Mandate Review to be Resumed after Fifth Committee Session
New York, 20 June 2007 – The General Assembly’s task of reviewing its mandates formally was re-initiated recently, but concrete progress has been postponed while the Assembly’s Fifth Committee is in session.
The mandate review process was stalled for the first few months of 2007 reportedly because the working group lacked a co-chair from the developing world. A new co-chair – the ambassador of Namibia, Kaire Mbuende – was announced on 20 April, and on 26 April the working group held its first meeting of 2007. The other co-chair is Ambassador David Cooney of Ireland.
In the 26 April meeting, delegations requested information from the Secretariat regarding the cluster of mandates it had decided to consider first: drug control, crime prevention, and combating international terrorism. Some information on drug control-related mandates was circulated after the meeting, while requested information on the other topics is still pending in the Secretariat. The delegation of Pakistan complained that for each mandate, the information received from the Secretariat only listed whether a report on the mandate had been submitted, and if so, the Secretariat described the mandate as completed. He requested that the Secretariat provide a more detailed evaluation of the mandate, including a description of the practical measures taken, resources spent, outcomes of the effort, and any lessons the UN had learned from it.
By the working group’s second meeting on 14 May, the Secretariat had not yet obtained the information requested by Member States, and no discussion ensued.
The facilitators indicated that the working group would meet again after the end of the Fifth Committee session. (The session was supposed to finish in 8 June but is still ongoing. Outstanding issues reportedly include the DPKO reform proposal and resolutions on peacekeeping operations.) In the meantime, the co-chairs said that they would work to obtain more information from the Secretariat and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
At the next meeting delegations will be asked for their proposals regarding the first cluster of mandates.
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