ECOSOC GENERAL SEGMENT 2003
ITEM 6
Follow-up to Major Summits and Conferences
Statement by Ms Rebekah Grindlay,
Third Secretary, Australian Mission to the United Nations
Geneva
16 July, 2003
Madame Vice President
When Australia addressed the Council’s Coordination Segment last year we called for a moratorium on new mega-conferences and summits. At that time, we expressed our concern that the excessive number of special processes, beyond the established timetable and outside existing UN bodies, had congested the international calendar and drained the resources of member states. But, of equal concern, it had also reinforced the weakness of ECOSOC.
There is no need to revisit the arguments put last year. These arguments have been made elsewhere by Australia and by other national delegations. The Secretary General himself has said that “Summit fatigue has set in, both among the general public and in many Governments”.
Madame Vice President
In recent times, a number of reform initiatives have improved ECOSOC’s operations and improved its capacity to review major conference outcomes. The Council’s work is now more clearly defined according to themes. And the regular dialogue with the Bretton Woods Institutions allows for more focused high-level consideration of those economic and financial issues affecting global development. Australia supported these initiatives. But notwithstanding these positive developments, ECOSOC is yet to realise the crucial role envisaged for it in the UN Charter.
In part, this is because ECOSOC has been eclipsed by its activist functional commissions. This is not necessarily a bad development, but we must recognise that the functional commissions do not have the expertise, time or the mandates to coordinate across thematic areas. Nor can these commissions provide guidance on important policy issues not within their remits. ECOSOC should act more decisively in coordinating activity of this kind. But strengthening ECOSOC’s role in this way will require further reform to remove systemic obstacles and encourage more efficient decision making.
Madame Vice President
ECOSOC’s agenda needs dramatic streamlining. Currently, the Council considers too many overlapping items and with a frequency that is not justified. Not only does this undermine the authority of decisions, but it also wastes crucial time that could be devoted to coordinating the work of functional commissions and generating consensus on important economic and social issues.
Repetitive items should be retired from the agenda and referred to more appropriate forums. Matters referred to the General Assembly, in particular on the follow-up to major conferences, should be couched in terms that seek value-added consideration and not just rubber stamping. These reforms would expand the opportunities for Council members to give more comprehensive consideration to the reports of the functional commissions. And in so doing, ensure more focused and strategic direction from the Council to subsidiary bodies.
The quality of reporting from functional commissions and other bodies to the Council also needs further improvement. There are still too many reports. Reports are still too long. Substantive issues risk being submerged in the detail of subsidiary body reporting. The Council expends a great deal of time and energy considering routine reporting matters when more strategic direction and guidance should be the focus of deliberations.
Without practical changes like these to the way ECOSOC currently organises its work, there is little prospect of the Council being able to assume a strategic role in coordinating the work of its functional commissions.
Madame Vice President
Let me conclude by underscoring Australia’s view that review processes for major UN conferences are best held through ECOSOC or its functional commissions. If necessary, the Council or General Assembly can decide to hold such reviews at Ministerial level. We must however, avoid the unmanageable timetable we have imposed on ourselves in recent years.
We should develop the Council’s advantage in coordinating and addressing issues which overlap between those considered in the functional commissions. These are central challenges which will need to be met if the international system is to provide effective assistance to member states in implementing the key goals agreed in the Millennium Declaration. And this, not the reiteration of debates and votes from the functional commissions, is where the Council can
add value.