Press Briefing

H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa

President of the Sixty-first Session of the United Nations General Assembly

United Nations: Current Challenges, Initiatives and Reform Processes

Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Vienna International Centre (VIC)

Summary Report

VIENNA, 30 May - UNIS Vienna organized a press briefing today with H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, President of the Sixty-first Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the occasion of her visit to Vienna, Austria. The briefing, with the title "United Nations: Current Challenges, Initiatives and Reform Processes", was chaired by Nasra Hassan, Director, UNIS Vienna. The General Assembly President is on an official visit to Austria from 30 May-1 June during which she is meeting with senior officials of the Vienna-based organizations of the United Nations system, and will participate in the "Women Leaders - Networking for Peace and Security in the Middle East" conference, hosted by the Government of Austria. The Government of Austria hosts a visit by the United Nations General Assembly President on an annual basis.

The General Assembly President gave an overview of the achievements and current activities of the 61 ^st session of the General Assembly, including inter alia the launch in September 2006 of the Global Strategy to Counter Terrorism, the adoption of the resolution on strengthening the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the adoption of the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. In the area of management reform, the President highlighted the adoption of a new system for administration of justice, a new scale of assessment for 2007-2009 and the Capital Master Plan.

On the revitalization of the General Assembly, the President underlined that for the first time, the General Assembly had held three informal thematic debates on issues of global concern: "Partnerships Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Taking stock, moving forward"; "Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women"; and "Civilizations and the Challenge for Peace". Member States had received these debates with great enthusiasm and had requested that the General Assembly hold a fourth thematic debate on climate change in July 2007.

Discussions were on-going on the important issues of a declaration on the rights of indigenous people, a comprehensive convention against terrorism, and UN reform issues including Security Council reform, system-wide coherence, revitalization of the General Assembly and mandate review.

The briefing was followed by a question-and-answer session.

Several questions were raised on the role of women leaders in peace making and fighting terrorism, including whether the situation in the Middle East would be different if women had more power. The President responded that one aim of the "Women Leaders - Networking for Peace and Security in the Middle East" conference was to set an example to women in the Middle East by bringing together female decision-makers from the region in order to help and encourage other women to become decision-makers. Women in the Middle East needed strong support by international organizations. A priority was to bring about changes in school curricula, which needed to be reviewed in order to change the mindsets and promote a creative mentality, to fight the mentality of dependence and eliminate ideas of second-class citizenship. On the issue of terrorism, the President noted that today 17 women had been killed in a terrorist attack in Iraq. Women were victims of terrorism, therefore they should also fight terrorism.

To a question on the situation in Darfur, the President responded that this was an issue on which she was in constant contact with the Secretary-General, as well as with the Government of Sudan. The solution must be based on the respect of national sovereignty, but there was also the urgent humanitarian aspect. Facing these problems, no-one could remain silent. There were limits to the possibilities open to the UN, specified by the UN Charter and related to sovereignty.

In response to a question on the political and legal value of General Assembly resolutions, the President emphasized that the Member States considered the General Assembly the chief deliberative and policy-making organ of the United Nations, as reflected in the Millennium Declaration. Resolutions were therefore a norm of international public law. The General Assembly had adopted important and concrete conventions on issues including human rights and counter-terrorism.

In response to a question on the informal thematic debate on climate change, the President said that climate change was of great importance to the United Nations, shown by the discussion of the issue by the General Assembly, and recently also by the Security Council. The expert meeting to be held in July 2007 would elaborate the problem from several aspects, including the scientific ones, and would be held in preparation for the official high-level meeting to be held on 24 September 2007 on the initiative of the Secretary-General.

General Assembly President's statement in full (PDF)