Harmonizing the Agenda of the GA with the Millennium Declaration

“Non Paper - Food for Thought”, 26 October 2003

1. Introduction

The debate on UN reform has demonstrated growing recognition that the deliberations in the General Assembly are too much guided by the agenda items that have accumulated over the years, instead of by broader themes that are of importance to the world today. There is also growing consensus that we should abandon the bottom-up approach followed up till now in favor of an approach, which takes the identification of key themes as a point of departure. Around these themes, agenda items could subsequently be clustered.

The document attached is the outcome of an attempt by the Netherlands to take the debate one step further by actually regrouping agenda items around the categories of the Millennium Declaration. It shows the degree of convergence or, in some cases, clear lack thereof. We have taken the Millennium Declaration as the starting point for this exercise as it is the expression of our leaders’ comprehensive vision on a balanced program of work for the United Nations in the new era, encompassing development, human rights and security issues. This is not to imply that another framework would not do, or that the Millennium Declaration is exhaustive. The Millennium Declaration simply provides us with a framework that can be used to think through what regrouping the General Assembly’s Agenda really means when we get down to it.

One preliminary remark. Streamlining the General Assembly’s agenda is not an end in itself. It is a starting point for more focused debates, clustering of resolutions and streamlining reporting requirements. This non-paper therefore constitutes only a partial contribution to the work that is ahead.

2. Categories of the Millennium Declaration, GA-Agenda and the Main Committees

The Categories of the Millennium Declaration

Upon examination, a strong relationship between the Agenda and the categories of the Millennium Declaration became increasingly apparent, resulting in combination of Millennium Declaration Categories as follows:

1. Values and Principles

2. Peace, Security, and Disarmament

3&4 Development and Poverty Eradication / Protection of our Common Environment

5&6 Human Rights, Democracy, and Good Governance / Protecting the Vulnerable

7. Meeting the Needs of Africa

8. Strengthening the United Nations

 9. Organizational Matters / Miscellaneous.

Category 9 has been added to accommodate the Organizational Matters of the GA

The Main Committees and the Millennium Declaration

This combination highlighted a relationship between these combined categories and the work of the Main Committees, which can be quickly, if generally, characterized as follows;

Category       Committee

     1                        -

     2                       I, IV

   3&4                     II

   5&6                     III

  7 - 8             V, some VI 

     9                   some VI

The Agenda items and the Millennium declaration

Equally as promisingly, the combined categories, when viewed in conjunction with the list of Plenary Agenda items, illuminated a clear correspondence of elements and a fair balance between them, albeit rough:

Category           Item

     1&2             19-38

     3&4       40-47, 49-51

     5&6              52, 54

       7                    39

       8                 55-61

       9                  1-18

 While there are clearly exceptions to each of the categories and correlations suggested above, it is also clear that in each case the number of exceptions is well outweighed by the number of items that support the general rule.

3. Observations

In general

 Alignment of the Agenda of the GA with the categories of the Millennium Declaration does serve the purpose of making the Agenda more accessible and easier to understand. It helps to improve our insight in the adequacy of coverage of the Millennium Declaration by the work of the GA. It also highlights the division of work between (a) the Plenary and the Main Committees and (b) between the Main Committees. It is therefore recommended to present the Agenda of the GA according to the categories of the Millennium Declaration.

On categories

A few thoughts on the categories themselves are suggested by the ways in which both Plenary and Main Committee items fall within them.

- First of all, as regards category 1, the lack of any Agenda item under this important heading of the Millennium Declaration points to an important lacuna in the debate of the General Assembly. Careful thought might well be given to ways in which the Assembly could engage itself more productively in this category. To suggest but one possible means of correcting this, issues such as those highlighted in the Statement of the Secretary-General at the commencement of the General Debate could have a vital bearing on the values and principles of the United Nations in light of present-day realities.

 - A similar comment might be made on category 7. It would of course have been possible to separate and reassign items involving Africa to it from elsewhere. However, for example, moving item 65 on an “African Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty” from Category 2, where such items are grouped from all regions, would have given a false sense of completion or repletion to category 7. For category 7 additional specific initiatives could indeed be constructively proposed. Further consideration might also be given to this. An examination of the items in category 2 - and particularly those items within it assigned to the Plenary - reveals that many of these items have a “micro” orientation, whether by subject or (more frequently) by country. The recurrence of these specific items can be explained, perhaps, by the lack of sufficient progress on them. This raises the question of how the debate might be organized not strictly on the basis of agenda items, so as not to constrain international attention in a way that makes debates hover over one specific item after another without addressing the vital broader issues that cover them. One way forward therefore might indeed be to organize more broadly focused exchange on the overall questions of wider interest within this category, as identified in the Millennium Declaration, while not losing sight of specific issues of concern to some Member States.

On the Main Committees

Careful consideration of the division of work between the Main Committees suggests (a) overlap and (b) lack of sufficiently distinct responsibilities. On (a), one could point at Committees II and III in categories 3&4, more specifically on items 105, Social Summit and social development. On (b), the division of responsibilities between Committees I and IV on issues of peace and security seems to be rather the outcome of a historical process then of a well defined assessment in the light of today’s challenges.

On the Plenary and the Main Committees

Lastly, a number of thoughts have recently been raised regarding the balance of issues between the Plenary and the Main Committees. In recent revitalization discussions, for example, New Zealand made the very valid point that peacekeeping operations, which constitute such a large and vital part of the United Nations’ effort and activities, could and should be considered in and by the Plenary. Development issues would also clearly benefit from such consideration. Elevation of critical issues from the Main Committees to the Plenary could be a most effective means of garnering the attention, momentum and impact that they urgently require.

Netherlands Mission,

New York, 26 October 2003