Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN A.Dapkiunas participates in the debate on the revitalisation of the UN General Assembly

21-02-2017

On February 20, 2017 at the UN headquarters in New York, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations Organization, Andrei Dapkiunas, participated in the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Revitalisation of the UN General Assembly.

Background Information: Special Working Group on the Revitalisation of the General Assembly was established more than 10 years ago. Since the 62th session of the UN General Assembly it meets annually. At this session, the Working Group plans to consider the issue of increasing the role and authority of the General Assembly, its’ working methods, selection and appointment of the Heads of the UN system, the establishment of the appropriate conditions for the work to the Office of the President of the General Assembly and other issues. The Belarusian delegation has traditionally been one of the most active participants in the revitalisation process of the UN General Assembly.

In his statement, A.Dapkiunas spoke of the need to begin as quickly as possible a permanent dialogue between Member States and the UN Secretariat – as proposed last year by Belarus through the Non-Aligned Movement – on the ways of improving the Secretariat’s work and interaction with the diplomatic missions to the United Nations. The Belarusian diplomat noted that it is important to remember that the UN Member States are the only collective boss in the organisation and the situation in which they would be compelled to act as petitioners is absurd and unacceptable.

In order to improve the interaction of the Member States during the general debate of the UN General Assembly and other high-level events, the Permanent Representative of Belarus to the United Nations proposed to develop in the framework of the working group recommendations for Member States and UN agencies on the conduct of high-level events and participation in them. Such an  non-binding instrument could, in the opinion of A.Dapkiunas, become a sort of a gentleman’s code of conduct that would make it possible for all delegations not only to speak but also to be heard.

For giving greater relevance and significance to many discussions held in the UN, the Belarusian diplomat proposed to introduce the practice of putting together on the UN website an orderly text and video archive of proceedings of high-level events of the General Assembly and of the UN Security Council.

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