Concluding remarks
by
H.E. MR. HARRI HOLKERI
President of the General Assembly
At Informal/informals of the Plenary on revitalization of the General Assembly
Improving the efficiency of the General Assembly
17 May 2001
We have had a very good and constructive discussion and I would like to thank
all delegations for their contribution. This shows that there is willingness
to move forward in this process.
I was very pleased to note that there is an overall support to the approach
taken in the non-paper and he support for the urgent implementation of existing
resolutions in particular 51/242. We have taken due note of all comments and
the very useful suggestions made for its improvement.
It is my intention to continue consultations together with Ambassador Valdés.
The discussion has been very useful in showing where we need to have more intensive
consultations and interaction with Member states.
In order to facilitate our task I would like to ask for you co-operation in
the following manner:
Concerning the streamlining the agenda I would like to invite delegations to
take a serious look at the agenda and come forward in the coming days with possible
suggestions to me and Ambassador Valdés on where we could make progress in this
regard.
In particular I would like to ask the main sponsors, be they countries or groups
of countries to indicate to us whether any of those items that had been listed
in the non-paper for possible biennialization or triennialization or clustering
could be considered in this context. Or whether there are some other items that
could be considered in this regard.
I should add that we would of course appreciate all other suggestions on how
we could move forward on this issue.
Together with Ambassador Valdés we will try to improve the non-paper so that
next time when we meet we can start to look at the areas where we might take
concrete action in revitalizing and making the General Assembly more efficient.
Once again I would like to assure Member States that I will continue to work
in full transparency and openness in order to keep the whole membership involved.
Finally let me end with a positive note that I have sensed in our discussions:
we all share the common goal - to enable the General Assembly as the chief deliberative,
policy-making and representative body of the UN to play its role effectively.
You have showed that there is political will to move toward this goal.