Statement by Ambassador Shen Guofang, Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, at the Fifty-sixth Session of the General Assembly on the Issue of “Strengthening the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the United Nations” (Item 20) (26/11/01)
2003-11-25 10:36
26 November 2001 |
Mr. President,
It has been almost ten
years since the adoption by the General Assembly of
Resolution 46/182 in 1991. The Chinese Delegation
appreciates the great efforts by relevant UN bodies all
these years in strengthening the coordination of
humanitarian assistance. At the same time, as we
have also noticed in the first year of this new century, the
world is not as peaceful as we would like to see.
New armed conflicts occur here and there, the
issue of refugees is getting worse and there are a lot more
natural disasters than before, leading to enormous losses of
lives and property. Therefore, the international
community still has a long and difficult road ahead to
ensure that humanitarian assistance will be carried out in
an orderly and smooth manner and achieve tangible results.
Mr. President, The Chinese Delegation
wants to share with other delegations its views regarding
some of the issues mentioned in the report of the
Secretary-General.
First, in the
process of providing humanitarian assistance, the United
Nations and the international community should always
strictly observe the guiding principles of the Charter of
the United Nations, such as humanitarianism, neutrality and
justice as well as respect for sovereignty, territorial
integrity and national unity. And relevant
agencies of the United Nations and other regional
organizations should do their jobs within the scope of their
responsibility. Without these principles, it would
be very difficult for efforts of humanitarian assistance to
achieve the expected results. Worse, it could
easily give rise to new humanitarian disasters.
Second, as the Secretary-General has
indicated in his report, experiences in the past ten years
has shown to us that humanitarian assistance efforts cannot
take the place of political action. Without
coordinated political and diplomatic efforts, it is
impossible to find a proper solution to the crisis in many
cases. The Chinese Delegation wants to emphasize
that when providing assistance, the international community
should take it as a priority to eradicate the roots of
humanitarian crises so as to avoid their
reoccurrence. Third, Resolution
46/182 has proved effective in the past ten years.
Today, when the humanitarian situation is rapidly
deteriorating, this resolution can still give important
guidance to humanitarian efforts by the United Nation.
We hope that relevant agencies of the United
Nations will strictly abide by this resolution in carrying
out humanitarian assistance so as to achieve truly effective
results.
Fourth, the OCHA has done a whole lot
of work and achieved good results in the field of
international humanitarian affairs over the past one year.
We would express our appreciation for this.
We hope that the OCHA will be able to get
sufficient financial resources for its operations so that it
can ensure that global humanitarian efforts will have more
resources and respond to emergent situations more
effectively.
Mr. President, As a
mechanism of responding to disasters and emergencies
established by countries on a voluntary basis, the White
Helmet Initiative is an important and useful complement to
humanitarian assistance efforts. The Chinese
Delegation believes that this initiative is positive and
helpful in strengthening the capacity of all countries,
developing countries in particular, to fight against
disasters. Its potentials are yet to be fully
tapped. We hope that relevant agencies of the
United Nations will carry out in-depth studies in this
regard and make full use of the White Helmet Initiative in
the international community’s action against natural
disasters.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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