Strengthening of the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the United Nations; draft resolution A/53/L.59, Agenda Item 20. Statement by Ambassador Per Norström, Deputy Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations, December 7, 1998.

Mr. President,

I have the honour to introduce - on behalf of the co-sponsors - the draft resolution on the Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations, contained in document A/53/L.59.

A first draft was discussed in informal consultations on 24 November. In those consultations some valuable proposals were made for the improvement of the text and agreement was reached on all paragraphs. My delegation is grateful for the contributions made by other delegations and for the good spririt of cooperation and partnership in the consultations.

In the draft resolution, the General Assembly recalls its previous resolutions on the topic, takes note of the report of the Secretary-General and welcomes the progress made by the Emergency Relief Coordinator and OCHA in strengthening the coordination. The General Assembly welcomes the first humanitarian segment of ECOSOC held this summer and the Agreed Conclusions from that session and then calls upon relevant actors to cooperate to ensure the implementation and follow-up to the Agreed Conclusions.

Finally, the General Assembly requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly, through the 1999 ECOSOC, on the strengthening of the coordination, including the implementation and follow-up to the Agreed Conclusions, and invites ECOSOC to consider ways to further enhance the humanitarian segment of future ECOSOC sessions, as outlined in the Agreed Conclusions.

Mr. President,

My delegation and the co-sponsors trust that the draft resolution can be adopted by consensus.

Thank you, Mr. President