New York — The United Nations (UN) member-states have adopted an annual resolution on revitalising the work of the UN General Assembly.
The resolution is the outcome of successful negotiations within the UN’s Working Group dedicated to the reform of the General Assembly, which successfully concluded its work under the leadership of Ambassador Lana Zaki Nussaibah, UAE’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, and Vladimir Drobnjak, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Croatia to the UN.
The UN General Assembly’s Working Group on Revitalisation was established in 2007 to identify further ways to enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency of the body.
“We have identified concrete ways to improve the working methods of the General Assembly in order to meet the needs and demands of member-states,” explained Ambassador Nussaibah. “The Sustainable Development Goals of the UN pose an implementation challenge not just for member-states but for the General Assembly as well, which must align its work with the priorities and objectives set out by the SDGs. Member-states have decided to agree on a way forward to proceed in this important task of alignment. I am thankful to all the member-states who were committed to this intensive process and to achieving consensus on how the General Assembly will operate in the coming sessions.”
Nussaibah added, “I am also thankful for the opportunity to collaborate with Ambassador Drobnjak on this topic. I am confident that the efforts of this working group will have a lasting impact on the efforts of the General Assembly.”
During the adoption of the resolution, Peter Thomson, President of the 71st session of the General Assembly, on behalf of all member-states extended his deepest gratitude to Ambassador Nussaibah and Ambassador Drobnjak, for their outstanding leadership of the Working Group, and for steering the process through to a successful outcome.
The adopted resolution calls for increased measures of transparency, accountability, and efficiency in the work of the General Assembly on various fronts. Specific provisions are enhancing the transparency in the way campaigns for membership in UN bodies, including conducting by public hearings with candidates for the post of the President of the General Assembly, and translating the UN’s commitment to multilingualism into action by publishing the UN’s Journal in all six official languages.
The resolution calls for strengthening coherence and consistency across the work of the General Assembly’s main committees, and increasing public access to its formal meetings through webcast.
The negotiating process cemented the strong working relationship between the Missions of the UAE and Croatia at the UN, reflecting the strong bilateral ties of the two governments.
