Preface iii List of Abbreviations v

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1 CONTENTS PAGE Preface iii List of Abbreviations v Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Emergence of the Group of 77 5 Chapter 2: Organizational Framework of the G Chapter 3: The G-77 and the Second Committee 34 Chapter 4: The G-77 and the Fifth Committee 67 Chapter 5: The G-77 s Limited Role in the Third Committee Chapter 6: Addressing the North/South Divide 121 Chapter 7: The Future of the G Sources 163 Appendix I: List of UN Member States, UN Dues & Blocs 164 Appendix II: Overview of G-77 Positions 170 Appendix III: Millennium Development Goals 182 Appendix IV: Terms of Reference of the Joint Coordinating Committee 186 Acknowledgements 189 i

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3 PREFACE In this book of the Center for UN Reform Education entitled The Group of 77: Perspectives on Its Role in the UN General Assembly, Lydia Swart and Jakob Lund have cast light on a subject often substantially ignored by academia, intentionally misrepresented by the power elites, and significantly underreported by Northern media. The authors describe how in the 1960s, the poorest and developing nations organized themselves during the height of the Cold War to become a powerful negotiating group in the United Nations General Assembly (GA). For most of these nations, basic social and economic development was their foremost priority not the East-West geo-political confrontation and its horrific mutual assured destruction nuclear war politics. While the West/North wants the UN to focus primarily on peace and security, human rights and humanitarian affairs, the rest of the world is insisting on a UN concentrating equally on development. UN bodies and staff have also been split along these fissures which continue 65 years after its founding. Realizing they could not control it, many Northern countries began to de-emphasize the importance of the most universal organ of the international legal order, starting a decades-long process of denouncing and misrepresenting the GA. While the General Assembly has adopted a handful of bad resolutions over the years and could benefit from significant reforms that have been the subject of many of the Center s publications, no other principal organ has achieved more than the GA in advancing multilateralism, disarmament, creation of international organizations, codification and advancement of international law, promoting human rights, and convening major world conferences and summits. While GA-bashing is certain to continue, it is important to provide accurate information on its political dynamics and this book presents perspectives on a negotiating bloc that commands an impressive majority of UN Member States, the G-77. The power elites always think they can best solve political challenges, including global ones, in small and closed forums. During the last decades we have therefore seen the formation of coalitions of the willing as well as the G-7/8. While it is badly covered in the iii

4 press and media, inevitably when these coalitions begin to fail they come quietly back to the UN for help. Recently, the world s most powerful governments have decided to replace the G-7/8 with a reconstituted and upgraded G-20. But whether it succeeds or not, G20 members will have to face the excluded UN Member States when they seek collaboration in the General Assembly, and that means especially the G-77. Whether one is addressing the MDGs, the global financial crisis, global warming, or global terror, the Center believes the international community must succeed in overcoming the North-South Divide. In our recent publications on Global Environmental Governance and Managing Change at the UN (both providing perspectives on the status of a host of UN reform processes) the Center has tried to contribute to improved understanding of vital global negotiations. The Center offers this book to the readers with the expectation that it will provide a balanced and non-ideological representation of the G-77 as one of the most important and least reported actors in global governance and UN reform. William R. Pace President of the Center for UN Reform Education October 2010 iv

5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACABQ Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions ALBA Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Dominica, St, Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Venezuela BASIC Brazil, South Africa, India, China AU African Union CANZ Canada, Australia, New Zealand CARICOM Caribbean Community COTTON-4 Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali DaO Delivering as One DESA Department of Economic and Social Affairs ECOSOC Economic and Social Council EU European Union FFD Financing for Development GA UN General Assembly GATT General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade GNI Gross National Income GNP Gross National Product GSP Generalized System of Preferences G4 Brazil, India, Germany, Japan G20 Group of 20 G33 Group of 33 developing countries G-77 Group of 77 GSP Generalized System of Preferences HRC Human Rights Commission IBSA India, Brazil, South Africa IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development ICC International Criminal Court IMF International Monetary Fund IPS Inter Press Service IT Information Technology ITO International Trade Organisation v

6 JCC Joint Coordinating Committee of the G-77 and NAM JIU Joint Inspection Unit LDCs Least Developed Countries MDGs Millennium Development Goals NAM Non-Aligned Movement NGO Non-Governmental Organization NIEO New International Economic Order OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ODA Official Development Assistance OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OIC Organization of the Islamic Conference OIOS Office of Internal Oversight Services PGA President of the General Assembly SWC System-wide Coherence UN United Nations UNCTAD UN Conference on Trade and Development UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNITAR United Nations Institute for Training and Research WSOD World Summit Outcome Document WTO World Trade Organisation vi

7 1 INTRODUCTION The impetus to write this book started a few years ago when the Center for UN Reform Education began to closely follow and report on negotiations in the budget committee of the UN General Assembly (GA). While observing the dynamics between Member States in this committee, we became aware of the considerable role and influence of the Group of 77 (G-77). But while this group of 131 countries from the South has been in existence for nearly fifty years, there is surprisingly little recent literature available about its genesis, how it is organized, and what its positions are in the GA. This book is primarily meant as an effort to fill that gap. Observations in this book are mostly based on information and assessments contained in academic and NGO publications, reports from the UN Department of Public Information, public documentation of the G-77, statements from Member States in the GA, and in particular on the numerous interviews conducted by the authors from 2006 through 2010 with current and previous diplomats from Permanent Missions at the UN. While we often identify whether a diplomat belongs to the North or South, we generally do not attribute quotes and observations to diplomats by name or the country they represent since it is our experience that most diplomats prefer not to be identified and would be considerably less frank if they were not assured of anonymity. About the Book s Scope This publication strives to describe in a fair and comprehensive manner the perspectives offered by members of the G-77 in those Main Committees of the GA in which they participate most actively and promote their common positions. Perspectives of Northern delegates are also provided to ensure a balanced approach. For the most part, the book does not include coverage of UN Summits and thematic dialogues or debates that are occasionally held in the GA at the initiative of the President of the General Assembly (PGA). Although the G-77 often forms common positions to present at these meetings when they deal with issues on its agenda, including these would require another full-length book. Moreover, it

8 2 Introduction seems to us, that more often than not, these thematic debates or dialogues see little follow-up. Every year a new PGA from another region is elected who typically wants to tackle new issues rather than build on those started by predecessors. Contents Chapter 1 explores the emergence of the G-77 in the 1960s and the formulation of its early goals. It goes on to identify key players in the G-77 while also highlighting the group s co-existence and relationship with the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). To this day, the G-77 remains invested in the UN Conference on Trade and Development and the adoption in the GA of a New International Economic Order as avenues to narrow the development gap between the North and South. The organizational framework of the G-77 is described in chapter 2. The special status of China is also highlighted in the section on the G-77 s membership, along with the group s cohesion in spite of its many fault-lines. The 3rd chapter focuses on the role of the G-77 in the GA s Second Committee (economic and financial). This is the committee in which the G-77 can and does make its case for development most strongly and where it clearly dominates the discourse and drafts most of the resolutions the committee endorses. Chapter 4 analyzes the acrimonious debates that often pit the South against the North in the Fifth Committee (administrative and budgetary) based on their differing interests and positions on such agenda items as membership dues, UN budgets, and Secretariat and management reform. The dynamics behind the limited role the G-77 plays in matters concerning human rights in the Third Committee (social, humanitarian, and cultural) are detailed in chapter 5. Although generally the G-77 defers to NAM in regards to positions on human rights, it has on occasion formulated its own stances. Overall, the G-77 is more likely to address the right of development or food, for instance, or to focus on racism and discrimination. Chapter 6 summarizes both the opposing perspectives and prevailing mistrust that currently divides the North and South and

9 then presents a representative sample of ideas and proposals made throughout the years in efforts to overcome these differences that undermine the UN s ability to find workable solutions to critical issues. The concluding chapter on the future of the G-77 presents various emerging scenarios that may or may not undermine the cohesion of the G-77, alter its relative power or its ability to achieve more of its goals. For instance, will the current financial crisis again overshadow the needs of the South, as it did in the 1980s? Will emerging economies plot their own course in North/South relations or even abandon the G-77? What influence will the G20 have on the G-77? How does the North attempt to undermine the cohesion of the South? The authors of this publication believe that they can safely assert that they have compiled the most comprehensive overview of the compelling perspectives that delegates from the South bring to negotiations in the GA. That s why we decided it was appropriate for the compass on the cover of this book to point South. Terminology and Nuances Introduction 3 Categorizations such as developing versus developed countries and North versus (global) South are not ideal. The first distinction suggests a rather rigid and value-laden hierarchy between rich and poor countries, 1 while the second distinction is factually inaccurate inasmuch as there are countries in the Southern hemisphere such as Australia and New Zealand which have always been considered part of the developed world. Nevertheless, because the G-77 uses these two sets of terms in their own documentation as do many Northern delegates in their comments and quotes we decided it would be appropriate for us to use them as well. Some readers may also wonder why we just refer to the Group of 77 rather than to the Group of 77 and China. We did so at the suggestion of several key G-77 insiders who pointed out that China has a rather unique status in the group, as explained in chapter 2. 1 Weiss, 2009, page 51

10 4 Introduction As many of the chapters clearly indicate, a North/South division in terms of opposing positions as well as acrimonious attitudes is undeniably present in the GA. However, not all negotiations end up along a strict North/South divide. On human rights issues, for instance, the South does not reach agreement easily. In addition, among those considered to be developed countries, positions vary substantially at times. Some European countries such as Norway and Switzerland don t always side with their neighboring countries who belong to the European Union (EU). And the US and Japan frequently do not agree with other countries in the North. This publication does not explore the second-biggest Southern bloc at the UN, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which has 119 members. This is more a question of coincidence than intent. Because the Center developed unique expertise in the UN s Fifth Committee where the G-77 coordinates common positions of the South we believe we understand the G-77 much better than the NAM and this discrepancy, we felt, could not be overcome in the time period we had to prepare this publication. However, we do attempt to explain why two separate Southern blocs were established and how, in spite of tensions, they nevertheless have closely influenced each other and have collaborated throughout the years. Who May Benefit from this Book? It is our hope that newly arrived diplomats, UN staff, academia, as well as most civil society organizations will find this book interesting because it provides a rather exhaustive catalogue of how the North and the South perceive each other in the GA.