Statement by Mr. D.C. Manjunath, First Secretary at the meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the General Assembly 02 May, 2014

Mr. Co-Chairs,

1.Thank you for convening this important meeting to discuss the ‘Role and responsibility of General Assembly in the selection and appointment of the Secretary General and other Executive Heads’.

2. I would like to align myself with the statement made by Algeria on behalf of Non-Aligned Group.

Mr. Co-Chairs,

3. While reiterating our position that the General Assembly should claim its rightful position as the chief deliberative, policy-making and representative organ of the United Nations both in letter and in spirit, I would like to place on record our views on the theme of discussion today.

4. Firstly, the General Assembly must have a greater say in the selection process of the Secretary General. This is a cardinal issue which cannot be left entirely to the Security Council.

5. General Assembly Resolution 11 (1) of 1st February 1946 which lays out the ‘terms of appointment of the Secretary General’ clearly belongs to the past. Almost seven decades have passed since then and it is only appropriate that we change the system where General Assembly outsourced this important process to the Security Council.

6. The Secretary-General’s election should not be limited to merely ‘consulting closely with other Security Council members to reach agreement on a candidate’ followed by approval by acclamation by the General Assembly. At the same time, we are also of the opinion that this should not be allowed to become a divisive issue between the two principal organs. Keeping this perspective in mind we would like to make the following suggestions;

7. One, the General Assembly resolutions 51/241 of 22 August 1997 and 60/286 of 9 October 2006 which outline in detail proposals on improving the process of selection and appointment of the Secretary-General must be fully and faithfully implemented.

8. Two, the practice established by GA Resolution 11 (1) could be modified to allow for the Council to send a panel of names that the Assembly could choose from as against a single nomination.

9. Three, should the member-states attach high importance to the role and responsibilities of the Assembly, we could also amend the provisions on voting to make that the selection should be ‘decided by a two-thirds majority’ in terms of Article 18 as against the one with a simple majority requirement in Resolution 11 (1).

10. Four, we could also identify objective criteria for the candidatures, including commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter, extensive leadership, administrative and diplomatic experience with due regard being given to regional rotation and gender equality.

11. Five, an equally useful and practical step would be to encourage formal presentation of candidatures in a manner that allows sufficient time for interaction with member-states, and also requires candidates to present their views to all member-states of the General Assembly.

Mr. Co-Chairs,

12. On the issue of selection of other Executive Heads in the UN system organizations, our position flows from the clear guidelines in the Charter. The Charter provisions clearly reflect the desire of the UN membership to have an international civil service which displays the highest standards of professionalism, neutrality and integrity and which is accountable to the General Assembly.

13. In addition, we would welcome closer consideration of procedures for selecting, appointing and confirming the heads of the major Specialized Agencies, Funds and Programmes with a view to ensuring transparency, legitimacy and balanced representation. Extension of tenures of such positions beyond the stipulated time frame; providing multiple tenures to same persons and persons belonging to the same geographical region go against these established norms and should be avoided.

Mr. Co Chairs,

13. In conclusion, we would like to re-emphasize the need for greater transparency, inclusiveness in the selection of the Secretary General and stress on implementation of relevant GA resolutions without further delay.

Thank You.