In a speech to the GA today, Deputy US Perm. Rep. Anne Patterson criticized the draft outcome document for the 14-16 September UN Summit. Of interest to the low level panel, Patterson said that the US “is committed to a package of sweeping reforms that will change the face of the United Nations [including] improved UN management practices that bring a level of transparency and accountability that has previously been lacking.”

Patterson also said, “We welcome the management reforms listed in the document, although, as I said, we believe that section could be written with more clarity and direction. We also need a clearer policy on waiver of immunity, and establishment of an Oversight Advisory Committee with a clearer mandate, not least to recommend proper budget levels for Office of the Inspector for Oversight Services, which should remain independent of the bodies it audits. And it is especially important to follow through on the Secretary General’s own call that old mandates be regularly reviewed before extension — with an eye to ending some and funding more important things; if regular review is good enough for peacekeeping missions, it is good enough for all UN mandates.” The US also criticized the draft document’s sections on nonproliferation and disarmament, as well as that on international development.

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