PRESS CONFERENCE BY OUTGOING GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

PRESS CONFERENCE BY OUTGOING GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

Outgoing General Assembly President Julian Robert Hunte (Saint Lucia) today said he was heartened to leave the 191–Member United Nations governing body with a positive outlook and a renewed sense that great strides could be made when Member States worked together with a clear sense of purpose underpinned by political will.

Holding his farewell press conference at Headquarters this morning, Mr. Hunte looked back on his accomplishments as President of the Assembly’s fifty-eighth session, which officially closes later today.  He told reporters that his tenure had been an exciting one that had ensured the body would be better able to meet the challenges of the day, particularly in areas such as peace and security, sustainable development, Security Council reform and revitalization of the Assembly itself.

Although he praised the groundbreaking resolutions that had been passed aimed at refocusing and streamlining the Assembly’s work, he stressed that Member States must press ahead with efforts to reaffirm the body’s role as the United Nations’ key forum for debate.  Here, he noted regretfully that neither the military action in Iraq nor its aftermath had ever been discussed by the Assembly, even though the issue weighed heavily on the entire Organization.

He stressed that while the Assembly could not dictate matters of peace and security to the Security Council, its debates could certainly inform and enhance Council decisions.

When pressed to give a reason why such a debate or exchange had never taken place on Iraq, he urged correspondents to use their “investigative reporting skills” to get to the bottom of the matter.  “You might find the reasoning behind that instructive”, he told one reporter, adding that the Assembly’s legitimate prerogative to consider tough international issues had been prescribed by the Charter and should be encouraged rather than hampered.

That exchange, and one reporter’s suggestion that the United Nations was divided between the “rich and powerful” permanent members of the Security Council and the “poor and weak” members of the Assembly, led Mr. Hunte to another of his tenure’s priority concerns:  enhancing cooperation and coordination between the two bodies.

He had been pleased that the fifty-eighth session had made some headway on several of the issues under the so-called “Uniting for Peace” agenda –- namely, clearly identifying areas for action such as the size of an enlarged Security Council, geographical representation, criteria for membership, accountability and the use of veto power.  He added that a framework was now in place for regular meetings between the respective presidents of those bodies, as well as the Economic and Social Council.

Perhaps aware that the issue of Security Council reform had been on the Assembly’s agenda for some 10 years, as well as the growing perception that the Organization had stalemated over the issue, ambassadors during the fifty-eighth session had taken an active interest in moving negotiations forward, Mr. Hunte said.  Among other things, it had become clear that the wider United Nations membership would like to see the Council enlarged by not less than 24 seats but no more than 26.

“But as for what is contained in that ‘who’ and where they come from are major issues that still need to be discussed”, he said.  He had also gotten the sense that the Assembly was awaiting the forthcoming report of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change before moving ahead.  When that report was submitted to the fifty-ninth Assembly, Mr. Hunte said he hoped delegations would continue the spirit of flexibility that he had witnessed this past year and that “national agendas would be set aside for the greater good”.

Wrapping up with sincere thanks to his dynamic staff, the Secretariat and representatives of Member States, Mr. Hunte said he was satisfied that he had done a “reasonably good job” and that he felt content to pass the baton to Mr. Jean Ping (Gabon), who will preside over the Assembly’s fifty-ninth session.

With the framework he was leaving behind, he was certain Mr. Ping could move ahead on a host of important issues this year, including putting more “teeth” into the international sustainable development agenda, ensuring that the Bretton Woods institutions better served developing countries, and finally agreeing on a global definition for terrorism.

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