Recommendation to the Council concerning the 75th and the 76th sessions of the United Nations General Assembly
The European Parliament adopted a recommendation to the Council on the 75th and 76th sessions of the UN General Assembly.
The UN is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The UN has proven to be a fundamental universal forum for international consensus building on peace and security, sustainable development and respect for human rights and international law.
Support for multilateralism
Parliament recommended that the Council continue its support for effective multilateralism and, in particular, for the United Nations as an indispensable forum for multilateral solutions to global challenges, for political awareness and dialogue, and for consensus-building across the international community.
Reaffirming that the EU and its Member States share the values and principles of the UN Charter and that the EU is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, Parliament believes that the Council should act to mainstream these values and rights in all areas of UN action and programming.
Members called on the Council to continue to enrich its range of diplomatic tools by paying particular attention to peace, international security and long-term stability, climate diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, human rights, gender equality, fair globalisation and the ability to seek political dialogue and consensus.
The Council is invited to:
- seize the opportunity of the change of presidency in the United States and reach out to the United States on political issues and matters of common interest and maintain a capacity for dialogue and partnership in order to rebuild the transatlantic relationship and cooperation in the UN system for the future;
- continue its efforts to enable the Union to speak with one voice in the United Nations and to make the Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy more effective through the use of qualified majority voting within the Union in order to strengthen cooperation on issues of strategic interest to the Union and to better reflect its fundamental values.
Arms control
Parliament recommended that the Council support all efforts to put arms control and disarmament back on the international agenda. It called for the adoption of a legally binding instrument to prohibit the export and sale of weapons and cyber-surveillance technologies to commit war crimes and/or to suppress internal dissent.
Parliament also encouraged the Council to work towards the opening of international negotiations on a legally binding instrument that would prohibit autonomous lethal weapons systems without strict human control. It recommended that the Council urge the major nuclear powers to refrain from withdrawing from the arms control regime and to advance negotiations on nuclear arms control. It also recommended that the United States and Russia be urged to build mutual trust in order to reopen dialogue on how to build a new arms control relationship.
UN Reform
The Council is called upon to support the UN Secretary-General in his efforts to advance the reform agenda within his institution and to strengthen its capacity to foster sustainable development, promote peace and security and streamline its internal management system for an effective, transparent, financially sustainable and accountable UN.
Parliament stressed that the main progress in the UN reform process has been made in the administrative area, while important political reforms remain outstanding, and should include the adoption of concrete measures to accelerate the alignment of the development system with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Members considered that the EU and its Member States should find a broad consensus to reform the UN Security Council (UNSC), including the creation of a permanent seat for the EU in addition to the existing seats already held by Member States, the imposition of a limit on the use of the veto, especially in the case of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and a change in the composition of the UNSC to better reflect today's world.
Deploring the fact that authoritarian regimes continue to use the Human Rights Council to justify their abuses, Parliament stressed the importance of promoting a reform of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that can ensure a true commitment to the advancement of human rights in an effective and non-biased fashion by all Member States with the risk, otherwise of undermining the HRC’s credibility.
Parliament called for the continued strengthening of the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the international criminal justice system to promote accountability, end impunity and provide the ICC with strong diplomatic, political and financial support. The EU's commitment to fight impunity for crimes committed against journalists and media professionals should be strengthened.
Fight against terrorism and conflict prevention
Parliament reiterated its unequivocal condemnation of terrorism and its full support for measures to defeat and eradicate terrorist organisations, including Daech/ISIS, which pose a clear threat to regional and international security. The Council should work with the UN General Assembly to combat the financing of terrorism and to develop mechanisms to identify terrorists and terrorist organisations and to strengthen asset freezing mechanisms worldwide.
The resolution stressed the importance of a concerted effort by the European Union, the United Nations and the African Union to strengthen the African Union’s capacity for crisis prevention, crisis management and conflict resolution on the African continent.
Vaccines
Parliament supported the UN Secretary-General's call for an affordable and accessible COVID-19 vaccine as a global public good. It called for an impartial, transparent and independent investigation into the spread of the virus and the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. It called for a reform of the WHO to create an international consortium against the virus to ensure that all countries have access to and equitable distribution of COVID-19 and future vaccines.
Lastly, Parliament encouraged the Council to play a leading and ambitious role in the preparation of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).