SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES MEMBER STATES TO REACH CONSENSUS ON HIS REFORM PROPOSALS BEFORE END OF SESSION, TO BE KNOWN AS 'REFORM ASSEMBLY'
Press Release
GA/9302
SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES MEMBER STATES TO REACH CONSENSUS ON HIS REFORM PROPOSALS BEFORE END OF SESSION, TO BE KNOWN AS 'REFORM ASSEMBLY'
19970922 United States President Says He Is Working with Congress On Legislation that 'Will Allow Us to Pay Off the Bulk of Our Arrears'The fifty-second General Assembly session should be known as the "reform Assembly", Secretary-General Kofi Annan told Member States this morning, as he introduced his annual report on the work of the Organization prior to the opening of this year's general debate.
The efforts to reform the United Nations should result in greater unity of purpose, coherence of efforts and responsiveness in pursuit of peace and progress, he continued. The United Nations should empower governments and people to realize shared goals, expressing the highest moral aspirations of humankind.
Calling for streamlining and rationalizing of both Headquarters and field activities, the Secretary-General said new management structures should be established and an institutional culture of excellence created. Urging the Assembly to reach consensus on his reform proposals before the close of the session, he voiced his expectation that reforms under his jurisdiction would be complete by year's end.
In his address during the general debate, United States President William J. Clinton said the Secretary-General had aggressively pursued the most far-reaching reform in the United Nations history and his agenda should be passed during the current session. He also welcomed the Secretary- General's efforts to strengthen the role of human rights within the United Nations system. He said he was working with the United States Congress on comprehensive legislation that "will allow us to pay off the bulk of our arrears and assure full financing of America's assessment in the years ahead". At the same time, he hoped Member States would adopt a more equitable scale of assessments. He strongly supported expanding the Security Council and asked the Assembly to act on those proposals during the current session.
The Prime Minister of Denmark, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, said United Nations reform was about shifting resources from administration to development,
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providing more value for the money. Peace, security and humanitarian relief efforts would not have a lasting effect without sustainable development. The implementation of the reform programme of the Secretary-General would make a significant contribution towards strengthening the Organization and would lead to more development value for the same money. Calling for the removal of inhumane anti-personnel mines, he said it would be a good day for mankind when the last anti-personnel mine was produced. He also called on Member States to increase the Organization's rapid reaction capabilities.
The Foreign Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries, said sustained economic growth was essential to the economic and social development of developing countries. The overall decline in official development assistance (ODA) must be reversed with the agreed target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP) achieved by the turn of the century. Durable solutions to the external debt and debt-servicing problems of developing countries, particularly highly-indebted poor countries, were needed. He also stressed the need to assist asylum countries to meet the challenges of coping with the grave humanitarian challenge precipitated by the crisis in the Great Lakes region of Africa, particularly the refugee problem.
The Prime Minister of Fiji, Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka; the Foreign Minister of Brazil, Luiz Felipe Lampreia; and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Chile, Jose Miguel Insulza, also spoke during the general debate.
The Assembly will meet again at 3 p.m. to resume its general debate.
Assembly Work Programme
The General Assembly met this morning to hear the Secretary-General's introduction of his annual report on the work of the Organization and to begin the general debate of its fifty-second session. (For a summary of the Secretary-General's report see Press Release SG/2039-GA/9303-ORG/1248 issued today.)
Statement by Secretary-General
Secretary-General KOFI ANNAN said that his introduction this morning of his report on the work of the Organization prior to the opening of the general debate broke from tradition and reflected the importance of reform of the United Nations. Suggesting that the current session should be known as the "reform Assembly", he said it should be remembered as the time when the international community joined forces and seized the opportunities to revitalize the United Nations -- "this unique and universal instrument for concerted action in pursuit of the betterment of humankind".
Addressing ongoing work at the United Nations and challenges before it, he said he was prudently optimistic about the overall state of the Organization. The recently adopted Agenda for Development expressed a new consensus for guiding international activities. Other recent achievements included the completion of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Progress had also been achieved on the Ottawa process to ban anti-personnel landmines, an effort he vigorously supported.
In the area of peacekeeping, a group of countries had made significant movement towards forming a stand-by high-readiness brigade working within the framework of the United Nations stand-by agreements. Such a brigade would enable the Organization to act quickly in crises before they escalated into violence. Also, programmes had been expanded in support of good governance, democratization and strengthening national capacity to promote human rights.
However, areas of disappointment remained, he continued. Benefits of economic globalization were not profiting the vast majority of developing countries at the same time that official development assistance continued to decline. New paradigms of cooperation were needed which combined major increases in assistance with selected debt relief, market access and investment strategies. The recent special session of the General Assembly to review implementation of Agenda 21 had made it clear that little progress had been made towards reaching goals set at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. He called on the international community to secure a legally binding commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the third session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at Kyoto in December.
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Achievements in disarmament did not yet encompass the remaining nuclear stockpiles, nor the continued proliferation of light weapons and small arms, he said. The Secretary-General said the department for disarmament and arms regulations which he had proposed in his reform package was intended to bolster the capacity of the United Nations to pursue such aims. Noting that civilian populations had become the explicit target of fictional combatants, that the efforts of humanitarian missions continued to be impeded and that violence against women had become the most pervasive human rights violation, he called upon the international community to erase those ugly stains from the canvas of contemporary life.
Since taking office in January, he had undertaken efforts to revive peace processes in conflict areas, including the appointment of special representatives for Western Sahara, Cyprus, East Timor, the Great Lakes region of Africa, Somalia and Afghanistan. While progress had been made in Western Sahara, in Afghanistan the parties continued to wage a brutal civil war and bitter legacies persisted in the Great Lakes region. He called on regional actors and the international community to make efforts to ease those conflicts, as he called on it to work to consolidate gains made in Bosnia. He urged all parties to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to take courageous decisions in support of lasting peace.
Turning to the challenge of reform of the United Nations, he said that it was his hope that by the close of the current session consensus would be reached on his proposals on reform and that the process of implementation would have begun. Reform efforts should result in greater unity of purpose, coherence of efforts and responsiveness in pursuit of peace and progress. Reforms should result in a United Nations able to empower governments and people to realize shared goals and an Organization which expressed the highest moral aspirations of humankind. In addition, reform efforts aspired to build a United Nations which could join efforts with a global civil society and eliminate uncivil elements, such as drug traffickers and terrorists.
Such goals would be achieved by rationalizing and streamlining Headquarters operations and those in the field, he said, calling for new management structures and the development of an institutional culture that stressed excellence. Those objectives would be promoted while addressing the needs of the most disadvantaged societies, through efforts including the creation of the United Nations Development Group and a system of multi-year pledges for development cooperation. He fully expected to implement the reform measures under his jurisdiction before the end of the year.
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Statements in General Debate
LUIZ FELIPE LAMPREIA, Minister of External Relations of Brazil said the Secretary-General's proposals for reform and institutional strengthening were a sign of renewed vitality within the United Nations. The new spirit within the United Nations represented the kind of leadership that altered the course of events within countries and opened new horizons for the people of the world.
The Assembly's agenda for the current session was vast, revealing the complexities and numerous conflicts of interest in the sphere of international relations, he said. Three positive impulses in the new international agenda concerned modernization and political and economic opening in most countries, economic integration in areas of regional conflict, and the internationalization of the economy. Those impulses generated, fostered and consolidated international peace and security.
He said the regional initiative to self-impose limitations on conventional arms purchases in Latin America was unjustified, since there was no threat of military destabilization there. Arms purchases were compatible with the region's defence needs and were aimed at replacing obsolete or outworn equipment. The fight against the arms trade that sustained organized crime and drug trafficking was the major priority. In that fight, there should be tighter controls on the production and selling of arms to private hands.
Great strides had been made with respect to disarmament and anti- personnel landmines, he said. In its signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear- Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and in the firm commitments expressed at the Oslo conference on anti-personal land mines Brazil sought to support the efforts of the international community. Terrorism continued to pose a serious threat to international peace and development. In the Middle East and Latin America, terrorism jeopardized people and areas full of promise. Those who disregarded all moral values by resorting to cowardly violence should be condemned.
The Secretary-General's request for United Nations reform was timely, he said. The Assembly should move urgently towards an agenda focused on making the role of the United Nations in the international arena relevant. The United Nations must concentrate on its essential mission: the maintenance of international peace and security, the promotion of justice and international law, strengthening cooperation for development, the protection of human rights, and the provision of humanitarian assistance.
The Security Council should also be more representative of contemporary international realities, as it was in its early years, he said. The Council should be enlarged, both in its permanent membership and in its non-permanent membership. Brazil was willing to accept the responsibilities of permanent membership on behalf of Latin America and the Caribbean.
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WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States, said a new strategy of security was needed to seize opportunities and move against the threats of the new global era. Nations had begun to put that strategy in place through a network of institutions and arrangements, with distinct missions but a common purpose: to secure and strengthen democracy and free markets while turning back their enemies. Those included expanded military alliances like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); the World Trade Organization, and the move towards free trade areas by nations in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere; the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Through such arrangements, nations were setting the international ground rules for the twenty-first century.
The United Nations must play a leading role in that effort, filling in the fault lines of the new global era, he said. Its core missions would be just as relevant in the next half century. First, preventing conflict, strengthening security and helping countries recover from war and keep the peace. Second, promoting international human rights standards and helping governments implement them. Third, moving people from poverty to dignity and prosperity through sustainable development. Noting that currently the United Nations was keeping the peace in 16 countries, often in partnership with regional organizations, he said that a shared commitment to more realistic peacekeeping training for United Nations troops, a stronger role for civilian police and better integration between military and civilian agencies would help the Organization meet those missions.
At the same time, the United Nations post-conflict capabilities to help peace become self-sustaining must be improved, he said. The Organization could not build nations, but it could help nations build themselves by fostering legitimate institutions of government, monitoring elections and laying a strong foundation for economic reconstruction. Referring to the ministerial meeting on African security to be held this week by the Security Council, he said it would highlight the role the United Nations could and should play in preventing conflict on a continent where amazing progress towards democracy and development existed among much discord, disease and distress.
The spread of global criminal syndicates had made more urgent the common quest to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, which could not be allowed to fall or remain in the wrong hands, he said. The United Nations must lead, and it was, from the United Nations Special Commission set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in connection with the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Today, he added, he was sending the CTBT to the United States Senate for ratification. A common goal should be to enter the treaty into force as soon as possible.
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A core mission of the United Nations must be to defend and extend universal human rights and help democracy's remarkable gains endure, he continued. In a world which linked rich and poor, North and South, city and countryside in an electronic network of shared images in real time, the more those universal rights took hold, the more people who did not enjoy them would demand them. Armed with photocopiers and fax machines, e-mail and the Internet; supported by communities of non-governmental organizations, they would make their demands known. The United Nations must be prepared to respond, not only by setting standards but by implementing them.
To deter abuses, the United Nations field operations and early-warning systems should be strengthened, he said. Its criminal tribunals and truth commissions must receive strong support. A permanent international court to prosecute the most serious violations of humanitarian law should be established before the century ended. He welcomed the Secretary-General's efforts to strengthen the role of human rights within the United Nations system and his choice of Mary Robinson as the new High Commissioner of Human Rights.
The United Nations had a special responsibility to help make sure that as the global economy created greater wealth it did not produce greater disparities between the haves and have-nots, he said. Spreading ideas, education and technology was the best way to give people a chance to succeed. And the Organization must continue to lead in ensuring that today's progress did not come at tomorrow's expense. At the conference of the parties to the Climate Change Convention in Kyoto next December, all nations must seize the opportunity to turn back the clock on greenhouse gas emissions.
The United Nations need not go it alone, he continued. Innovative partnerships with the private sector, non-governmental organizations and the international financial institutions could leverage its effectiveness many times over. Last week, Ted Turner's donation to strengthen the United Nations development and humanitarian programmes had highlighted the potential for partnership with the private sector. In that and other areas, the Secretary- General had aggressively pursued the most far-reaching reform in United Nations history. The United States strongly supported his leadership, he said, adding that his reform agenda should be passed during the current session.
"We have the opportunity to put the question of debts and dues behind us once and for all -- and put the United Nations on a sounder financial footing for the future", he said. He was working with the United States Congress on a comprehensive legislation that "will allow us to pay off the bulk of our arrears and assure full financing of America's assessment in the years ahead". The actions by the Congress to solve the problem reflected a strong bipartisan commitment to the United Nations and the United States' role within it. At the same time, it looked to Member States to adopt a more equitable scale of
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assessments. The United States strongly supported expanding the Security Council, he said, asking the Assembly to act on those proposals during the current session.
POUL NYRUP RASMUSSEN, the Prime Minister of Denmark, said United Nations reform was about shifting resources from administration to development, providing more value for the money. Peace, security and humanitarian relief efforts would not have lasting effect without sustainable development. Implementation of the Secretary-General's reform programme would represent a significant contribution towards strengthening the Organization and lead to more development value for the same money.
The problem of refugees and displaced persons could not be solved as long as their physical well-being was being threatened by inhumane anti- personnel mines, he said. Such mines must be removed. It would be a good day for mankind when the last anti-personnel mine was produced.
New genocides were haunting the world, he said. As a result, a permanent international criminal court was needed, so those crimes against humanity would not go unpunished. Setting a precise date for a diplomatic conference on the matter in 1998 was essential to maintaining the momentum for the early establishment of the court.
Initiatives toward improving the United Nations rapid reaction capability must be carried forward. Denmark had taken the initiative to establish a multinational brigade at a state of high readiness within the stand-by system. The planning element for that brigade had been officially inaugurated in Denmark by the Secretary-General earlier this month.
In addition, the United Nations and its Member States must establish a permanent forum for indigenous peoples within the framework of the Economic and Social Council, he said. That forum must have a broad mandate covering a wide range of issues. There must be active and effective participation by the indigenous peoples themselves in the forum's establishment and functioning.
Cooperation with regional organizations must be strengthened, he said. Those organizations should seek to assist the United Nations, not replace it. Since the end of the 1980s, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had played an important role in Europe. Denmark was encouraging closer relations between OSCE and the United Nations.
Major-General SITIVENI LIGAMAMADA RABUKA, the Prime Minister of Fiji, said developing countries needed an international economic environment that was buttressed by economic justice. Economic development was being retarded by a number of policies, trends and unilateral actions, marked by difficulty in accessing developed markets, worsening terms of trade, inadequate capital flow for investment, spiralling debt burdens, protectionist tendencies,
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ambivalence in the transfer of technologies, and exchange rate volatility as factors eroding the development plans and policies of developing countries.
The developing countries must have continuous access to foreign direct investment if economic growth was to be sustained and stimulated, he said. In the arena of international trade, which was dominated by industrialized giants, smaller countries such as his own must be allowed to retain special arrangement for essential exports. Certain actions by the appellate body of the World Trade Organization narrowing the scope of a waiver to the European Community could have adverse effects on African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, including Fiji. Also disappointing were its recent decisions against banana exports from Caribbean countries to the European Union.
There was a need for Fiji and other developing countries to participate in, benefit from, and contribute to the rapid technological advances of developed countries, since access to knowledge was the right of all nations. There should be a renewed commitment to official development assistance. External Debt was a major constraint to economic development and sustained growth in developing countries and required an equitable development-oriented solution. There was also need for a clear commitment by developed countries towards the achievement of environmental goals such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to internationally specified levels.
The Prime Minister urged the international community to begin negotiations as soon as possible on a treaty to halt and prohibit the production and development of all nuclear weapons. Also important was the destruction of all stockpiles and arsenals of nuclear weapons. Fiji welcomed the finalization of the Oslo draft treaty prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines.
The Secretary-General's recommendations for United Nations reform were bold and far reaching and fully supported peacekeeping as an indispensable instrument of the United Nations. While Fiji endorsed reduction of the United Nations administrative costs, Member States must pay their contributions and settle arrears promptly and fully. The Security Council should be expanded on an equitable geographic basis, including an expansion in non-permanent membership. There should also be a special United Nations division preventive diplomacy in conflict resolution and prevention. The Prime Minister expressed support for establishment of an international criminal court and stressed that the protection of smaller States should be a concern of the United Nations. He urged all parties in the Middle East and Korea to engage in negotiations for a just and lasting peace and urged China and Taiwan to reconcile their differences. Stressing his country's support for the rights of indigenous people, he said that in Fiji, the constitution enshrined the full right of self-determination for the indigenous Fijian and Rotuman people, including their right to a separate system of administration to safeguard their interests and welfare.
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JAKAYA MRISHO KIKWETE, Foreign Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, speaking for the "Group of 77") developing countries, said the world would move into the new millennium divided between those who were prosperous and at peace and those who were living in abject poverty and at war. The overriding objective of the United Nations should be to overcome that disparity.
Sustained economic growth was essential to the economic and social development of all countries, particularly developing countries. The "Agenda for Development" had called for action towards a dynamic international economic environment, including such aspects as an open, equitable, transparent multilateral trading system, and the promotion of investment and transfer of technology and knowledge.
It was imperative that the overall decline in official development assistance (ODA) be reversed, he said. The agreed target of 0.7 percent of gross national product (GNP) must be achieved, by the turn of the century. Also, there was an urgent need to adopt durable solutions to the external debt and debt-servicing problems of developing countries. Such indebtedness was a major obstacle to the development efforts of many developing countries. Even with sound economic policies and debt-rescheduling arrangements, as in the initiative of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with respect to the highly indebted poor countries, these countries continued to face an unbearable debt-servicing burden.
Anti-personnel landmines maimed and killed the innocent long after the wars in which they had been employed were over, he said. However, the worldwide banning of those weapons through the framework of the Ottowa process should not be seen as an end in itself. Rather, it should be seen as part of the overall effort aimed at eliminating other weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction.
The political problems of the Great Lakes region had precipitated a grave humanitarian challenge, as millions of people had been forced into a life of exile as refugees, he said. Even with the much-needed assistance of United Nations agencies, the burden on the recovering States was enormous. That situation raised the fundamental issue of the need to assist asylum countries, who must not only cope with the immediate task of meeting the needs of refugees but also with the long-term effects of hosting them.
The situation in Somalia, although no longer in the headlines, remained a problem that could not be forgotten, he said. Fighting among conflicting factions continued and the country remained fragmented. The United Nations needed to continue associating itself closely with the current efforts aimed at bringing a durable peace to the country.
Sierra Leone was sinking deeper into chaos at the expense of the country's peace, development and democracy, he said. However, even now there was hope that the military would realize the folly of its misadventure and
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agree to return the country to constitutional rule. In the meanwhile, the continuing efforts of the West African region and Africa generally to end the destructive cycle of military coups in Sierra Leone merited expanded support.
The United Nations needed to remain engaged in Angola, he said. The steady degeneration of the situation there and the likelihood of a return to open hostilities and war gave urgency to the situation. The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) must abandon its obstructionist policies and abide by the Lusaka peace accords.
JOSE MIGUEL INSULZA, the Foreign Minister of Chile, said his country supported Security Council expansion, including the admission of Germany and Japan as permanent members. Expansion of the Council to 25 members would not limit its effectiveness, as long as it involved adequate regional representation, including other permanent members from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chile supported regional consultations and consensus to fill such posts.
The Latin American and Caribbean countries believed they had the basic responsibility to fill those posts for its region, he said. Chile was prepared to accept any formula that would permit adequate regional representation. Serious consideration must be given to the possibility that only one member would occupy the permanent seat for each region.
He said Chile welcomed the important progress the Council had made with respect to its responsibility in the humanitarian sphere -- an area important to the maintenance of international peace and security. As a member of the Council during the past year, Chile actively participated in efforts to strengthen its work in that sphere. Among its actions, Chile had proposed the establishment of a mechanism for the Council to communicate with humanitarian agencies in the field. To ensure post-conflict support for countries, Chile had insisted on the need for a United Nations presence in the field, particularly when peace-building had given way to reconstruction and development activities.
It had been demonstrated that the application of sanctions to authoritarian Governments penalized their population without bringing about political change, he said. Chile had noted the progress made by the Council in designing sanctions capable of yielding the desired results without hurting innocent people.
On the question of United Nations reform, he said the main obstacle was the fear of change in the Organization, which had paralysed the process. The time had come for all -- the Secretariat and Member States alike -- to demonstrate creativity and courage. The period of the bureaucratization of the United Nations must give way to the era of creation.
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