CZECH RESPONSE ON UN REFORM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRAGUE 001007

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/30/2015
TAGS: PREL EZ EUN
SUBJECT: CZECH RESPONSE ON UN REFORM

REF: A. STATE 111637


B. PRAGUE 935

Classified By: Political Officer Kimberly C. Krhounek for reasons 1.4(b
) and (d).


1. (C) Summary. On June 20, PolCouns delivered ref A
demarche on U.S. priorities for UN reform to Mr. Jan Kara,
Director of the UN Department at the MFA. In addition, we
referred Mr. Kara to the June 16 On-the-Record briefing on UN
reform delivered by the Under Secretary and followed up with
additional discussions on June 29. Kara noted the difficulty
of reforming an international bureaucracy, but said that the
GOCR agrees with the majority of positions outlined in the
U.S. paper. Kara said that as an EU member, their final
opinion would be shaped by the EU internal discussions on the
various aspects of reform including the Convention on
Terrorism and the creation of a Peace-Building Commission.
The Czech Republic will co-sponsor the G-4 proposal on
Security Council Reform and is happy with the proposed
measures to strengthen human rights protection through
creation of a Human Rights Council (ref B). The Czechs
remain cautious on development proposals supported by the EU
that would increase aid targets to 0.7 percent by 2015. End
summary.

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MANAGEMENT REFORM AND DEVELOPMENT
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2. (C) We stressed that the U.S. is interested in reform of
the UN as a whole, particularly in the management of the
various organs and institutions. Kara noted wryly that the
UN has been under reform processes for many years and that
there are many areas with the potential for improvement.
Unfortunately, it has proven difficult to implement many of
the proposed reforms, as only some 10 to 20 percent of
proposals offered (some of them recycled from earlier
efforts) have ever materialized over the years. He added
that achieving a minimum of our reform goals would be
equivalent to a "big bang" for the UN, but may not be seen in
Washington as sufficient. Kara agreed that reform should not
stop with the September high-level event. Kara noted that as
members of the EU, final positions on many of the issues in
our paper were under internal discussion to find a common
position, so some details may change in the official Czech
stance between now and September.


3. (C) Kara said that the Czechs are very cautious on the
development aspect of summit outcomes. They now consider
themselves an "emerging donor" country, but are not ready to
make the jump from committing 0.1 percent to 0.7 percent of
GDP to development assistance by 2015, which is the UN goal.
Kara noted that these targets were agreed to by the EU
countries prior to the Czech Republic becoming a member in
2004, but said that even within the EU discussions, the
member states were making a distinction between old and new
member states in establishing development assistance target
goals. Still, the Czechs would prefer not to have a clearly
binding formula used to determine the amount of development
assistance given.

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HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL AND COUNTER-TERRORISM
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4. (C) To date, the Czechs have been quite happy with U.S.
proposals to strengthen the human rights organs of the UN
through creation of a Human Rights Council, although they
differ with us on details of size and role (see ref b). The
Czechs believe there should be formal criteria on eligibility
to join the Council, as holding an election within the UN
General Assembly would lead to some of the same problems the
UNHCR has today. They also hope that creating the new
Council will help eliminate some of the 100 repetitive
resolutions that are passed every year.


5. (C) Adoption of a comprehensive Convention on Terrorism
is also a priority for the EU, so the Czechs did not expect
to have any problems supporting this U.S. priority. He noted
that he was "surprised" not to find us to be too insistent on
a specific definition of terrorism and said that our points
on this issue were something they "can easily live with."
Kara said that there was some hesitancy within the EU about
the weight to give to the SYG's counter-terrorism strategy,
but to the Czechs, Annan's points are more a set of guiding
principles than a comprehensive strategy.

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SECURITY COUNCIL REFORM
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5. (C) The Czechs are quite interested in Security Council
reform and Kara observed that while the USG position is now
public, he saw it as having a great deal of flexibility on
final details. He asked whether the USG intended to campaign
actively for our positions on this issue. He added that the
Czechs plan to stick with their long-term position supporting
expansion of the Security Council and that they specifically
support Germany and Japan for seats as permanent members.
They have decided that they will co-sponsor the G-4 proposal.
Kara noted that under the proposal there would be a 15-year
moratorium on use of the veto, which he called a "strange
compromise" but one that would probably satisfy some concerns.

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