Plenary
15 May 2006
Informal consultations on the report of the Secretary-General entitled Mandating and Delivering: Analysis and Recommendations to Facilitate the Review of Mandates
Statement by H.E. Robert Hill
Ambassador and Permanent Representative
of Australia to the United Nations
On behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand
(Check against delivery)
Mr co-Chair,
CANZ welcomes this opportunity to discuss mandates related to the promotion of human rights, and to the effective coordination of humanitarian assistance efforts.
Promotion of human rights
As a result of the Summit, States have established the Human Rights Council, and committed extra resources to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The resolution establishing the Council calls for a review and rationalisation of human rights mandates. CANZ strongly believes that the Human Rights Council should conduct this review of human rights mandates at its earliest opportunity. Such a process will strengthen the efficiency of the new body by eliminating those mandates which are duplicative or no longer of relevance to the current human rights agenda.
In this context, CANZ places high priority on reviewing key human rights mandates, including those relating to indigenous issues and racism. We would not want to see the substantive work in either of these areas weakened, but would rather welcome a consolidation of efforts to ensure that the important work being done is conducted in the most efficient and non-duplicative way.
While recognising that the Human Rights Council’s consideration of mandates has the potential to effect the greatest reform, there are a number of recommendations in the Secretary-General’s report on which the General Assembly could take early action. Allow me to highlight four of them.
First, CANZ strongly supports the Secretary-General’s recommendations to limit the length of reports required by human rights treaty bodies, and to streamline overlapping reporting requirements imposed upon States by those treaty bodies. Implementation of these proposals would reduce the excessive reporting burdens placed upon both States and the Secretariat, and would complement broader treaty body reform initiatives which CANZ has long advocated. Going beyond the Secretary-General’s recommendations, CANZ warmly welcomed the paper produced by the Office of the High Commissioner on Harmonised guidelines on reporting under the international human rights treaties, which proposes measures to streamline country reports to the treaty bodies.
Second, the reporting burden from special procedures is onerous, and we should seek to reduce the overlap between special mechanisms and treaty bodies.
Third, we strongly support proposals to reduce the translation burden and volume of documentation on the OHCHR and support the Secretary-General’s specific proposals in this regard.
Fourth, CANZ reiterates its strong support for the Secretary-General's suggestion that, in relation to each draft resolution proposing a new mandate, the Secretariat provide information on how that new mandate would relate to existing mandates, structures, and activities. This could prevent us from adopting new mandates which are duplicative of old ones. Such a document would be particularly useful for draft resolutions concerning human rights, where CANZ is eager to avoid overlap between mandates adopted by the new Human Rights Council, and by the Third Committee of the General Assembly.
Effective coordination of humanitarian assistance efforts
The mandates review has an important role to play in updating the work of the United Nations in the humanitarian field. However, we would note that many aspects of this work are also being addressed in the ongoing humanitarian reform process and will or should be considered by the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on system-wide coherence. Coherence across these three processes is absolutely critical. They must be mutually supportive in order to deliver results. As CANZ has said before, we should set aside from this review issues which fall expressly within the Panel’s terms of reference.
In the short-term, we can usefully better organise and rationalise the work of the main UN organs on key humanitarian issues. For example, allow me to highlight three proposals from the Secretary-General.
First, we agree with the Secretary-General that we should bring elements of the humanitarian agenda together under a single ‘umbrella’ item in plenary.
We should do this as soon as possible on issues such as country specific reports, white helmet issues, and the new humanitarian order. But other issues outlined in the Secretary-General’s report are complex and cross-cutting, and do not necessarily neatly fit under a single umbrella. We will need to consider these issues carefully.
Second, CANZ agrees we should have fewer and more focused reports concerning humanitarian assistance. Indeed, this is a position that CANZ advocates across all areas of the mandates review. We also think the Secretary-General’s proposal to limit country specific reports to the first year after an emergency has merit, and should be considered where appropriate.
Third, the issues of internally displaced persons, risk reduction, and refugees are all very important, and also very complex, issues. We believe the mandate review should aim to strengthen these mandates, and ensure the relevant parts of the system have the resources to deliver.
In more general terms, the mandates review should aim to make clearer which UN bodies have responsibility for particular humanitarian assistance activities. We have already made some progress over the last 18 months, through practice rather than mandate, to establish a clearer division of labour between the General Assembly and ECOSOC on humanitarian issues. CANZ welcomes these developments.
Like the UN’s efforts to promote sustained growth and sustainable development, which we discussed on 8 May, the organisation’s work to promote human rights and coordinate humanitarian assistance benefit millions of people. And, following the Summit, the UN is equipped with more resources than ever to undertake this valuable work. Our job through the mandates review is to ensure the UN is well placed to use those resources effectively, once again with a view to making a real difference on the ground.
Thank you, Mr co-Chair.