Pakistan Mission to United Nations

General Assembly Agenda Item 28: Report of the Security Council 21 November 2014, New York

Statement by Ambassador Masood Khan, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations

Mr. President,

Let me first thank you for convening this meeting on the report of the Security Council.

We are grateful to the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Gary Quinlan of Australia, for presenting and elaborating the report.

The Security Council acts on behalf of all member states of the United Nations. This makes it accountable to the general membership.

We use this yearly debate in the Assembly to comment on the substance and procedures of the Council. The purpose of our debate should be to initiate a two-way communication and dialogue between the two bodies.

Mr. President,

During the period of report ending July this year, the Security Council has conducted its business efficiently. Despite daunting challenges, it has demonstrated vigilance, decisiveness and resilience in responding to many escalating situations, especially in regard to South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Mali and the Malaysian airliner.

We appreciate the Council's work on counter-terrorism in the areas of ransom payments, measures against Al-Qaeda, and extension of the Ombudsperson's office.

Many of the Security Council meetings have remained public. This is a healthy trend. This growing culture of transparency should also be embraced by the Council’s subsidiary bodies.

Mr. President,

Increasingly, the Council is becoming more efficient and responsive. But it needs to work more on its effectiveness and working methods.

The Council's propensity to rely heavily on Chapter VII measures has been persistent. We believe there should be frequent resort to preventive diplomacy under Chapters VI and VIII of the Charter. Timely initiatives for negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, use of regional and subregional organizations, and good offices of the Secretary General can save the world from many costly wars and conflicts.

The Security Council’s conscious reticence on the situation in Gaza this summer was incomprehensible and unacceptable. Had the Security Council prevented the escalation in Gaza, the carnage that followed could have been averted.

The Security Council's action or inaction is watched by the media, especially by the social media. The global citizenry asks probing questions about why the Council cannot pronounce itself on developments that clearly imperil peace and security and fuel aggression and violence. A tongue-tied Council on certain issues reinforces the perceptions of selectivity based on realpolitik.

In this day and age, the Council's actions should also have broad "street credibility". The Council must be perceived as a fair, unbiased and effective body.

The Council and the General Assembly should work as partners in the maintenance of international peace and security. The General Assembly should act as a "counterpoise" to discuss particularly thorny issues that would not yield to a solution in the Council.

It is a bit strange that the Council has not heard the full deliberative voice of the General Assembly on the escalating crises of Ukraine, ISIS and the Ebola epidemic. Diligent debates in the Assembly on these vexing issues can help mobilize world opinion to slow down a drift towards a new Cold War, stem emergence of new psychopathic ideologies of hatred and revenge, and prepare health systems to deal with pandemics. These are as much the issues of general membership as of the Security Council.

Mr. President,

When Pakistan, during its Presidency of the Council, revived the wrap-up session, there were some misgivings about its format. Now, we see that these sessions have proved their value in taking stock of the month-long work of the Council.

UN Peacekeeping is the most tangible contribution of the Security Council to international peace and security. Pakistan’s consistent and leading contribution to UN peacekeeping is a source of national pride and a testament to our abiding commitment to global peace. We have recently contributed troops to the Central African Republic.

Pakistan fully understands the need to explore ways to adapt the UN peacekeeping operations to the complex and dynamic nature of conflicts. However, adaptations in policy must follow an extensive dialogue among key stakeholders, including the Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) and the Financial Contributing Countries (FCCs). In this regard, we welcome the Secretary General's ongoing strategic review of peacekeeping.

Mr. President,

We acknowledge some steps that have been taken by the Council to improve its working methods. These include:

• Interaction and dialogue with the non-Council members;
• Consultations with troops and police contributing countries;
• Appointment of more penholders from elected members of the Council; and,
• Early appointment of chairpersons of the subsidiary bodies.
• We are also pleased to note adoption of a proposal initiated by Pakistan on intra-Council dialogue, albeit in a diluted form.

More improvement in the Council’s working methods is required. It is a bit awkward that this august body, seventy years after its creation, continues to work on provisional rules of procedure.

The Security Council’s working methods need to correspond to the globally accepted values of the 21st century. Its work needs to be more transparent, participative and responsive to the needs of the wider UN membership.

I offer some suggestions:

• There should be substantive collaboration between the General Assembly and the Security Council based on their agendas.
• The monthly meetings between the Presidents of the General Assembly and Security Council should be made substantive in order to choreograph action by the two bodies based on their agenda. These should not be only courtesy calls or cursory exchange of information.
• The annual reports of the Security Council should be analytical and not merely a compendium of its activities.
• As provided in the note by the President of the Security Council of 12 December 2012, the adoption of outcome documents by the Security Council should follow the discussions in open debates. In our view, this should be done in a manner that allows the inputs provided by the wider UN membership to feed into the outcome documents.
• A close collaboration between the Council and the TCCs and PCCs, especially during the negotiations on their peacekeeping mandates, will make the formation, force generation, deployment, and operations of the missions much more effective and productive on the ground.
• The Informal Working Group of the Council on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions may be convened in an open meeting format - a suggestion made by the United States in one of the IGN meetings.
• The selection and appointment of expert panels and groups should be made more transparent, balanced and representative.

My final comment is that the Council may consider collating the views expressed by member states today, circulate a synopsis of these views as an official document, and form a joint committee to examine implementation of some of the recommendations.

I thank you, Mr. President.