Secretary-General's Press Encounter Before Security Council Monthly Luncheon

SG: I discussed with them the urgency of making progress on the reform front, making a balanced projected movement forward on the Peace Building Commission, on human rights, on the management issue and on the development issue. I think all of them agree that there is an urgent need for progress, and that it can be done, and that we should do whatever we can to respect the Outcome Document, which was endorsed by Heads of States and produce the Peace Building Commission by the end of the year, and then move on to the Human Rights Commission. On the management reform, I have put forward quite a few proposals, which I expect the Member States to endorse. They will begin discussing them next Tuesday, which would also show some movement on that track.

On the question of budget, I have made it clear that as an organization with ongoing activities and in the middle of implementing mandates, which have been approved by these Member States themselves, we need to have a budget to continue our work whilst we press ahead with reform. I think they all agree that we do have several problems. There is a political problem to deal with. There is a budgetary problem, and of course there is the question of effective reform and the pace of reform. At the end, everyone agreed that a budget is needed, and we must have a budget, but at the same time we should find some means of maintaining the pressure for reform on so that one doesn't believe that we have got the budget and we have nothing else to do.

Q: How significant is the [Security] Council agreement on Burma this morning? And will you give the briefing?

SG: If the Council has asked for a briefing from the Secretariat, I will arrange for a briefing to be given.

Q: Are you personally going to be mediating some of the thorny issues, for example, on the Human Rights Council –the two thirds or one third; how many members –are you going to get in there and really mediate those things?

SG: I would encourage the Member States to resolve these differences and move forward. They will have to resolve them but I will try to work with them to encourage them.

Q: Any comment on the cancellation of the trip to Asia?

Q: I think I made it clear that I stayed behind because we are entering a critical period in the budgetary process, and the reform process. I had expected things to have moved much further than we are, so I decided to stay on and work with the Member States through these problems.

Q: You've seen a lot in your tenure. Is this a crisis period, or are there crises looming ahead that you want to head off?

SG: Well, it is a difficult situation. I don't think we have reached a crisis point yet. The trick is to make sure that a difficult situation doesn't turn into a crisis one, and that is what I am working on. Thank you.