Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoGeneral Assembly
25th Plenary Meeting of General Assembly 71st Session
In a meeting on revitalizing the work of the General Assembly, representatives of the 193-member body this morning debated various ways to make the United Nations system more efficient, inclusive and accountable.
Peter Thomson, President of the current General Assembly session, said that for the last 25 years, Member States had sought to enhance its role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency. However, it was two texts adopted during recent Assembly sessions — resolution 69/321 on the process of selecting and appointing the next Secretary-General and 70/305 on establishment of an Oath of Office and a Code of Ethics on matters relating to the Assembly President’s Office — that had led to significant improvements in the Organization’s work.
“I am honoured to be the first President of the General Assembly to begin their term by undertaking to fulfil the commitments embedded in those documents,” he told Member States. In addition to the new Oath of Office and the Code of Ethics, Mr. Thomson said he had taken steps to ensure that all financial support to the Office would be channelled through the United Nations Trust Fund where all sources of funding were subject to public scrutiny.
Welcoming those developments was the representative of the European Union delegation who said that the last two Assembly resolutions on revitalization had been “ground-breaking”. They had paved the way for a more transparent Secretary-General selection process and contained elements to strengthen the Assembly’s institutional memory.
Other delegations also highlighted the need to fortify institutional memory, with the representative of Singapore saying revitalization was a work in progress and calling on States to build on recent initiatives and bolster financial and personnel support for the Office.
Croatia’s delegate said that just days ago, the Organization had witnessed a historic moment when the President of the Assembly took the Oath of Office. Also on that topic, Japan’s delegate called the new Oath of Office and Code of Ethics important achievements.
Elaborating further on the work of the General Assembly, several delegations emphasized the need to prioritize topics of discussion. The representative of the United States said that going forward, it was important to avoid wasteful overlap and that freeing the General Assembly’s agenda of outdated topics would allow it more time to address more relevant issues.
The delegate from the Russian Federation called for realistic initiatives to enhance effectiveness and the removal of items from the Assembly’s agenda that were no longer timely. It would also be constructive to unburden the high-level week from too many meetings.
As the Security Council was preparing its formal recommendation for the candidacy of the Secretary-General, Member States expressed support for the process while others said there would be a lot to learn going forward. The representative of Algeria, speaking for the Non-Aligned Movement, called on the Security Council to examine in the future the possibility of recommending more than one candidate, endorsed by Member States. He called on the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council to hold timely informal meetings to exchange views on the ongoing process of selecting and appointing the future Secretary-General.
Also today, the General Assembly took up a matter concerning the election of 34 members of the International Law Commission, requesting that the Secretary-General issue a consolidated list of candidates despite the submission of their names subsequent to the deadline.
Also speaking today were the representatives of Lao People’s Democratic Republic (speaking on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Malaysia and Indonesia.
