Summary: March 18, 2002: EU Statement in the General Debate of the Special Committee of the UN Charter (New York)
Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe associated with the European Union Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the associated countries Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, and the EFTA country belonging to the European Economic Area, Norway, align themselves with this statement.
First of all I would like to congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, and the other members of the Bureau, on your election. We shall try to contribute to a fruitful discussion and to the successful outcome of this Session.
Mr. Chairman,
General Assembly Resolution 56/86 charged us with the consideration of a series of issues. Two of them were given priority, namely, the question of implementation of provisions of the Charter of the United Nations related to assistance to third States affected by sanctions under Chapter VII, and the discussion on ways and means of improving the working methods and enhancing the efficiency of the Special Committee.
The use of mandatory sanctions is intended to apply pressure on a State, entity or group of individuals, in order to obtain their compliance with Security Council decisions in a situation where international peace and security is threatened. The purpose of sanctions is to bring about compliance with the decisions of the Council, without resorting to the use of force. Sanctions are a very important instrument for the attainment of the objectives set as mandatory by the Security Council when
there is a threat to international peace and security.
There has been an increase in the use of sanctions over the last decade and concerns have been expressed by States and both governmental and non-governmental organisations as regards the adverse effects of sanctions on civilian population and non-targeted countries.
Regarding the issue of third States affected by sanctions, the European Union has been constant in supporting that all efforts should be made to reduce the negative effects that sanctions may have on non-targeted States, without undermining the efficiency of the sanctions regimes themselves.
The European Union supports initiatives that tend to reduce undesired negative impacts and improve sanctions regimes, such as so-called targeted or "smart" sanctions.
Of special interest for this purpose is the Secretary-General´s Report contained in document A/53/312 that describes the deliberations and main findings of the Ad Hoc Expert Group convened in June, 1998. Many of those conclusions and recommendations refer to the Secretariat.
The Secretary-General in his Report to the 56th Session of the General Assembly (document A/56/303) referred to the conclusions and recommendations of the expert group concerning the capacity of the Secretariat to implement these proposals.
The Secretary-General has indicated that the issues concerning the capacity of the Secretariat continue to be under review by several intergovernmental bodies. The European Union looks forward to the detailed views of the Secretary-General, in particular, on the political, financial and administrative feasibility of the Expert Group´s conclusions and proposals. Without these views it will be difficult to carry out an in-depth debate.
However, this should not stop us from discussing the proposals of the expert group, which are innovative as well as practical in nature.
When discussing the issue of sanctions, the Special Committee should also take into account the work carried out by other organs of the United Nations, such as the Working Group on sanctions of the Security Council.
In April 2000 the Security Council established a working group charged with the task of developing general recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of UN sanctions. In February of 2001 the Members of the Security Council took up the Chairman´s proposed outcome of the Working Group, and decided to continue consideration at a later stage, due to the absence of consensus on all the recommendations.
The European Union welcomes the continuing efforts of the Security Council to improve the functioning of the Sanctions Committees, to streamline their working procedures and to facilitate access to them by third States affected by sanctions, and hopes that the Security Council Working Group on sanctions will be able to agree on its conclusions as soon as possible.
The Interlaken, Bonn-Berlin and Stockholm processes may also provide useful input for the consideration of these issues. The work of the Interlaken Process that began focusing on targeted financial sanctions was continued by the Bonn-Berlin process work on arms embargoes and travel bans. Their conclusions were presented to the Security Council in an open session held on October 22 and 25, 2001. The Stockholm process will build on that work, focusing on the implementation and monitoring of
targeted sanctions, as well as on assistance to States in their implementation of sanctions regimes.
Mr. Chairman,
I will now refer briefly to the revised paper presented by the Russian Federation on the subject of humanitarian aspects of sanctions. The European Union has been consistent in its position that the Special Committee of the Charter should avoid duplication of the work carried out by other organs or groups, especially when they are more specifically suited to discuss these issues. Progress on this item was made in the last session, and we trust that the Charter Committee will be able to make
further progress on the subject during this session.
Mr. Chairman,
The second priority item in Resolution 56/86 is the improvement of the working methods and efficiency of the Charter Committee. The purpose is to achieve widely acceptable measures for future implementation.
Over the last few years the Charter Committee has tried to improve its efficiency. Some measures have already been taken, such as the rescheduling of meetings and improved use of conference services.
Still, more can and should be done. The European Union strongly believes that the work of the Charter Committee should be streamlined. We should endeavour to concentrate the work on fewer, previously selected subjects each session.
It is important to avoid duplication of work within the UN, by taking into account the fact that other, more specialized UN bodies are discussing certain subjects that have also been debated here. We have just mentioned the special working group of the Security Council on sanctions. Other examples are UN reform and issues related to UN peacekeeping that are under regular consideration by other committees.
One of the difficulties in improving the work of the Charter Committee is the late introduction of proposals. This prevents delegations from studying them thoroughly before the debates.
An important factor in improving the work of the Committee could be to avoid prolonged but ineffectual discussions on the same subjects. To that end, the introduction of a cut-off mechanism would change the practice of discussing the same topics for many years without results. Through such a mechanism, a subject would be removed from the agenda after a set number of years when there has been little consensus or progress.
Another tool for improving efficiency could be to decide that certain subjects would be discussed every two or three years. The General Assembly already makes good use of this method of work during its ordinary sessions. Also, we would advise caution before inscribing new issues in the already heavily charged agenda of the Special Committee on the Charter.
Finally, the Report of the Special Committee should be adopted in a less time-consuming manner, following the example of other Committees dealing with legal issues, such as the Ad Hoc Committee on Terrorism.
The European Union believes that such improvements are necessary and should be given priority. Many interesting proposals were made in the previous sessions, notably by Japan. This paper, which has already gone through two readings, may serve as a basis of agreement. We trust that we shall be able to reach consensus on its revised version during this session.
Mr. Chairman,
I shall now refer to other matters entrusted to us by Resolution 56/86.
Firstly, the proposals related to the peaceful settlement of disputes between States. At the end of extensive discussions during the 2001 session the delegations of Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom presented a revised version of their informal working paper on dispute prevention and settlement of disputes. The European Union trusts that this new working paper, which takes into consideration observations made during the last session, will be deemed to reflect those views in a balanced way and
will thus be approved by consensus at the completion of the next reading.
Regarding the issue of proposals concerning the Trusteeship Council, the European Union reiterates its position that even though some of them may be reasonable in principle, the issue is not urgent. The EU reiterates the proposal made last year to biannualize this topic. Several other more far reaching issues concerning reform or improvement of the UN are under consideration by various bodies and should be given priority.
Finally, I will address the issue of the backlog in the publication of the Repertory of Practice of UN Organs and the Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council. The European Union aknowledges with gratitude the efforts of the Secretary-General in order to advance in the publication of these two important records of the application of the Charter and activities of UN organs. The EU encourages the Secretariat to continue these efforts. Part of the problem is the lack of resources
combined with the low priority it receives. A Trust Fund was established in 2000 and several EU Member States have contributed to it.
Mr. Chairman,
The European Union looks forward to a constructive discussion of all these items during this session of the Special Committee on the Charter.
Thank you.
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