SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTS REPORT TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Security Council

4375^th Meeting (PM)

SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTS REPORT TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

In a brief meeting this afternoon, the Security Council adopted without a vote its annual report to the General Assembly for the period 16 June 2000 to

15 June 2001.

Briefing the Council on the report (not yet available as an official document), Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahima Fall said the draft annual report had been prepared by the Secretariat in line with the revised format agreed upon by the Council in 1974 and further revisions in 1985, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1998.

He added that the report’s format provided a concise guide to Council activities.  It should be noted that, in addition to the extensive coverage provided in part VI on the work of subsidiary organs of the Council, the annual reports of the Sanctions Committee were to be found in appendix XIII of the report.  Further, pursuant to the understanding reached at the Council’s consultations of the whole on 30 November 1998, statements made to the press by the President following consultations of the whole had been annexed to the monthly assessments prepared by the former Presidents at their discretion. 

Finally he said those in charge in the Department of Political Affairs had, on 27 August 2001, distributed the report to the current members of the Council and to the members whose terms of office expired on 31 December 2000, for review and comments, if any.  A corrigendum containing changes requested by two Council members and an addition made by the Secretariat was also before the Council.

Kishore Mahbubani (Singapore) said he would go along with the adoption of the report, but with reluctance and reservation.  He would also be very critical of it in the Assembly.  He was not criticizing the Secretariat, but the final product was not satisfactory in terms of illuminating the Council's work.  In the most recent Council decision on the matter it had been agreed that the report should be more analytical.  In that light there was room for improvement to the current report.  The time had come to review the manner in which the Council reported to the Assembly. 

Alfonso Valdivieso (Colombia) said that in 1997 new measures were adopted to present a more analytical character, but that had not been reflected in the last three reports.  An existing working group had also said that the report must be improved.  Non-permanent members bore an additional responsibility to enhance its contents and to allow the report to be better utilized.  The report was designed for informational purposes.  A more attractive report was needed, and one that allowed other members of the organization to understand the workings of the Council.

Council President Jean-David Levitte (France) said the Council had had a constructive discussion of how the report could be made more useful to the Assembly.  He thought it might be useful to open up discussions from time to time to consider ways to improve the report.

The meeting, which began at 5:43 p.m., was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

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