11 October 2006
Consensus has not yet been reached on whether the Mandate Review process at the U.N. should move on to Phase II, namely beyond mandates older than five years and not renewed. Nor has agreement been reached on the guiding principles, enunciated in the Non-Paper on the way forward on Mandate Review, distributed on September 8th by the President of the 60th GA Jan Eliasson and presented by the Co-Chairs of the Informal Working Group, Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan and Ambassador David Cooney of Ireland.
On October 11th the meetings of the Informal Working Group on Mandate Review resumed after a month’s interruption. South Africa, on behalf of the G77 and NAM, stated that the guiding principles deserve further consideration and both groups have been holding meetings at the Ministerial level to this end. A primary concern voiced by the developing countries is that the smaller missions, already overstretched with their innumerous duties, will not be able to participate actively in the Review process and that important decisions on mandates will be taken without their contribution.
Finland, on behalf of the EU, declared its support for the guiding principles issued at the beginning of September and suggested that the Working Group should go ahead with reviewing mandates belonging to the humanitarian affairs cluster.
Japan and Australia also endorsed the guiding principles and declared that they are ready to move on to Phase II. Australia asked that a report be submitted on “lessons learned” by the working group and suggested that States submit a list of mandates to be reviewed according to clusters within a limited time framework to expedite the process. Australia also recommended that a system should be developed to inform Member States of existing mandates before new ones are adopted.
The Ambassador of Pakistan, H.E. Mr. Munir Akram, Co-Chair of the Informal Working Group, stated that the G77 and NAM were still examining the guidelines but asked the groups to expedite the process. He hoped that the examination of the guiding principles would be concluded soon since they have been distributed for quite some time. He declared that those guiding principles are indeed the best way to move forward in the Mandate Review process, if Member States can finally agree to do so. In this respect, he added that it was imperative to go ahead with the process as much as possible because Member States only have until December 2006, when the mandate for the Review itself will need to be reexamined. It is in light of this fact that Amb. Akram asked the G77 and NAM to let the process move forward. “We cannot just sit with our arms crossed until December,” he added.
The Ambassador of Ireland, H.E. Mr. David Cooney, Co-Chair of the Informal Working Group, reassured the G77 and NAM that Pakistan, in its role of Co-Chair of the Informal Working Group on Mandate Review, would pay the utmost attention to their concerns. He also noted that there is no intention to circumvent the smaller missions and that the process will move on by agreement or not at all.