PGA
Ashe
Disputes
There's Been
"Pushback" on
UNSC Reform
Advisers
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 18 --
When UN
President of
the General
Assembly
John Ashe did
his end of the
year press
conference on
Wednesday,
Inner City
Press asked
him about the
"pushback"
at his six
member
Advisory Group
on Security
Council reform,
and if he'd
envisioned a
broader
mandate for
them when he
named them.
(He's had
to clarify
that they
neither draft
nor
negotiate.)
Ashe
took issue
with the words
"pushback" and
especially
"mandate,"
arguing that
he did not
need a mandate
to set up
the Advisory
Group, just as
the Secretary
General does
not need a
mandate to set
up groups to
advise him.
But
the status and
yes, mandates
of such
advisory
groups in the
UN system
often is
contested. For
example, Ban
Ki-moon got
advised on war
crimes in Sri
Lanka, but the
Rajapaksa
government
continues to
insist
that the
report was
"not a UN
report."
In
the case of
Ashe's
advisory
group, as
Inner City
Press first
reported,
letters of
concern and
pushback
came in from Unitining for
Consensus,
the Arab
Group and
China,
with the
Eastern
European group
raising its
concerns
orally. This
led to
multiple
clarifications
from
Ashe; that's
how the
process works.
But why
purport there
was no
pushback?
As
the work of
the GA's Third
Committee
comes to a
head later
today in
the full
General
Assembly,
Inner City
Press asked
Ashe for his
view
and action on
the dispute
between the
African Group
and others on
whether a
proposed new
"Focal Point"
for the UN
Human
Rights Council
needs General
Assembly
review and
approval.
Would a
reversal of
the African
Group's slim
win undermine
the power of
the
GA or its
Presidency?
Ashe
replied that
he had not
been asked to
get involved
in this, but
that
he did not
think that it
implicated the
powers of the
PGA. How about
of the GA? We
will cover it
this
afternoon.
While
it didn't need
confirming, click here
for previous
Inner City
Press story,
Ashe did it,
saying that
his successor
will be the
foreign
minister of
Uganda, Sam
Kutesa. Would
he have a
view on this
afternoon's
hot topic?
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
In his last
press
conference,
Ashe quoted
Justin
Timberlake.
Inner
City Press
praised it,
then had to
justify the
praise - and
would do
so again.
We're still
awaiting some
transparency,
for example a
list
of who pays
for or seconds
the positions
in the PGA's
office. Now,
Ban Ki-moon is
proposing that
ACABQ members
be paid
directly from
the
UN budget. Why
not the PGA's
office? We
hope to have
more on this.
, 
