Work of the General Assembly – GA debate – Verbatim record

Official Records

General Assembly
Sixty-fourth session

48th plenary meeting
Thursday, 19 November 2009, 10 a.m.
New York

President:  Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki …………………………………… (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)

  In the absence of the President, Mr. Tommo Monthe (Cameroon), Vice-President, took the Chair .

    The meeting was called to order at 10.20 a.m.

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Agenda item 118

Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly

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  Mr. Abdelaziz (Egypt): …

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  In this regard, allow me to highlight some additional important points, which were reflected in the final document adopted by the fifteenth Non-Aligned Movement Summit, held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in July 2009, and some other points we deem necessary for the success of the process of revitalizing the General Assembly.

  First, the General Assembly should take appropriate and concrete measures, in accordance with the United Nations Charter, in instances wherein the Security Council fails to address cases involving genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or breaches of ceasefire between belligerent parties, in fulfilment of its primary responsibility. Moreover, the Assembly should identify measures to simplify the Uniting for Peace process to enable swifter and more urgent action by the Assembly, in recognition of its role on issues relating to international peace and security, as set out in the Charter.

  Second, the General Assembly should maintain its role and mandate in setting the priorities of the United Nations in considering all budgetary and administrative issues and reforms, including its absolute authority to allocate and reallocate financial and human resources and in the appointment of senior officials of the Secretariat in accordance with the Charter and the relevant Assembly resolutions. In this regard, prerogatives of the Assembly, as the chief oversight organ of the Organization, including on management and procurement for peacekeeping operations, must be respected.

  Third, the General Assembly should actively undertake its role in the maintenance of international peace and security, as stipulated in Articles 10 to 14 and Article 35 of the United Nations Charter, as well as using, where appropriate, the procedures set forth in rules 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the rules of procedure of the Assembly, which enable swift and urgent action by the Assembly, bearing in mind that the Security Council has the primary — but not the only — responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. The adoption of resolution 63/301 on the situation in Honduras and of resolution 64/10 on the follow-up to the report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict are clear illustrations of the ability of the Assembly to take action on issues that fall within the purview of the maintenance of international peace and security. This trend by the Assembly should be enhanced, further solidified and even developed in all similar cases relating to the maintenance of peace and security, particularly in cases where the Security Council has failed in achieving peace and security, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. We encourage the President of the Assembly to hold many thematic debates on these issues and on other issues of concern to the larger membership of the Organization with a view to adopting the necessary resolutions.

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    Mr. Le Roux (South Africa): …

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 My delegation will continue to actively participate in the deliberations of the Ad Hoc Working Group, with the aim of making the General Assembly more transparent and responsive. As parliament of the world, the Assembly must be able to respond and address issues of concern that affect the whole world.

  In this regard, my delegation acknowledges with satisfaction the Assembly’s thematic discussions in its previous session, most notably at the high-level meeting on the world economic crisis held in June 2009. We have also noted that the Assembly took action on matters relating to international peace and security, as mandated by the Charter, at its sixty-third session; when it resumed its tenth emergency special session, pursuant to “Uniting for Peace” (resolution 377 (V)), to discuss the grave developments in Gaza; and when it took swift action to address the unconstitutional change of government in Honduras.

  In spite of those developments, we firmly hold the opinion that measures should be discussed and adopted to enhance the effectiveness of the General Assembly, especially regarding its role in maintaining international peace and security.

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  Mrs. Rubiales de Chamarro (Nicaragua) (spoke in Spanish ): …

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  Similarly, we welcome the timely and decisive adoption of resolution 63/301, concerning the situation in Honduras, which illustrated the fact that the Assembly is attuned to issues of international relevance. It also constituted an important example of the role that the Assembly can and should play in the maintenance of international peace and security.

  An additional example in that regard was the speedy action by the Assembly’s presidency during the sixty-third session in the face of the impasse in which the Security Council found itself during the Israeli invasion of Gaza. We would also like to commend the President’s swift response to the request of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Palestinian people to hold a special debate during the sixty-fourth session to take up the Goldstone report (A/HRC/12/48).

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The meeting rose at 1 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 U-506. Corrections will be issued after the end of the session in a consolidated corrigendum.