SecCo report to GA/Palestine question – GA debate – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly
Sixty-third session

54th plenary meeting
Tuesday, 18 November 2008, 3 p.m. 
New York

    In the absence of the President, Mr. Salgueiro (Portugal), Vice-President, took the Chair.

The meeting was called to order at 3.10 p.m.

Agenda items 9 and 111 (continued )

Report of the Security Council (A/63/2)

    Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and related matters

/…

 Mr. Mansour (Tunisia) (spoke in French ): …

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  My delegation recognizes the significant volume of work carried out by the Security Council in the period covered by the report and in particular concerning hotbeds of tension in Africa and other regions of the world. We also take note of the field visits carried out by members of the Council so as to better appraise situations affecting international peace and security and requiring urgent action by the Council.

  In short, the consideration of the report of the Security Council shows that that body has acted resolutely to address a large number of conflicts around the world, and this is likely to strengthen the authority and the role of the body in the maintenance of international peace and security.

  However, the efforts of the Council still fall short of expectations in the Middle East. Frustration with the repeated inability of the Council to get further involved in settling the Palestinian question and in honouring its responsibilities in this area casts a threatening shadow over the region and reflects poorly on the authority of the Council itself.

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  Mr. Benmehidi (Algeria) (spoke in French ): …

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  As we commemorate this year the sixtieth anniversary of Al-Nakba, which has condemned the majority of Palestinians to exile since 1948, the Security Council to date has not managed to redress this historical injustice and provide for the implementation of its resolutions on Palestine and the Middle East. This is the largest failure of the Council and of the United Nations in general since its establishment.

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 Mr. Sajjadi (Islamic Republic of Iran): …

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  Impartiality, transparency, accountability and fairness are the key requirements on which the Security Council should base its approach to discharging its Charter-mandated responsibilities. To increase the transparency of its work and improve its working methods, the Council should seriously take into consideration the relevant provisions of the Charter as well as the resolutions which clarify its relationship with the General Assembly and other organs of the United Nations.

  One more year has elapsed with no significant improvements in those vital areas I have just enumerated. Moreover, the reporting practice of the Security Council and the contents of its report remain as in the past. The report at hand, like those of previous years, refers only to cases where the Council has taken action while it clearly fails to address the Council’s inaction in cases where it should have acted promptly. The crimes committed against the Palestinian people by the Israeli regime, which remains the most serious threat posed to regional and international peace and security, are examples of the Council’s failure to act.

/…

  The meeting rose at 6.15 p.m.

This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room C-154A. Corrections will be issued after the end of the session in a consolidated corrigendum.