GA/9089

GENERAL ASSEMBLY BEGINS FIFTY-FIRST SESSION

"As representatives of 185 Member States, we need to examine why we continue to fail in overcoming the narrow boundaries of our national interests, and neglect to deliver our promises of a better world", said Razali Ismail (Malaysia), newly elected President of the fifty-first session of the General Assembly, as the session began its work this afternoon.

Mr. Razali pointed out that the Assembly was beginning its fifty-first session without celebration but amidst criticism of the Organization's inability to respond adequately to international crises and faced with a financial crisis that threatened to cripple it. The fate of the Organization depended primarily on how much its Members were willing to invest in a viable Organization and what universal values were strongly held on to.

The reform process, he continued, must begin with finding a political consensus on what the United Nations should be and what it could do. It must embed itself in reality and push the critical issues, especially poverty and social injustice, to the centre of national and public debate.

Following the election of a new President, the Assembly elected its 21 Vice-Presidents and appointed nine members of the Credentials Committee. The Assembly's six Main Committees held brief consecutive meetings to elect their Chairmen.

The 21 Vice-Presidents of the Assembly are: Andorra, Angola, Bahamas, Burundi, China, Cyprus, France, Ghana, Honduras, Latvia, Libya, Niger, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Russian Federation, Sudan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.

The nine members appointed to the Credentials Committee were: China, Dominican Republic, Gabon, Netherlands, Paraguay, Philippines, Russian Federation, Sierra Leone and United States.

Also this afternoon, the Assembly's Main Committees held meetings to elect their Chairmen, as follows: Alyaksandr M. Sychou (Belarus), First Committee (Disarmament and International Security); Arjan P. Hamburger (Netherlands), Second Committee (Economic and Financial); Patricia Espinosa

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(Mexico), Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural); Alounkeo Kittikhoun (Lao People's Democratic Republic), Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization); Ngoni Francis Sengwe (Zimbabwe), Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary); and Ramon Escovar Salom (Venezuela), Sixth Committee (Legal).

At the beginning of the session, the Assembly observed a minute of silent prayer or meditation to mark the opening of a new session and to observe the International Day of Peace.

The Assembly's General Committee will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 18 September, to consider the organization of work of the current session.

Assembly Work Programme

The General Assembly met this afternoon to begin its fifty-first session with the election of a new President and 21 Vice-Presidents. Also to be elected are the Chairmen of the Assembly's six main committees.

The new President, Vice-Presidents and Committee Chairmen will comprise the Assembly's General Committee -- the body responsible for reviewing the session's provisional agenda and for making recommendations to the Assembly regarding inclusion of new items, the priority they should be accorded and their allocation to different committees.

In addition, the Assembly will appoint the Credentials Committee -- a committee of nine members appointed at the beginning of each session that examines the credentials of the representatives attending the session.

Statement by Assembly President

Following his election as President of the fifty-first session of the Assembly, RAZALI ISMAIL (Malaysia) said that while many speeches had been made in the Assembly that eulogized the purposes and principles of the Charter, those purposes and principles remained largely unrealized. The world was plagued by multiple expressions of inequality that continued to perpetuate human misery and entrench deprivation. A world not yet free of nuclear weapons had to contend with the re-emergence of ethnic and religious enmity, combining with poverty and environmental degradation, to elevate global insecurity to explosive levels. "As representatives of 185 Member States, we need to examine why we continue to fail in overcoming the narrow boundaries of our national interests, and neglect to deliver our promises of a better world." Perhaps such expectations of the international community were too unrealistic, and the ideals of the Charter too lofty to be realized.

The Assembly was beginning its fifty-first session without celebration but amidst criticism of the Organization's inability to respond adequately to international crises, he continued. The United Nations faced a financial crisis that threatened to cripple it. The Organization's effectiveness was seen as hampered by allegations of mismanagement and inefficiency, and a dysfunctional institutional framework. The United Nations not only had to grapple with systemic problems, but faced even greater difficulties when its role and abilities were examined against the backdrop of global events and emerging trends.

As in the past, he continued, the Assembly had a provisional agenda which so far had 163 items, covering a wide range of issues -- from those dealing with the peace and security agenda to those dealing with development, including development assistance, human rights, women, youth and drugs. In addressing those important items, the syndrome of "business as usual" must be

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discarded. Clearly what would be produced from the Assembly's deliberations must matter, must make a difference. "Our sense of purpose and work methods are being questioned. The occasions of delays and long lunches which lead to more delays, at enormous cost, are over. So too, I trust, the torture of long unfocused speeches in the committees", he added.

Noting that the fifty-first General Assembly would be involved in selecting a Secretary-General, he expressed confidence that the Assembly, representing the larger membership in cooperation with the Security Council, would play a constructive role and determine a course of action that would protect and enhance the integrity of the institution of the United Nations.

Turning to key issues before the Assembly, he emphasized the importance of the Assembly's special session to be held in 1997 to review the implementation of Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted by the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. It was not enough to take a hard critical look at the decisions of Rio. Decisions from the review must demonstrate the delivery capacity of the United Nations, which, if it could not be the main player on development resources, it must at least be the main development catalyst. On disarmament, he said the Assembly should benefit from the recent development pertaining to the Comprehensive Nuclear- Test-Ban Treaty. Nuclear disarmament, given the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the Test-Ban-Treaty and the important advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legality of nuclear weapons, would now be at centre stage of General Assembly consideration.

Member States, he continued, must decide whether the principles of multilateral cooperation have value or not. Central to that question was whether the United Nations was the appropriate institution for such cooperation. Had the ideals of social justice and compassion diminished to the extent that national self-interest no longer required attention to the needs of others? Could Member States disengage from the threats and misery of the world in the context of self-interest? It was in the role of improving the economic and social conditions of people that the United Nations should assert itself more aggressively. The United Nations could play a critical role in identifying the resources for poor developing countries and assessing the social impacts of the world economic order by ensuring overall policy coordination between the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization and monitoring the activities of transnational companies who wield so much power.

The intergovernmental process as practised in the United Nations faced the problem of reconciling the contradictory impulses of upholding global norms and universal rights against the requirements of protecting sovereignty, he said. A hard look should be taken at the laborious nature of consensus decision-making, which frequently rested on the lowest common denominator.

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Maybe United Nations delegates were too distant from the problems they were charged to address. International diplomacy did not seem to deal with the critical time factor. Months, if not years passed before international agreements were negotiated and implemented. Environmental destruction, for example, that could lead to serious contamination or deforestation, was faster than the political potential for protection and implementation.

The United Nations must begin to embed itself in reality and push the critical issues, especially poverty and social injustice, to the centre of national and public debate, he stated. The reform process must begin with finding a political consensus on what the United Nations should be and what it could do. A coherent and feasible strategy for the future, a narrower mandate, committed resources, streamlining priorities combined with responsible and inspired leadership are prerequisites in that process to achieve a relevant and vital United Nations for the future. The fate of the Organization depended primarily on how much its Members were willing to invest in a viable organization and what universal values were strongly held on to. Tragedies of huge proportions happened when the United Nations did not stand up to power considerations that undermined universal values. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda were examples of such inaction where the onus lay primarily with the major Powers. The United Nations could not be the vessel of power politics. Neither could it be sustained by noble interest and lofty principles alone. It was now necessary to construct a critical equilibrium.

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