UN Chronicle: Issue 4, 2000: Second Committee: United and flying high

Although the issue of globalization and its effects continued to be the most intensely discussed subject in the Second Committee, in the end, whether it was the world agenda on sustainable development, combating poverty, bridging the digital divide or financing for development, the common denominator of the 35 resolutions passed by the Committee was that the commitment of the international community is most crucial in dealing with transnational problems.

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The matter is best summed up by Eduardo Galvez, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Chile. Invoking the image of an albatross flying high in elegant circles against a clear blue sky over the sea, he perceives the role of the United Nations as that naturally of the custodian of fundamental values of solidarity and international cooperation. The world body, Mr. Galvez said, is like an albatross whose majesty is most evident when it is high in the sky, and ugly and clumsy when it is forced to walk on earth.

He first used this metaphor to rally delegates to an earlier informal meeting on the preparations for the High-level International Intergovernmental Event on Financing for Development. The meeting had been bogged down on procedural issues, and concerns had been raised about the utility of another United Nations conference. Mr. Galvez urged his colleagues to stand up for the ideals of human solidarity and equitable distribution of wealth, instead of only defending the interests of the States they represented. It resonates with what the Chairman of the Second Committee, Alexandru Niculescu of Romania, calls a “verification of multilateralism in the face of the challenges of globalization”.

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These are big words and major problems. As in the broader arena, the issue of globalization as debated in the Committee took on cultural, political and other connotations, in addition to an economic one, which ranges from the broadest sense—such as another name for capitalism—to the narrower ones of international trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and the flow of capital. One of the responses to the downsides of globalization was the fifty-fourth General Assembly’s decision to convene a high-level intergovernmental meeting on finance and development. Asda Jayanama, Thailand’s Ambassador to the United Nations and a co-chair of the Preparatory Committee for the event, told the Chronicle that the matter had been discussed in the Assembly for many years, but the 1997 financial crisis in Asia that spread to other parts of the world “forced the issue”.

The event will address development through the perspective of finance, as well as the mobilization of financial resources for the full implementation of the outcome of the major United Nations conferences and summits of the 1990s. Although he cautiously reminded that the agenda of the event is still evolving, Mr. Asda said that the likely topics of discussion would include: mobilization of domestic financial resources for development; mobilizing international resources for development such as FDI and other private flows; trade; official development assistance (ODA); debt; and systemic issues such as the world financial architecture and monetary system. Depending on the level of development and type of economy a country has, delegates would be able to focus on issues that interest them.

Since the General Assembly requested the Preparatory Committee to consider innovative ways and mechanisms to engage active involvement of all relevant stakeholders in the preparatory process as well as in the event, the Committee established special working relationships with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. Two public hearings have also been conducted: one for civil society and one for the private sector.

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Ambassador Jorgen Bojer of Denmark, who is the other co-chair of the Preparatory Committee, told the Chronicle that he hoped that by sharing experiences, the most important contribution of this high-level meeting would be to create “a larger body of common analysis and opinion in what works in development” in order to achieve the right political motivation for action in the years following the event.

“For example, it must be recognized that ODA can never be the primary source for financing for development. The volume will always be limited compared to what comes from the countries themselves from private transactions and trade. Once we realize this limitation, we can identify the important areas for which ODA is essential, since some countries do not attract private flows or domestic resources. So, by putting ODA in the right context—that is its limitation and necessity—we hope we can increase the advocacy for ODA,” said Ambassador Bojer.

On the role of Governments in globalization, he said it was a challenge to strike the right balance between leaving freedom for economic exchanges and foreign transactions, and still allow Governments and intergovernmental organizations their necessary role in mitigating the effects of free market forces. He stressed that “it’s important to promote development, but if the outcome of that development is not distributed in a way that takes into account social consequences, then it’s not satisfactory and that requires the role of the Government”.

Upon the Second Committee’s recommendation, the Assembly decided that the high-level international intergovernmental event on financing for development should be scheduled for the first quarter of 2002. It also extended its invitation to interested countries to host the event. A number of delegates who have spoken to the Chronicle indicated a preference for holding it in a developing country.

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Discussions took place on two other global conferences: the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries and the 10-year review of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro). The Assembly decided to organize the review in 2002 at the summit level in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Summit, nicknamed Rio+10, will assess the current state of progress and examine the obstacles preventing the implementations of the Rio Agreement. It will seek to adopt time-bound measures, including institutional and financial requirements, to overcome those obstacles and address new issues that have emerged since the 1992 Summit.

Preliminary assessments made in 1997 for the Rio+5 special session of the General Assembly concluded that “business-as-usual” was not likely to result in sustainable development. Reports pointed to some progress, such as a slowdown in world population growth, a rise in food production and life expectancy, improvements in environmental quality in some regions, and steps by many Governments to conserve natural resources. However, this was tempered by major negative trends, including a growing scarcity of fresh water, loss of productive agricultural land, forests and biodiversity, and a downward spiral of poverty for many people.

For the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries(LDCs), the Assembly decided to convene the second session of the Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee, from 5 to 9 February 2001 in New York, to undertake the first formal reading of the draft programme of action.

“Even in stable times, LDCs need help in improving national capacity-building. In a crisis, we are very fragile.”
—Saleumxay Kommasith, Second Secretary
Permanent Mission of Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Saleumxay Kommasith, Second Secretary of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s Permanent Mission to the UN, in an interview with the Chronicle, said he thought the implementation of plans from the First and Second Conferences on LDCs were lacking, especially when it was coupled with the decline in ODA. However, he has seen signs of improvement during the preparatory process for the Third Conference and expects more tangible benefits this time around. Nevertheless, Mr. Saleumxay stressed that there were two important issues that needed to be addressed, namely, getting donor countries to commit 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to ODA programmes, and creating a mechanism to monitor and ensure a conducive global economic environment. “Even in stable times, LDCs need help in improving national capacity-building. In a crisis, we are very fragile”, he said. Laos’ GDP growth was shaved off by 3 per cent as a result of the 1997 financial crisis.

According to Mr. Bojer, Denmark’s ODA is a little over 1 per cent of its GDP, making it one of the very few countries able to reach the 0.7 per cent target. The reason the country was able to succeed in getting good public backing, he said, was because the programmes showed that ODA worked and was being responsibly spent. He also emphasized that it helped that “our own society, to a large extent, is based on the sense of solidarity”, and noted that it would help if other countries follow this example. “It does get difficult over the years to be at the top of the list”, he said.

The Conference will be held in Brussels from 13 to 20 May 2001. Currently, 48 countries, with a combined population of 610.5 million—equivalent to 10.2 per cent of the world population—are identified as “least developed countries”.

There were three resolutions adopted by the General Assembly on further implementation of the outcome of past global conferences. In a text on the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, the Assembly called on Member States and relevant United Nations organs and agencies to support the efforts of those States in the implementation of the Programme of Action, through the provision of adequate technical and financial resources.

Two related texts dealt with the review and appraisal of the implementation of the outcome of the United Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II). The Assembly decided that a special session would be held from 6 to 8 June 2001 at UN Headquarters. In adopting a resolution on the status of preparations for the 2002 International Year of Mountains, the Assembly encouraged all States, the United Nations system and all other actors to increase awareness of mountain ecosystems. Similarly, the Assembly proclaimed 2003 as the International Year of Freshwater.

The Assembly decided to establish the United Nations System Staff College, as of 1 January 2001, after the approval of its statute. The basic mission of the College is to nurture innovation and a common management culture throughout the United Nations system. In his statement welcoming the adoption of this resolution, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said “ the global challenges facing the system increasingly call for new, concerted responses cutting across the areas of competence of individual United Nations organizations and agencies. By providing a common, modern instrument for system-wide learning, the College will greatly strengthen the capacity of staff to be agents of change and to meet these challenges in an effective and cohesive way.”

The only text recommended by the Second Committee that was adopted by a recorded vote called on Israel, the occupying Power, not to exploit, cause the loss to or the depletion of or to endanger the natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan. The Assembly adopted the resolution by a vote of 147 to 2 (Israel, United States), with 3 abstentions (Fiji, Marshall Islands, Nauru).

Asked to comment on signs of weariness of United Nations conferences, Mauricio Escanero, Minister of the Permanent Mission of Mexico, told the Chronicle a story of the time when he attended the Earth Summit. At the end of that historic forum, the then 34-year-old Escanero had asked a veteran diplomat what he thought had been achieved. “He said, ‘look at me son. I’m talking about the environment and sustainable development. They were never in my vocabulary before’.”

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