Revitalization of the international system, resolving financial crisis are 1986 priorities.

Revitalization of the international system, resolving financial crisis are 1986 priorities

LAST year, as the United Nationscelebrated its fortieth anniversary, a record turnout of world leaders addressed the General Assembly in a notable demonstration of recommitment to multilateralism and reaffirmation of the principles of the Charter.

This year, as delegates gathered inthe Assembly Hall on 16 September for the opening of the forty-first session, the mood was less than celebratory.

Faced with an agenda reflecting thefull range of international crises, the 159-member world body convened under the shadow of one overriding issue--the most serious financial crisis in United Nations history--and the less tangible but related issue of what has been described as a "crisis of confidence."

"Regrettably, in marked contrast tosentiments expressed during the fortieth anniversary, 1986 has witnessed the United Nations subjected to a severe crisis challenging its solvency and viability", Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar declared in his annual report on the work of the Organization (A/41/1).

"Precisely at the time when renewedefforts have been called for to strengthen the Organization, its work has been shadowed by financial difficulties resulting primarily from the failure to Member States to meet obligations flowing from the Charter."

It is essential, the Secretary-Generalcontinued, "to lift this cloud so that the United Nations can, both now and in the longer term, be that strong constructive force in world affairs that is vitally needed in our increasingly interdependent world. The strengthening and revitalization of the present structure of multilateral institutions is critical to the resolution of problems confronting the international community relating to peace, security and development. To ignore this necessity is to imperil the future prospects of a better world."

The Assembly, in considering this"crisis challenging its solvency and viability", was expected to focus on both the immediate and long-term aspects of the question. In the short term, it would be asked to deal with the immediate consequences of the failure of some states to pay their assessed contributions.

For the longer term, the Assemblywould be asked to consider recommendations of the Group of High-level Intergovernmental Experts to Review the Efficiency of the Administrative and Financial Functioning of the United Nations--the "Group of 18". The Group has formulated 71 proposals to streamline the structure and other aspects of an Organization they found "too complex, fragmented and top-heavy" (see story, p.17).

A 'fresh breath': Newly-elected AssemblyPresident Humayun Rasheed Choudhury, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, told correspondents on 16 September: "My principal endeavour [at the 1986 session] will be to pilot the recommendations of the Group of 18 to a meaningful conclusion, so that we can have a rejuvenated United Nations with a fresh breath of confidence in the Organization."

This year's in-house business alsoincludes the appointment of a Secretary-General. The Security Council nominates a candidate for a term of five years, and the Assembly must approve its recommendation. Mr. Perez de Cuellar has been Secretary-General since 1 January 1982; his current term expires 31 December 1986 (see story, p.4).

A 'formidable challenge': Whilequestions relating to the "Organization-in-crisis" offered the 1986 Assembly a formidable challenge, the world situation it confronted was equally sobering. Over the past year, there were new and more devastating terrorist attacks, new outbreaks of violence and confrontation in southern Africa and the Middle East, fresh East-West tensions, deterioration of the situation in Central America, increased concern about illegal drug trafficking, and a rise in third-world debt--to name just a few of the persistent problems on the international agenda.

As evidence of the importance attachedto the situation in southern Africa, the Assembly on 17 September began a four-day special session on the question of Namibia. It was the Assembly's fourteenth special session and its second on Namibia.

The special session ended on 20September with adoption of a resolution condemning South Africa for its continued illegal occupation of the Territory in defiance of United Nations resolutions; rejecting linkage of Namibian independence to "irrelevant and extraneous" issues such as the presence of Cuban troops in Angola; and appealing for comprehensive sanctions against the South African Government (see story, p.37).

'Preventive action' needed: In hisclosing remarks to the fortieth Assembly, which ended on 15 September, its President Jaime de Pinies said it was essential for the United Nations to "continue basically to serve the cause of peace", and to that end, to "undertake more preventive action". Despite the unanimous adoption of Assembly and Security Council resolutions against terrorism, for example, there had been "renewed outbreaks in intolerable forms" of such activity, requiring decisive measures by the international community.

"It is not enough to repudiate suchactions", Mr. de Pinies stressed. "In exceptional situations, equally exceptional measures must be adopted to combat them."

"Rather than bringing in the Organizationto try to produce solutions after a clash has occurred, we should try to head off such clashes," Mr. de Pinies told correspondents on 15 September.

The Chairman of the delegationfrom which the President of the previous session was elected, Fernando Moran (Spain), acted as Temporary Assembly President on 16 September. Before handing the gavel to Mr. Choudhury, he told delegates that the lack of trust in multilateralism, embodied in the "harsh reality" of the Organization's financial crisis, provided a challenge requiring of the 1986 Assembly "concrete proof of skill, perseverance and imagination."

To achieve positive results in 1986,Mr. Moran urged that "unavoidable areas of confrontation" be put aside and focus be placed on expanding areas of agreement.

He also asked Member States: tostrive for "gradual progress, the limitations of which would be compensated by a solid international consensus"; to support existing negotiating forums, such as the Contadora process in Central America, the bilateral disarmament talks in Geneva, and the Secretary-General's diplomatic efforts; to exert further pressure on South Africa to dismantle the apartheid system; and to use the United Nations financial crisis as an "exceptional opportunity to improve and reform an institution in a way that can greatly increase its effectiveness."

Recalling the theme of the fortiethanniversary session, Assembly President Choudhury, in his opening address, asked the forty-first session to strive towards "a better United Nations for a better world."

Elections: On 16 September, theGeneral Assembly elected the Chairmen of its seven Main Committees, as follows: Siegfried Zachmann (German Democratic Republic), First Committee (Political and Security); Kwam Kouassi (Togo), Special Political Committee; Abdalla Saleh Al-Ashtal (Democratic Yemen), Second Committee (Economic and Financial); Alphons C.M. Hamer (Netherlands), Third Committee (Social Humanitarian and Cultural); James Victor Gbeho (Ghana), Fourth Committee (Decolonization); Evan Fontaine-Ortiz (Cuba), Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary); and Laurel B. Francis (Jamaica), Sixth Committee (Legal).

Also elected on 16 September werethe Assembly's 21 Vice-Presidents. Elected without a vote were representatives of: Benin, Byelorussian SSR, Cyprus, Fiji, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Malaysia, Mozambique, Oman, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sweden and Turkey, and the five permanent Security Council members--China, France, United Kingdom, United States and Soviet Union. A secret ballot for Vice-Presidents from the Latin American Group resulted in the election of Brazil, Dominican Republic and Suriname.

Nine nations--Bahamas, China,Fiji, Ghana, Netherlands, Rwanda, Venezuela, Soviet Union and United States--were appointed to the Credentials Committee on the session's opening day. It is to report to the plenary in October.

Agenda

The Organization's financial straitswere not the only major crisis before the 1986 Assembly: Africa's economic plight and the world-wide external debt crisis were also reflected in its 145-item agenda. The list contained five items less than the record number of 150 considered by the fortieth session.

Three items directly concerning thefinancial crisis were on the agenda: consideration of the "current financial crisis of the United Nations", a review of the Group of 18 report (A/41/49) and a long-standing agenda item on the financial emergency of the United Nations.

In addition to the new item concerningthe Group of 18 report, six others were added to the 1986 agenda. Three of these were to be considered in plenary: on establishing a zone of peace and co-operation in the South Atlantic; on the "aerial and naval military attack" against the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya by the United States; and on assistance to El Salvador after the earthquake in that country. Items on establishment of a comprehensive system of international security and regarding "Israeli nuclear armament" would be considered in the First Committee. For the first time, a separate item on the external debt crisis would be considered by the Second Committee.

Two items considered by previousAssemblies were returned to the agenda at the request of the Secretary-General: on the Convention on Registration of Objects Launced into Outer Space in light of the tenth anniversary this year of its entry into force (Special Political Committee), and on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations (Sixth Committee).

On the recommendation of theGeneral Committee, which met on 16 and 19 September, the Assembly deleted from its agenda two items it had never considered: on the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire, and on the observance of the quincentenary of the discovery of America.

The item on the question of EastTimor was deleted "for the time being", and allocation of the item on Cyprus was deferred to "an appropriate time in the future."

The Group of 18 report was to bediscussed in plenary. The Fifth Committee, within the scope of its responsibilities, was to undertake a factual examination of the report and submit its findings to the plenary.

Southern Africa issues were expectedto be of critical concern to the 1986 Assembly. South Africa's apartheid policies were to be discussed in the plenary, with hearings on the subject conducted by the Special Political Committee. The question of Namibia was to be debated in plenary and in the Fourth Committee, which would also examine military activities and those of foreign and other economic interests impeding implementation of the 1960 Declaration on decolonization with regard to Namibia and to other Territories.

The critical economic situation inAfrica, the subject of a special Assembly session in 1986 that concluded on 1 June after adopting a five-year Programme of Action on Africa's economic recovery, was also to be a focus of plenary debate.

Other political questions of continuingconcern were also assigned to the plenary, among them items on the Middle East, Iran and Iraq, Central America, Afghanistan and Kampuchea.

The report of the Preparatory Committeefor the United Nations Conference for the Promotion of International Co-operation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, scheduled to be held from 23 March to 10 April 1987 in Geneva, was also to be considered in plenary.

Measures taken by Member Statesand international organizations to mark the International Year of Peace, observed in 1986, will be considered by the Assembly, which also decided to devote one plenary meeting to commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the adoption in 1966 of the International Covenants on Human Rights.

Committee forecast

Disarmament questions, as in previousyears, will dominate the work of the First Committee. Draft guidelines for appropriate types of confidence-building measures, approved by the United Nations Disarmament Commission in May 1986 after four years of work, were expected to be adopted at this year's Assembly. Among the issues of increasing international concern to be discussed are bans on chemical and biological weapons, the need for improved relations between the two super-Powers, and prevention of an arms race in outer space.

Continued preparations for the InternationalConference on Disarmament and Development, postponed to 1987 from its scheduled convening in Paris in July 1986, will be reviewed, as will a new report on Antarctica and a new study on the concept of deterrence.

The Secretary-General, in his annualreport, proposed that the Assembly consider the establishment of a multilateral nuclear alert centre to reduce the risk of fatal misinterpretation of unintentional nuclear launchings or isolated launchings by those who might clandestinely gain access to nuclear devices.

The Special Political Committeewill consider for adoption the draft set of legal principles relating to remote sensing from space, on which the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space completed work this year.

A wide range of issues relating todevelopment and international economic co-operation will be taken up by the Second Committee, including the new item on the external debt crisis and development. In past years that issue has been considered under the broad umbrella of the multifaceted item on development and international economic co-operation. The Group of 77 this year urged it be a separate item, as so many country leaders addressing the commemorative session in 1985 had stressed the importance of the question. Draft resolutions on resolving the external debt crisis submitted in 1985 by the Group of 77 and the European Economic Community were forwarded to the 1986 session.

Other matters before the SecondCommittee will be food, energy and population problems and special economic and disaster relief assistance programmes. The Committee will also discuss a recommendation of the Trade and Development Board of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that UNCTAD VII be held in Geneva in 1987.

Drug questions are a key item onthe agenda of the Third Committee, which will have before it the first report of the Preparatory Committee for the International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, scheduled for June 1987 in Vienna. The Committee will also review various issues relating to racial discrimination, women, assistance to refugees and human rights. Reports on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, Chile, El Salvador and Iran will be considered. A Working Group preparing a convention on the rights of migrant workers was scheduled to meet early in the session for a second reading of tha draft text.

The subject of the future of theTrust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Micronesia), reviewed by the Trusteeship Council at its May/June session this year, will be among the concerns of the Fourth Committee.

Questions relating to protection ofdiplomats and the report of the Committee on Host Country Relations are likely to be of particular interest in the Sixth Committee, which will also continue to deal with the work of a Special Committee on the United Nations Charter, a global treaty on non-use of force, principles for the protection of prisoners, and a draft declaration on the welfare of children.

Organization of work: The Assemblydecided to waive this year the requirement for a quorum to begin meetings of the plenary and seven Main Committees, on the understanding that such a waiver would not imply any permanent change in the rules of procedure, and that the presence of a majority would still be required for any decision to be taken. The waiver had been suggested as part of an effort to cut operating costs.

A decision on the Secretary-General'ssuggestion to end the 1986 session three weeks early, in order to save the Organization some $1 million, was postponed until a later date.

End of 40th session

On 15 September, the Assembly formallyended its fortieth session, which had begun on 17 September 1985. It concluded, without debate, consideration of two of its 10 outstanding agenda items: the proposed programme budget for the biennium 1986-1987, and personnel questions.

Among the items deferred to theforty-first session were: the situation in Central America; launching global negotiations on international economic co-operation for development; observance of the quincentenary of the discovery of America; question of Cyprus; implementations of the resolutions of the United Nations; consequences of the prolonged conflict between Iran and Iraq; and the current financial crisis of the United Nations. (The item on the financial crisis was added to the agenda of the fortieth Assembly at its resumed session held in April/May 1986.)

The Assembly deferred to a futuresession consideration of the final outstanding item on the fortieth session agenda--appointment of a member of the Special Committee on decololization--pending conclusion of consultations among the regional groups. The matter arose after Australia withdrew from the Committee in 1985, and the Assembly President has been carrying out consultations on selections of a new member to maintain the Committee's geographical balance.

Mr. de Pinies, as President of thefortieth Assembly, reported on 15 September that repeated consultations by past Assembly Presidents had yielded no concrete progress in launching global negotations, but that participatns in the recent summit meeting of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries in Harare, Zimbabwe, had reaffirmed that such negotiations remained a central objective of the economic platforms of developing countries.

However, it would be "an error tothink that the failure to launch global negotiations so far signifies that in fact there is no dialogue or negotiations on the North-South issues", the President continued. Recent events such as the special Assembly session on the critical economic situation situation in Africa, the launching of a new round of trade negotiations in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and preparations for UNCTAD VII and meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund provided opportunities for progress on specific issues.

What was missing, Mr. de Piniessaid, was a "sufficiently high level of political discussions and negotiations on the interrelationship between these various components."

Ignac Golog (Yugoslavia), on behalfof the Group of 77, said the global negotiations remained "the most important and most comprehensive endeavour of the international community" in restructuring international economic relations, accelerating development of the developing countries and strengthening international economic co-operation. The developing countries resolved to continue their efforts towards achieving an agreement on launching the talks and hoped the developed countries would "act in the same spirit."

Bulgaria on behalf of the Eastern EuropeanStates, indicated the willingness of those delegations to continue efforts to launch global negotiations. The United States said it would continue to play a full active role in tht process.

A crucial role

The forty-first session of the GeneralAssembly "has a crucial role to play in restoring confidence in the United Nations and its ability to deal promptly and effectively with the various international issues and problems", stressed 1986 Assembly President Choudhury in his 16 September inaugural address to the world body.

Asking delegates to examine closelythe Group of 18 recommendations, he said: "No doubt there is scope to cut on bureaucratic wastes, to reorient expenditure to priority areas and generally to streamline the administration to make the world body more functional and cost effective. I see no reason why . . . it should be difficult to come to a consensus [on that question]."

Countries must realize that "ourmutual interdependence will demand greater international solidarity now and in the future", the President declared. In an interdependent world, relations between the super-Powers assumed special significance for all.

"It is in common interest to seethat these mighty Powers do not engage in any conflict, directly or by proxy," continued Mr. Choudhury. "Let us assure them that we are with them in their search for peace and stability and, in turn, let us be assured of their support in our common endeavour for freedom, security and development."

The world debt situation had becomea major international concern, the President noted, with serious implications for the survival of the developing countries. "A solution to this should be sought on the basis of a far greater understanding of the development needs of developing cuntries and the creation of an international climate for their accelerated development", he said.

But "perhaps the broadest and mostcomplex" issue, according to the Assembly President, was the question of human rights. The new challenge confronting the international community in that area, he said, was to ensure that the norms which had been universally adopted were observed everywhere.

"In this International Year of Peace,let us rededicate ourselves to working together for a world of peace, not only where war is merely absent, not only where human survival is just possible, but also where justice prevails and human dignity is upheld. Peace, which is indivisible, is undoubtedly the most essential prerequisite for all our endeavours."

Bangladesh's Foreign Minister sinceJuly 1985, Mr. Choudhury began his diplomatic career in 1953, serving with the Pakistan Foreign Office until the independence of Bangaladesh in 1971. He has held diplomatic assignments in Rome, Baghdad, Paris, Lisbon and Jakarta, and was his country's first Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, form 1972 to 1976.

He headed his country's delegationin 1984, when Bangladesh was a vice-president of the Assembly, and presided over a number of plenary meetings. Mr. Choudhury also represented his country at meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

Day of Peace: The fifth InternationalDay of Peace was observed on 16 September. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, in a ceremony at the Peace Bell on the Headquarters lawn, expressed regret that the hope with which the International Year of Peace had been inaugurated on 24 October 1985 remained unfulfilled.

"The world is in a crisis; action toresolve it must be comprehensive and integrated," he declared. "If humanity is to be saved from the fear and possibility of self-annihilation, a comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons is a matter of the highest priority."

The economic and social dimensionsof peace, too, could not be neglected "without peril to a stable world order", the Secretary-General warned. "The human conscience cannot be at peace with itself nor relations secure" unless such massive human rights violations as apartheid and other forms of racial discrimination are ended.

Noting that to mark the Day ofPeace,Headquarters grounds had been opened to schoolchildren for a series of events dedicated to children and peace, Mr. Perez de Cuellar stressed that "our obligation today is to strive with perservance so that the world of tomorrow is free from the danger of nuclear or conventional war and is not plagued by the conflicts of today. This is the promise we have made to the young. In the policies we evolve and the measures we take, it is a pledge that must on no account be betrayed."

Peace Day activities sponsored bynon-governmental organizations and the United Nations Children's Fund, under the theme "Give the World a Chance--Children Need Peace", began at dawn with a "fire creation ceremony" performed on the North Lawn by native American Indians.

Highlighting the Peace Day programmeat Headquaters was the launching of the first "Earth Run" with a torch-lighting ceremony. The torch is to be relayed around the world by runners of all ages and races, and is scheduled to return to the United Nations on 11 December. "This remarkable event will bring together people all over the world in an outpouring of support for peace", the Secretary-General affirmed.

Other Peace Day activities includedthe launching of the "Million Minutes of Peace Appeal", in which participants were asked to pledge not money, but between 1 and 30 minutes a day of "quiet thought, prayer or meditation" to the cause of world peace.