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CANZ welcomes this opportunity to discuss mandates related to the maintenance of international peace and security, and disarmament.
These issues are among the most significant on the UN’s agenda. But there are no other issues which have so recently and so obviously demonstrated the UN’s shortcomings. The Summit failed to agree any language on disarmament and non-proliferation. That the largest ever gathering of world leaders was silent on pressing threats to international peace and security, including the risk of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, was correctly labelled a ‘disgrace’ by the Secretary-General.
The failings of the UN are ultimately always our failings as Member States. We cannot reverse the disgraceful lack of a Summit outcome on disarmament and non-proliferation. But we can commit now to take a long and hard look at mandates related to the maintenance of international peace and security, and disarmament. Clearly the UN must focus more effectively on contemporary threats to international peace and security. To do otherwise would belie the reasons for its founding.
While many of the mandates we are looking at today originate from the First Committee of the General Assembly, others originate from the Security Council. CANZ does not intend to comment here on specific Security Council mandates. But CANZ would encourage the Council to look expeditiously at its own mandates, using a transparent process which involves directly affected non-Council members where appropriate.
To be effective, the mandates review must be pursued with equal vigour, and must follow a similar timeline, in the General Assembly, the Security Council, and ECOSOC. All three organs should strive towards early outcomes. And we must agree on a clear, longer-term process, including a mechanism for the three organs to look at cross-cutting issues concerning which two or more of them have adopted mandates.
We have said before that the Secretary-General’s report, entitled Mandating and Delivering, provides us with a sound basis for pursuing the mandates review. That is also true in relation to mandates concerning the maintenance of international peace and security, and disarmament.
CANZ generally supports the Secretary-General’s suggestions on these issues. We are particularly keen to grasp the opportunity presented by the creation of the Peacebuilding Commission to rationalise mandates related to its work. We agree that thematic items in the First Committee, which are not directly connected to contemporary security threats, could be considered less regularly. And we too are concerned that the creation of expert groups on disarmament issues does not always move debate forward, and is too frequently used to delay having the debate itself.
CANZ can agree here and now to most of the Secretary-General’s suggestions on mandates related to the maintenance of international peace and security, and to disarmament. There is, however, one suggestion with which we do not concur. CANZ disagrees that the annual item on notification of nuclear tests is redundant. On the contrary, the need for timely review of any nuclear tests speaks for itself, not only to reinforce the political significance of the moratorium on nuclear tests, but also to underline the General Assembly’s special role in monitoring such tests until the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty enters into force.
The UN fulfils many roles. But its primary function remains to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. We take our cue from the UN Charter in saying that mandates related to the maintenance of international peace and security, and disarmament are of the utmost importance. They require our closest attention. CANZ looks forward to working with other States to reform this vital area of the UN’s agenda.
Thank you, Mr Co-Chair.
