Vol. 574 No. 3
21 Ms Lynch asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the specific proposals Ireland has developed in relation to UN reform; if he will table such proposals for debate in the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26709/03]
In his address to the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September, the Taoiseach strongly supported the call made by UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to the international community to tackle the fundamental policy issues and structural changes needed in the United Nations if it is to deal effectively with global issues, particularly those of international peace and security. Secretary General Annan, in his own address to the General Assembly, pointed to the need for the Security Council to regain the confidence of states and of world public opinion by demonstrating its ability to deal effectively with the most difficult issues and by becoming more broadly representative of the international community as a whole, as well as of the geopolitical realities of today. He also stated that the General Assembly needed reform to ensure that important issues were not, as he put it, crowded out by repetitive and sterile debates.
The Taoiseach and his fellow Heads of Government committed themselves to a reform of the United Nations three years ago in the millennium declaration. The General Assembly, in 2002, adopted a comprehensive resolution on strengthening the UN system and significant progress has been made in implementing it. One area of undoubted progress has been the major reforms undertaken in UN peacekeeping operations, which Ireland, as a permanent contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping operations, greatly welcomes. The Secretary General has also made substantial progress in bringing about much needed reform in the areas under his own competence, particularly in the management and structure of the secretariat.
Fundamental institutional questions remain to be tackled, however. On 4 November, the Secretary General announced the formation and composition of a high-level panel on threats, challenges and change. The 16 member panel, to be chaired by the former prime minister of Thailand, Anand Panyarachun, is mandated to analyse future challenges to international peace and security and recommend clear and practical measures for ensuring effective collective action. The members have been selected in an individual capacity as eminent persons in the field of international relations and not as representatives of their countries. By the next General Assembly, the member states should have a set of proposals drawn up by the panel and the Government greatly welcomes this. The creation of the panel does not absolve the member states from continuing to work towards United Nations reform.
The effort to revitalise the General Assembly to date has largely focused on streamlining its agenda and procedures to promote a more efficient and less repetitive approach to its work. Progress in this area has been slow and incremental and requires persistence, particularly on the part of the President of the General Assembly whose difficult task it is to secure the agreement of the member states for change. I have assured the President, Foreign Minister Hunte of St. Lucia, that, like his predecessors, he will have Ireland's full support in his efforts to bring about a more effective General Assembly. During Ireland's Presidency of the European Union, we will work to marshal effective support on the part of the EU and its member states for the reform process.
