Jack Wall
Question:156 Deputy Jack Wall asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the position pertaining to ongoing debate on the reform of the United Nations. [3695/08]
View answerWednesday, 6 February 2008
Questions (83)
Written answers
The UN World Summit held in September 2005 agreed a package of UN reforms which, while not as complete as might have been hoped, represented an important advance. I was honoured to have contributed to the Summit Outcome in my role as one of the five Envoys appointed by former Secretary-General Annan to support his recommendations for change aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of the UN.
Key issues addressed since the Summit have included the establishment of the Human Rights Council and the Peacebuilding Commission, both of which were priorities for Ireland. Discussions are ongoing on the important issues of management reform and reform of the Security Council. Together with its partners in the EU, Ireland has actively supported the continuing efforts to bring about improvements in the management of the UN, aimed at making the Organisation and its Secretariat more responsive and effective in fulfilling its purposes and in meeting the needs of the international community. However, despite progress in a number of areas, there remains much more to be done.
As regards reform of the Security Council, Ireland's view is that a more representative, efficient and transparent Security Council is an essential aspect of reforming the UN to meet the many global challenges which we face. We welcome and support the current efforts of the President of the General Assembly to reinvigorate the debate and we look forward to participating actively in future discussions of the issue. At the same time, the difficulty of achieving agreement is very apparent.
Discussion of the reform of the UN development architecture is centred on the recommendations of the UN High Level Panel on System-wide Coherence, a group appointed by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in February, 2006, and composed of figures such as the EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel, the then British Chancellor Gordon Brown, and the Prime Ministers of Pakistan, Mozambique and Norway.
The Panel report makes a series of recommendations designed to improve the UN's internal coherence and ability to deliver development assistance. They centre on the development of a unified UN presence at country level, with one leader, one budget, a single programme agreed with the host Government, and, where appropriate, one office. This process is described as Delivering as One. The report also recommended the upgrading of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to become the authoritative environment pillar of the UN, and the establishment of a single UN entity to address gender equality and women's empowerment.
Since the publication of the Panel report in late 2006, pilot programmes have been established in eight countries, including in three Irish Aid priority countries Vietnam, Tanzania and Mozambique. Irish Embassies in these countries actively participate in the implementation and oversight of the reform process at local level.
In recognition of Ireland's pro-active role in relation to UN reform, the Irish Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Paul Kavanagh, was recently appointed by the President of the UN General Assembly to co-chair, with his Tanzanian colleague, the process of consideration and implementation of the Panel recommendations within the General Assembly. His mandate will run until September 2008.
Question No. 157 answered with Question No. 133.