EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee, Administration of Justice at the UN

Fifth Committee, Resumed Session, Administration of Justice at the United Nations; Statement by Counsellor Enno Drofenik, Austrian Mission to the United Nations, on behalf of the European Union.


Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.

I should like to thank the Ombudsman, Chair of ACABQ, and representatives of OHRM and UNAT for introducing their respective reports.

The EU remains convinced of the need to strengthen the system of internal justice in the UN. This should help not only to improve the relationship between staff and management, but also to enhance overall transparency and accountability in terms of human resources management.

We will refrain from commenting in detail, at this stage, on this issue other than to express our support for the work of the Ombudsman. The report detailing the activities of the Ombudsman since the inception of the office shows what an invaluable tool this informal dispute resolution mechanism can be. Although, as the report states, the work of the Ombudsman is perhaps difficult to quantify or qualify, we are convinced that informal mechanisms such as this, combined with other simple measures, can be key in quickly and sensibly dealing with problems which arise between staff and management.

The EU notes that the resource aspects of the administration of justice were addressed in the context of the discussions on the programme budget 2006/07. We consider the next step, therefore, is to await the comprehensive report of the redesign panel, requested in resolution A/RES/59/283, which should provide a blue-print for the UN's future internal system of justice. As such, the EU would support the deferral of this agenda item to the General Assembly's 61st session.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Fifth Committee, Programme of Work  (6/3/2006)