Statement
by
H.E. Mr. Mochamad S. Hidayat
Charge d’Affaires / Deputy Permanent Representative
of the Republic of Indonesia
to the United Nations
before
the 2nd Committee of the 57th General Assembly 
on Agenda 92:

Integrated and Coordinated Implementation of and   follow-up to the outcomes of the major United nations conferences and summits in the Economic, Social and Related Fields

New York, November 2002

 

Mr. Chairman,

Distinguished delegates,
            Let me first thank the Secretary-General for his report on this important item. We also fully associate ourselves with the remarks by the distinguished representative of Venezuela on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

Mr. Chairman,
            Over the past decade, a number of major UN conferences and summits on economic and social issues have been conducted and have yielded numerous outcomes for a better future for all. The most important conferences and summits over the past three years have produced critical international agreed development goals for achieving the key development objectives of eradicating poverty, achieving sustained economic growth and promoting sustainable development. 

Taken together, the outcomes of these conferences and summits, including the Millennium Development Goals, the Monterrey Consensus and the Johannesburg plan of Implementation, have provided the international community with a solid platform for achieving development at all levels. As a result, we must move from the era of commitment and goal setting to one of concrete implementation at all levels by the international community.

For that purpose, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the relevant functional commissions of the UN, acting as a three-tiered system for the follow-up to and the review of conferences, are each playing a crucial role. The challenge is, however, to ensure that each of these organs consider the outcomes of these major UN conferences and summits as being interlinked and thereby collectively contribute towards achieving an integrated framework for the implementation of the internationally agreed development goals.

Mr. Chairman,

            My delegation would like to emphasize, in this regard, the continuing importance of strengthening further the coordinating role of the ECOSOC in the work of its functional commissions and its subsidiary organs to implement the outcomes of the UN conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields. The coherence work of the functional commissions and the specialized agencies including the international organizations under the UN system should be enhanced.

As to the role of the General Assembly, which is the highest intergovernmental mechanism for the formulation and appraisal of policy relating to the economic, social and related fields as well as the most universal mechanism of the United Nations, my delegation considers it  critically important that its role be further strengthened. The General Assembly should provide the overall responsibility for political direction and serve as the highest monitoring mechanism in the implementation of all the conference’s outcomes.

In this context, we see no alternative but for the General Assembly to focus on its work based on an integrated, coordinated comprehensive and balanced approach if we want to ensure the effective implementation of the outcomes of the UN conferences and summits at the national, regional and international levels. Thus, we must also ensure that the General Assembly should promote the role of the United Nations in becoming a more effective instrument for achieving internationally agreed development goals.

For that purpose, we should strive to advance a more coherent, integrated and coordinated work of the General Assembly in the Plenary, Second and Third Committees so as to ensure that the system is fully equipped to effectively follow-up an integrated approach in implementing the outcomes of the conferences.

We should also emphasize the crucial role of the General Assembly as the highest mechanism for ensuring the provision of harmonized, integrated policy guidance in the economic, social and related fields based on the recommendation of the ECOSOC as the coordinating mechanism of the United Nations functional commissions and specialized agencies. Moreover, the General Assembly should enhance greater policy coherence between the UN, the Breton Woods Institutions and the WTO in achieving development goals particularly in eradicating poverty, promoting food security and enhancing sustainable development.

           

            Given this backdrop, my delegation believes that the issue should be more comprehensively addressed during this 57th session of the General Assembly so as to enable us to further improve its work and activities in the up-coming General Assembly meetings. To do so, we should take into account the ongoing reform process of the United Nations, particularly the further measures for revitalizing the United Nations in the economic, social and related fields as stipulated in resolution 50/227.  

For that reason, my delegation would like to propose the establishment of an open-ended ad hoc working group under the auspices of the President of the General Assembly. We believe that the working group should commence its work by January, 2003 so as to allow us to be in a position to submit a report for the consideration of the GA before its current Fifty Seventh session ends in 2003.

            The working group should, develop recommendations to ensure an integrated and coordinated follow-up of the UN conferences and summits. Such recommendations may address ways to promote the policy and programme coordination of the international institutions and to enhance greater policy coherence between the UN, its agencies, the Bretton Woods Institution and the WTO in achieving internationally agreed development goals. It should also resolve to improve the working methods of the General Assembly, including the coherence work in the Plenary, Second and Third Committees as well as to structure the agenda items of the work of the GA in economic, social and related fields and to promote a consolidated report of the Secretary-General.

Furthermore, the working group should examine how best to address the review conference of the major UN conferences and summits of the 1990s in the economic and social fields, including their format and periodicity. This should take into account the need to recognize that each of the UN conferences and summits has its own respective thematic unity and conference follow-up mechanism.

 

In conclusion, allow me to highlight some principles for guiding the work of the working group. First, we should emphasize the continuing relevance of GA Resolution 50/227. Second, we should emphasize the need to focus on implementation. Third, we should preserve the thematic unity and identity of the UN Conferences and Summits and their respective follow-up mechanisms. And fourth, we should seek to ensure complementarity with the on going reform processes of the UN as a whole. 

Last but not least, Mr. Chairman, my delegation recalls that the 10 years implementation of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development will be in the year of 2004. In this context, we are of the view that under agenda item 92, we should seek to consider how best to review the implementation of the ICPD. For this, my delegation stands ready to discuss any activity that need to be undertaken in 2004.  

 

Thank you.