UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Tuesday, 22 February 2005
UN Millennium Project 2005 - High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change
Statement by H.E. Mr John Dauth LVO
Ambassador and Permanent Representative
of Australia to the United Nations
(Check against delivery)
Mr President,
At the outset let me affirm our full support for the statement delivered by Samoa on behalf of the Pacific Islands Forum.
In this sixtieth anniversary year, the United Nations has adopted a catchphrase which, though succinct, is of immense importance: it says that 2005 is ‘A Time for Renewal’. The need for renewal is pressing: the Organisation has been in decline, and collective action as a concept has not adapted as quickly as the world has changed. The reports of the High-Level Panel and the Millennium Project have made this clear, in particular by illustrating that we need to pay greater attention to the nexus between development and security. As we have heard many times, Mr President, we cannot have one without the other.
Over the next seven months, it will take tremendous efforts from member states, from you, Mr President, and from the Secretary-General and his staff, if we are indeed to renew and reinvigorate the United Nations and our capacities for action against common threats and challenges. We must not treat this task as business-as-usual and let all the good ideas before us be eroded by an all too familiar process that leads to a lowest-common-denominator outcome. That would be a failure of political imagination and a lost opportunity for all of us. I am not sure that any of us could afford the price we would pay in the long term.
Mr President,
The informal exchanges of the past two months have provided an excellent opportunity for member states to air their views on the High-Level Panel report and the Millennium Project Report. Many interesting and constructive views and ideas have been offered, and, more than usual, everyone seems to be listening to one another. This is encouraging, but it is not enough.
At the end of this debate the task falls to the Secretary-General to draw out the ideas and proposals that might constitute a new collective agreement that advances our shared interests. The Secretary-General is well placed to do this since he can more readily look across the political terrain and discern where the opportunities exist to reach new understandings. He should set out for leaders, as best he can, a compendium through which we might take each others’ concerns more seriously and which will help us reach a consensus that provides for better action against the varied threats and challenges that face us today. Happily, it is clear that he intends to do so: in recent speeches he has said he will present an agenda for renewal and reform that gives world leaders an opportunity to take momentous decisions. We applaud this and re-affirm our support for his approach.
Mr President,
Rather than rehearse in detail our national views on all the issues before us, which must be pretty familiar by now, I want to contribute today just by mentioning a few points which are critical elements for inclusion in the March report and in a successful summit outcome in September. I know that you are assisting the Secretary-General in his task, and that your facilitators (amongst whom I am honoured to be) are also helping to channel and distil the views of the membership.
First, the Secretary-General's report - and indeed the Summit - must be infused by a clear recognition of the inter-connectedness of development and security needs. And that recognition needs to be reflected in agreement for concrete actions that accelerate development and address conflict. We need, Mr President, sustainable development as well as sustainable security.
Of course Australia, like other members of the United Nations, is committed to playing our part in progressing towards the Millennium Development Goals. In this context, we recognize the importance of well-targeted and effective aid. We also support the contribution that trade liberalization – through a successful and timely conclusion to the Doha Round – can make to development – assisting us all to achieve the Goals.
As the statement of the Pacific Islands Forum made clear, many Small Island Developing states - particularly in our own, Pacific, region - face significant challenges. Their needs, and those of fragile states, warrant greater attention.
The High-Level Panel has also drawn attention to the inadequate capacities for conflict prevention and mediation, and for peace-building both before and after conflict. It is encouraging that there has been such a positive reception for the Panel's ideas about this, and it appears that there are good prospects for strengthening the UN’s capacities in these areas and for creating a peace-building commission. This would be another worthy product of the Summit.
Second, specific outcomes are needed on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. The UN could play a greater role in facilitating regional and global co-operation against terrorism, and we look forward to the Secretary-General’s comprehensive strategy, which he will announce in Madrid next month. In the field of WMD, we need to ensure that the non-proliferation regimes meet contemporary circumstances and challenges. The Secretary-General may be able to help us here, too, by offering specific proposals, bearing in mind that many of these issues will be under consideration at the NPT Review Conference and at the IAEA as well. We welcome the High Level Panel’s support for the Proliferation Security Initiative as a measure to interdict illicit and clandestine WMD trade.
Third, - and here the onus is more upon us as Member States than upon the Secretary-General - the three principal organs must be improved. We need to break the impasse on Security Council reform and find an agreement on enlargement. There is a distinct, though limited, opportunity here to make the Council more representative and legitimate. In this context we note Australia’s long-standing support for expansion of the permanent membership of the Security Council to include Japan, India, Brazil, an African country and possibly Indonesia. The Panel gave us fewer ideas for General Assembly and ECOSOC reform, but many states and groups have stepped forward with their own ideas. An effective Assembly would be in the interests of all, but everyone needs to be ready to leave behind old practices and fossilized attitudes.
Fourth, the Secretary-General needs to overhaul the management of the Secretariat, particularly with the goal of strengthening accountability at all levels while maintaining fiscal responsibility. Recent scandals have weakened the standing of the Organisation world-wide and revealed systemic problems that, as much as entrenched Member State attitudes, hobble the UN's ability to do what we need it to do. The Secretary-General must fix this, and we, the Member States, must empower him to do so.
Mr President,
There is, of course, much more on our agenda, but these are critical points on which action is needed. We look to the Secretary-General to help us by providing an ambitious report and to you, Mr President, to lead the ensuing process. And we must all engage our capitals and regional groups to build and harness momentum for change. All of us have a deeply vested interest in the existence of effective and efficient mechanisms for international co-operation. A failure to make 2005 truly a year for renewal of the United Nations would come at a high cost for all of us.