UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Statement by Mr David Dutton, First Secretary, Australian Mission to the United Nations on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand
Fifth Committee Statement
Implementation of paragraph 3 of resolution 57/323
New York 17 March 2004
Mr Chairman,
It is an honour once again to speak on behalf of Canada, New Zealand and Australia with respect to the Secretary-General’s request to retain $84m in cash owed to member states.
Our thanks go to Ms Pollard for introducing the report. We also wish to welcome Mr Kuznetsov and wish him well in his important new role as chair of the ACABQ.
Mr Chairman,
The United Nations is presently experiencing an extraordinary acceleration in peacekeeping activity. In addition to the creation of UNMIL and the expansion of MONUC last year, the Security Council has mandated a peacekeeping mission in Cote d’Ivoire and may soon establish missions in Sudan, Haiti and Burundi. This creates significant cash requirements which may exceed the level of the Peacekeeping Reserve Fund. It is imperative that the UN has the necessary cash at its disposal to launch these missions quickly and effectively.
At the same time, the cash situation is much worse than it should be due to the failure of many member states to pay their assessments despite their legal obligations to do so. This has required significant cross-borrowing in the past year to sustain peacekeeping missions and the tribunals. The extent of arrears and the payment record of too many member states is simply deplorable.
Mr Chairman,
The Secretary-General has presented us with a possible solution to the cash shortage. He has proposed that the Organisation retain $84m in closed mission accounts which would otherwise be returned to member states. If this request were necessary only because of this unique expansion in peacekeeping activity then it would be simpler.
But, we understand that the need to make this request also arises from the fact that the UN is struggling in the face of member state non-payment. This raises for us a question of principle. Member states are being asked to forego the repayment of money owed to them in order to ameliorate a situation caused in part by other member states not paying their assessments. This is inequitable: having met our own financial obligations we should not have to cover those of others.
Mr Chairman,
We would like to receive a full summary of the current cash situation. We would also appreciate a current list of outstanding contributions, broken down by account and member state. And, third, we would also like to see a paper showing which states are owed the money the Secretariat wishes to retain, identifying which of them have arrears in other accounts.
During informal consultations we wish to explore alternative and more equitable solutions. For instance, we wonder whether it might be possible to retain the money only of those states that have arrears in other accounts. Or we could offset credits for such states against their arrears.
We would like to know whether states with substantial arrears could solve this problem by paying their arrears quickly, and whether recent or prospective payments change the overall situation.
Further we would like to discuss the possibility of allowing the Secretariat to cross-borrow from active peacekeeping accounts for the purposes of new mission start-up. Of course, this could only be done if there would be no adverse effect on active missions.
Mr Chairman,
In closing, let me recall that neither the Charter nor any resolution of the Assembly allows states to choose which accounts they wish to pay or when to do so. All member states need to make immediate efforts to clear all their arrears. This is all the more important because of the rapid increase in total assessed contributions this year. Unless all member states make greater efforts to pay their share then the payment trend will worsen further and the consequent cash shortage could hinder important activities.
It is the obligation of all member states to pay their assessments in full, on time and without condition, and this is the only means by which the financial stability of the UN can be assured.
Thankyou.