Statement by H.E. Mr. Choisuren Baatar
Permanent Representative of Mongolia
to the United Nations
to the 27th session
of the Committee on Information
/20 April 2005, New York/
Mr. Chairman,
At the outset, allow me to join the previous speakers in expressing my sincere
congratulations to you on your election to the Chairmanship of this
twenty-seventh session of the Committee on Information, as well as to the rest
of the Bureau. Rest assured of my delegation’s full confidence, and our support
and assistance to you in discharge of your duties. My heartfelt salutations also
go to H.E. Iftekhar Chowdhury, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, for the
commendable manner in which he led our deliberations during two previous
sessions.
I also take the opportunity to welcome the new members of the Committee - Cape
Verde, Iceland, Luxembourg, Madagascar and Qatar.
I thank Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Mr.
Shashi Tharoor for his comprehensive address to this Committee and for excellent
arrangements made for this year’s interactive dialogue with delegates. Despite
many other meetings going parallel to it in this building, the now annual
interactive dialogue once again attracted great attention of the Member States
and presented us with an opportunity to directly engage with officials
responsible for various fields of activities of the Public Information
Department, and with representatives of other departments, namely the Department
of Peacekeeping Operations.
Mr. Chairman,
My delegation fully associates itself with the Statement made by Jamaica on
behalf of the Group of 77 and China. I would like, nevertheless, to make a few
brief remarks from my national perspective.
Mongolia highly commends the DPI for the excellent work it has been doing to
project a positive image of the United Nations in this challenging time when the
Organization is increasingly targeted in various press and media sources,
especially private media. Indeed, this alarming trend of vilifying the world
Organization has been continuing for the last 3 years and has reached a critical
point this year with allegations of mismanagement, corruption and lack of
transparency and accountability in some of its activities evolving into
challenges to its very raison d’etre, effectiveness and relevance. While
stressing that glossing over whatever actual deficiencies and shortcomings
should not in anyway be tolerated, let me express my conviction that we must not
at the same time let such certain facts to overshadow the whole spectrum of
diverse and crucially important work that the United Nations is doing to make
the world around us a better place. Neither can we allow certain allegations to
undermine the unique legitimacy, credibility and moral standing of this
Organization.
The DPI as a voice through which the Organization speaks has a unique role to
play – it has the prime responsibility to provide Member States and general
public a comprehensive, timely and true account of various activities of the UN
to promote development, peace democracy and human rights worldwide. Mongolia,
therefore, is pleased that the DPI, while grappling with the task of countering
the negative publicity of the United Nations, has maintained its regular
programme, and guided by its mission statement continued to focus on promoting
global awareness and greater understanding of the work of the UN in priority
area as set out in the Millennium Declaration, such as poverty eradication,
conflict prevention, sustainable development, human rights, HIV/AIDS,
international fight against terrorism and special needs of Africa.
Mr. Chairman,
Let me echo your words that “the Committee is meeting at an extraordinary time
in the history of the Organization. It will turn sixty years in any way you
measure it”. Indeed, the notion of 60 years has a special symbolic meaning in my
country – Mongolia. It is 60 years - unlike 100 in Western calendar tradition -
that forms a full cycle according to our traditional lunar calendar. We strongly
believe that bold decisions and actions are needed as we enter a new cycle and a
new era.
In this respect, we warmly appreciate that the DPI has already developed and
started campaigning for UN renewal targeting at both the policy makers and
general public. Indeed, the September Summit is ought to be a milestone, a
decisive point that should galvanize the international community to meet the
development challenges which confront mankind, reinforce the spirit of
collective security and respect for human rights and promote democracy. This
crucial date will present another opportunity to underline importance of
coordinated information activities. DPI will, thus, have a prominent role to
play in the overall success of the exercise - 60th anniversary and review of the
state of implementation of internationally agreed development goals, through
communicating the necessary information to the public, and assisting in
awareness raising on the inter-linkages between development, peace, human
rights, democracy and rule of law as set out in the Secretary-General’s recent
report “In Larger Freedom”.
Mr. Chairman,
Mongolia fully concurs with the words of Mr.Tharoor that the DPI has made a
“measurable progress” over the last 3 years and was able in general to implement
those aspects of the reform proposals on enhancing public information that were
within the authority of Secretary-General. I want to warmly commend
Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Mr.Tharoor for
his enthusiasm, dedication and leadership he has always demonstrated throughout
the reorientation process that has now come to its completion. Today we have a
transformed DPI, with a new mission statement, a new operating model and a new
organizational structure, a new and ambitious DPI, which is using the Millennium
Declaration as a guide to achieve greater public impact and help fulfill the
substantive aims of the United Nations.
My delegation applauds the DPI for its successful redesigning of the UN website
making it more user-friendly and supports efforts towards achieving parity among
all official languages. The website is, speaking in literary terms, a virtual
“well of knowledge” - a cost effective and extremely useful tool of
disseminating information in this digital era, not least to small and developing
states and countries that don’t host United Nations Information Centers. The
fact that the website continues to register an increasing number of hits in all
languages testifies to the quality of its design and content.
Being a small delegation to the UN we find the Official Document System (ODS) as
an important and readily accessible and reliable source of reference of all
official UN documents, which is also highly regarded in our capital. We have
called for making the system freely available as a meaningful step to further
enhance this service. In this respect, I would like to warmly welcome the fact
that the ODS is now open to the public at large.
Let me also thank the DPI for the timely issuance and good quality of the
reports before us.
Mr. Chairman,
In conclusion, I would like to assure you that my delegation will exert its
efforts in a constructive and open manner to achieve a positive outcome of this
session of the Committee.
I thank you.