Statement by
Mr. Iwan Wiranataatmadja
Director for Special Political Affairs
Before the Plenary of the 59th Session of
the U .N. General Assembly
On Agenda Item: 52

“Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly”
and
Agenda Item 54:

“Strengthening of the United Nations System”

New York, October 4, 2004

Mr. President,

The delegation of Indonesia would like to express its appreciation to you for convening this joint debate, which is an opportunity to discuss the subject of the revitalization of the General Assembly. The result of this debate is unquestionably aimed at re-establishing the role of the General Assembly.

Let me also take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations for her introduction to this debate. Before going further, my delegation associates itself with the statement made this morning by Algeria on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement on the subject of the revitalization of the General Assembly.

Mr. President,

Indonesia welcomed the adoption of resolutions 58/126 and 58/316, which were aimed at strengthening, revitalizing and reinvigorating the role of the General Assembly Indonesia also appreciates the initiative and role of H.E. Julian Hunte, President of the 58th session of the General Assembly, in the process leading to their adoption.

These two resolutions indicate clearly that many issues remain to be resolved, such as in the effort to enhance the authority and role of the General Assembly, and in its relationship with other main organ of the United Nations, namely the Security Council and ECOSOC. My delegation hopes that forthcoming work will bring substantive progress in achieving a clearly defined relationship between these three main organs, as enshrined in the Charter.

While the process of revitalization is far from over, Mr. President, my delegation believes that your skill and experience will yield progress on the issue. My delegation also hopes that the exercise of revitalization would proceed even further and more substantively in the near future.

Mr. President,

It is also important to stress that the strengthening of the United Nations system must aim at enabling the Organization to perform at optimum efficiency in order to deliver the benefits of development and peace. In this regard, any proposal by the Secretary-General should be considered within the context of the extent to which it could support the Organization’s efforts in the development field.

This will require the Secretary-General to allocate more resources to development activities as well as first-rate staff to enable the Secretariat to deliver adequate services to Member States. In this context, we would like to emphasize the need to achieve equal geographical distribution and gender balance, particularly at the level of policy making at the Secretariat, without compromising excellence in the quality of personnel that is the strength of the Organization.

Finally, Mr. President, let me also touch upon the Report of the Secretary-General in Response to the Report of the Panel of Eminent Persons on the United Nations-Civil Society Relations. My delegation supports the need to make the United Nations a more outward looking organization and expand its consultation with different constituencies and facilitate their input into issues debates of global significance.

In this connection, however, we would like to note that some of the proposals contained in these reports, such as the participation of NGOs in intergovernmental bodies, must be seriously and carefully considered before taking any actions. They do appear difficult to operationalize, and would therefore have to be clearly defined. We look forward to discussing these proposals.

I thank you, Mr. President.