Before adjourning the meeting, allow me to make a brief statement in my capacity as Chairman of the committee.


Distinguished delegates,

Since its creation, the First Committee has been an integral part of a global norm-building process encompassing a wide range of issues on the international security agenda. While they lack the binding force of treaties, our resolutions can nevertheless serve to strengthen the rule of law governing the control and elimination of the world’s most dangerous weapons. They can also identify the requirements for and gauge Member States' readiness towards new norms. Our work is necessarily political in nature, as we seek to set priorities for collective action among the Member States, while providing a common forum for the expression of views by individual delegations and groups of States.

To achieve these challenging tasks, we must have procedures that are both flexible enough to accommodate the needs of all Member States, yet effectively structured to ensure that our efforts will yield concrete practical results. I am happy that this year the Committee has taken some initial steps to improve its own deliberative process.

Last year, my predecessor urged all members to respond to the September 2002 report of the Secretary-General to the General Assembly on UN reform. Though once again we have not succeeded in adopting the full range of procedural and administrative reforms outlined in that important document, we have moved this process forward in a number of respects. We have set aside time for informal consultations devoted to precisely this issue. And we have adopted -- without a vote -- a resolution on improving the effectiveness of the methods of work of the Committee.

It is my intention to prepare an assessment -- my assessment -- of the informal exchange of views on our working methods that we had a couple of weeks ago. In my view, it is extremely important that the essence of that very productive discussion be captured on paper. It must not be let to dissipate into thin air as only too often happens in this Organization. I will share that assessment with the President of the General Assembly, with my successor and, or course, with the members of this Committee.

In my view, the First Committee has a lot of untapped potential in contributing to the maintenance of international peace and security. We should constantly try to improve our act. The laundry list of such action is long and let me in this connection highlight just a few examples of what in my own view could be done.

Firstly, the general debate could be shortened to encompass just one week. I recognize that this would not be without complications to especially the smaller delegations, but in my view the benefits would outweigh the adverse effects. Most significantly, a more intensive general debate would allow for maximum participation from the capitals for its whole duration. We should turn the general debate into a true "higher-level" segment of our work, an annual gathering of the crème de la crème of the Member States' disarmament and non-proliferation experts.

Secondly, the thematic segment could be extended and transformed into a more interactive and consultations-oriented phase of our work. More specifically, informal consultations, be it on thematic subjects or on individual draft resolutions, could be used along the lines of some other Main Committees of the General Assembly. Such informals, chaired by coordinators appointed by the Bureau, and with full conference services, could help Member States move closer to a common understanding on some issues and at least provide a venue for a more interactive debate on some others.

Thirdly, our agenda should be overhauled to better reflect the actual thematic content of our work. Even if this were to be done for presentational purposes only, a more logical and transparent presentation would certainly help the "Mr. Public" referred to by the President of the General Assembly better understand what we are actually dealing with. Put very simply, we could reduce our agenda to ten clustered items, identical to the current thematic clusters, with the various resolutions now adopted under each cluster constituting the sub-items on a reorganized agenda. New resolutions could be introduced under any of the ten clustered items.

Fourth, even if the Chair of the First Committee is currently elected in advance, he should benefit from having the rest of the bureau equally in place well before the start of the session. Moreover, early summer may be still too late for the election to take place so as to allow the Chair and the Bureau to have an opportunity for advance consultations with Member States. I would therefore suggest that the election of the bureaux of the Main Committees be advanced to spring, some six months before the start of the new General Assembly session.

Let me emphasize that this is only a part of a longer laundry list of possible action to be taken. Some of the suggestions that I have made can be accomplished by the First Committee alone, but some others will definitely need to be acted upon by the General Assembly as a whole.

We are not pursuing reform for reform’s sake, but to enhance the impact and credibility of the work of this Committee. The true meaning of efforts like reducing the number of resolutions, combining them, or giving them a multi-annual format is not found in diminishing the substantive importance of any resolution – on the contrary, such reforms should enable us to focus our energies and attention on more concrete results. Because an improved process can also open the way for improvements in the substance of our work, I am optimistic about future reforms and believe that we have made some steps in the right direction. Other progress – both procedural and substantive -- may soon follow as a result of our deliberations.

I note in this respect that the Committee agreed to create two expert groups on the security of global information and telecommunications systems, and on the subject of missiles in all its aspects. In addition, the Committee adopted resolutions to establish an open-ended working group to negotiate an international instrument to enable States to identify and trace illicit small arms and light weapons.

Yet -- as almost everybody who follows developments in this Committee -- I too am troubled by the persistence of deep divisions amongst us on some very important issues on the global agenda for international peace and security. Once again, several resolutions have been adopted in the face of not insignificant opposition – in many cases, involving the negative or abstaining votes of a very large number of States. Such divisions, however, do not constitute evidence of any failure of our process – they symbolize instead only the work that remains ahead in deepening cooperation and expanding the common ground on which we all stand. In the words of an old Finnish proverb, “A new day shows a new way.”

Distinguished delegates,

I would like to conclude my statement by making some final remarks. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all members of this Committee for the cooperation extended to me throughout this session. I was particularly impressed by the spirit of compromise and flexibility demonstrated by all delegations during the different phases of the Committee’s work. It was certainly a great honor for me to work with you all. I also thank all delegations for their full cooperation and support in utilizing the time and facilities allocated to the First Committee in an efficient way.

Moreover, out of a total of [47] draft resolutions and [6] draft decisions, the Committee succeeded in adopting xx resolutions and decisions by consensus. This outcome is clear proof that all delegations were highly productive in conducting bilateral or multilateral consultations throughout the entire session of the Committee.

Before concluding my remarks, I would also like to express my deepest appreciation to my fellow Bureau members: the three Vice-Chairmen Mr. Anouar Ben Youssef of Tunisia, Mr. Suriya Chindawongse of Thailand, Mr. Ionut Suseanu of Romania, and our Rapporteur, Ambassador Miguel Carbo of Ecuador. Their wisdom and expertise were instrumental in allowing me to effectively discharge my functions as Chairman of this important body. They have indeed always stood firmly behind me throughout the entire exercise.

Allow me, on behalf of the Committee, to offer my profound gratitude to the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Mr. Nobuyasu Abe, for the support he and his staff have provided from the Department for Disarmament Affairs. On behalf of the Committee, I would also like to convey my special thanks to the Secretary of the First Committee, Mr. Mohammad Sattar, and all of his colleagues for all their tireless efforts in enabling the Committee to proceed smoothly with its work.

My sincere appreciation also goes to all the interpreters, translators, record keepers, press officers, document officers, conference officers and sound engineers who have diligently worked behind the scenes in order to bring the work of this Committee to a successful conclusion.

Finally, I want to thank the civil society representatives who have followed our session this year, as in the past, and who are truly an indispensable part of the First Committee community. They have helped to communicate the results of our deliberations to a wider public and I want to add that I personally appreciated their counsel throughout our work and look forward to their constructive contributions in the future.

The First Committee shall reconvene next year, sometime in early summer, to elect its Chairman for the 59th session of the General Assembly.

The 2003 session of the First Committee is thus concluded.

The meeting is adjourned.

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