which also served as an observance of the International Day of Peace. The Day was proclaimed by the Assembly in 1981 to commemorate and strengthen the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.

The Assembly's General Committee will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, 17 September, to consider the organization of work of the current session.

Assembly Work Programme

The General Assembly met this afternoon to begin its fifty-second session. It was scheduled to elect a new President and 21 Vice-Presidents, and to appoint the Credentials Committee. Also to be elected are the Chairmen of the Assembly's six Main Committees.

The new President, Vice-Presidents and Committee Chairmen will comprise the Assembly's General Committee, the body responsible for reviewing the session's provisional agenda and for making recommendations to the Assembly regarding inclusion of new items, the priority they should be accorded and their allocation to different Committees.

The nine-member Credentials Committee examines the credentials of the representatives attending the session.

Statement by Assembly President

Following his election as President of the fifty-second session of the Assembly, HENNADIY UDOVENKO (Ukraine) said it was symbolic that a representative of a renewed democracy which was living through a period of fundamental social, economic and political reforms had become President of the General Assembly at a time when the issue of United Nations reform topped its agenda. Both Ukraine's long history of participation in the activities of the Organization, and its current reform efforts would facilitate his contribution to the work of the Assembly. Ukraine not only joined other States in supporting United Nations reform, but was prepared to spare no effort in building a broad consensus on how best to turn existing proposals into practical deeds.

The processes of globalization called for common action in practically every field of human endeavour, he said. No nation could feel secure when it acted alone to face and respond to new challenges. Peace and security were now more than ever threatened by internal civil and ethnic strife, international terrorism and proliferation of nuclear arms and materials than by the possibility of an inter-State war, not to mention a nuclear war. Recent trends in international relations suggested that these threats would not automatically disappear. They would, therefore, require priority attention by the United Nations.

Economic and social problems had the same universal consequences for all countries, he said. Many nations had to cope with persistent poverty, corruption, human rights violations, organized crime, and drug trafficking. Often the problems associated with underdevelopment translated into an issue of international security. Environmental problems demanded increased attention. Irresponsible exploitation of nature threatened the sustainability of the entire ecosystem, in addition to peoples' common well-being. A sad illustration of that fact was the Chernobyl catastrophe in Ukraine.

Recently, the Organization had come under heavy criticism, and not all of it was unjustified, he went on. Yet, despite all its shortcomings, the United Nations remained a unique and indispensable mechanism for addressing new challenges, resolving problems related to the maintenance of international peace and security, promoting sustained economic growth and sustainable development, as well as human rights, justice and international law, disarmament, prevention of crime, and combating international terrorism.

"I do not want to praise the achievements of the Organization. Neither shall I criticize the United Nations for what it has failed to achieve", he said. Criticism should give way to constructive work aimed a reforming the whole United Nations system. That was a tremendous task, but it had to be accomplished if the purposes of the United Nations had genuine meaning for all Member States. There seemed to be a broad understanding of the major problems and tasks that loomed ahead of Member States, which should facilitate the establishment of a consensus on how to adapt the Organization to the changing international environment.

The Secretary-General's programme for reform stood as a sound basis for further deliberations by the General Assembly, Mr. UDOVENKO said. The issue of reform would be at the centre of the session and support should be given to efforts aimed at facilitating the process of reform and building a broad consensus that would unite Member States in those efforts. The Assembly should give particular attention to deciding the most appropriate framework for the consideration of the Secretary-General's reform programme.

The time had come for the potential of the General Assembly to be fully discovered and exploited, he said. That was an issue that had been thoroughly examined by the Assembly's working group on strengthening the United Nations system; implementation of its recommendations should start at the session. As President, he continued, he intended to explore the possibility of finding proper mechanisms for closer coordination between such principal organs as the Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Secretary-General.

He went on to say that the recent substantial increase in United Nations membership and other important changes in international relations had made it necessary to enlarge the Security Council in order to enhance its representative character and to review its working methods and other matters related to transparency, effectiveness and efficiency. The principles of sovereign equality of all Member States and equitable geographic representation should guide the Assembly's work in reform of the Security Council. "It is necessary to avoid situations in which our work on other United Nations reform issues becomes hostage of the divergence of views on Security Council enlargement."

Assuring the financial viability of the United Nations was an essential condition for the success of reform, and, despite recent attempts, the problems facing the Organization in the financial sphere were still unresolved, he said. The conditions for finding a solution to the precarious financial situation were now beginning to take shape, and the Secretary- General should improve the Organization's management and structure in the course of the implementation of the proposed programme of reform. In turn, the reform process would be significantly facilitated if agreement could be reached on the next scale of assessments during the course of the year.

He reminded all Member States that the success of reform depended on their political wisdom and their will to act promptly, constructively and decisively. "The current session of the General Assembly "has all the prerequisites to become a watershed session". During the upcoming months, Member States would have a chance to revitalize the Organization to meet the mounting challenges. He promised to encourage action-oriented discussion on measures and proposals for United Nations reform.

First Meeting of Third Committee

During the first meeting of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), MICHAEL POWLES (New Zealand) nominated Ross Hynes (Canada) as Chairman of the Committee. He said, "It is highly unfortunate that the Committee is faced with competing candidatures from the same regional group. It is an almost unprecedented inconvenience and I apologize to the Committee for that." Only one member of the Western European and Other Group refused to accept an internal solution in favour of the lead candidate, Mr. Hynes, who had the support of more than two thirds of the Group. The current Chair of the Group was offered as a third candidate, and Canada was willing to withdraw its candidacy in favour of the Chair. Only one country continued to stand in the way of that desirable solution.

ANTONIO MONTEIRO (Portugal), nominating Alessandro Busacca (Italy) for the chairmanship of the Committee, said his country would have preferred to have the chairman of the Third Committee elected without a vote. The choice was difficult as both candidates had extensive knowledge in the field. Since the plenary had to take a decision, Portugal recognized criteria other than a candidate's personal and professional background. Fair and equitable geographical representation of all United Nations members must be reflected in all leading posts.

The President of the Assembly, Mr. UDOVENKO, said that since there were two candidates, the Committee would vote by special ballot.

The results of the voting were as follows:

Results of vote:

Number of ballot papers: 171 Number of invalid ballots: 2 Number of valid ballots: 169 Abstentions: 7 Number of Members voting: 162 Required majority: 82

Number of votes obtained:

Alessandro Busacca (Italy): 84 Ross Hynes (Canada): 77 Michael J. Powles (New Zealand): 1

Having obtained the required majority, Mr. Busacca was declared elected as Chairman of the Third Committee.