General Assembly President gives top priority this session to UN reform

The General Assembly’s annual top-level debate, which ended last week, has spotlighted United Nations reform as a high-priority item for the world’s political leaders, Assembly President Julian Hunte said today, adding that he intends to invite comments on “some bold ideas” over the next two months.

Institutional reform covered two issues, he told a press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York. They were reform of the Security Council, where five permanent members – China, France, the Russian Federation, United Kingdom and United States – wield veto power, and the revitalization of the 191-member General Assembly.

Veto power and permanent membership made reform of the Council the bigger issue, said Mr. Hunte, the Foreign Minister of St. Lucia, the smallest country to hold the Assembly Presidency. There, the issue of geographical representation, as required by the UN Charter, had come to the fore as the world moved further away from World War II. Some developing country representatives questioned whether Europe, having become almost one country, should still have more than one permanent Council seat. Meanwhile, he had detected a consensus that broader representation might have a positive impact on the Council’s work.

Mr. Hunte said he intended to circulate recommendations for Assembly changes by 16 October and for Council reform by 15 November.

In reply to an environmental question put to him in his national capacity, Mr. Hunte warned if nothing were done about rising sea levels and global warning, some Pacific Ocean islands would just disappear.

Video of press conference