?Remarks by H.E. Annalena Baerbock
President of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
at the General Assembly pleanary on the adoption of final resolution of the Informal Ad Hoc Working Group on the Implementation of the Mandate Review
Tuesday, 31 March 2026
General Assembly Hall
Excellencies,
How good to be with you here today for the adoption of the resolution entitled: Mandate Creation, Implementation and Review for an Efficient and Effective United Nations.
In a time of heavy pressure, not only out in the world but also on this institution, the General Assembly is underlining that it is here to act.
Willing but also able to reform, and to modernize.
As we discussed from the beginning of this 80th session, with over 40,000 active mandates, 27,000 meetings a year, and an estimated cost of 360 million US dollars, or roughly 10% of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ¡¯s regular annual budget, mandate review is not only overdue after eight decades, but also, in fact, lifesaving, as the pressure on the house is high.
My sincere appreciation, therefore, to the Informal Ad Hoc Working Group on Mandate Implementation Review and its Co-Chairs, Her Excellency Carolyn Schwalger of New Zealand and His Excellency Brian Wallace of Jamaica.
Over the past six months, we have seen the Working Group move from an initial ¡®Discovery Phase¡¯ ¨C focusing on technical briefings and consultations ¨C to a rigorous ¡®Production Phase¡¯, involving hybrid workshops and negotiations on the substance of the draft resolution.
Through it all, the Co-Chairs, with support from the Membership, were able to find the necessary compromises and to bridge deep political divides, successfully steering the Working Group to deliver a pragmatic and ambitious framework for final approval by the General Assembly.
I wish to thank not only the two co-chairs for their excellent leadership, but also to every one of you Permanent Representatives here today for your support to the Co-Chairs and your personal and engagement and commitment to this reform process.
This reflects a reality that we have emphasized from the earliest days of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80 Initiative ¨C that this reform must be Member State owned and Member State driven, heavily supported also individually by Permanent Representatives.
I also wish to thank the Secretary-General and his team for the whole initiative of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80, and their continued support to the Membership on each of the three workstreams, which has ensured transparency, coherence, and ownership.
Of course, the real test lies in what comes next.
With the conclusion of this first mandate, we must turn to the far greater task ahead: addressing the backlog of thousands of existing mandates.
This will require discipline.
It will require compromise.
And it will require sustained determination and leadership.
To facilitate this aspect, I will, based on today¡¯s decision, soon appoint the two Co-Chairs who will lead the newly formalized Ad Hoc Working Group on Mandate Implementation Review.
Their work, which is to begin by May 1st and end one year later, will help deliver the practical tools we need to guide the creation of new mandates, while also objectively reviewing the existing stock of thousands of mandates.
This includes giving us the tools we need to confidently adapt, merge, or retire the backlog of inactive mandates, including concept note templates, review mechanisms, objective retirement criteria, as well as leveraging the agreed upon ¡®mandate registry¡¯.
The end result, we hope, will be a simplified and more coherent mandate lifecycle that has the duel effect of redirecting resources to where they are better placed, while alleviating the capacity constraints of Member States.
This is particularly welcome for smaller delegations, who, as we heard today and especially last Friday, are constrained by the volume of mandates ¨C many overlapping. Today¡¯s resolution and the work over the coming year will facilitate fair and meaningful engagement by all Member States.
Colleagues, both the scale and timeline of this process are ambitious, and I therefore call on each of you, and your delegations, to bring the same energy, ambition and personal commitment to this next step of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80 process.
While we mark this milestone, we should be clear: it is one step in a much larger Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80 process ¨C one that is both long overdue and increasingly urgent.
Our commitment to each workstream must therefore continue, in tandem.
Structural reforms under Workstream 3 must take shape, and work on the 2027 Programme Budget will soon demand our full attention.
And while the scale of this may be daunting, we should be encouraged by the progress we have already made¡by our ability to lead and to compromise, by showing that diplomacy is indeed alive, committed to strengthen this organization.
Dear colleagues,
Thank you again. Today is a good day as we proved the General Assembly can reform even in times of heavy pressure.
Today we took an important step to make the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ more agile, more efficient, more effective, and fit for the future, so it can better deliver for the people we serve.
I thank you.