United Nations | December 29, 2003
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Sobering world events set the stage for the fifty-eighth United Nations General Assembly, as the Organization grappled with the divisions that emerged among Member States over the path to war in Iraq last spring, and the devastating blow on 19 August, when terrorists bombed its Baghdad headquarters, killing 21 people, including mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello, and wounding more than 150.
Those recent tragic developments posed a "serious challenge" for the United Nations and especially its 191-member governing body - a cause for "self-searching and re-examination", said Assembly President Julian R. Hunte of Saint Lucia as he opened the annual high-level debate.
Stressing that revitalization was key to the United Nations success, he called on world leaders to bring a "new dynamism" to the session. The political direction they provided would help enable the Assembly to effectively address critical issues such as sustainable development, poverty reduction, human rights, terrorism and overall United Nations reform.
In an earlier address, President Hunte told delegates, "In these turbulent times, the world's peoples are looking to the United Nations to safeguard what is fundamental to them, from sustainable development to peace and security." Today, the United Nations found itself at a critical juncture, challenged by an extraordinary set of circumstances.
What, then, should be done? he asked. While reform was imperative, "we must reaffirm the central role of the United Nations, the most important multilateral organization ever established and which has stood the test of time".
Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the gathered world leaders that: "We have come to a fork in the road - perhaps the most decisive moment in the United Nations 58-year history." The United Nations was standing at a crossroads, and must decide whether to commit itself to radical change to deal with such global threats as terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and nuclear proliferation.
Stressing that the time was ripe for a "hard look at fundamental policy issues", he announced plans to create a panel of eminent personalities
- the "High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change" - to focus primarily on threats to peace and security, but also to examine other global challenges. Likewise, Assembly President Hunte moved in late October to appoint six facilitators - senior diplomats from Algeria, Jamaica, Netherlands, Singapore, Slovenia, and South Africa - to oversee the revitalization debate, to focus on reaffirming the Assembly's political position and status, and to redress the relationship between that body and the Security Council.
Those discussions culminated in the Assembly's unanimous adoption on 12 December of a resolution that would set in motion a slate of sweeping changes - to take effect following broad consultations over the next two years - that ranged from sharpening the focus of its decisions, to paring down its workload, and deepening cooperation with the Presidents of the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council.
Under the wide-ranging text on revitalizing the work of the General Assembly, Member States reaffirmed that body's vital and fundamental role in international affairs, deciding, among other things, to take steps to increase the body's efficiency and effectiveness and to raise the level of its visibility, so that its decisions might have greater impact. Further, States decided that the Presidents of the Assembly, Security Council and the Economic and Social Council should meet periodically to help ensure cooperation, coordination and complementarity in the respective work programmes of the three organs.
Acting on the recommendations of its First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), the Assembly adopted 52 resolutions and decisions, related mainly to the pace and path of nuclear disarmament, reducing nuclear danger, and preventing the terrorist acquisition of mass destruction weapons. As the Committee Chairman said at the closing meeting, the resolutions might lack the force of treaties, but they could strengthen the rule of law governing the control and elimination of the world's most dangerous weapons, gauge Member States' readiness for new norms, and set priorities for collective action in a volatile security landscape.
Financing for development was a major focus of this year's session of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial), with delegates stressing the need to expand trade, increase official development assistance (ODA), relieve external debt, and reform the international financial system. Increased trade was particularly vital, they emphasized, and efforts must be redoubled to successfully conclude the Doha development agenda. Speakers also noted the failure of globalization to benefit most developing countries, and stressed the importance of South-South cooperation, as well as information and communication technologies in spurring on development.
The Assembly's Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) highlighted the need for greater international cooperation and heightened national initiatives to combat terrorism and transnational crime, eradicate poverty, promote human rights and protect the rights of children, women, elderly people and people with disabilities. Those issues were among those addressed in 73 draft resolutions approved by the Committee for action by the General Assembly. In the wake of the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Iraq, concerns about terrorism remained a dominant theme, as delegations passed resolutions stressing the need for counter-terrorism measures to integrate respect for human rights and to combat discrimination based on religious and cultural biases.
Acting on the recommendations of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), the Assembly adopted 22 resolutions and two decisions on a wide-range of agenda items, including decolonization, information, the effects of atomic radiation, international cooperation for the peaceful uses of outer space, the work of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories. Nearly half of the 22 resolutions focused on the Middle East, including five texts on UNRWA and another five on the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices. The Committee's review of United Nations peacekeeping and information activities featured in-depth presentations by the heads of the Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Public Information.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) negotiated and approved the Organization's $3.16 billion budget for the biennium beginning on 1 January 2004, which envisions a range of measures to realize more efficient utilization of resources, including structural reorganization, redeployment of funds, streamlining and improving project design. The Committee also acted on such important issues as financing of peacekeeping and the Tribunals; work of the United Nations oversight bodies; the Board of Auditors' reports; the United Nations common system; information technology; and measures to improve the profitability of United Nations commercial activities.
The Assembly took no action on a recommendation of its Sixth Committee (Legal) to defer discussion of a convention against human reproductive cloning for two years, deciding instead to include the question on its preliminary agenda for the next session. Altogether, the Assembly adopted 15 resolutions and another decision on such legal issues as the International Criminal Court, terrorism, protection of United Nations personnel, relations with the host country, the 2003 sessions of the Special Committee on the Charter, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and the International Law Commission.
Summary of the plenary and Main Committees follows.
Plenary
Reaction to the Secretary-General's call for system-wide United Nations reform dominated the Assembly's discussions early on. During the general debate, world leaders stressed that it was unacceptable for paralysis to rule when freedoms were at stake - the United Nations must act and react in a manner commensurate with an increasingly complex world. Even though the United Nations had suffered a shocking blow with the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters, the international community must not be intimidated by terrorism, they said.
The world body's role as a guarantor of collective security was irreplaceable, others said, proposing that the global community forge a new era of world order, in which all nations would cooperate within the multilateral system to combat corruption and drug trafficking, and the proliferation of dangerous weapons among other scourges. New global challenges called for an effective response by way of urgent actions to revitalize the United Nations, beginning with the Security Council, some said. Further delay in long-overdue reforms could result in a serious "crisis of confidence", a situation Member States should not allow.
From collective security and the future of multilateralism, the Assembly's discussions moved on to other pressing issues, including the need to ensure equitable trade schemes, creating conditions for lasting peace in Africa, and strengthening United Nations peacekeeping missions. Against a backdrop of unfolding international developments - the August and September attacks on the United Nations compound in Baghdad and other terrorist incidents, transnational organized crime and graft, ongoing regional conflicts, particularly in Africa, and deepening poverty, among others - the Assembly approved several important measures aimed at strengthening the world body's efforts to tackle the complexities of modern challenges.
Among the resolutions adopted during the fifty-eighth session was a text on responding to global threats and challenges, which reaffirmed the United Nations coordinating and leading role in establishing a cohesive and effective response to such threats. Another resolution, on the safety and security of humanitarian workers and protection of United Nations personnel, expressed the Assembly's deep concern that threats against relief workers had escalated alarmingly, and urged all States to take the necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of United Nations and other humanitarian personnel and to ensure respect for the inviolability of United Nations premises.
Concerned about the seriousness of the problems and threats graft posed to the stability and security of societies, undermining the institutions and values of democracy, ethical values and justice, the Assembly also unanimously adopted the United Nations Convention against Corruption and opened it for signature at the High-level Political Signing Conference, which was held in Merida, Mexico, from 9 to 11 December. A highlight among the several measures adopted on Africa was the Assembly's designation of 7 April 2004 International Day of Reflection to commemorate the victims of the tragic Rwanda genocide.
The Assembly's session was also marked by several high-level events and special meetings. Just ahead of the general debate, the Assembly convened a ministerial-level meeting on HIV/AIDS to review the Secretary-General's second progress report on worldwide efforts to implement the Assembly's 2001 Declaration of Commitment to turn back the pandemic. Mr. Annan set the stage for the day-long debate with a sobering observation: at the current rate of progress, none of the agreed targets would be achieved by 2005, he said, calling on the international community to drastically increase its efforts against the disease - a necessary step if there was to be any hope of reducing the scale and impact of the epidemic.
Aiming to re-energize the global community's focus on issues relating to trade, aid, debt, investment and the international financial architecture, the Assembly also convened a two-day High-level Dialogue for the implementation of the outcome of the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico.
Opening the event, Assembly President Hunte recalled the adoption of the Monterrey Consensus at that conference and emphasized the need to advance the development agenda, so that the international community could systematically and strategically plan for further effective action, based on the commitments made at Monterrey.
Three times during this substantive part of the Assembly's session, Arab delegations called for the resumption of the body's long-running emergency special session on illegal Israeli practices in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied territories. The first meeting, on 19 September, was called by the Arab Group and non-aligned countries following the United States veto in the Security Council of a text demanding that Israel not threaten to deport or threaten the safety of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The Assembly overwhelmingly approved a similar text by a vote of 133 in favour to 4 against (Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, United States), with 15 abstentions.
Again citing the Security Council's "failure to act" on serious issues of international peace and security - prompted by the United States veto of an Arab-led resolution which would have declared illegal thesecurity barrier being built by Israel in the West Bank - delegations called for another resumed emergency special session in late October.
The Assembly subsequently adopted a measure demanding that Israel stop and reverse construction of the wall being built in the West Bank by a vote of 144 in favour to 4 against (Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, United States), with 12 abstentions.
Following the release of the Secretary-General's report which said that Israel was not in compliance with the Assembly's demand that it halt construction of the barrier and take it down, delegations called for another resumed session. The Assembly adopted a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's construction of a separation barrier in the West Bank by a vote of 90 in favour to 8 against (Australia, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, United States), with 74 abstentions.
First Committee
With the dangers of proliferation and the possible use of nuclear weapons again commanding world attention, the General Assembly appealed for progress in nuclear disarmament and in addressing the risk that non-State actors might one day acquire mass destruction weapons, through the adoption of 52 resolutions and decisions of its First Committee (Disarmament and International Security).
A recorded vote was taken on 23 of the texts, plus separate votes on specific provisions. Many votes were related to the pace and path of nuclear disarmament, as well as the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free southern hemisphere, reducing nuclear danger and preventing an outer space arms race. Texts involving conventional arms control at the regional and subregional levels and the role of science and technology in international security and disarmament also drew votes.
The voting pattern again reflected general agreement on the fundamental disarmament and non-proliferation goals, with substantial disagreements remaining on the ways to achieve them.
Speakers in the Committee's general debate highlighted a "crisis of confidence" in collective security, and years of "disappointing drift and growing irrelevance", with too many nations still orienting themselves by the anachronistic coordinates of cold-war thinking, they said. Concern was also expressed that nuclear disarmament was being given "lip service", while the nuclear-weapon States had displayed no intention of giving up their nuclear weapons.
At the same time, the announced withdrawal of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was seen as a "bitter setback" to universalizing that nuclear-free enterprise. Similarly discouraging, the Committee was told, was that States continued to "sacrifice their treasure to the false gods of nuclear armaments at the cost of human development"; the sooner nuclear arms were added to the "WMD scrap heap", the better.
The Assembly, concerned about the proliferation risk of non-strategic nuclear weapons and of their early, pre-emptive, unauthorized use, stressed the need for the nuclear-weapon States that possessed such weapons not to increase the number or types deployed and not to develop new types or rationalizations for their use.
Under a wide-ranging resolution aimed at formulating a new agenda towards a nuclear-weapon-free world, the Assembly called on States to refrain from any action that could lead to a new nuclear arms race or that could negatively impact nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and to fulfil all their obligations under international treaties and law in the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation field.
Expressing deep concern at the growing risk of linkages between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, particularly at the fact that terrorists might seek to acquire those weapons, it urged Member States to take and strengthen national measures to prevent terrorists from acquiring mass destruction weapons, their delivery means and materials and technologies related to their manufacture.
According to a new text, the Assembly expressed grave concern over both existing threats to international peace and security and new threats that had become manifest in the post-11 September 2001 period, and asked the Secretary-General, within existing resources, to seek the views of Member States on the issue of improving the effectives and methods of work of the First Committee.
In the conventional weapons sphere, the Secretary-General was asked to undertake preparations to convene the First Review Conference of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Ottawa Convention), from 19 November to 3 December 2004.
Action was postponed on a first review conference in 2006, and the series of preparatory meetings to precede it, of the Programme of Action in the illicit small arms trade, pending a decision by the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on the budget implications.
Through the adoption of a further resolution, the Assembly decided to adapt the scope of the Register of Conventional Arms in conformity with the recommendations contained in the 2003 report of the Secretary-General, ensuing from the consensus report of the 2003 Group of Governmental Experts. In so doing, Man-Portable Air-Defence Systems (MANPADS) would now be included within the scope of the Register.
Agreement among the experts to include MANPADS had been facilitated by heightened concerns following the 11 September 2001 events about such weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, particularly in light of recent reports of attempts by groups to acquire and use them against commercial airliners. It was agreed that transparency in the transfer of MANPADS was an essential element in broad-based international efforts to prevent their illicit transfers.
(The Register is a voluntary reporting instrument on the international transfers of major conventional arms, such as battle tanks, large-calibre artillery systems, armoured combat vehicles, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and launchers.)
In closing remarks on 6 November, the Committee Chairman, Jarmo Sareva (Finland), said that the Committee had "a lot of untapped potential", as an integral part of a global norm-building process for the international security agenda. While its resolutions lacked the force of treaties, they could strengthen the rule of law governing the control and elimination of the most dangerous weapons, and identify requirements and gauge readiness for new norms. The Committee also set priorities for collective action among Member States.
The other members of the Bureau were: Anouar Ben Youssef (Tunisia), Suriya Chindawongse (Thailand), and Ionut Suseanu (Romania), Vice Chairmen; and Miguel Carbo (Ecuador), Rapporteur.
Second Committee
Financing for development was a major focus of this year's session of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial), with delegates stressing the need to expand trade, increase official development assistance (ODA), relieve external debt, and reform the international financial system.
Meeting in the shadow of the failed World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Cancun, Mexico, speakers repeatedly emphasized the urgent need to resume and successfully conclude the Doha development agenda.
Developing countries desperately needed increased market access, reduced tariffs, and the reduction or elimination of developed country agricultural subsidies.
Agricultural trade alone would produce benefits of $400 billion by 2015, they pointed out, exceeding those promised by ODA and private funding.
But subsidies were having a disastrous effect on the price and demand for developing country agricultural exports, particularly cotton, which supported more than 10 million people in West Africa alone. Unless subsidies were eliminated, any progress developing countries had made could disappear.
With trade limited, ODA and foreign direct investment, which had steadily dropped in recent years, were vital for development, as was debt relief, delegates said. Many governments were spending more than half their budgets on debt servicing, and were unable to plough money into development or vitally needed social programmes. The Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative had made some progress, but covered a mere fraction of unsustainable debt, and was fraught with difficult eligibility requirements.
Adding to those woes, globalization had failed to benefit developing countries, exposing them instead to financial instability and volatility in international capital flows. Addressing one of several panel discussions during the session, well known Princeton economist Paul Krugman stressed that the international community must adopt a more human approach to globalization, linking it with policies to help the poor, boost employment and develop new sectors for trade.
Barred from the markets and other advantages of developed nations, South-South cooperation could help spur development, noted Anwarul Chowdhury, Under-Secretary General and High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. Such cooperation could bring low-interest funds, joint ventures, increased market access, foreign direct investment, reduced transport costs and training in project planning and management.
In several meetings devoted to environment and sustainable development, speakers emphasized the urgent need to implement international conventions tackling disaster reduction, desertification biodiversity, and climate change. Stressing that climate change was a particular hazard for small island developing States (SIDS), where rising sea levels were threatening their very survival, they urged nations to contribute generously to the SIDS meeting next year in Mauritius.
Discussions during the session also focused on the vital role of women in development, the value of microcredit in creating jobs, raising household incomes and improving living standards, and the key role information and communication technologies played in boosting productivity and economic growth. Delegates also urged countries to implement the outcomes of various conferences and summits, including the Brussels Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries, and the Almaty Programme of Action for transit and transport cooperation in landlocked and transit developing countries.
Departing from its usual agenda, the Committee held six panel discussions during the session, in such development-related areas as international taxation; partnerships; microcredit; globalization; corporate responsibility; and trade.
Among 37 draft texts the Committee approved this year, several focused on the key areas of trade, commodities, external debt, science and technology, the international financial system, and globalization.
Three drafts were approved in recorded actions, including one on the permanent sovereignty of Arab populations in the occupied Palestinian and Golan territories over their natural resources. Among new proposals was a draft to transform the World Tourism Organization, an intergovernmental body, into a specialized United Nations agency.
The Second Committee's officers were Iftekar Chowdhury (Bangladesh), Chairperson; Ulrika Cronenberg-Mossberg (Sweden), Henri Stephan Raubenheimer (South Africa) and Irena Zubcevic (Croatia), Vice-Chairpersons; and Jose Alberto Briz Gutierrez (Guatemala), Rapporteur.United Nations:
