Opening remarks by
H.E. MR. HARRI HOLKERI
President of the General Assembly
at the General Committee
informal brainstorming session
13 February 2001
I declare open the informal brainstorming session on improving the working methods
of the General Assembly.
I would like to point out that as this is an informal meeting, no records are
being kept. This should enable a constructive and open discussion. However,
we have full interpretation to allow for a full exchange of views on this very
important issue.
I should also like to point out that at the back of the room there are additional
copies of a non-paper called 'talking points', prepared with the assistance
of Ambassador Valdes from Chile, who has kindly accepted to assist as facilitator
in this process.
Some of you might have wondered why I have launched this issue in the General
Committee. Well, after all this is a Committee to assist the President in conducting
the work of the Assembly, as stated in the rules of procedure. Furthermore,
I see it also as my 'bureau', similar to that of other bodies such as the ECOSOC
bureau which regularly discusses issues related to reform. But in order to avoid
any doubts that Member States may have, I decided to initiate this "brainstorming"
discussion in an informal session open to all members.
Since I took up my office last September, I have addressed the question of improving
the working methods of the Assembly on many occasions. I have taken up the issue
several times with the chairs of the regional groups and asked them to inform
their respective members about my ideas on how to continue this process.
I have addressed this issue also in some of my statements, including one at
the Forum of Small States on 15 November 2000 and in a speech in Indonesia on
17 January.
The response I have received has been encouraging, so I have continued my efforts
to bring this process forward.
There was a broad recognition by Member States at the Millennium Summit and
in the general debate that the UN needs to be strengthened.
As President of the General Assembly, I feel it is my duty to continue the process
of reform and this is also in accordance with the mandate given by the Summit.
I think that one way to do this is to start by practical steps, as we did in
adopting resolution 55/14 on November 3, 2000, when we agreed on the opening
and closing dates of regular sessions. It was a small step, but in my view it
added clarity and predictability to our work.
In approaching the issue of reform and strengthening of the UN, I believe we
need to start by looking at how well we have implemented the resolutions already
adopted.
So I would suggest to you that we start by focusing on reviewing the implementation
of already existing General Assembly resolutions in this regard, such as 51/241
and 48/264 and their annexes. Considerable progress has been done since the
adoption of these resolutions in 1994 and 1997, and we should continue our efforts.
This does not mean in any way that we should not discuss and explore new ideas
on how to strengthen the UN system and in particular the General Assembly as
the chief policy-making and deliberative body of the UN. And I welcome any comments
or suggestions in this regard.
Once again I would like to invite Member States to discuss the issue of how
to improve General Assembly working methods. This is the reason why I have convened
this informal 'brainstorming' session of the General Committee open to all delegations.
After this brainstorming session I would propose that the issue be discussed
in the informals of the plenary.
The aim of this exercise is to better enable the UN to fulfill the purposes
and principles of the Charter and to meet the aspirations of its Members.
It should focus on improving the capacity of the General Assembly to discharge
effectively its functions, role and powers and that of the Secretariat to carry
out effectively and efficiently the mandates of intergovernmental processes
with the necessary transparency and accountability.
I look forward to a fruitful and lively discussion.