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Mr President
First may I extend New Zealand’s sincere sympathy to the Government and people of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan after the tragic bombings yesterday in Amman. I would like to join others in welcoming both the report of the Security Council and the report of the Open Ended Working Group. As His Excellency Ambassador Denisov made clear this morning, the pressures on the Council are considerable. I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the efforts of Council Members in managing an ever more complex and demanding agenda.
Transparency and consultation
The report highlights the continued increase in the volume and scope of the Council’s agenda. This growing agenda makes transparency and outreach in the Council’s proceedings more important than ever. Given the far-reaching implications of Council decisions, the Membership needs to understand what decisions are being taken in the Council, and why. While there have been some improvements over the years, there are still too few practical and effective mechanisms for interacting with the Council on key issues. And even where discussions do take place, Member States often feel their views are not taken into account.
Our challenge is to resolve these concerns in a way that allows the Council to do its work quickly and efficiently and at the same time gives Member States greater confidence in the Council’s decisions.
Like others, New Zealand sees a need for some basic changes to Council working methods. First, while structured open debates are a good opportunity to put views on the record, we would like to see greater use of smaller informal meetings where the Council and the Membership can discuss particular issues. The regional meetings arranged during the negotiation of UNSCR 1540 are a good precedent, as are the regular briefings already held by some Council members for their regional groups.
We would also like to see more extensive use made of drafting groups that include Member States not currently serving on the Council. This has been done successfully on issues such as Kosovo, Timor-Leste and Afghanistan. Similarly we ask that the Security Council’s subsidiary bodies consider involving non Council Members in their work. This would have the benefit of assisting the Council in its workload as well as enhancing transparency and range of expertise. We also ask that the Council make itself much more responsive to the interests and views of Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) with respect to the establishment, conduct and review of peacekeeping operations.
Capacity issues
On the important issue of consultation, Mr President, we would request the Council to look carefully at the capacity of Member States when considering new compulsory measures. As noted by Barbados, on behalf of Caricom, this morning, while there are often compelling reasons for urgent and far-reaching requirements on Member States – such as the Counter Terrorism Measures - due attention needs to be paid to the ability of Member States to meet these requirements. In our view, the Council needs to have an open and inclusive dialogue with all Member States to ensure that the compliance burdens are realistic and manageable. This is a concern we have raised previously with regard to the impact of these requirements for instance on our Pacific neighbours. We welcome the recent focus in the 1267, 1373 and 1540 Committees on providing technical assistance to developing states and hope that creative ways can also be found to address the challenging reporting requirements involved.
Use of the veto
Mr President, we remain concerned that Council action on some issues has not been possible because of the use of a single veto, or a silent veto. There were several occasions in the past year where delays or complete inaction occurred despite overwhelming international support in favour of the Council’s taking action. We regret this situation and once again would like to put on record our unequivocal opposition to the veto – both with respect to current permanent members of the Council and any potential future members.
Draft resolution on working methods
As a final point on working methods I would particularly like to welcome the draft resolution circulated informally last week by Switzerland, Costa Rica, Jordan, Singapore and Liechtenstein. The draft touches on many of the points I have already made and we very much hope that it will stimulate an open and constructive discussion amongst the Membership on strengthening the work of the Council.
Security Council expansion
Finally, Mr President, a word on Security Council expansion. At the World Summit, leaders supported early reform of the Security Council. They have committed themselves to continuing efforts to achieve a decision on this issue. New Zealand welcomes this commitment. We are of the view that the Security Council should be more broadly representative, effective, and transparent. We believe that any expansion of the Security Council must include Japan.
Thank you Mr President.
