United Nations General Debate Assembly
The General Debate of the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly commenced on 24 September 2013 and ended on 4 October 2013. Leaders from a number of member states addressed the UNGA. There was controversy in this session. Controversially, Libya broke with protocol.
Organisation and subjects.
The order of speakers is given first to member states, then observer states and supranational bodies. Any other observers entities will have a chance to speak at the end of the debate, if they so choose. Speakers will be put on the list in the order of their request, with special consideration for ministers and other government officials of similar or higher rank. According to the rules in place for the General Debate, the statements should be in of the United Nations official languages of Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish, and will be translated by the United Nations translators. Each speaker is requested to provide 20 advance copies of their statements to the conference officers to facilitate translation and to be presented at the podium. Though there is no time limit for speeches, a voluntary guideline of 15 minutes is requested.
In addition to commenting on issues of individual national and wider international relevance, the President of the General Assembly John William Ashe chose the theme: "The Post-2015 Development Agenda: Setting the Stage!." This means he calls on member states and other stakeholders "to promote dialogue, reflection and commitment to the formulation of an effective new agenda to overcome poverty and insecurity and ensure sustainable development."
The topics of the General Debate included the Syrian civil war and Iran and nuclear weapons. Other issues included the annual debate on United Nations reform, climate change (particularly amongst the Small Island Developing States), Ashe's chosen subject and the Arms Trade Treaty.
Speaking schedule.
Saudi Arabia canceled its speech citing "international double standards" on the Middle East as the reason.
The rest of the speaking schedule in the General Assembly Chamber is as follows:
27 September.
Right of reply.
Member states have the option to reply to comments on the day (or even to the days prior), but are limited to 10 minutes for the first response and five minutes for the second response. All speeches are made from the floor, as opposed to the podium for the General Debate.
North Korea responded by saying South Korea had misleading remarks in regard to nuclear weapons while it was under the nuclear umbrella of the U.S. and thus allowed nuclear weapons into the Korean peninsula and also thus undermined peace in the peninsula. It even denied international law to get verification by IAEA. South Korea then launched a satellite just after that of North Korea and, as such, the U.S. lied it was not an issue at the UNSC. This was a double standard. UNSC history suggests a satellite as a threat to peace and security and by mandate the UNSC does not note a peaceful satellite launch, the UNSC was silent. Parallel to North Korea policy, provocation cannot be a bargaining chip. Amongst points made was that of family reunification, yet during dialogue South Korea opened joint military exercises against the climate of dialogue and arrested political figures favouring unification.
South Korea then replied in saying that North Korea denies it is not bound by obligations as others. According to Article 25 of the United Nations Charter "all members carry out UNSC decisions" and, as such, it was regrettable that North Korea repeats irrational force.
30 September.
Right of reply.
Indonesia replied in strongly rejecting the issue of West Papua made by Vanuatu. They said that the statement reflects an unfortunate lack of understanding on the historic role of the UN and the "principled position of the international community at large" and developments in West Papua, "Indonesia". (emphasis added) It was also an "utter refusal to acknowledge" facts of the province and the efforts of the government of Indonesia and local authorities in generating the welfare of the people of the two provinces. Indonesia's representatives at the UN also said that internal political dynamics of Vanuatu have played a role in raising West Papua issues at the UN and was acknowledged by a statement of the prime minister of Vanuatu and published by the "Vanuatu Post" that read: "West Papua politicised and used various political movements not for the people in West Papua but for political campaigns and propaganda." They reiterated that the statement was not by Indonesian authorities but the then government of Vanuatu. Additionally, Indonesia was not distracted by said inclination and will continue development efforts through special autonomy and will also continue friendly relations with Vanuatu.
Pakistan responded to the statement by the Bangladeshi prime minister in saying that it was deeply dismayed as Pakistan and Bangladesh are brotherly countries and were once citizens of the same country and also continue to have warmth today. They added that the statement by Hasina was misrepresentation of the facts, the premise was wrong and the legal dimension was untenable. unhelpful and counter productive to Bangladesh-Pakistan relations. Yet the people of Pakistan would work to strengthen ties with Bangladesh.
1 October.
Right of reply.
Libya responded to Bolivia statement in saying it had overcome a dictatorship. Though it did not initially attach significance at first to the statement, viewing it as propaganda by one party to another, Morales had asked two specific questions and was entitled to obtain an answer. The questions were: Who had Libyan oil and who owned Libyan oil today. The representative went on to the allege that Libyan oil belonged to Muammar Gaddafi and his family and distributed to members of international forum to fight imperialism, what he called a terrorist organisation founded by Gaddafi to finance leaders of alleged “terrorist organisations.” He accused Morales of being familiar with it as he was a part of it and a leading member of it. As such he suggested Morales laments Gaddafi's “dictatorship” as he had lost an excellent source of financing. The delegate also suggested revenue from the oil was distributed by Gaddafi to his assistants and the corrupt around the world to sow chaos and kill innocent people. He claimed to have chosen his words fairly as he said he was not unfair to the tyrant Gaddafi. He also suggested that is he was not believed one could see videos that show Libyan oil was not for funding salaries but to spread the philosophy of Gaddafi's "Green Book". The delegate then added that those were corrupt ideas of a single individual who attempted to destroy state institutions and that was how money was spent in the “reign of this tyrant.” He alleged that today it belongs to the Libyan people to repair what he alleged was destroyed by Gaddafi for decades and to provide basic services to its citizens. He claimed he did not offend Morales as the latter probably knew Libya was one of the richest African states but perhaps did not know or needed to know that over quarter of Libyans were allegedly below the poverty threshold, that Libyan civil servants had amongst the lowest salaries, that the education was the lowest in the region, Libya was corrupt state and that most towns did not have sanitation systems and no public transport—neither within nor between cities. He further claimed that Libya was the only country with no post office or postal code and that most streets did not have street names. He went on to say that Morales was Gaddafi's friends as revenue from Libyan oil was distributed outside Libya while people were in poverty and basic services were worsening. Morales spoke of the shelling of Libya, but, the delegate claimed, “no Libya was not shelled or bombed. The international community helped Libya and bombed the troops of the despot who were bombing the town and villages and killing innocent people indiscriminately” and that it was “regrettable [that] Morales still does not want to acknowledge atrocities committed by his friend Gaddafi's troops against innocent people. If you have a problem with a state or a party don't use Libya to harm others. The Libyan people know who helped them and who helped their executioner.” As such the “Libyan people would extend their hand to all those who respect their friendship.
In reaction to the comment, Ashe reminded the audience that the right of reply to a head of state had to be in writing. He then continued to call on the other delegations that wanted to use their right of reply.
Iran's Khodadad Seifi responded to allegations against the Iranian nuclear programme saying that Iran has an inalienable right to peaceful nuclear energy and is fully committed to its non-proliferation agreements, that it has always been for peaceful purposes and that Iran continues to fully cooperate with the IAEA. All activities are carried out under the agency's cameras and resident inspectors regularly visit the sites and measure and seal uranium containers. Some cooperation, it said, is even beyond the legal obligations so as to build more trust and confidence; non-diversion has always been confirmed by the agency. He added that the "agency continues to verify the material at the nuclear facilities by Iran in accordance with the agreement." He further noted that all countries have right to nuclear energy and none to nuclear weapons: “nuclear energy for all and nuclear weapons for no one.” Iran addresses genuine proliferation but rejects conflating peaceful nuclear energy with developing nuclear weapons. In addition to obligations, he said, Islamic teaching is against pursuing nuclear weapons program. Nuclear weapons do not bring security but are the greatest threat to nuclear-haves and have-nots. As there is no reason to accept nuclear weapons but many reasons to abolish them all, nuclear weapons have no place in the defence doctrine of Iran. Yet some countries express concerns over Iranian nuclear weapons and there is a deep mistrust by Iran over the policies and intentions of these countries. Therefore there is a need to build mutual trust that is possible only by resorting to the force of logic not the logic of force. The golden rule is to resort to diplomacy alone. Sustainable solutions are attainable only by peaceful and respectful negotiations. For its part, Iran expresses full readiness to stick to meaningful time-bound negotiations. Iran stands ready to ensure its nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful and remove concerns of other parties and acknowledge the inherent right of Iran to peaceful nuclear energy including a full national fuel cycle. As such sanctions, whether unilateral or multilateral, should be lifted. Mutual respect and equal treatment is essential for a win-win situation. Other parties need to adopt the same approach. Moreover Iran underlines the important contribution other countries can make to the process. Iran takes this opportunity to thank all countries that support sovereign rights to peaceful science and tech and those who have supported, in the past several days, the Iranian programme. However, he cited the as yet extremely inflammatory statement by the “last speaker” with allegations against the peaceful nuclear activities of Iran and it would not dignify such unfound accusations with answers other than categorically rejecting them all. He said that Netanyahu tried to “mislead this august body” about the nuclear programme, but that unlike last year his comments tried to be more royal than a king by setting a standard for Iranian nuclear activities and level of enrichment. As such, he must know that no one can dictate to Iran what to do and not to do. “As a party to the NPT, Iran is fully aware of its rights and is fully committed to its obligations. Indeed the one who is badly in need to be educated about these issues is Israel, the only non-party to the NPT in the Middle East. And to that end Israel no choice but to accede to the NPT without delay and place all its nuclear possessions under IAEA safeguards. [Netanyahu] talked of WMDs in the Middle East without mention that Israel is the only one in the region that possesses all types of WMDss but is [still] not party to any treaty banning them.“ Netanyahu also did not mention the proposed 2012 conference on the establishment of a WMD free zone in the Middle East which was not convened only due to Israeli objections. Similarly to last year, he continued