2006 Geneva International Model United Nations

Ambassador Godet
Professor Burrin
Distinguished Delegates
Dear Friends:


It is a privilege to welcome you all to the Palais des Nations. I am pleased to continue the tradition of hosting the Geneva International Model United Nations here where many of the daily efforts of the Organization take place.

The focus on reform of the United Nations of your annual session could hardly be more timely, and I appreciate this opportunity to share with you a few thoughts on why the United Nations should be reformed and update you on how a number of the many reform initiatives are progressing to put your exchanges over the coming days into a broader context.

This is indeed a year of reform for the United Nations. But, as we discuss why and how the Organization should be reformed, we should not lose sight of the fact that the United Nations has been evolving since its establishment over sixty years ago. As an instrument created to respond to the threats and challenges before the international community, our policies, practices and procedures must continuously be adapted and adjusted to enable the Organization to address the most pressing threats and challenges of any era.

Reform is therefore intrinsic to the United Nations. Indeed, many of the reform proposals under consideration and in the process of being implemented are an extension of how the Organization has already developed to become increasingly operational in the field, with wide-ranging mandates, and they build on the experiences gathered and the lessons learnt in the process. Particularly since the end of the Cold War, the United Nations and how it does “business” has undergone significant change across a number of areas, including peacekeeping, provision of humanitarian assistance and relief and the fight against poverty – to mention only a few. Likewise, the United Nations increasingly engages with a wide variety of stakeholders at the local, regional and international levels – including regional and other intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, private enterprise and parliamentarians. In this regard, the growing interaction with the academic and research communities that you represent has added great value to our efforts, and I am therefore pleased that Professor Burrin joins us today to share with us – from that particular vantage point – his thinking on United Nations reform.

The current reform focus thus continues a longer tradition of continuous development of the Organization to ensure that it reflects the realities of its time, that we have appropriate policy frameworks and decision-making processes in place and that we have a Secretariat equipped to undertake effectively the tasks that Member States entrusts to it. As we consider the institutional and policy changes being implemented, it is therefore essential that we keep in mind the threats and challenges facing the international community and the common understanding of the linkages across them. At the 2005 World Summit, which took place from 14 to 16 September 2005, world leaders acknowledged that peace and security, development and human rights are the pillars of the United Nations system and the foundations for collective security and well-being. They recognized that development, peace and security and human rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. The institutional innovations agreed at the Summit flow from this collective appreciation of the nexus between security, development and human rights and the need to address threats and challenges across these three pillars in a holistic manner.

At the World Summit, heads of State and Government made a number of decisions in principle that then needed to be further fleshed out and operationalized through decisions of the General Assembly. As we meet here, negotiations are thus ongoing among Member States – under the leadership of the President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Jan Eliasson of Sweden – to follow up and take further the reform agenda agreed to in September 2005. The reform is very much work in progress to convert the Summit statements into tangible improvements in our performance – and eventually better results for those that we serve. With other Member States, our Host Country, Switzerland, has been actively participating in and contributing to these negotiations, and it is fortunate that the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations here in Geneva, Ambassador Godet, could be here today to brief you on the Swiss perspective concerning the reform process.

Against this background, allow me to outline briefly how some of the ongoing reform efforts are advancing:

On 20 December of last year, the General Assembly and the Security Council, acting concurrently, implemented the World Summit decision to establish a United Nations Peacebuilding Commission. This new intergovernmental advisory body – comprising 31 members, drawn from other organs of the United Nations – fills a critical gap in the intergovernmental machinery as a single forum, bringing together all relevant actors to oversee the peacebuilding process, ensure its coherence and sustain it through the long haul. While issues concerning membership and representation remain to be finalized, it is clear that – once fully functional – the Peacebuilding Commission will help enable the United Nations to better assist countries emerging from violent conflict to make the transition from an often fragile cease-fire and peace agreement to a long-term sustainable peace.

As you are probably aware, a resolution to establish, in Geneva, a Human Rights Council to replace the current Commission on Human Rights is now before the General Assembly. This new body, with members elected directly by the General Assembly, would give human rights the importance accorded to it under the United Nations Charter and would better reflect the universality of human rights. This is why the Secretary-General has long argued for such a Human Rights Council and has called on Member States to accept the compromise text. At the same time, the Secretary-General has made clear that adoption of the draft resolution would only be the first step in a process of change and renewal. How different the Human Rights Council would be from the existing Commission would depend in large part on how committed Member States are to make it better. I am confident that your modelling exercise here will go some way in illustrating how this could be done.

As you already know, the different positions of individual countries and regional groups prevented agreement on a reform of the Security Council. If agreement were to be reached on enlarging the Council, this principal organ would reflect, to a greater extent, the geopolitical realities of our time, and would – in my view – most likely further strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the Council in the maintenance of international peace and security. Member States have, nevertheless, committed themselves to continuing efforts to achieve a decision on the issue. I am aware that your Security Council deliberations will take place within the framework of an enlarged Council so in this respect you are ahead of Member States, and it will be interesting to see how your discussions will go in this changed format.

With a view to enhancing coherence and coordination among the different United Nations Agencies, leaders at the World Summit invited the Secretary-General to launch work on how to strengthen the management and coordination of United Nations operational activities so that they can make an even more effective contribution to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. In response, on 16 February of this year, the Secretary-General announced the formation of a new high-level panel to explore how the United Nations system could work more coherently and effectively across the world in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and the environment. The recommendations formulated by the Panel – which is co-chaired by the Prime Ministers of Pakistan, Mozambique and Norway – are to be presented to the next session of the United Nations General Assembly.

As I noted earlier, the main objective of all reform efforts is to enable the United Nations to focus on and react to the shared threats and challenges before us. In this regard, Member States’ decision to review all mandates older than five years originating from resolutions of the General Assembly and other organs is particularly noteworthy. The Secretariat is in the process of compiling an inventory and a comprehensive analysis to facilitate this review. It is a crucial exercise that should contribute to ensuring that obsolete mandates are dropped to make room for eventual new ones.

As I said at the beginning, your discussions are timely, and no more so than in the area of management, because later today, the Secretary-General will launch, at the General Assembly, a comprehensive report on Management Reform. At the World Summit, Heads of State and Government recognized the need for an efficient, effective and accountable Secretariat, as an indispensable tool to achieve the substantive objectives in the areas of security, development and human rights. They called on the Secretary-General to submit proposals in this regard – and that is what he will be doing later today when he puts forward a wide-ranging package of recommendations aimed at improving the functioning of the Secretariat, including in the areas of human resource management, budget and finance, and service delivery. I hope that you will follow those important debates also.

Dear Friends:

This year, your deliberations will take place in the format of what a reformed United Nations could look like. I very much welcome this imaginative approach, and I look forward to hearing the results of your discussions. You have embraced reform as a valuable opportunity for innovation and for advancing your debates. I trust that your enthusiasm for reform and your ability implement it will serve as an example and as inspiration beyond the conference rooms of the Palais des Nations. Your interesting simulation exercise demonstrates to me the inherent value of contact and engagement between the United Nations and the academic and research community, including young bright minds such as you. It is my hope that – in due course – many of you will put your creativity, your resourcefulness, your capacity for forward thinking, your diligence and your organizational talents – which you have already displayed so clearly in the organization of this event – at the service of the United Nations for the benefit of the peoples of the world.

I wish you much success in your exchanges over the coming days.

Thank you very much.