By Mie Hansen, 27 September 2011
Even before heads of state from around the world gathered last week at UN headquarters in New York for the opening of the 66th annual session of the UN General Assembly, the world’s main deliberative body, continuation of the ongoing negotiations to make the Assembly more effective, efficient and relevant were assured for yet another year. Member States have been discussing the “Revitalization of the General Assembly” for the past twenty years, but according to some critics only minor improvements have been made, leaving deep-seated reforms untouched. Even though all Member States seem to agree that reform of the Assembly is vital, recent developments confirm that it is still very difficult to reach an agreement on what should be done.
Revitalization of the General Assembly during the 65th GA session
With the adoption by the Assembly of the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Revitalization of the General Assembly (A/65/909) and the draft resolution contained in paragraph 90 of the report, on 12 September 2011, it was decided to continue the work of revitalizing the GA during its 66th consecutive session.
The Ad Hoc Working Group co-chaired by Ambassador Dalius Cekuolis of Lithuania and Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, held six official meetings during the 65th GA session. The first meeting held on 14 March 2011 included a general debate and an exchange of views among the Member States. (Statements available from the meeting: India,Pakistan, Algeria on behalf of NAM, Hungary on behalf of the EU).
Four Thematic Meetings, Each With a Specific Focus Were Then Held As Follows:
• 13 April 2011: “The role and authority of the General Assembly and its relationship to the other principal organs of the Organization and other groups outside the United Nations”. (Statements available from the meeting: PGA Mr. Joseph Deiss, Algeria (NAM), Hungary (EU), India)
• 28 April 2011: “Implementation of General Assembly resolutions and the agenda: working methods of the GA, operational and technical issues including information on the GA voting system, in the framework of the capital master plan.” (Statements available from the meeting: Hungary (EU), Algeria (NAM), India)
• May 17 2011: “The role and responsibility of the GA in the process of selecting and appointing Secretaries-General of the UN and selection of other executive Heads in the UN system organizations”. (Statements available from the meeting:Algeria (NAM), Singapore, India)
• May 25 2011: “The functions of the Office of the President of the GA including strengthening its institutional memory and its relations with the Secretariat” (Statements available from the meeting: Pakistan, Algeria (NAM), EU, and India)
Postponing decisions
The thematic meetings were once again characterized by disagreement between the Member States on what is important in the process of Revitalizing the General Assembly: Generally speaking, delegates from the global North tend to see Revitalization as a merely procedural question and focus on practical improvements that can be made in GA procedures and operations, while delegates from the South first and foremost see it as a political process whose principal objective should be to strengthen the role of the Assembly as the main deliberative body of the UN, and resist what they call the “encroachment” by the Security Council on the work of the General Assembly.
After the conclusion of the thematic meetings, the Co-Chairs consulted with the Member States in order to prepare a report and draft resolution on the Revitalization of the General Assembly during the 65th GA session, which were adopted by the Ad Hoc Working Group at its last meeting on 29 July 2011. As noted earlier, they were then adopted by the Assembly on 12 September 2011, which moved the process of Revitalization into the 66th GA session.
In conclusion
Although division between the Member States on what needs to be included in GA Revitalization continues to slow down the reform process in regard to some of its more vital aspects, both Ambassador ?ekuolis and Ambassador Gonsalves, stressed at the last meeting of the Ad Hoc group in July that progress has been made during their chairmanship. They also stressed, however, that Revitalization is an “ongoing process” which in the future will require the attention of the Member States.
