Statement by H.E Mr. Pham Vinh Quang,

Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative

of the Mission of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam to the United Nations

at the 264^th meeting of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization

New York, February 22^nd, 2012

 

Mr. Chairman,

Let me begin by joining the previous speakers in congratulating you and other members of the Bureau on your election. I am confident that under your wise guidance, with the efforts of the Bureau, the meeting will arrive at a positive outcome. We would also like to thank the UN Secretariat for the assistance in preparing this meeting.

Mr. Chairman,

Viet Nam attaches great role to the work of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of Organization, which was mandated to consider all proposals regarding the Charter and the strengthening of the role of the United Nations with regard to the maintenance of international peace and security in all its aspects, the question of peaceful settlement of disputes between States, the development of cooperation among all nations and the promotion of the rules of international law.

We wish to express our appreciation for the work of the Committee related to the peaceful settlement of disputes between States and seize this opportunity to emphasize the continued important of the Manila Declaration of the peaceful settlement of international disputes, which will mark its 30^th anniversary this year. We also wish to praise the Resolution of the General Assembly 57/26 (2002) on Prevention and Peaceful settlement of disputes, which reaffirms the duty of all States to use peaceful means to settle any dispute and urges States to make the most effective use of existing procedures and methods for the prevention and the peaceful settlement of their disputes, in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, including judicial mechanisms, in particular the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. These landmark achievements once again prove great potential of this Special Committee and therefore we call upon all delegations to work in a cooperative, problem – solving spirit in order to get a breakthrough and achieve concrete results at our meeting.

Mr. Chairman,

In this spirit, during this session, the Committee should consider all proposals concerning the question of the maintenance of international peace and security in all its aspects and, in this context, to consider other proposals relating to the maintenance of international peace and security already submitted or which may be submitted to the Special Committee at its session in 2012.

The Committee should also continue to consider, on a priority basis, the question of the implementation of the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations related to assistance to third States affected by the application of sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter based on all of the related reports of the Secretary-General and the proposals submitted on the question. With regards to this issue, Viet Nam wishes to emphasize our well-know position that:

- Sanction, by the Security Council, should only apply when all peaceful means to settle the disputes have been exhausted. Sanction should not be applied for a political pressure and should be in accordance with international law and the Charter of the UN.

- The Security Council should impose sanction only for a specific period of time and should be lifted automatically if no resolution is adopted to extend the period of sanction time.    

- The impact of application of sanctions on civilians of the country under sanction and the problems of the third States affected by the sanctions should be considered carefully by the Security Council before issuing the application of sanction.

Finally, we strongly believe that with cooperation of all delegations, this Session will manage to formulate concrete and practical measures to promote the maintenance of international peace and security.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.