Statement by
Ambassador Patrick F. Kennedy, United States
Representative for United Nations Management and Reform,
on Questions relating to Information, in the Fourth
Committee of the General Assembly, October 30, 2002
Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
My government welcomes the report of
the Secretary-General on Questions Relating to Information
(A/57/157). The United States joins others in commending
Mr. Shashi Tharoor and his managers for the measures they
have taken to date to revitalize the Department. My
delegation would also like to thank all members of the
Department for their hard work during this past very busy
year.
Mr. Chairman,
The U.S. looks forward to the
comprehensive review called for in paragraph 150 of
resolution 56/253. Draft resolution B in the Report of
the Committee of Information on its 24th
session (A/57/21) calls on the Secretary-General to
include in his comprehensive review report: 1) the results
of the ongoing review being conducted by the
Office of
Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) on the
UN information
centers, as well as information on the Department’s
involvement in implementation of the
UN houses initiative
in this regard; 2) the results of the overall review of UN
system library services, including the
Dag Hammarskjold
Library; and 3) the relevant results of the larger review
of UN publications.
The Secretary-General, in Action 7 in
his report on “Strengthening of the United Nations: an
agenda for further change” (A/57/387), proposes that “The
Department, with assistance from the Office of Internal
Oversight Services, will, over a three-year period,
conduct a systematic evaluation of the impact and
effectiveness of all of its activities.” While my
delegation fully supports the proposals of the
Secretary-General in A/57/387, we question the need for an
evaluation to take three years. If such an evaluation
were to be conducted over a three-year period,
implementation of its recommendations would not begin
until the second half of this decade. In light of: 1) the
reports to be issued shortly, as called for by the Fifth
Committee and the Committee on Information; 2) evaluations
conducted recently by prestigious outside consultants; 3)
comprehensive evaluations of UN publications and of the Dag Hammarskjold Library conducted within the last five
years; 4) the evaluation issued in 1997 by the high-level
“Task Force on the Reorientation of UN Public Information
Activities”; 5) the “in-depth evaluation of the Department
of Public Information” issued in 1996 by the Office of
Internal Oversight Services; and 6) most importantly, the
views of the Department’s own able managers; my delegation
feels that Department management is already in a position
to tell us a great deal more about how and why it should
be restructured. The Department, under its own authority,
should begin implementation of meaningful and far-reaching
changes as soon as practical and present to the General
Assembly those issues which require its concurrences.
There is simply no reason for a three year delay.
Mr. Chairman,
The Committee on Information, in
draft resolution B, also took note of the fact that the
integration of the Official Document System (ODS) with the
UN web site will significantly enhance the multilingual
nature of the site and will lead to efficiences throughout
all Secretariat departments through the elimination of
duplicate formatting and posting of documents. Draft
resolution B also contains language commending the
Information Technology Services Division of the Office of
Central Support Services for ensuring that the required
technological infrastructure is in place to accommodate
the imminent linkage of the ODS to the UN web site and DPI
for addressing issues of content management relating to
the System. My delegation looks forward to the report
called for in draft resolution B on the feasibility of
providing free, public access to the ODS and to the
decision to be taken at the 58th session of the
General Assembly on the matter.
It is incumbent upon program managers
to identify activities that should be eliminated and to
shift resources to high-priority areas; an action that is
also mandated in the budget regulations. Working towards
parity in the use of the six official languages on the UN
web site is a priority activity. DPI managers should
identify and make the case for elimination of lower impact
activities thereby freeing-up staff and financial
resources for higher-priority activities, such as
improving the web site. My delegation does not agree with
the blanket statement in the report on web site
enhancement in all official languages (A/57/355) which
stated: “there is no room within the current budget of the
Department of Public Information to absorb these [web site
enhancement] costs.” For example, while recognizing that
the
UN Chronicle is very informative and
well-written and appreciating the efforts of those
involved in its preparation, program managers and Member
States must make the difficult decisions necessary to
reprioritize the Department’s activities and reprogram
staff and financial resources. This is the threshold that
we must cross. Resources used to produce the Chronicle
would be better spent enhancing the UN web site in the
six official languages. The costs involved in producing
this publication are simply not justified in relation to
its readership and impact. Eliminating the Chronicle
will free-up the funding requested in the web site
enhancement report.
Mr. Chairman,
Continuing our comments on improving
the efficiency and effectiveness of the Department, we
feel it necessary to remind delegations that at the very
end of the main part of the 56th session of the
General Assembly in December 2001 during negotiations on
the UN budget, the Fifth Committee decided to establish
two new posts in DPI. Not only was this decision to
establish two professional posts not recommended by the
Department or discussed in the Committee on Information,
it was not considered by the Advisory Committee on
Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and the
Committee for Program and Coordination (CPC). The
decision to allocate such resources should have been
considered by the appropriate legislative bodies and in
light of the priorities as established by all Member
States. This circumvention of procedure is particularly
troubling in light of the reorientation of the Department
currently underway.
Mr. Chairman,
The Secretary-General, in Action 8 in
his report on strengthening the United Nations, proposes
“to rationalize the network of United Nations information
centers around regional hubs, starting with the creation
of a Western European hub.” The Secretary-General also
notes that this will free-up resources for a strong,
efficient information hub and for redeployment to
activities of higher priority and that we should move
forward with a similar approach for other regions over the
next three years. The United States supports the
Secretary-General’s effort to rationalize the current ad
hoc arrangement of UN information centers and offices. As
noted above, the Committee on Information, in draft
resolution B, asked the Secretary-General to include in
his comprehensive review report the results of the ongoing
review by the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the
information centers and information on the involvement of
the Department in the UN Houses initiative. UN Houses
have been established in 17 countries and an additional 34
countries have been designated to host UN Houses. UN
system offices are maintained in over 170 countries.
Several UN agencies each maintain offices in more than 120
countries worldwide. My delegation calls on the
Department to factor-in the Secretary-General’s UN Houses
initiative and the many UN system offices worldwide into
its regional hub proposal. We fully support the proposal
of the Secretary-General to restructure the information
centers and feel that presentation of a system-wide plan
will allow for concessions to be made by countries in all
regions, with the end-result being a more efficient and
effective information system which will better meet the
needs of all Member States.
Before closing, I would like to
highlight the excellent work being done by the
Department’s Photo Unit, especially in its timely
distribution of digital images of UN meetings. These
images play an important role in conveying the message of
the critical work being undertaken at Headquarters.
Mr.
Chairman.
I must also respond to the statement
made yesterday in this committee by the delegate from
Cuba. It was my delegation’s hope that this dialogue
would have been limited to matters listed on the agenda.
However, the Cuban delegation, as in the past, has chosen
to politicize this Committee. The United States
Government has steadfastly observed our international
obligations, particularly those of the
ITU concerning
avoidance of harmful interference to the services of other
countries. For 43 years the Cuban people have been denied
the right to choose their own representatives, to voice
their opinions without fear of reprisal, to meet, or to
organize freely. Since May, the Cuban Government has
refused to even consider the legally-constructed petition
drive, known as Project Varela, which 11,000 Cuban
citizens signed to encourage fundamental political and
democratic reforms. We continue to feel that the Cuban
government’s opposition to
Radio and TV Marti is driven
solely by an underlying fear of the consequences of the
Cuban people having full knowledge of their own country
and the world around them; a freedom to which all members
of the human race are entitled.
In closing, I would again like to
commend all members of the Department for their hard
work. I pledge United States support for their continuing
efforts to make the Department increasingly more
efficient, effective, and modern.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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