Switzerland, 2005

I would like to congratulate you,

Mr. Eliasson, on your election to the presidency of the

General Assembly and to assure you of my country's

full support during this sixtieth session of the General

Assembly.

Reform will be a central theme at the Assembly's

sixtieth session. Allow me to focus on four institutional

reforms, by which Switzerland sets great store. They

are, first of all, the creation of a Human Rights

Council; secondly, reform of the Security Council;

thirdly, the Peacebuilding Commission; and, fourthly,

internal management of the United Nations.

The creation of a Human Rights Council is

crucial. The Commission on Human Rights in its

present form suffers from various defects. We deplore

its weak capacity to respond to grave human rights

violations. We also regret its overly selective character

and the application of double standards, which

undermine its authority.

Switzerland welcomes the decision made by the

Member States at the summit to replace the

Commission on Human Rights with a Human Rights

Council. However, we regret that it has not been

possible, even at this stage, to establish some of the

working methods on which there was wide agreement.

For Switzerland, this Human Rights Council

should be a principal organ of the United Nations or

should at least be directly subordinate to the General

Assembly. It should convene periodically, be based in

Geneva and should work in close cooperation with the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights. It should be of a size that guarantees

both its legitimacy and the capacity to work effectively.

Finally, to ensure real added value, it should incorporate

those instruments that constitute the strength of the

present Commission without reproducing its defects.

The profile and working methods of the Human

Rights Council should be established promptly. We

have given ourselves until the end of the sixtieth

session of the General Assembly to do this, but the

ideal solution would be to complete the work before

the next session of the Commission on Human Rights,

which starts next March.

We now need a clearer picture of the process

which the President of the General Assembly intends to

conduct. We assure him of our strong support in this

task. Switzerland hopes that the future Human Rights

Council can start its work soon, and it invites all States

to strive towards this goal.

Switzerland has also been actively involved in the

reform of the Security Council, an organ that embodies

both the strengths and the weaknesses of the United

Nations. No one can deny that the composition of the

Security Council should better reflect contemporary

geopolitical realities. Enlargement of the Security

Council will make it more representative and will

strengthen the authority of its decisions. However,

enlargement of the Security Council, which has been

the subject of intensive debate over the past few

months, is only one aspect of the reform that needs to

be made. It should not overshadow another

indispensable part of the reform: the need to improve

the Council’s working methods.

For most countries, opportunities to sit on the

Security Council are few and limited in time. A serious

reform of the Council's working methods would have

an immediate and beneficial effect for all Member

States. New and more detailed rules should be adopted

in a General Assembly resolution and then written into

the Security Council's rules of procedure.

Reform of the Security Council’s working

methods must achieve several goals: it should increase

the possibilities for participation by States that are not

members of the Council; it should ensure greater

accountability of the Council to all the Member States

of the United Nations; and, finally, it should improve

transparency and find new ways for the Council to hear

other points of view.

Efficiency is a fourth criterion that needs to be

taken into account. Improvements in the working methods

of the Security Council must be geared towards

strengthening its capacity to efficiently exercise its

responsibilities for international peacekeeping and

security.

In May Switzerland presented a series of specific

recommendations that were well received by many

Member States. I would like to focus on three specific

proposals.

First, in accordance with the principle of the

responsibility to protect, the right of veto must not be

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exercised in cases of genocide, ethnic cleansing or

other grave and large-scale violations of international

humanitarian law or human rights. I believe that that

principle is sufficiently clear not to require further

elaboration.

Secondly, the Security Council should refrain, as

far as possible, from exercising legislative functions.

The task of codifying and developing international law

should remain the primary responsibility of the General

Assembly, which includes all Member States. The

Council is authorized by the United Nations Charter to

take emergency measures to maintain international

peace and security. However, that authorization cannot

be interpreted as including the power to impose

legislative obligations, that is, obligations that are

general in scope, abstract and have no time limits.

Thirdly, on the subject of Security Council

sanctions, the procedures for establishing and revising

the lists of targeted individuals and entities must be

improved. It is unacceptable that people who are

subject to sanctions that affect their basic rights are

denied all right of appeal. In particular, it is important

to ensure the right to be heard, which is a fundamental

human right.

Switzerland, together with other countries,

intends to present a draft resolution on improving the

working methods of the Security Council.

Another important institutional reform decided at

the summit is the creation of a Peacebuilding

Commission. Switzerland has contributed its ideas to

that project over the past few months. It welcomes the

creation of that body, which will address a key area of

United Nations activities and fill a clear institutional

gap.

Once a conflict has ended, the main players -

institutions, States and civil society - must work

together to rebuild the country. The principal mission

of the Peacebuilding Commission will be to bring those

players from the fields of peacekeeping, humanitarian

aid, and development together to define joint strategies

for future action.

The Commission will include representatives of

the Security Council and the Economic and Social

Council, as well as representatives of the principal

financial donors and troop contributors. Switzerland

believes that the main United Nations institutions

concerned should also take part in the deliberations.

For instance, it would be useful to include the

Chairman of the United Nations Development Group,

the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs

and the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It

would also be useful to bring on board, as needed,

experts from civil society, the academic world or the

private sector.

Furthermore, in the composition of the

Commission, we need to ensure gender parity.

Peacekeeping, humanitarian action and

development are parallel activities and should not be

rigidly divided into successive phases. In drafting its

mandate, we should ensure that the Commission has

the ability to advise all the institutional actors

concerned at any step of the peace and reconstruction

process.

We cannot speak of improving the efficiency of

the Security Council without discussing the

improvements that have to be made in the internal

management of the United Nations. The Summit

Outcome document sets out the most urgently needed

measures. They must be implemented without delay.

In that context, the three following factors must

be taken into account: first, the political competence

and responsibility to decide the budget belong to the

General Assembly; secondly, the Secretary-General's

management authority must be extended; and, thirdly,

the internal oversight bodies must be strengthened.

The scandals that have tarnished the image of the

United Nations in recent months underscore the urgent

need to strengthen the means as well as the financial

and operational independence of the Office of Internal

Oversight Services. Furthermore, given the increasing

complexity of their task, we must strengthen

cooperation between the various oversight bodies,

which are spread across the United Nations system. We

invite the Member States to support the enlargement of

the mandate of the Office of Internal Oversight

Services, so that it is able to respond to requests for

assistance from the specialized agencies.

Especially close to my heart is the importance of

combating cases of abuse and sexual exploitation

committed in the context of United Nations peace

operations. Such abuses are a grave violation of human

rights and of the values that the Organization espouses.

They damage the credibility of the Organization and

hinder the accomplishment of its missions on the

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ground. Switzerland advocates zero tolerance on this

question. We strongly support the measures that have

recently been taken, in particular an increase in the

number of resident investigators deployed on the

ground under the authority of the Office of Internal

Oversight Services.

Last autumn, we embarked together on a major

undertaking: adapting the multilateral system so that it

can address the new problems and challenges of the

twenty-first century, with a strengthened and more

efficient United Nations at its centre. All reform

requires a subtle mix of ambition, realism and patience.

We have come part of the way. The basic itinerary was

set at the summit. We must now pursue the path of

reform, give shape to our early decisions, and resolve

persisting differences. That has to be one of the main

objectives of the sixtieth session of the General

Assembly, which has just begun.