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67th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Recommendation to the Council

2012/2036(INI)

The Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted the own-initiative report by Alexander Graf LAMBSDORFF (ADLE, DE) with a proposal for a European Parliament recommendation to the Council on the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly

Members consider that the EU needs to strengthen its cohesion in order to remain a key player in an increasingly multipolar world in need of global concerted action. The EU is committed to effective multilateralism with a strong UN at its core, since this is essential in order to address global challenges. A solid and stable EU-UN partnership is fundamental to the work of the UN under all three pillars – peace and security, human rights and development – and is also key to the EU’s role as a global actor.

With these considerations in mind, Members ask the European Parliament to address the following recommendations to the Council:

The EU at the UN: Members suggest that the EU: (a) coordinate to the fullest extent possible, to put across unified positions and to strengthen the coherence and visibility of the EU as a global actor at the UN; (b) enhance its contribution to the work of the UN; (c) work with EU Member States and the EU Delegation to the UN towards improving coordination, transparency and the exchange of information in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the defence of the positions and interests of the EU in the UN Security Council; (d) ensure strong EU representation throughout all UN institutions and specialised agencies.

The EU and global governance: (i) advance effective multilateralism as an overriding strategic concern of the EU, by enhancing the representativeness, transparency, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness of the UN; (ii) actively to support a comprehensive and consensual reform of the UNSC in order to strengthen its legitimacy, regional representation, accountability and effectiveness; (iii) to recall that an EU seat in an enlarged UNSC remains a central, long-term goal of the European Union and to ask the High Representative/Vice-President (HR/VP) to develop a common position of the Member States to that end.

Peace and security: the recommendations concern the following points:

  • Peace-keeping and peace-building: (i) strengthen the operational partnership and to promote the strategic coherence and effectiveness of collective peace-building efforts; (ii) advance cooperation and build partnerships in the area of conflict prevention, civilian and military crisis management, and conflict resolution; (iii) to provide support to the UN Civilian Capacity Review in identifying practical ways of matching demand with supply in critical civilian capability areas; (iv) to explore options for the joint deployment of crisis response teams within a UN operation in cases where rapidly deployable capacities are required; (v) cooperate with the UN to tackle the current global threats, such as climate
  • Responsibility to Protect (R2P): (i) to assist states in fulfilling their responsibility to protect their populations and adequate international action to prevent and halt genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity; (ii) strongly to reconfirm the EU’s commitment to the concept of R2P and to initiate the development of an inter-institutional consensus on R2P between the European Parliament, the EEAS and the EU Member States.
  • Mediation: (i) promote mediation as a cost-effective tool in the peaceful prevention and resolution of disputes, as well as in preventing post-conflict countries from relapsing into conflict; (ii) to develop more effective mediation guidelines in the field of the rule of law and democratic accountability.
  • International justice: (i) to strengthen the international criminal justice system; (ii) to highlight the role of the ICC in fighting impunity and to strengthen the ICC by providing political, diplomatic, financial and logistical support; (iii) further to promote the ICC as the only permanent judicial body with jurisdiction over individual perpetrators for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so.

Human rights: the report calls for:

  • strengthening international efforts aimed at ensuring that all human rights agreed under UN conventions are considered universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated;
  • further  promoting the mainstreaming of human rights in all aspects of the UN’s work, and participating proactively in the work of the UNHRC;
  • enhancing the early warning capacity of the Special Procedures by providing for a mechanism allowing them to automatically trigger the consideration of a situation by the UNHRC;
  • continuing endeavours in the General Assembly in relation to the call for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, and in relation to the rights of the child, free media and religious tolerance;
  • supporting all efforts to eradicate torture; particularly to encourage the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on Torture;
  • actively supporting the African-led initiative and the recommendation of the Commission on the Status of Women by working towards the adoption of a UNGA resolution in 2012 with a view to banning female genital mutilation (FGM) worldwide; the HR/VP and the Commission are asked to give the utmost priority to ensuring the success of this process.

Democracy support: Members want to help ensure local ownership of the democratic process and the development of a culture of democracy and the rule of law. They recommend: (i) focussing on social and economic inclusion; (ii) democratic transition and political/electoral processes; (iii) capacity-building, (iv) the strengthening of civil society, (v) the participation of young people in parliamentary democracy, and (vi) the protection of freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion and the protection of women’s rights.

Development: the main aims should be as follows:

  • to mainstream EU development-related policies at all levels, and to pay particular attention to human rights and development implications in free trade agreements and during negotiations at WTO level;
  • to ensure that the share of overall European aid channelled through the EU budget is not reduced and retains a poverty and hunger focus;
  • to consider earmarking 20 % of all EU assistance for basic social services as defined by the UN, with a special focus on free and universal access to primary health care and basic education;
  • while remaining committed to ending poverty in collaboration with the international community, to work towards the definition of the ambitious post-2015 MDG Agenda, taking into account the progress made but also the remaining challenges;
  • to follow up on, and work towards the full implementation of, the outcome of the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, inter alia by promoting sustainable development as the guiding principle for long-term global development;
  • to make a decisive contribution to the fight against food speculation;
  • to give priority to food security, productive capacity in agriculture, infrastructure, capacity-building, inclusive economic growth, favourable markets and new businesses, access to technologies, and human and social development in the LDCs.

Climate change, global environmental protection and sustainability: Members would like the EU to take the lead in global climate governance and international cooperation on climate change. The EU is called upon to:

  • contribute to an institutional architecture that is inclusive, transparent and equitable and provides for balanced representation of both developed and developing countries on relevant governing bodies;
  • further develop a dialogue with key actors, such as the BRICS countries and developing countries, given that climate change has become a key element of international relations and further  develop the EEAS’s capacities to build up an EU climate diplomacy policy;
  • support biodiversity and climate protection in the developing countries in line with the objectives set under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity;
  • participate actively in the debate on the term ‘climate refugee’ (intended to describe people who are forced to flee their homes and seek refuge abroad as a consequence of climate change), including a possible legal definition of this term, which is not yet recognised in international law or in any legally binding international agreement.