Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the 19 Member States of the
Rio Group.
We have begun our consideration of agenda item 169 on the scale of
assessments for the apportionment of the
expenses of United Nations peacekeeping operations under very special
circumstances.
The current financial situation of the Organization and its peacekeeping
operations is due neither to the special
scale nor to the developing countries. In fact, no review of the special
scale will be effective if the States
Members, and in particular the major contributor, do not fulfil their
obligation to pay their contributions in full, on
time and without conditions.
What is more, a review of the scale will not be sufficient to change
this situation in any significant way, since the
economies of all developing countries plus those of countries with economies
in transition, together represent
barely 18 per cent of global GNP, despite the fact that most of the
world's population live in those countries.
The United Nations is facing a payments crisis, which cannot be resolved
by placing on an equal footing
developed and developing countries. The relatively limited capacity
of the developing countries to contribute to the
financing of peacekeeping operations should not be interpreted in a
manner so as to minimize their contribution to
peacekeeping. It is important to emphasize that the best contribution
of the developing countries to peacekeeping
is to concentrate their resources into areas that would help them achieve
a better standard of well-being.
We believe that a revision of the special scale should not mean a
relative reduction of the assessments of the
permanent members of the Security Council, since it is those members
that have a special financial responsibility
for the maintenance of international peace and security.
In view of what I have just said, we believe that any debate that
takes place in the General Assembly to change
the system of apportionment used for the financing of peacekeeping operations
must respect the principles set out
in resolution 1874 (S- IV) and reiterated in resolution 3101 (XXVIII)
on the special responsibility of the
permanent members of the Security Council and the relatively limited
capacity of the developing countries to
contribute to the financing of peacekeeping operations.
The Rio Group categorically maintains that any new agreement on the
methodology to determine the special scale
must be achieved by consensus, upon conclusion of the negotiations on
the scale for the regular budget.
In conclusion, the Rio Group calls on the Secretariat to make available
to delegations all the information that they
need in a timely manner so that they would have the elements necessary
to conduct their negotiations on this item
and adopt decisions based on the best available information.
Thank you very much.
