New Zealand, 2005

Sixty years ago,

Prime Minister Peter Fraser of New Zealand told

representatives to the San Francisco Conference that its

sole aim should be

“the setting up of a world organization that will

really work, and that will be the background for

an orderly progress towards security, prosperity

and happiness for all the people of all nations”.

The new organization would only work, he said, if its

members were determined to stand by their

commitments and principles.

Today the essential concept of the United Nations

remains robust. We can be justly proud of its

achievements in many areas including humanitarian

assistance, development and peacekeeping. But we

have collectively underperformed in others, sometimes

with tragic results.

Our task this sixtieth anniversary is twofold: first,

to recommit ourselves as Member States to the

enduring vision and values of the Charter and,

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secondly, to retool the United Nations machinery to

meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.

The Summit Outcome (resolution 60/1) provides

the blueprint for the way forward. New Zealand would

have liked more progress in a number of areas, such as

more detailed agreement on the establishment of the

Human Rights Council and more authority to the

Secretary-General to manage resources in return for

greater accountability. We deeply regret the failure to

endorse further disarmament and non-proliferation

measures.

But we are encouraged by the many significant

advances, including recognition of the need for more

and better aid, establishment of the Peacebuilding

Commission, a doubling of resources for the Office of

the Commissioner for Human Rights and the

recognition of our shared “responsibility to protect”.

We have as our theme for the General Assembly

implementation of our summit undertakings. We share

accountability for getting the job done. I shall confine

my comments here to the results of the summit.

New Zealand is pleased with the Summit

Outcome as it relates to development. It represents a

shared commitment by all Member States to the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and

recognizes the important partnership between

developed and developing countries in the effective use

of aid.

This year New Zealand has increased its

development assistance by 23 per cent. Our official

development assistance (ODA) programme has a focus

on poverty elimination, with a core, but not exclusive,

focus on the Pacific. We strive to address aid

effectiveness, the particular problems faced by small

island developing States, HIV/AIDS, the empowerment

of women, sexual and reproductive health and rights,

education for all, sustainable development and trade

access.

On trade, we look forward to an ambitious

outcome across all aspects of the Doha Development

Agenda, including in agriculture, improved market

access, the elimination of export subsidies and

substantial reductions in trade distorting domestic

support. Improving the coherence of trade policies and

development initiatives remains a critical element in

achieving the MDGs.

New Zealand welcomes the decision to establish

a Peacebuilding Commission to help break the cycle of

conflict by better coordinating long-term international

recovery efforts and ensuring sustained political

attention to those who need it. We must now move

swiftly to get the Commission up and running by

December this year. We look to the General Assembly

President to take a lead in holding consultations to

achieve this. The core elements of the framework have

already been discussed at length and in detail. With

good will and determination, we can surely arrive at

agreement within the next few weeks on a package.

This should ensure balanced membership and flexible

reporting arrangements. We would caution against

raising the bar for assistance too high, and we hope

that all States in need of help will be able to approach

the Commission.

Our leaders have spoken with one voice and

unequivocally to condemn all forms of terrorism. We

must build on this and honour our undertaking to

conclude negotiations on the comprehensive

convention on international terrorism at this session.

New Zealand will continue to work closely with our

friends in the Pacific region to improve our collective

abilities to identify, prevent or respond to terrorist

threats. Consolidating reporting requirements created

by Security Council resolutions would, we believe, be

one step towards enhancing the counter-terrorism

programme of the United Nations. We think it very

important that Member States should now support the

Secretary-General’s counter-terrorism strategy.

One of the most far-reaching achievements of the

summit, as many countries have acknowledged, is our

collective acceptance that there is a responsibility to

protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic

cleansing and crimes against humanity. We must now

all be prepared to assist the United Nations in

establishing the early warning capability referred to in

our outcome document. It is vital that, when the need

arises, we give effect to our resolve and follow the

principles we have agreed upon.

In this context, New Zealand wishes to reaffirm

its commitment to ending impunity for those

responsible for the most serious crimes of concern to

the international community. Adoption of the Rome

Statute of the International Criminal Court was an

historic moment for the United Nations and one that

demonstrated the breadth and depth of political will to

end impunity and to secure the rule of law.

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The absence of any reference to a commitment to

end impunity or of any acknowledgement of the

International Criminal Court’s central contribution to

this goal is one of several telling silences in our

summit outcome.

We are particularly pleased that leaders have

recognized the need to conclude, during this session,

negotiations on the draft protocol to the Convention on

the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel.

This will be a major priority for New Zealand. We call

on all Member States to contribute constructively to

this process, so that we can reach agreement on a

protocol and demonstrate our full support for the work

of United Nations personnel in the field.

New Zealand welcomes the emphasis on human

rights in the outcome document. That the budget of the

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is

to be doubled and her Office strengthened is an

overdue recognition of the gap between expectations of

delivery and resourcing.

While progress has been made through the

summit decision to establish a Human Rights Council,

we regret that the opportunity was lost to reach

agreement on details of the Council’s mandate and

operation, despite the support of a great majority of

Members for such a package. A small minority cannot

be allowed to veto the establishment of the Council.

Over the next weeks we must redouble our efforts

to translate that broad support into specifics on what

the Council will look like and on its mandate. We shall

look to the President to set a work programme that will

aim for agreement on the details.

Our second human rights priority for the sixtieth

session is to see negotiations completed on the draft

convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.

The constructive and collegial spirit of delegations in

the Ad Hoc Committee on the rights of persons with

disabilities has been extraordinary. New Zealand is

confident that it will be possible to conclude the

negotiations in 2006 if the Ad Hoc Committee is

enabled to meet for three weeks next January.

Our ability to strengthen the United Nations

across the board in development, security and human

rights will be enhanced by implementing summit

undertakings on Secretariat and management reform.

We need particularly to improve the managerial

effectiveness and accountability of the Secretary-

General. He should be given, as he has requested, the

tools that he needs to manage the Secretariat.

We strongly support the review of all budgetary

and human resource rules and regulations and the

review of mandates. We support also the increased

focus on ensuring ethical conduct on the part of all

United Nations personnel. We believe a system-wide

code of ethics and an independent ethics office would

facilitate that. New Zealand also welcomes the

commitment to strengthening the United Nations

Office of Internal Oversight Services.

The outcome document calls for early reform of

the Security Council, and the General Assembly is to

review progress on this issue by the end of the year.

New Zealand continues to believe that the Security

Council needs to be more effective and more

representative for the twenty-first century, although we

have no illusions about the difficulties of reaching

agreement on this.

We should in the meantime renew our efforts to

improve the working methods of the Security Council.

For those many Member States who rarely, if ever,

occupy a non-permanent seat on the Council, there

should be other ways to participate in Council

decisions and contribute to discussions.

We, as Member States, have shown in finalizing

the summit outcome a mixture of courage and

creativity on the one hand and of stubbornness and

hesitation on the other. The implementation period

ahead gives us a second chance to make good on those

moments when we allowed agreements to slip through

our fingers. We put our trust in our President to set up

the structures for ongoing work and to be the catalyst

to motivate and energize us.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge the much

valued contribution that former President Ping made

over the last year, and we thank him.