I have the honour to speak on behalf of Switzerland and my own country, Liechtenstein.
At the outset, I thank the Chairpersons of the various Committees that have briefed the Council on their work this morning. I would also like to take this
opportunity to reiterate our commitment to international…
Thank you very much, Mr. President, for organizing this debate. I also thank the current President of the Security Council for introducing the Council’s report (A/62/2) this morning.
The annual report of the Security Council, in its very first sentence, indicates an increase in the workload of the …
Resolution 60/251 created the Human Rights Council as a subsidiary body of the General Assembly. Last year, this Assembly decided to allocate this agenda item to both the plenary and the Third Committee, with the understanding that the Third Committee would take up all the recommendations of the Cou…
I would like to thank the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mr. Philippe Kirsch, for presenting the report of the ICC to the General Assembly today.
The Court has continued to make important progress in its operations and judicial work. This is evidenced, in particular, by the si…
Particularly since the events of 11 September 2001 there has been a growing concern about cross-cultural and interreligious tensions. Some have seen the world inevitably veering towards a clash of civilizations — a confrontation of monolithic, self-contained blocs. In discussing the challenges and o…
Throughout the negotiations on draft resolution A/61/L.45 adopted yesterday, which deals with the safety and security of humanitarian personnel, my delegation advocated the inclusion of an explicit reference to the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel as well as to its…
Liechtenstein has just voted in favour of the draft resolution on Western Sahara, which is virtually identical to the one adopted last year by consensus. Given the lack of progress in settling the matter, Liechtenstein believes it would have been inappropriate to changing its position.
My delegatio…
We believe that, overall, this has been a better year for the General Assembly than some of the previous ones. The establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission and of the Human Rights Council, in particular, were significant achievements, and so was the adoption of the United Nations Global Counter…
Given the late submission of the report of the Security Council, I will not comment today on its substance. I wish to say, however, that so far we have not detected anything in the report that would justify its very late submission this year, since it is essentially a compilation of the proceedings …
We welcome the presentation today of the report of the Human Rights Council (A/61/53) by its President. The establishment of the Council was one of the crucial decisions in the follow-up to the 2005 World Summit. The sometimes overwrought criticism of the Commission on Human Rights, its predecessor,…
I have the honour and privilege today to address this Assembly on behalf of the Group of Western European and Other States on the occasion of the appointment of Mr. Ban Ki-moon as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, starting 1 January 2007.
The Group of Western European and other States wa…
I would like to thank the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mr. Philippe Kirsch, for presenting the second report of the Court (A/61/217) to the General Assembly. We note with great satisfaction the progress made in the work of the Court over the past year. The importance of these…
Since the Council last held an open debate on this topic six months ago, resolution 1674 (2006) has been adopted. Many of us had asked for such a resolution during that earlier debate. We commend the Council for having produced a text that contains many crucial elements for the further improvement o…
I would like to thank the Chairpersons of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), the 1267 Committee and the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1540 (2004) for their briefings this morning. I would also like to take this opportunity to reiterate our commitment to international cooperation i…
This morning we witnessed a historic moment in United Nations reform. The establishment of the Human Rights Council fulfils one of the major promises made at the world summit and enables us to move forward with out overall reform efforts.
We are pleased to be part of the overwhelming majority of Me…
International migrants numbering 191 million constitute an important factor in the global economy. Their decision to migrate has, however, first and foremost an impact on local communities, in countries of origin as well as in countries of destination. And the impact is not only an economic one. The…
We welcome today’s joint debate not only as a measure to revitalize the work of the General Assembly, but even more because we believe that the issues of the report of the Security Council and Council reform are closely linked in substance.
During the months leading up to the summit, we witnessed i…
I would like to thank the President of the International Criminal Court for presenting the first report of the Court to the General Assembly (A/60/177). It gives us great satisfaction to see the enormous progress that the Court has made. Three States and the Security Council have
referred situation…
At the outset, I should like, on behalf of my Government, to express our condemnation of the suicide bombing that took place earlier today in Hadera, Israel. I should like also to take this opportunity to express our deep condolences to the representative of Israel as well as to the families of the …
Most of us probably remember the cumbersome elections of judges for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia held in November 2004, in which seven rounds of balloting were necessary to fill the 14 positions that were vacant at that time. That was due to a procedural rule that th…
