UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

2.3 Madam President, you are to some extent familiar with the background to the controversy. The difficulty
we have had lay at least in part in the consideration given by the Administrative Commission to matters which
were legitimately on its agenda. It is required to consider certain matters by our Constitution and other
arrangements. The changes made by the Commission arose firstly, to be honest, out of the concern felt by many
of us that the whole changeover had not been well handled, but more importantly out of a concern for the wellbeing
of the incoming Director-General and a smooth transition. We had also been aware in other respects that
there had already been overspending in the next biennium beyond that which had been approved or included in
document 30 C/5, to the tune of several million dollars. We have made comments about that in other resolutions
agreed to in the Administrative Commission which will be submitted to the plenary next week. But when we
came to this item on our agenda, we were concerned to give the new Director-General as much flexibility as
possible and in good faith we made certain alterations believing that they would give him greater flexibility.
Madam President, you advised the Administrative Commission yesterday that our offer to the incoming Director-
General was not necessarily something he wanted, but I think it is also fair to say that some of us came to the
conclusion that it would probably be fairer to the incoming Director-General if there were no problems in this
area at all. In a way he was bound to lose either way. So it was made known to me in my capacity as Chairperson
of the Administrative Commission that it would be helpful to the incoming Director-General if the Conference
itself could resolve these matters. I therefore started work this morning on trying to arrive at a text that would be
acceptable.
2.4 What this text does is to accept what has happened already, to give some reassurance to the general staff
that what they have they will not lose, and also, inter alia, to show that the General Conference recognizes that
the general staff position is a matter of permanent concern for us all. These are the people who are the least
advantaged in the system and we did not want to make anything more difficult for them. The text also seeks in
paragraph 4 to give the incoming Director-General the opportunity to look at General Service staff policy as a
whole, and submit recommendations to the Board in a year’s time, when he may or may not wish to make some
improvements to the system. It recognizes that the effect of all of this on the conduct of this Conference has not
been good, and requests - and I notified the STU that we were doing this - the Director-General to negotiate with
the unions some arrangement for conduct for the future servicing of the needs of UNESCO and its governing
bodies. I think we are all agreed that we do not want ever again to be confronted with the difficulties we have had
during this Conference. Lastly, Madam President, it picks up the concern which I and others have expressed
about what we regarded as the failure of the Secretariat to ensure that the Conference functioned effectively and
in so doing overtakes another intention I had had.
2.5 I would like to conclude by repeating the two small amendments to the text I am now proposing to
replace the one you have before you. The first amendment is that the two paragraphs we agreed to last night
become I, and the remainder becomes II, with a consequential change in numbering. But the more significant
change is in paragraph 3 on the sheet before you, which should read as follows: “Authorizes the Director-General
to introduce the new seven-grade scales as well as other recommendations made by the International Civil
Service Commission as from 1 January 2000”. If we had not made that change, we would have left out important
parts of the decision we were required to consider. I move this proposal, Madam President, on behalf of the New
Zealand delegation.
3. The PRESIDENT:
I should like to thank Mr Marshall, the representative of New Zealand. I believe that what has been put
to the Conference shows wisdom and foresight, which is important. I give the floor to the representative of India.
4.1 Mr RAO (India):
Thank you, Madam President. There is a saying that goes: “All is well that ends well”, and I will
therefore make very brief comments. I will start by saying to Professor Marshall, the representative of New
Zealand, that I fully endorse his negotiated text which is before us, except for a minor change which I will come
to as I go through it.
4.2 First of all, I think we can fully endorse the division into Parts I and II, without any difficulty
whatsoever. I am glad Professor Marshall said that paragraph 3 should also talk of other recommendations made
by the International Civil Service Commission as from 1 January 2000. That takes care, in fact, of all the
recommendations which are in Part III of document 30 C/66, and are now covered by Part II. There are, however,
two small points which I would like to make, Madam President. Firstly, in the opinion of India, paragraph 6 in
the proposal of Mr Marshall is something that India finds is not really appropriate in this context. If, however
other Members feel strongly about it, we suggest it be taken as a separate decision, because it is not really
relevant to paragraphs 3, 4 and 5.
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