Revitalization of the work of the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly

REMARKS ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA BY MS. THANAVON PAMARANON, FIRST SECRETARY, PERMANENT MISSION OF THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND TO THE UNITED NATIONS, AT THE INFORMAL INFORMAL CONSULTATIONS ON THE REVITALIZATION OF THE WORK OF THE SECOND COMMITTEE OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY (New York, 17 February 2016)

Co-Facilitators,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

The Group of 77 and China would like to express appreciation to the Bureau for responding to the Group's request and to the Secretariat for its efforts in preparing the "Mapping of goals and targets" and the "Review of selected General Assembly and ECOSOC resolutions".

As mentioned earlier, the Group firmly believes that the mapping exercise will give us a better picture of the existing agenda, and thus facilitate our discussion on the organization of the agenda of the Second Committee. The issue of revitalization must be based on evidence-based consultations and informed decisions.

We are in the process of studying the two documents carefully and would like to share our preliminary views as follows:

First, the listing of resolutions in the "Mapping of goals and targets" is incomplete and we find the conclusion that "there is no SDGs not covered in the agenda items" premature. We therefore call for the full listing of resolutions. In addition, we would like to see a more comprehensive mapping of the agenda, which is missing from the documents.

Second, we do not think that the "Review of selected GA and ECOSOC resolutions" should offer any proposals regarding rationalizing the agenda, which could prejudge our discussions. It would be more useful and appropriate for Member States and Observer States to receive a briefing from the Secretariat during consultations so that we can take their comments into consideration. Moreover, the Group would like to highlight that the terms "overlapping" and "duplication" must be differentiated because ECOSOC and the Second Committee can be dealing with the same topics or subjects, but from different perspectives. We would like to emphasize that the role of the Second Committee is complementing, rather duplicating the work of the ECOSOC or the HLPF.

Co-Facilitators,

These are our preliminary views once again, the Group of 77 and China stands ready to constructively engage in this process.

I thank you.