UNITED NATIONS, Oct 2: Pakistan said on Monday that the world needed a United Nations which could stand up for the weak and the powerless and which was a force for objectivity, fairness, equality and justice in the management of international relations.
Addressing the UN General Assembly on the report of the secretary-general on the work of the organisation, the country Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram stressed that “the world needs a United Nations which does not always mirror the harsh and unequal power realities. The world needs a United Nations which acts with moral authority and credibility.”
Mr Akram said: “If the promise of a North-South ‘partnership for development’ is to become reality, it is essential to ensure the full and timely implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.”
“Developing countries, which so request, should be assisted to formulate their national development strategies. The development ‘partners’ –- the industrialised and richer nations and international institutions – must fulfil their commitments to support the success of these strategies, including through ODA, debt relief, trade and investment” he said.
He asserted that in order to achieve the objective a politically and technically empowered monitoring mechanism should be established under Ecosoc and specific indicators developed to enable an objective monitoring of the implementation of the MDGs and IADGs by all concerned.”
Mr Akram reminded the assembly: “The resolution adopted on the follow-up to the development provisions of the 2005 Summit outlines the steps that should be taken for this purpose.”
“While development was proclaimed to be the first priority of the 2005 Summit, it is telling and sad that of all institutional reform decisions, the one relating to the empowerment and revival of Ecosoc is the one which could not be adopted prior to the conclusion of the 60th UNGA session despite the broad agreement at the 2005 Summit. This resolution must be approved without further delay,” he said.
He noted: “As in peacekeeping, the UN’s role in coordinating the response to humanitarian emergencies has been indispensable and outstanding.”
“This was witnessed both in the response to the tsunami and the massive earthquake which devastated the northern regions of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir a year ago. We welcome the establishment of the $500 million Emergency Response Fund. We believe that the UN’s humanitarian activities would benefit from closer intergovernmental engagement and oversight under Ecosoc.”
On the issue of UN management reforms, Mr Akram said: “The reform exercise has been plagued not only by the multiple objectives that are sought to be simultaneously promoted, but also by the absence of agreement on the strategic objectives of these reforms. During its 60-year history, the UN has passed from the bipolar structures of the Cold War, through a period of uni-polarity. It is now at the prelude to a multi-polar world. We have entered an era of globalisation and interdependence; but also of huge asymmetries in power, wealth and knowledge. And, despite the 2005 Summit, we the United Nations have yet to establish a new paradigm under which world affairs and global challenges will be managed.”
“Noting that “a few weeks ago, the General Assembly adopted a UN Strategy Against Terrorism,” Mr Akram expressed hope that this would enhance international cooperation.
Mr Akram underscored that “those of us who have endeavoured to carve a central role for the UN in world affairs have often been obliged to temper our idealism in the face of power realities.”
