By Mie Hansen
5 January 2012

On 1 December 2011 the General Assembly met to discuss Agenda Item 120: Implementation of the Resolutions of the United Nations and Agenda Item 121: Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly. This article provides an overview of the debate.

The President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, opened the debate with a Statement stressing the importance of the revitalization and the empowering of the General Assembly (GA), in order for it “to meet the current global challenges and to fulfill its central role as envisaged by the UN Charter”. Al-Nasser made clear that even though reform has been achieved in a number of areas, a lot is still to be done. Al-Nasser also took the opportunity to thank Ambassador Dalius Cekuolis, Permanent Representative of Lithuania, and Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves, Permanent Representative of Saint Vincent and Grenadines, for their work chairing the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the Assembly during the 65th GA session. Likewise, Al-Nasser thanked Ambassador Alexander Lomaia, Permanent Representative of Georgia, and Ambassador Ombeni Y. Sefue, Permanent Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania, for accepting to serve as co-chairs for the Ad Hoc Working Group during the 66th GA session.

The organization Play31, founded by former CURE consultant Jakob Silas Lund has been awarded best organization in the category Sport for Conflict Resolution by the leading organization in the field Beyond Sport. The winners were selected by a jury consisting of Archbischop Desmond Tutu, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and others. Play31 works with reconciliation in Sierra Leone through football (soccer) tournaments. Read more about play31 and the award here.

By Mie Hansen

7 December 2011

On 8 and 9 November 2011 the 51st and 52nd plenary meetings of the 66th General Assembly session were held with a discussion of Agenda Item 122: Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and related matters. This article gives an overview of the debate and the statements made during the meetings, as well as an update on the developments in regard to Security Council reform leading up to the debate.

Background
The intergovernmental negotiation process, launched in 2009, is the official forum for Member States to discuss reform of the Security Council. Since 2010 the discussions have been based on a text, incorporating submissions from the various interest groups and individual Member States. (For more information on the intergovernmental negotiations, please go to the Center’s recent articles on Security Council reform).

The negotiations, chaired by Afghan Ambassador Zahir Tanin, went into their seventh round with a meeting on 2 March this year where the Member States discussed a third revision of the negotiation/compilation text, but it did not receive agreement from all Member States. As a result, negotiations seemed to be stuck and no meetings were held for over eight months. Only recently, on Monday 28 November 2011, were formal negotiations resumed.

The pause in the negotiations, though, did not signify a halt to the reform process. On the contrary, efforts and initiatives were just taking place outside the formal forum established for negotiations. Throughout the spring several workshops and conferences on Council reform were convened by varying Member States around the world to discuss ways to move the talks forward. At one of these workshops, held in Qatar on 12 and 13 May 2011, the organizers invited representatives from NGOs and academia to participate in the debate, among them Lydia Swart of the Center for UN Reform Education. The President of the 65th session of the General Assembly (PGA), Ambassador Joseph Deiss, also convened a series of meetings over the summer entitled the “Group of Friends of Security Council Reform”, in an effort to help Member States reach a compromise.

In addition, two proposals dealing with different aspects of Council reform where circulated during the spring by two different groups of Member States. The first group, the Small Five (S5), consisting of Costa Rica, Singapore, Jordan, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, presented a draft resolution in April (and later a revised version in June) on Improving the Working Methods of the Security Council, stating among other things, that reform of the Council needs to take place, whether or not the membership can agree on an expansion of the Council. The other, much debated proposal in regard to Security Council reform came from the group of countries aspiring for permanent membership on the Council, namely the G4 (India, Germany, Brazil and Japan). The G4 proposal called for a reform of the Council to include an expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent membership of the Council as well as improvements in its working methods. Reportedly the G4 countries were campaigning vigorously for support and some thought that the group would submit the proposal formally before the end of the 65th GA session and leave the question up to a vote.¹

However, the 65th session of the General Assembly ended in September 2011 and the 66th session begun, without the G4 formally submitting the proposal and with no agreement reached between the Member States on Security Council reform.

Efforts to bring about UN reform, however, continued, in the 66th General Assembly session where Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser began his term as GA president by identifying “UN reform and revitalization” as one four main areas of focus for the session. In his remarks at the opening of the session, 13 September 2011, he stressed the importance of reforming the UN: “…there is no shame in recognizing that after 6 decades our organization needs reform. To remain relevant and legitimate, the UN must adapt itself to meet current global challenges”. Shortly after, on 16 September 2011, President Al-Nasser sent out a letter to the membership, reappointing Ambassador Tanin as Chair of the intergovernmental negotiations during the 66th GA session.

The Center provides official statements from the President of the Human Rights Council and a selection of Member States on the 2011 Annual Report of the Council.

By Thomas Colerick, 8 November 2011

The 2011 Annual Report of the Council is now available.

The report includes information on work done by the Council at its sixteenth and seventeenth regular sessions and its fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth special sessions, the latest ending on 23 August 2011. Thus the report provides an overview of resolutions adopted and decisions made by the Council in the past year.

For official statements on the Report by the Human Rights Council President as

By Thomas Colerick, 11 October 2011

Ending on September 30, the 18th Regular session of the Human Rights Council resulted in 31 resolutions, 2 Presidential Statements, the appointment of new Special Procedures mandate holders and an extension of mandates of Special Rapporteurs. The Center for UN Reform Education provides an overview of the achievements.

However, according to a range of different human rights NGOs, including International Service for Human Rights, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights and Forum-Asia, the 18th session of the Council has been a step back in terms of improving the Council’s response to urgent human rights situations in countries. In particular, the Council has failed to take strong action on the situations in Yemen, Sri Lanka and Belarus.

By Thomas Colerick, 4 October 2011

Human Rights Watch has released a 69-page report named "Keeping the Momentum - One Year in the Life of the UN Human Rights Council". The report examines the Council’s work from July 2010 through June 2011.

Read the press release.

Read and download the full report.

By Thomas Colerick, 28 September 2011

The 18th session of the Human Rights Council focuses on several key issues, including the ongoing situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the food crisis in the Horn of Africa, and terrorism. Furthermore, the situation in Sri Lanka receives attention in the wake of Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon sending the report by his Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka to the Human Rights Council.

Apart from debates and discussions on the above-mentioned areas, panel discussions during the working program include:
• Panel on promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests

By Mie Hansen, 27 September 2011

Even before heads of state from around the world gathered last week at UN headquarters in New York for the opening of the 66th annual session of the UN General Assembly, the world’s main deliberative body, continuation of the ongoing negotiations to make the Assembly more effective, efficient and relevant were assured for yet another year. Member States have been discussing the “Revitalization of the General Assembly” for the past twenty years, but according to some critics only minor improvements have been made, leaving deep-seated reforms untouched. Even though all Member States seem to agree that reform of the Assembly is vital, recent developments confirm that it is still very difficult to reach an agreement on what should be done.

By Thomas Colerick, 23 September 2011

As the Center for UN Reform Education once again will be covering the Human Rights Council more systematically, this chronology of the Council is provided. It includes elections, selected sessions and major developments and takes the reader from the Council’s birth in 2006 to today where the Council is currently holding its 18th Session in Geneva, Switzerland.

15 March 2006 – The General Assembly adopts, by a vote of 170 in favor, 3 abstentions and 4 against, resolution 60/251 setting up the Human Rights Council. The date of the first session is set for 19 June 2006, to be preceded by the abolition of the Human Rights Commission on 16 June 2006.