UN80: WORKSTREAM TWO: INFORMAL AD HOC WORKING GROUP: MANDATE REVIEW CONSULTATIONS
Statement by H.E James Larsen, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
3 December 2025
Thank you, Co-Chairs.
I speak on behalf of Canada, New Zealand, and my own delegation, Australia.
This Working Group has been tasked with determining how we can collectively ensure that the mandates we establish deliver a more effective, efficient, and impactful UN.
Mandate review, done right, has the potential to play a critical role in this. Review efforts ensure accountability and transparency of impact through implementation, and inform Member State decisions on whether to continue, renew, adapt, or terminate mandates.
Our willingness to undertake robust reviews of our mandates is ultimately a test of how seriously we take them. If we genuinely want the mandates we approve to achieve meaningful outcomes, then setting clear objectives and measurable, timebound criteria for progress, and undertaking regular and robust reviews against these, will significantly increase our chances of success.
CANZ strongly supports the Secretary-General’s recommendations on mandate review, and wishes to stress the following seven points:
- Built-in review mechanisms should be included in all mandates and appropriately supported across all mandating bodies. They facilitate essential discussions on whether mandates should continue to exist as they are, or be updated or if they should be retired, if they have been fulfilled, or have become obsolete or inactive.
- Review mechanisms should include clear objectives as well as timelines and criteria for achieving progress. If we are clear on what we are trying to achieve, we will be better placed to know if we are successful.
- Expiry clauses should be included in new mandates where possible. Member States would obviously retain the ability to continue such mandates if the situation or operational requirements merit it, but they would do so by a deliberate decision, rather than through inertia.
- The Secretary-General’s recommendation that Member States make greater use of collective review mechanisms warrants serious consideration. We would welcome specific suggestions, analysis and proposals from the Secretariat of areas where such mechanisms could improve mandate efficiency and coherence.
- All reviews should be able to draw on reliable and consistent data to inform Member State decisions on the future of mandates. In this regard, we encourage the Secretary-General to act without delay to strengthen and harmonise how we assess impact across the UN system, and we encourage all UN system entities to adopt strategic plans and integrated result frameworks, where appropriate. We also emphasise the value of using relevant external expertise and analysis to support reviews.
- The Secretary-General should make greater use of his existing authority to make recommendations on how we can consolidate and streamline our work.
- Finally, coordination and cross-pollination between the mandate review and the General Assembly revitalization process should be enhanced to avoid duplicating work and to take the opportunity to implement longstanding proposals. We again call for greater coordination between the General Assembly, Security Council, and Economic and Social Council to align agendas, and reinforce synergy, coherence and complementarity.
CANZ encourages Member States to support these practical proposals. We will continue to engage constructively in this Working Group to support more effective and efficient mandates.