NEW ZEALAND OFFERS VIEWS ON FIRST COMMITTEE REFORM

UNCLAS WELLINGTON 000720 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/ANP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL AORC NZ UNGA SUBJECT: NEW ZEALAND OFFERS VIEWS ON FIRST COMMITTEE REFORM REF: A. STATE 171382 ¶B. STATE 160427 ¶1. Charlotte Elder, Disarmament Division, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, provided a copy of the GoNZ's response to the request in Resolution 58/41 for suggestions on improving the effectiveness of the First (Disarmament) Committee. Elder did not provide any specific comments on the note verbale delivered ref A. The GoNZ response is as follows: Begin text: 30 June 2004 DIS/UN/2 Disarmament and Decolonization Affairs Branch General Assembly and Economic and Social Council Affairs Division United Nations Headquarters IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE FIRST COMMITTEE The Permanent Mission of New Zealand to the United Nations presents its compliments to the Disarmament and Decolonization Affairs Branch and has the honor to refer to Note DGACM/DDAB/2004/TR1, which requested the views of member states on the issue of improving the effectiveness of the methods of work of the First Committee. New Zealand would like to offer the following suggestions for First Committee reform. - Consideration should be given to shortening the time allotted to the Committee. New Zealand considers that four weeks should be sufficient time to enable the Committee to complete its work. The Committee could consider utilizing both morning and afternoon sessions. Even if that is not feasible, the following reforms, together with good time-keeping, should enable the time currently allotted to the Committee to be reduced. - New Zealand supports shortening the time allowed for general debate from two weeks to one, to allow more time for specific debate. - New Zealand would like to see greater incorporation of external expertise into the Committee's deliberations. In this context, New Zealand would support Ambassador Sareva of Finland's proposal of interactive debate sessions incorporating leading experts from academia and civil society. These discussions, which we agree would appropriately span over two-three days, could address current key issues, providing focus and context for the Committee's work. - Debate should be conducted on the basis of a rolling speakers, list. Once the speakers, list for each topic has been exhausted, debate should roll over into the next topic, making maximum use of the time available. - An enforced time limit should be considered for all statements. If countries are aligned with a regional or group statement, national statements should be shortened or forsaken accordingly. - Delegations should be encouraged to re-examine the value of long-standing resolutions, with an eye to the merit of recycling texts with little or no alteration from year to year. If countries feel that such resolutions contain key positions which are still relevant, they should consider submitting the resolutions on a biennial or triennial basis. End text. Swindells