NAM urges Security Council to be accountable to General Assembly

TEHRAN, Nov. 14 (MNA) – Non-Aligned Movement states have scrutinized and evaluated activities of the Security Council stressing that the Council should report and be accountable to the General Assembly. Gholam Hossein Dehghani, ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nation, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, addressed the UN General Assembly on ‘Agenda Item 30: Annual Report of the Security Council’, underscoring the need for UN Member States to fully respect the functions and powers of each principal organ of the UN, in particular the General Assembly, an that the Security Council must fully observe all Charter provisions as well as all General Assembly resolutions. The full text of his statement is as follows: Mr. President, Speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, allow me, first, to express NAM’s appreciation to you, Mr. President, for holding this debate which will provide the General Assembly with an opportunity to examine, scrutinize and evaluate the report, contained in document A/70/2, and the activities of the Security Council. The Charter provision requiring the Council to report to the General Assembly has been designed to help this Assembly, as the chief deliberative and representative organ of the United Nations, to exercise its mandate in addressing issues relating to the maintenance of international peace and security. While Member States have conferred on the Security Council the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security pursuant to Article 24 (1) of the UN Charter and in carrying out its duties under this responsibility, the Council acts on their behalf. In this context, NAM stresses that the Council should report and be accountable to the General Assembly in accordance with Article 24 (3) of the Charter. NAM underscores the need for UN Member States to fully respect the functions and powers of each principal organ of the UN, in particular the General Assembly, and to maintain the balance among these organs within their respective Charter-based functions and powers and stresses that the Security Council must fully observe all Charter provisions as well as all General Assembly resolutions, which clarify its relationship with the latter organ and other principal organs. In this context we affirm that Article 24 of the Charter does not necessarily provide the Security Council with the competence to address issues which fall within the functions and powers of the General Assembly and the ECOSOC, including in the areas of norm-setting, legislation, administrative and budgetary matters, and establishing definitions, bearing in mind that the Assembly is primarily tasked with the progressive development of international law and its codification. NAM reiterates its concern over the continuing encroachment by the Security Council on the functions and powers of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council through addressing issues which traditionally fall within the competence of the latter organs. NAM is also concerned over the attempts by the Security Council to use thematic issues to expand its mandate into areas which do not pose a threat to international peace and security, and further urged the Council to confine to its mandate in accordance with the Charter provisions. All organs and bodies of the United Nations should only carry out those tasks which are established in their respective mandates NAM urges all States to uphold the primacy of and full respect for the provisions of the UN Charter pertaining to the functions and powers of the Assembly and calls on the Presidents of the General Assembly, the ECOSOC and the Security Council to conduct regular discussions and coordination among themselves regarding the agenda and program of work of the respective principal organs that they represent. In doing so, they need to establish increased coherence and complementarities among these organs in a mutually reinforcing manner and respectful of each others’ mandates. NAM also welcomes, as a step forward, the informal meetings between July’s Presidents of the Council, and UN Member States on the preparation of the annual report of the Security Council, and calls for more regular interactions between July’s Presidency of the Security Council and the wider membership of the United Nations, which can help enhance the quality of such reports. For years, the Non-Aligned Movement noted that the annual reports of the Security Council continue to be a procedural overview of the meetings, activities and decisions of the Council. We Call on the Security Council to submit a more explanatory, comprehensive and analytical annual report to the General Assembly, assessing the work of the Council, including such cases in which the Council has failed to act, and the views expressed by its members during the consideration of the agenda items under its consideration. Further, NAM calls on the Security Council to elaborate the circumstances under which it adopts different outcomes whether resolutions, presidential statements, press statements or elements to the press. And finally, we call on the Security Council to submit special reports, when necessary, for the consideration of the General Assembly, pursuant to Articles 15 (1) and 24 (3) of the UN Charter, Security Council should ensure that its monthly assessments are comprehensive and analytical, and issued in a timely fashion. The General Assembly may consider proposing parameters for the elaboration of such assessments. I thank you, Mr. President.