(As delivered)

Statement by Ambassador Motohide Yoshikawa

Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations

At the Joint Debate of the 70th Session of the General Assembly

On Agenda Item 119: Implementation of the Resolutions of the United Nations

And Agenda Item 120: Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly

 

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Mr. President.

         I would like to start by thanking Your Excellency for your initiative on the Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly.Both in your acceptance statement as well as in your statement at the opening of the 70th session of the General Assembly, Your Excellency emphasized the importance of revitalizing the General Assembly.

         Japan completely shares your views. After 70 years since the establishment of the United Nations, in addition to Security Council Reform, which Japan places high importance, revitalizing the General Assembly is a crucial component of the reform agenda. We must make steady progress towards achieving feasible and realistic results on this item.

Mr. President,

         We learned with deep shock and sadness the news that the President of the 68th session of the General Assembly was arrested in early October by US authorities. According to media reports, Mr. Ashe took payments from a developer based in Macau using his official position. This unprecedented and serious allegation has severely damaged the prestige and reputation of the United Nations world-wide. I regret to say this, because Mr. Ashe was a very active President. He made efforts to advance the issues such as the climate change and sustainable development.

 

         As Your Excellency stated at a press conference on 6 October, “corruption has no place at the United Nations or anywhere else.” I am very encouraged that Your Excellency, as a President of the General Assembly coming from Denmark, which is consistently ranked as the most transparent country in the world, is fully committed to restoring the integrity and redibility of the United Nations. Before coming here today, I wanted to ask Your Excellency to tell us some of the measures that may be considered on this matter. Therefore I was very pleased and encouraged to hear that you have already taken concrete steps on the code of conduct of the President of the General Assembly.

         On 8 October, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated the similar message on corruption and requested an investigation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS). We welcome his quick action and wish that the report from the OIOS be issued at the earliest timing. I want to also thank Secretary-General for his very strong message he has made this morning on this matter. Based on Your Excellency’s proposals as well as the inputs by the Secretary-General, I would like to see that the Working group will consider the running of the office of the Presidency of the General Assembly in the coming sessions.

         This case reminded us that the flow of money from and into the Office of the President of the General Assembly is not fully transparent. Especially, we have no report about how voluntary contributions from Member States and private sources are used. The transparency of the money flow can be one of the points to be considered at the Working group.

Mr. President,

         Concerning the revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly, Japan welcomes the adoption of the GA Resolution 69/321; the fruit of long and difficult negotiations. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Co-Chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group during the previous session: Permanent Representatives of Croatia and Namibia, for their chairmanship. Japan welcomes their re-appointment as Co-Chairs of the Working Group during the current session, and is looking forward to closely collaborating with them again.

Mr. President,

         We achieved a lot in the previous session. At this juncture, we shall steadily implement this cornerstone resolution. On the other hand, some remaining issues were postponed to the current session.

         With regard to the selection of the Secretary-General, the resolution requests the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council to circulate a joint letter containing a description of the entire process and inviting candidates to be presented in a timely manner. We hope that the letter will be issued at the earliest possible timing.

         In the previous session, the idea of changing the current method of selecting the Secretary-General by encouraging the Security Council to recommend more than one candidate to the General Assembly was proposed and intensely debated. From the viewpoint of transparency, we believe that the most important point is to ensure the accountability of the Security Council in its choice of candidate.

         We have to choose the best candidate as Secretary-General, who meets the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity. It is desirable that we have as wide range of candidates as possible, including women. In this regard, Japan supports paragraph 38 of the Resolution 321, which “invites Member States to consider presenting women as candidates for the position of Secretary-General.”

Mr. President,

         In October, Japan was elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, supported by the overwhelming majority of Member States. I thank for your support once again. Since being elected, we have two and half months until becoming a member of the Security Council next January. Although it will be the eleventh time that Japan has the honor to serve in the Council, and for myself the second time, I feel that two and half months is very short to prepare for the Council membership. I believe that the decision by General Assembly Resolution 68/307 to move the dates of elections of the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council to June will surely achieve the intended goal of giving new members more time to prepare for their membership.

Mr. President,

         This year the General Assembly has 173 agenda items to consider. It is clear that streamlining the agenda has become an urgent issue. In order to avoid duplications, some agenda items of the Second Committee, for example, could be reviewed and integrated in light of the holistic nature of the new 2030 Development Agenda. Japan has already submitted such proposal to the bureau of the Second Committee.

         Furthermore, enhancing discipline and fairness in the management of this body remains an important aspect for discussion. In this context, I just want to make one point on this aspect. I believe that when a Member State delivers a statement on behalf of a group, those Member States belonging to that group who wish to speak in their national capacities should do so, in principle, after all other national statements not associated with a group have finished.

Mr. President,

         Let me conclude my statement by reaffirming that Japan stands ready to support the PGA, and to contribute in a constructive way to the discussions of the Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly, aiming at further enhancing the effectiveness and transparency of the United Nations.

I thank you, Mr. President.