Forty-third General Assembly opens at a time of pride in UN successes; achievements stem from persistence and dedication over many years.

As the forty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly got under way in New York in September, the world Organization that has so often been attacked by its detractors over the years enjoyed what UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cu6llar called "a time of pride" in recent successes. A number of regional disputes moved towards settlement under UN auspices and the blue-helmeted peace-keeping forces of the UN were to be awarded the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize.

The world body also got a boost from the "Big Five" Foreign Ministers of the five permanent member of the Security Council, who jointly stated on 28 September that they believed the Organization had an increasingly significant role to play in the achievement of international peace and security (see box, p.45).

In addressing the opening session, Mr. Perez de Cuellar said: "We have witnessed a vindication of the concept of multilateralism." The Organization was playing an increasingly important role in the resolution of several regional conflicts-in the Iran-Iraq war, in Afghanistan, in Western Sahara, in southern Africa and in Cyprus. The situation in South-East Asia also appeared more responsive to the climate of conciliation, he added.

Referring to a "palpable change" in the international scene, Mr. P6rez de Cu6llar said that achievements which only recently seemed unattainable had come within reach. The Security Council had been "revitalized by a fresh spirit of co-operation" and was functioning "increasingly according to its mandated purpose". There was a close working relationship between the UN principal organs, and there was support for its diplomatic efforts from the Governments concerned. There was evidence of a resurgence of political will to resolve conflicts in accordance with Charter principles.

"We have kept our eyes on the goal-which is peace. We have held on. We have endured criticism and sometimes disdain and we have survived to see what may well be the beginnings of a more constructive phase of international relations", he said.

On 29 September, in announcing the award of the Nobel Prize, the Secretary-General told the General Assembly that the "recent achievements" of' the UN had "neither been sudden nor fortuitous but are the hard-won results of persistence and dedication over many years, epitomized by the peace-keeping activities of the Organization".

Dante Caputo, Foreign Minister of Argentina, elected President of the forty-third session on 20 September, said the Prize was a "tribute to the United Nations, to its ideals and to its purpose and principles". The new international atmosphere, he asserted, provided a concrete opportunity for the Organization to play an even broader role in the system of collective security, of which the peace-keeping operations were a fundamental instrument.

Mr. Caputo won the Presidency in an election (91 to 66) between himself and Dame Ruth Nita Barrow, Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations.

Growing respect

recognition

In assuming the Presidency, ME Caputo said: "The Assembly begins this session as a witness to a different world and as a participant in it. In the past few months international relations have undergone what may be the most important transformations since the . . . creation of the United Nations", which involved an easing of tension and achievement of disarmament agreed between the United States and the Soviet Union and "the beginning of a solution to innumerable regional conflicts".

The UN, he went on, was enjoying growing respect and recognition from all States, including Governments of the super-Powers. "The distrust and reluctance to accept the system, which were characteristic of the cold war, are being replaced by the healthy rediscovery of multilateralism and collective responsibility as effective methods for ensuring peace, security and progress", he said

Mr. Perez de Cuellar in his annual report (AI4311), which traditionally provides a keynote for the Assembly opening, observed that the working relationship of the Security Council and the Secretary-General had "rarely if ever been closer". He declared that the recent improvement in international relations at the global level had opened new possibilities for successful action by the United Nations"Multilateralism has proved itself far more capable of inspiring confidence and achieving results than any of its alternatives", he affirmed.

However, the international situation was still marked by "points of strain and danger, visible or lurking", he said. Although complacency over the resolution of complex problems that still faced the international community was impermissible, the possibilities of bringing peace to troubled regions through the efforts of the United Nations had "plainly come into view".

Outgoing Assembly President Peter Florin of the German Democratic Republic said on 19 September, as the forty-second session ended, that the UN was in accord and in interaction with the course of international relations. The task assigned to it on its foundation "to save succeeding generations from the' scourge of war" had not become any less relevant. The activity and efficiency of the Organization and its organs grew as the world changed. It provided such multilateral forms of co-operation as were required by the new dimensions of international co-operation in resolving emergent global problems.

Elections

Elected as Chairmen of the seven Main Committees were: Douglas Roche of Canada, First Committee (Political and Security); Eugeniusz Noworyta of Poland, Special Political Committee; Hugo Navajas-Mogro of Bolivia, Second Committee (Economic and Financial); Mohammad A. Abulhasan of Kuwait, Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural); Jonathan C. Peters of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Fourth Committee (Decolonization); Michael George Okeyo of Kenya, Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary); and Achol Deng of Sudan, Sixth Committee(Legal).

The Assembly's 21 Vice-Presidents were representatives of Bahrain, China, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Guinea-Bissau, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Malta, Nepal, Sao Tome and Principe, Swaziland, Thailand, USSR, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Vanuatu and Yugoslavia.

A record agenda

The General Committee approved 152 agenda items-a record number, two more than considered in 1985-including 12 new items. Six will be considered in plenary: observer status for the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America; promotion of peace, reconciliation and dialogue in the Korean peninsula,' emergency assistance to Jamaica and to Sudan; natural disasters in Bangladesh; and emergency assistance to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama and other countries affected by hurricane Joan.

The First Committee will take up new items: implementation of the conclusions of the Third Review Conference of the Parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and establishment of a preparatory committee for the Fourth Review Conference; and liability for illegal transfer and/or use of prohibited weapons and weapons or substances which cause unnecessary human suffering.

The Committee will also take up a new sub-item-concerning dumping of nuclear and industrial wastes in Africa-under the item on general and complete disarmament. Another new sub-item concerns the "need for result-oriented political dialogue to improve the in situation", to be considered in conjunction with the implementation of the Declaration on the Strengthening of International Security.

An item on science and peace is to be considered in the Special Political Committee.

Two more new items will be reviewed by the Second Committee: the responsibility of States for protection of the environment and prevention of environmental pollution as a result of the accumulation of toxic and radioactive wastes, and strengthening of international co-operation for resolving the problem; and conservation of climate as part of the common heritage of mankind.

The Third Committee's new item concerns the responsibility of States to ban in their territory, and to refrain from instigating or supporting in other States, "chauvinistic, racist and other manifestations" '

The question of East Timor was deferred to 1989.