Mr Président,
I have the honor to speak on behalf the Non Alignment Movement Working Group on the revitalization of the General Assembly and the Reform of the United Nations.
The Non Alignment Movement Working Group wishes to reiterate its strong support for your continued efforts to advance the process of the revitalization of the General Assembly, so as to enhance its authority, role and effectiveness and improve its efficiency. In this context, I can only assure you of the full confidence and cooperation of the NAM Working Group in your undertakings.
Mr President,
The NAM has already expressed, in general terms, its views and approach on the revitalization of the GA and improvement of its efficiency during the plenary-informal consultations of 17 October and 18 December 2003 as well as during the joint debate of the 27 and 28 November 2003.
In this context, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to you for presenting the Draft Decision on the Revitalization of the General Assembly dated 9 December 2003, which contains significant improvements compared to the last non-paper you had presented.
Since the text has been circulated just two days ago, the NAM Working Group could not consider it thoroughly. The NAM will therefore make, at this stage, only some preliminary and general comments on its content.
The NAM Working Group is, in general terms, supportive of the Draft you have submitted and considers that it contains several important elements and ideas which the NAM has supported since the beginning of the process of the consultations on the revitalization of the GA, although there are some areas in the Draft Decision which still need some improvements and other over which we would like to seek some clarification.
The first minor amendment we would like to suggest has to do with paragraph 7 in the cluster B regarding the general Debate. In this regard, the NAM Working Group proposes that the President-elect suggest issues (in plural) of global concern and not just one issue upon which Member States will be invited to comment during the General Debate.
With regard to paragraph 6 B, the NAM would like to stress once again the need that any clustering, biennialization and triennialization of Agenda items of the plenary or the Main Committees be dealt with in accordance and in full compliance with the guidelines on the rationalization of the Agenda of the General Assembly contained in the Annex 1 of the resolution 48/264 which are incorporated in the Rules of procedure of the GA.
Lastly, I would like to seek clarification, may be from the Secretariat, whether the 13 weeks work of the Main Committees referred to in paragraph 2 Cluster B include or not the two weeks of the General Debate.
M. President,
These are a few comments we wanted to make at this stage with regard to the content of the draft Decision under consideration. The NAM Working Group is still considering and working on the text. However, the NAM is, as I indicated earlier, generally supportive of the text with and is willing to contribute constructively to the positive outcome of our deliberations. It is also our intention to fully cooperate with you and interact with all Groups and Delegations to reach the common goal which is the revitalization of the GA.
Thank you Mr President
