COUNCIL STILL FALLS SHORT OF ASSEMBLY IDEA OF OBJECTIVE DISCLOSURE OF WORK, INDIA TELLS GENERAL ASSEMBLY REVIEW OF ANNUAL SECURITY COUNCIL REPORT

21 October 1998

Press Release
GA/9483

COUNCIL STILL FALLS SHORT OF ASSEMBLY IDEA OF OBJECTIVE DISCLOSURE OF WORK, INDIA TELLS GENERAL ASSEMBLY REVIEW OF ANNUAL SECURITY COUNCIL REPORT

19981021 Timely and Comprehensive Information on Council Activities Imperative For Member States which Deserve Better Access than Media, Says Australia

This year's Report of the Security Council did not leave the international community better informed, the representative of India told the General Assembly this afternoon as it continued its review of the Council's Report.

Although the Charter had delegated responsibilities to the Council, it also made it responsible for giving a full account of its work to the membership from which it received its powers, he said. What the general membership expected was an objective assessment of how far Council activities or decisions had been helpful, and an assessment by the Council of its own work. Unfortunately, the Council continued to fall short of the Assembly's wishes.

Addressing the much cited issue of improving transparency in the Council's operations, the representative of Australia said that in the days of instant telecommunications and blanket media coverage, the need for information about the Council's activities became more imperative. Member States that were not members of the Council deserved better access to information about that body's activities than did the media. "We must have information that is both more timely and comprehensive. We must be able to brief our own Government on these activities because they must make informed and timely policy decisions."

The representative of Italy said many delegates had been unpleasantly surprised in comparing this year's statement by the Council's five permanent members, made after their meeting with the Secretary-General, with that from the previous years. Last year, they spoke about increasing the "transparency and efficiency" of the Council. This year, they referred only to "efficiency". He reminded the Council's permanent members that transparency was not a concept they could freely dispose of. On the contrary, it was strictly linked to the accountability that all members of the Security Council -- permanent and elected -- must have before the Assembly.

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The representative of Canada said the erosion of the credibility of the Council was not a positive trend. The most worrisome example in that regard was the decision by the Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), at their summit meeting this year in Burkina Faso, to no longer be bound by Security Council imposed sanctions -- specifically those levied on Libya. That action was a troubling precedent which was contrary to the clear Charter obligations of all Member States.

Statements were also made by the representatives of Philippines, Japan, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Senegal, Portugal, Iran, Libya, Chile, Sweden and Peru.

The Assembly would met again tomorrow at 10 a.m. to continue its current review and to take up United Nations cooperation with: the League of Arab States; the Organization of American States (OAS); and the Latin American Economic System (SELA). It would also have before it a notification by the Secretary-General on matters relevant to the maintenance of international peace and security being dealt with by the Security Council.

Assembly Work Programme

The Assembly met this afternoon to continue its consideration of the Report of the Security Council. (For further details see Press Release GA/9482, issued today.)

Statements

KAMALESH SHARMA (India) said that the Report resembled a compilation of Council documents which had been seen individually over the year. The Report itself did not leave the international community better informed. The Charter had delegated responsibility to the Council, and it was expected to give a full account of its work to the membership from which it received its powers. Unfortunately, the Council performance continued to fall short of the wishes of the Assembly in preparing the Report. It still represented a mere listing of what the Council did or said on a number of issues. What the general membership of the Organization expected would have addressed the following: an objective assessment of how far Council activities or decisions had been helpful and an assessment by the Council of its own work.

Whole new doctrines were being developed regarding the wider implications of security, he said. In disarmament matters, some argued that the Council must now monitor compliance with multilateral treaties. Others argued for the Council to take on a role in any international criminal justice system. Though there was no intergovernmental agreement on those concepts, they stretched the canvas of Council action well beyond anything envisaged in the Charter. Although security had wider dimensions, India expected the Council to restrict itself only to international peace and security, as defined in the Charter.

Despite the lip service paid to the wider concept of security, the Organization's budget still did not reflect that, he said. If economic and social issues took a higher priority, more resources should have been channelled towards them. However, the percentage of the budget earmarked for the Council had been preserved with the utmost care, not because it was addressing the wider issues of security, but because it continued to retain a privileged position even in the allocation of resources. The general membership should ask if the Council was giving it value for the money.

Areas where the Council had stretched its mandate included what is described as the "oil-for-food" programme that was without precedent, and the two ad hoc tribunals set up by the Council which were not within its powers to establish. His country was uncomfortable that two judicial bodies should be set up and described as subsidiary organs of the Council. He expressed regret that the International Court of Justice's annual budget stood at $11 million, while the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was at $70 million. It was regrettable that the World Court and the two ad hoc tribunals did not receive comparable treatment. If the Council were to assume

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a role in disarmament, he asked whether it could continue to ignore the overwhelming demand for elimination of nuclear weapons, which had been repeatedly ignored by the Assembly. Non-proliferation was a global issue and could not be segmented according to political preferences.

MARIA LOURDES V. RAMIRO-LOPEZ (Philippines) said the Report was not only a stark and compelling historical record of the critical global events for the period it covered, but also a faithful record of the action and response of the Council to those events. It was also a link between the Council and the Assembly. The Council's efforts to enhance the analytical nature of the report has increased its contents. The Philippines would like to see more substantive information appear in the report on the work of the Council's subsidiary bodies, such as the sanctions committee.

Every opportunity must be taken to enhance the positive interaction between the Assembly and the Council, she said. That positive interaction would revitalize the Assembly's role in the maintenance of international peace and security. While the Council was structured and primarily geared towards addressing actual threats to peace, the Assembly was suited to undertake efforts to prevent conflict and create conditions for peace and progress. The Assembly had mandated its President, based on his assessment of the debate on the Council's Report, to hold informal consultations to discuss any action that should be taken by the Assembly based on the Report. A requirement for such consultations, and for the meaningful consideration of any action by the Assembly, was the submission of a more substantive and analytical report.

PENELOPE ANNE WENSLEY (Australia) said comment on the Report of the Security Council provided Member States with the opportunity to reflect on the relationship between the General Assembly and the Security Council, and how that relationship could be strengthened. Invariably, consultations amongst Council members took place behind closed doors. Resolutions and statements were negotiated and decisions taken informally, without reference to the wider membership. They were often cloaked in a shroud of secrecy. The process generated frustrations and tensions among non-members, who were not only excluded from the decision-making process, but often denied access to timely and comprehensive information about how those decisions were reached.

She said more important were reforms that had been introduced to keep the wider membership informed about the issues before the council as "they happened". In the days of instant telecommunications and blanket media coverage of any significant international event, the need for information about the activities of the Council became more imperative. Contrary to the normal laws of supply and demand, "the more we hear, the more we need to know". Watching an event unfold on CNN did not satisfy governments' appetites for information; it simply sharpened it. Member States that were not members of the Council deserved better access to information about that body's activities than the media. "We must have information that is both more timely

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and more comprehensive. We must be able to brief our own Government on these activities because they must make informed and timely policy decisions."

She said the briefings given to non-members by the President of the 9sdlCouncil after informal meeting was an important innovation. Those must continue -- not as an optional or discretionary activity of the Presidency -- but as a central part of the rights and responsibilities that members assumed when they took their seats in the Council. Equally important was that all Council members remained accessible to non-members and responded promptly to their requests for information. The Assembly also had an important role to play in reminding the Security Council of its responsibility to keep the wider United Nations membership informed of its activities.

ROBERT R. FOWLER (Canada) said the Security Council today was in danger of no longer being able to meet the new challenges to peace and security in the coming millennium -- challenges which now involved conflicts which were more within and less between States, and which increasingly targeted civilian populations. That danger stemmed from two negative and closely related trends. First was the inability of the Council to achieve timely consensus on missions seeking to heal some of the world's most troubled problems. Second was the progressive starvation of peacekeeping resource, human and financial, which were vital for an effective Council. Both were serious threats to that body's continued relevance and both were reversible given the requisite will and commitment.

He said there seemed to be the beginning of a move from the closed, secretive, behind-the-scenes deliberations and decision-making of the Council to a more open and transparent process. However, more could still be done to ensure that Member States who were not currently members of the Council remained well seized of that body's activities. While the views non-Council members were sometimes heard prior to the Council taking a formal decision, that process was not the same as the Council actually considering the views of Member States before taking a final decision. The open-ended working group on Security Council reform had made some progress on general agreement on the working methods of the Council. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the group's efforts to find general agreement on the thorny matter of expansion of the Council.

He said the erosion of the credibility of the Council was not a positive trend. The most worrisome example in that regard was the decision by the Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), at their summit meeting this year in Burkina Faso, to no longer be bound by Security Council imposed sanctions -- in this case those levied on Libya. That action was a troubling precedent which was contrary to the clear Charter obligations of ll Member States. It was clear, however, the leadership required "followership" and that the Council could only lead with the continuing consent of the membership; a consent which must be continually won and nurtured.

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MASAKI KONISHI (Japan) said he welcomed the numerous positive developments reflected in the format of this year's report. An example of improved transparency in the work of the Council was the inclusion of monthly assessments made by outgoing Presidents. Those assessments offered an analytical perspective. Another improvement was the President's daily briefings which were attended by increasingly larger numbers of non-Council Member States interested in timely information on deliberations in the Council's informal consultations. As President of the Council in April of this year, Japan had endeavoured to improve transparency in the work of the Council in both of those aspects. He hoped those improvements would further strengthen the Council's accountability to the wider membership.

He said that improving transparency in the work of the Council was one of the many important elements in enhancing the credibility and effectiveness of the Council and the United Nations as a whole. The true impact of improved transparency would be felt only when the composition of the Council reflected the realities of the changing world.

NASTE CALOVSKI, (The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) said that this year's Report represented an improvement in comparison to the one of last year. He noted the important contribution the Organization had made to the stability of his region in the Council's extension of the mandate for the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) which was stationed in his country on its western and northern borders with Albania and the former Republic of Yugoslavia. Due to developments in Albania, Kosovo and Metohija, the importance of the mission now and in the immediate future had increased.

The Council, while the busiest and most powerful centre of political activities in the Organization, was also the only undemocratic body due to the veto powers. However, the Council had endeavoured to improve its working methods and to become more transparent. Nonetheless, closed consultations and the decisions taken there were of concern to many delegations. On the other hand, it could not be said that non-members of the Council could not access information from those sessions or to bring their views to Council members. There was an unquestionable need, nonetheless, to strengthen the role and relevance of the Assembly. Close cooperation between the Council and the Assembly was necessary to make the United Nations the most relevant body in the maintenance of international peace and security and in strengthening international cooperation.

IBRA DEGUENE KA (Senegal) said Senegal welcomed the actions by the Secretary-General to achieve, through peaceful means, the settlement of serious crises, particularly his breakthroughs in the Persian Gulf situation. The international community must support the credibility of the Organization and the authority of the Secretary-General to ensure that peace be respected by all.

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The Report stated that the various crises in Africa occupied most of its time, he said. Peace was vital for sustained economic development in Africa. As the Secretary-General had said in his report on peace and economic stability in Africa, it was by action and not by statements that the level of interest of the international community in Africa could be measured. Much remained to be done regarding conflict prevention in the context of the United Nations system. Senegal recommended that United Nations organs, particularly the Council, should react immediately to safeguard peace and security. The Council seemed to take too long to react to situations in Africa. Africans in those circumstances had to look to themselves to solve their problems on regional and subregional levels. In helping Africa, the Council had to emphasize prevention.

FRANCESCO PAOLO FULCI (Italy) said that this year, for the first time, the report was prepared taking into account the measures approved by the Council to improve its format and content. While Italy still considered those measures insufficient, the new format was an achievement. The inclusion of the monthly assessments of the work of the Council by its Presidents complemented the report, especially when they indicated the priorities and trends in the work of the Council. He encouraged future Presidents of the Council to submit their monthly assessments for publication as a separate document of the General Assembly and of the Security Council.

Speaking about the areas in which the report was still insufficient, he said that the report should give a brief account not only of the dates and subject of the informal consultations, but also of discussions on crisis areas, regional tensions, humanitarian emergencies and other critical issues. Full transparency of the work of the Council was no less important than the effective performance of its mandate. More information should be provided on meetings with troop-contributing countries and the extent to which General Assembly resolutions on issues falling within the scope of both bodies were taken into account by the Council should be highlighted.

He said that many delegates had been unpleasantly surprised in comparing this year's statement, issued by the five permanent members of the Council after their meeting with the Secretary-General, with the one issued in 1997: last year they spoke about the need to increase the "transparency and efficiency" of the Council. This year, they referred only to "efficiency". He reminded the permanent members of the Council that "transparency" was not a concept they could freely dispose of. On the contrary, it was strictly linked to the accountability that all members of the Security Council -- permanent and elected -- must have before the Assembly.

In conclusion, he denied rumours that Italy was trying to obstruct the reform of the Council and, in particular, its expansion. As the Italian Foreign Minister had stated in this year's general debate, his Government would support any reasonable formula, provided that it did not prejudice the eventual establishment of a common European seat on the Council; distance

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Italy from other principal industrial countries; or increase the number of countries "more equal" than others. What Italy was opposing with the greatest determination -- and it was not alone in its effort -- were attempts by one side to pass the reform with a vote of less than two thirds of Member States.

ANTONIO MONTEIRO (Portugal) said the Report was indeed more informative and more user-friendly than in previous years. It included assessments by the various Council Presidents, providing further insights into the work of the Council. The report revealed a new trend for the future. Efforts towards Council transparency must be consistently pursued. At the same time, discussions on increasing its membership was currently at a stalemate. Therefore, it was important to press for a change in the methods of work of the Council to facilitate, at a later stage, the consideration of equitable representation of the Organization's membership.

Since various world conflicts and disputes would continue to call for a strong Council, the international community should discourage confrontation or division among United Nations organs or between the United Nations and regional organizations, he said. That notion of complementary relations between United Nations organs, a cornerstone of the structure created by the Charter, required not only transparency, but also the full exercise of initiative on their parts.

Noting that the Council was increasingly spending more time on its work than in previous years, he said that there was sometimes a tendency to rely on the work of the permanent members. There was a fundamental role to be played by the elected members within the Council, and in particular by smaller States. Often, they were in better positions to understand conflict situations, either because of geographical, economic, social or political conditions. To overcome the challenges faced by the Council today, it needed the input of other international actors who, outside the Organization or within the intergovernmental framework, had deep knowledge of international issues. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had proven crucial in the pacification of international conflicts.

SEYED MOHAMMED HADI NEJAD-HOSSEINIAN (Iran) said the Council had rejected the notion that there was a military solution to the Afghanistan crisis. It called, instead, for the prompt cessation of hostilities and resumption of inter-Afghan negotiations to establish a broad-based government with a view to reaching a lasting and peaceful settlement. The Taliban movement had intensified its military operations in the northern part of Afghanistan, committed crimes against humanity, and pursued a policy of ethnic and religious persecution. In flagrant violation of international law, they also stormed Iran's Consulate-General in Mazar-i-Sharif and murdered Iranian diplomats in cold blood. His delegation believed that the human tragedy in Afghanistan required the urgent attention of the Council.

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While improvements had been introduced into the present Report, he said it reflected very little substantive information about consultations which were the basis for the formal decisions taken by the Security Council. The report needed to be further improved by providing an analytical assessment of the process of decision-making by the Council in such consultations. According to the Charter, the Assembly could discuss and make recommendations on the maintenance of international peace and security to Member States, or the Council, or both. Regrettably, the Assembly had found little opportunity to discharge its responsibility in that area in cooperation with the Council.

ABDUSSALAM O. IBRAHIM (Libya) said the Charter stated that United Nations Members agreed that the Council act on their behalf in the maintenance of international peace and security. That meant that there was no conferring of responsibility without accountability. Today's debate was important because it gave United Nations Members a chance to review the Council's activities. When the Assembly last took up the Council's report, delegations had commented on its form and content. The publication of journals of the Council on a daily and monthly basis was welcomed.

Despite the changes, the proposals to improve its work had not been taken into proper account, he said. The Report contained only brief information on the work of the Council's subsidiary organs, such as the sanctions committees. It had a brief review of what took place in informal consultations prior to the adoption of resolutions. He hoped the Council would follow-up on recommendations that would increase its transparency. It was important for more open formal meetings to be held and for informal meetings to be limited. But in fact, the Council had done just the opposite.

The Council had worked to make the Report more comprehensive, (an effort which should continue), he said. A clear summary of consultations had to be included. Only then would the Report truly reflect its work and activities. The Council must enable other Members to express their points of view. Consultation with Member States had to be widened to lend legitimacy to the Council. There was also a need to strengthen dialogue between the Assembly and the Council. It should not be limited to one occasion, but should be a continuing process.

JUAN LARRAIN (Chile) said that for the first time, the Report of the Security Council contained personal assessments of the work of that organ by its Presidents. As a Council member, Chile had participated in the development of the new formula, which provided more analytical and substantive information. The practice of submitting monthly assessments must be followed by all future Presidents of the Council. Those assessments should also be published as separate documents for they should serve as a real working tool for all Member States. That new practice was a great contribution to transparency. It would also be very useful for the Council to have feedback on how the assessments were received by the delegations. Good coordination must exist between the General Assembly and the Security Council. The Council

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should constantly improve its working methods. Of special relevance were recommendations by 10 non-permanent members of the Council in 1997.

Continuing, he highlighted the examination by the Security Council of the causes of conflict in Africa. The ministerial-level meetings, recently held to discuss Africa and the establishment of working groups to examine all initiatives on that issue, proved the importance of that question. The Report indicated that the cases of imposition of sanctions on Libya and Iraq had evolved. He hoped that the Lockerbie trial could take place and allow for an end of the sanctions on Libya. Thanks to the intervention by the Secretary-General, a military crisis in Iraq was averted. Resumption of cooperation on the part of Iraq and a comprehensive review of the sanctions regime would unblock that situation.

ANDERS LIDEN (Sweden) said that his country had tried to make openness and transparency a priority during its present Council membership. The addition of monthly assessments by the respective Council Presidents was a valuable contribution. Non-members of the Council had the right to be well briefed about the Council's work. Sweden would support troop contributor meetings as an instrument to influence and inform Council decision-making.

The past year, he said, had been a period of significant achievements for the Council. However, it had also faced substantial difficulties in tackling a number of complex issues. The Council was becoming more conscious of the need for a broad and balanced mix of personnel assigned to peacekeeping operations. Military, civilian police and other components must be better integrated. There was reason for concern that sometimes Council peacekeeping deliberations were stymied by a narrow and short-term budgetary approach. A penny-pinching or tardy Council weakened its own authority and often, also that of the Secretary-General. It risked sending an inadvertent message of lack of concern to the parties affected, and ran counter to the need for early and preventive action. There were of course situations where fundamental disagreements or competing interests, in particular between permanent members, would stall the work of the Council. Such situations today were fewer in number than before.

It was clearly difficult for the Council to define an effective strategy for all situations, he said. Today's complex conflicts were often domestic issues with major cross-border aspects. Sometimes conflicts involved several parties with less than clear command structures or political objectives. Achieving durable peace was rarely a straightforward process. More often, it was a lengthy process of confidence-building and the reconstruction of torn societies. The Council could play its part by setting a framework for other actors to fulfil their roles. Regionalism should be by design and not by default.

FERNANDO GUILLEN (Peru) said dialogue between the Assembly and the Council was essential since the work of both had to be mutually reinforcing.

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The Assembly was not responsible only for adopting resolutions and dealing with financial appropriations for peacekeeping operations. Peru appreciated the Council's efforts to improve its Report. The inclusion of background information, the treatment given to each item contained in the Report and communications received were important improvements. He particulary welcomed the assessments on the work prepared by representatives who had served as Council Presidents. He thanked Portugal for establishing that practice. It would be useful to have those assessments as soon as each presidency was over, not at the end of the period.

The proposal to allow States which were not members of the Council to participate in meetings required the establishment of mechanisms for timely notification, he said. A serious indifference in the international arena had produced a vacuum the Council found difficult to fill. The Organization was not designed to deal with new situations, especially when a system of collective action had never been established or applied. All efforts of the Council to deal with such cases needed the consideration and support of all Member States. The Council's decisions would not be legitimate if they exceeded those outlined by international law or Charter provisions.

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