20 November 2008
“We now come face to face with concrete proposals that will enable us to reassert the Assembly’s responsibilities as the chief deliberative, policy-making and representative organ of the United Nations in the months ahead.

"As you know, the democratization of the United Nations is the overarching priority of my presidency. I believe we need to take radical steps to regain the authority of the General Assembly so that it can perform its duties as the most democratic organ of the United Nations.

"We are certainly the most representative body of the international system. But I don’t think we can say we are the most democratic.

"Yes, each Member State has a vote in the Assembly, and this is what makes it unique within the international community. But until the Assembly restores the authority assigned to it under the Charter, our democracy will fall short of exercising the real leadership that the world requires at this juncture in history. It is imperative to reestablish the balance among the principle organs of our Organization and to ensure that the powers assigned to each in the Charter are fully respected. This is what I see as the ultimate goal of this process of revitalization."
On the Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly

18 November 2008
“As you all know, this summer the historic renovation of the UN building got underway under the Capital Master Plan. Asbestos, bad lighting, faulty ventilation, leaky roofs, inadequate security and dated décor. Just like the building, the institutions are also in desperate need of an overhaul – that is the real master plan. Today, we don hard hats and gleaming new shovels – I am ready to break ground. We are all ready to break ground. We are ready to assume our responsibilities and make the most out of our historic opportunity to democratize the Security Council.

...

"Each and every one of us stands to gain. Peace and security cannot be maintained by a Security Council that is out of date and out of touch. Let our reform effort therefore not run out of time: a better Council cannot wait until tomorrow, if we want to have a better tomorrow.

...

"As long as the Council remains unreformed, however, we need to make an extra effort to hold it to account. Today, the General Assembly has that opportunity and I have beforehand encouraged Member States to especially use this debate to take advantage of it.”
On Security Council reform and on the Security Council report

29 September 2008
“We have agreed to hold three thematic debates around the importance of democratization, not only of the Security Council, but of the Bretton Woods and other international financial institutions.
All of these relate to the General Assembly, the most representative body in the world. We must restore the authority to the Assembly that was intended in the Charter. We must give meaning to the concept of the sovereign equality of all Member States proclaimed by the Charter.

"If we do not have democratic rule at the United Nations, how can we demand it for the rest of the world? “
Remarks at the closing of the General Debate of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly

23 September 2008
"The decisions with the most serious consequences for the membership do not go through the General Assembly. In any event, the resolutions of the General Assembly — that is, of the representatives of ‘we the peoples,’ in whose name our Organization was founded — are regarded as mere recommendations that are casually ignored even though they represent the wishes of 95 per cent of the Organization's Members.”
Remarks at the opening of the General Debate

16 September 2008
“It is ... imperative that we deal with the root causes that limit the institutional capacity of our own General Assembly, such as:
• (a) non-observance of the principles and standards laid down in the United Nations Charter;
• (b) the growing tendency to deprive this General Assembly of any real power;
• (c) the reduction of the Economic and Social Council to a peripheral body; and
• (d) the transfer of ever more power to the Security Council and the Bretton Woods institutions, as well as other international finance and trade institutions in general.

"In other words, it is precisely in the lack of democracy within our Organization where we find the most profound cause for the most serious problems in our world today.

"...[It] has become imperative to hold a High-level Dialogue on the Democratization of the United Nations. At this sixty-third session of the General Assembly, we will hold this dialogue in three five-day sessions.

"The first session will concern the indispensable coordination of the Bretton Woods and other international finance and commerce institutions with the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly.

...

"The second session of this High-level Dialogue of the General Assembly will be devoted to a discussion of the revitalization and empowerment of the Assembly itself through the transfer to this body of the power wrongly accumulated in the Security Council, the Bretton Woods institutions and even, believe it or not, in the bureaucracy of our Organization.

...

"[We] must wholeheartedly embrace the universal call for a strengthened and empowered General Assembly, which can only be achieved through the democratization of the United Nations. We know that fighting the powers that be has never been easy, but we also know that the future of the United Nations will depend on our success in the struggle for its democratization — that is, our capacity to persuade some of the powerful to free themselves of their unbridled ambition for more and more power, at the expense of the majority.

...

"[T]he General Assembly should become more proactive and its resolutions should be binding. The idea that the clear and unequivocal voice of ‘We the peoples’ should be regarded as a mere recommendation with no binding power should be buried forever in our anti-democratic past.

"The third and final session of the High-level Dialogue on the Democratization of the United Nations will be devoted to a frank discussion of the Security Council.

"Many areas of the United Nations system are in urgent need of attention, but chief among them is the Security Council. It is a sad but undeniable fact that serious breaches of the peace and threats to international peace and security are being perpetrated by some members of the Security Council that seem unable to break what appears like an addiction to war.

...

"As difficult as it is, solving the problem of the Security Council is a challenge we have to take up. I am well aware that by saying this I am stirring up a hornets’ nest. But even hornets can be managed successfully if due precautions are taken.”
Opening statement upon assuming the presidency of the 63rd session of the General Assembly