78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
AHWG General Debate on the Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly
Statement delivered by Ms. Kristel Lõuk, Deputy Permanent Representative of Estonia on behalf of the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency (ACT) group
General Assembly, 20 February 2024
Co-chairs,
I am honoured to take the floor on behalf of the 27 members of the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency (ACT) Group[1].
Thank you for convening this debate on the revitalization of the General Assembly, and we congratulate you again on your appointment. The ACT group looks forward to working closely with you and your teams this session.
In September, we adopted resolution A/RES/77/335 and as per our biennialised schedule this session we look forward to evaluating the status of its implementation.
In the cluster of the Role and Authority of the GA, the revitalization resolution adopted last year recognizes GA’s Charter mandated role in peace and security. A role we have seen becoming ever more important. In times when a main organ responsible for international peace and security is unable to fulfil its mandate in key areas, the General Assembly bears a special responsibility to step up to protect the United Nations Charter.
In this regard, we have seen the General Assembly step up each time a Veto is cast in the Security Council. The Veto Initiative is crucial to ensure accountability within the United Nations system and has further strengthened the role of the General Assembly.
We have also seen the relevance of the GA’s role through Emergency Special Sessions.
We now look forward to the implementation of OP30 of the revitalization resolution that asks the PGA to create a digital handbook on the practices and situations in which the General Assembly has had a relevant role in peace and security. We hope this will better equip the GA to take on its role in the future.
We are pleased that 2/3 of the UN Membership is now a signatory to the ACT Code of Conduct regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes and invite others to join. We encourage the current 130 signatories to closely consider how they can meet their responsibilities under the Code of Conduct.. We would particularly encourage signatories on the Council – who for many years have constituted a procedural majority – to work together to initiate discussions and products.
Under the cluster of the Role and Authority of the GA the ACT Group will also continue to stress the importance of the Annual report of the Security Council to the General Assembly.
OP 25 of the latest resolution recognizes the importance of the timely submission of the report to the General Assembly to enable scheduling its consideration by the General Assembly latest in June of each year. We would welcome receiving the report even earlier than the Council deadline in May to ensure a timely and relevant review of the Council’s work by the GA.
The ACT group further considers that there is also scope to improve the process of preparation of the Report. In this regard, we thank the President of the General Assembly for convening the informal consultation on the work of the Security Council in 2023, in cooperation with the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom on 16 January 2024, as suggested by ACT group. This discussion hopefully informed the drafting of the introduction of the Annual Report. . Member States and Observers for the first time had the possibility to express their views and inputs ahead of that exercise, rather than only responding in the debate usually scheduled before the summer months. We found the meeting to be a valuable opportunity for dialogue and look forward to it becoming an annual occurrence.
We also continue to encourage the Council to provide a more complete, substantive and analytical account of its work to the General Assembly, including further details on the draft resolutions that failed to be adopted by the Council.
In this regard, we regret that it was not possible in the last revitalization resolution for the General Assembly to recommend to the Council the addition of a dedicated chapter on the veto into the Annual Report, which would contain an analysis of the cases in which the veto has been exercised. And we consider that in light of Article 24 paragraph 3 of the UN Charter, a standalone chapter should also be included on Special Reports, whether they result from the implementation of Resolution 76/262 or not. We hope that the Council will take up these recommendations in this year’s report.
The ACT Group welcomes the practice by President of the General Assembly to assess the General Assembly debate on Security Council report and transmit a summary of the recommendations to Member States and to the Security Council. We encourage the Council to formally consider this summary and follow-up on the suggestions and observations of the general membership.
The ACT Group also wishes to encourage the timely compilation and use of the monthly Assessments by Council presidencies. As such assessments don’t represent the views of the Council as a whole, but rather the view of the Presidency of the month, its substance should not be reduced to the lowest common denominator.
We welcome the reference to live list of speakers for UNSC open debates outlined in OP29 of the latest resolution on revitalization. The list should be broadly circulated well ahead of time – no later than one day before – to facilitate the greater involvement of the membership as a whole.
Co-chairs,
Although it is not a focus area of our work this Session, given its urgency, ACT underlines that we need a clear and much more predictable timeline for the overall selection and appointment process of the Secretary-General. This was a stark omission from our last resolution, and it must be addressed as priority in the 79th Session ahead of the next selection process. Agreeing on a timeframe for the process would ease procedural burdens, and improve clarity of the process for Member States and candidates alike.
I thank you.
[1] Austria, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Gabon, Ghana, Hungary, Ireland, Jordan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Maldives, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Portugal, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, and my own country Estonia.