The Process ofInformalsill the Fifth Committee

Off the record; 011 the I'ec""dThe Filth Committee convenes for formal meetin gs In

Con ference Room 3 In the GeneralAssemblybuilding of the UN Secretarial.One level below the street, In a broad,long corridor,doors lead Into thevariousconference rooms that accommodateanywhere between 40 to 830people.

The Committee 's lormal meeti ngs,just like other committee meetings, areannounced in advance in the UN Dailylaumal. andare scheduledbetween 10 a.m.and I p.m.. and 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Delegates occupychairsbehind smallrectangular wooden plaques bearing

"In the mid-eighties,you had resolutionswhichwere voted In the FifthCommittee, whereinitiallythelarge contributorsonlyabstained, but later in theAssembly voted againstbudget resol ution s",says Schlesinger.

This sp urred th eGen eral Assembly toestablish the Group ofHigh-level Intergovern­mental Experts to Re­view th e Effi ci ency ofthe Admi nistrative andFinancial Functioning ofthe Unit ed Nations. In

August 1986, the Group submi tted seventy proposals to theAssembly, but there was no consensus In the Group onstreamlining the budget process. So the Assembly on It sown passed resolu tion 41nl3. A key part of thi s resol utionstates that the Filth Committee must achieve the "broadestpossible agreement" In passing the budget.

"This is the reason why you have a very interestingdecis ion-making process In the Fifth Commi ttee", saysSchlesinger. "Wit h th e necessity to fin d a consensus orthe broadest possib le agreement , you need a di fferentmechanism of decision-making. It's not looking for majorityIn counti ng votes, it is bringing each and every MemberState on board." Reaching thi s state of broadest possibl eagreement Involves many levels of consultations.

1b passadraft text. first it has to be introducedin the fonnalnegotiation s. If there isstrongdisagreement in the "formals",the matter Is pursued In the (I ) formal informals, (2) Infor­mal in lormals, (3) least formals, and (4) poli tical meetings.

Thomas s cnteslnger, CoordinatorIn 2001. pattern of conferences

Informal consultations In Conference Room 5, one of the smaller rooms atUN Headquarters In New York.

q t was close to mid­night InConferenceRoom 5 at United

Nations HeadquarterswhenThomasSchlesingerclosed his fil es and leftfor home a satisfied man.Schl esinger, a sen iorCounsell or with theAustrian Mission to theUni ted Nation s andAustria's representat ivein the Fifth Committee,had successfully tied up acontentious resolut ionthat demanded lengthysessions of informal di­pl om acy. And now hewas left only with th e task of notifying the Commit teeChairman that unanimi ty had finally been reached, andthe resolution adopted.

Schlesinger was appoi nted Coordi nato r for informalconsultatio ns to finalize a draft resolution on "patte rn ofconferences", the second largest resolut ion the Committeehad been tackling. It dealt broadly with conferences In theUnited Nations, their timing, durati on , util ization oftranslation and Interpretation facilities, and documentationof meetings, and it needed Schlesinger's skills to "gavel"(announce as adopted) the final resoluti on.

The Fifth Committee works hard to pass its financial andbudgetary agenda wit hout a vote. Besides Its own agenda,it also has to approve unanimously the budgetary require­ments arising out of the work of the other five committees.Often, Its own work has to be delayed as the other commi t­tees await word from the Fifth on proposals sent to It.Working towards this exhausti ve consensus is a "uniqueprocess In multilateral diplomacy", says Schlesinger. ToInsiders, thi s process of consulta tions between dip lomatsIs known as the "inforrnals".

Refol'I1Iill9 the bl/dget:Resolution 411213 •

The evolutio n 01the informals Is linked !to General Assembly resoluti on 41/2 13.In the mld- 1980s. the Uni ted Nationswas faced with severe financial crunches,which forced the Organization to borrowfrom peacekeeping funds to meet needsIn other areas . Member Sta tes begancri t icizing th e method ol ogy o f th ebudget account ing, and arrears kepton increasing.

69 UN CHRONICLE No, 1, 2002

"You need this relationship of friendship and mutual understanding, because otherwiseyou are not successful In negotiations:

their country's name. A headset attached to the arm of eachchair Is used for listening to Interpretati on In the six officiallanguages of the United Nati ons (Arabic. Chinese. Englis h.French, Russian, Spanish], A few feet above the ground. setInto the wall . are booths where Interpreters sit behind glasspanels doing simultaneo us translati on in to and ou t of theofficia l languages.

Collen Kelaplle of Botswana, Coordinator of the patt ernof conferences In 2000. says. "Statements are usually Inwritten form and a few are circulated in advance to facilitatethe work of translators and interpreters, and for other dele­gations who may wan t hard copies to brief and seekinstructions fro m capi tals . Full conference services areprovided, and staff of the Department of Public Informat ion(DPI) prepare press releases:

If diplomats agreeon a text in the formals. the Chairpersonrecommends th at the Committee adopt it and report ittothe Assemb ly. where 189 Mcmber States vote on It forfi nal adoption. If d isagreement surfaces In the form als.diplom ats pursue th e text into the second level of talks­th e formal info rmals.

Says Schlesinger, "An agenda it em Is int rod uced In theFifth Committ ee and when Member States are not pre­pared to takc an Immediate decision. the report Is continuedIn informal consultati ons. The Chairman closes the formalconsiderations and asks that those be conti nued In lnfor­rnals, and nominates a coordinato r, who is a colle ague Inth e Fif th Com mitt ee,"

Schlepping a resolut ion from formal to informal meeti ngsbefore going back to formals implies that the language ofthe text is not acceptable to at least one of the delegati ons.Rememb er, under resolution 411213, they are expected toachieve the broadest possibleagreement.

The formallnfonnals arealso lannounced In th e UN Da ily ~' Oilmal- they are, however. not Sofficial meetings. In the formalInformals, representatives ofthe Secretariat clari fy the lan­guage and Inform delegatesof any precedents. Thoughinterpreta tion services areava i lable . t here is no tap erecording and DPI officers donot prepare press releases.

Schlesi nger says that theinformals were not so formal­ized when th ey first began ."Currently. the formal informalsIn many instances are almosta cont inuation of the formalmeeting wit h one di fference­you don ' t have summa ryrecords. lt's off the record."

In theseformal informal sessions. theCommitteechairpersonIs not always present. "These chairpersons are high-rankingdipl omats who have many other tasks to perform and cantherefore not afford to be quibbling with junior 'experts' onhow to cross the 't's' and dot the 'l's' during such sessions.which are usually in the late afternoons. evenings. latenightsand sometimes into the early morning hours". says Kelapile.

In formallnformals, forging a consensus rests on th esho ulders of the Coordinator. "The first part is the question­and -answer sessio n", says Schlesinger. "The Coordinatorinvites Member States to submit language proposals. If onewant s result A.ot her Member States do not want result B.and only then does the rol e of the Coordi nato r reall y start".Schlesinger says that the Coordi nator has to work with thedelegati ons to shape a consensus. "And this is the veryt ricky part. It is verydifficult for the Coordinator to put some­thing forward and not appear biased to eit her side. It doesrequire negoti ating and coordinati ng skills to bring togetherviews that are very far apart."

Schlesinger says that behaviour patterns do not "changedramat ically" in the beginning of a formal informal meeting."You very often fin d a repeti t ion o f a position taken in aform al meeting, but delegations have the time to betterelabo rate." But the formal Info rmal negot iati on s arc notalways successful. partly duc to elements of formality thatlinger and prevent a diplomat from candidly speaking tohis colleagues.

"In the formal Informal meeting. delegations address theCoordinator as Mr. Chairman or Mr. Coordinator. or MadamCoord inator or Madam Chai rperson. In respo nse. theCoordinator addresses the delegations as the d isti nguishedrepresentative of a Member State", says Schlesinger.

60 UN CHRONICLE No. 1, 2002

useful when negot iat ions have stall ed andthe facil itators have to beg for compromisesthat may facilitate agreement. These kindsofnegotiati ons yield consensus", he says.

The fourth level In informal negotiations Isthe political meeting. When diplomatscannotagree In the least formals, the Ambassadorsthemselves take over and agree on a com­prom ise. "It Involves also a carrot-and-stickapproach", says a CommIttee delegate whorequested "diplomatic anonymity", "Normally,it takes the form of a reminder that 'I value thebilateral relation between us as much as youdo' . It must give you th e impression thatsomeone speakswith my interest at heart, soyou would revisit your positi on to meet Itsome place on the other side", explainedth e diplomat. When asked If anyone hadapproached him that way, hesaid he had heardIt from his colleagues who were approached.

Another act ive diplom at of th e G·77developing nat ions said on conditi on ofanonymity th at "powerful" nations app ly"subtl e pressures and fri endly pushes" to

remind ot her nat ions to change their positi on .However, a diplomat of the group of developed nations

said: "It is correct ill liresense (sic] that powerful nations havean extensive network o f diplomats, and are aware ofposi t ions of other developing and developed nations. SoIt's natural that In a bila te ral d ialogue th ey put th ei rconcerns acro ss cl earl y. Friendl y pu shes and subt lepressures usuall y work wit h those who want to be pushed.But a developin g country, he said, would never give In tofri endly pushes i f th at is against its best interests, "Youare pushed gently In the directi on you are likely to take ..,and develop ing nation s apply subt le pressures too.Someti mes, when It works", he added , "it's beyond theirwildest expectat ions!"

Diplomats In the Fifth Committee unwind at the nearby Vienna Cafe, Duringleast formals meetings, some Coordinators avoid moving delegates Intothe Cafe and prefer that they remain In the Conference Room, In order notto give the Impression that It's a "Vienna Cafe decision",

A fir at-name haJiJIn th e th ird level of negot iati ons- th e Informal Infor­

mals- small drafting groups meet In a corner of ConferenceRoom 5 or even outside it, whi le the Chairperson sits in thecentre of the room.

''Where you move to the corner of the room, you dis­pense with int erpretati on and hopefull y stay In the cornerwith the most Interested delegations", says Schlesinger,"then later corne back to th e centre, say i f an agreementwas reached-or go straight back to the formal informal forthe chairperson or Secretariat officials to apprise the dele­gations of the agreement reached and ask if it can be formallyannounced:

But the informallnformals do not always lead to a con­sensus. If thi s happens, th e Coo rdinato rgenerall y bri ngs togeth er th e Interesteddelegationsand in some instances is himselfInvited to attend. These least formal meet­Ings could take place anywhere, from thenearby Vienn a Cafe t o th e o ffices o fSecretariat officials. " f hat's usually where themost controversial issues are being solved",says Schlesinger.

Collen Kelapil e calls them "informal, Infor­mal informal" meet ings. "Thesebecome very

Coordinators would rather stay In an areaclose to Conference Rooms 5 and 6 than moveto the Vienna Cafe,

61 UN CHRONICLE No, 1 , 2002

A langllage tbat iJ amln'gltoltJIf academics or journal ists become puzzled over how or

when a country changed it s op inion, it is not always easyfor them to find the answer. Negoti ati ons at any of the fourlevel s of in formals are off the record and closed . As di s­cussions move deeper in th e process of inforrnal s. itmeans th at a consensus on th e language is more d ifficultto reach. The final text that is acceptab le to all diplomatsInvo lved can con ta in what is colloquially referred to as"const ruct ive ambi guity".

TrallJparellClJ ver...IIlJ ..1£creClJSince informa ls meetin gs are not recorded, th e coord i­

nato r's role comes under keen scruti ny from colleagues.Schlesinger says that Issues of transparency are importantto him . In the past, Directors and Assistant Secretaries­General had offered their conference rooms to Coordinatorsfor a limited number of negoti ators for these least informals.'This raised questions of t ransparency", he says. "Therefore,when I coordinated In the fall last year, I tried to stay inConference Room 5 and take everydecision there." It is oneof the smaller rooms in the basement of the Secretariat.

"It is a euphemism for contradicto ry requests to theSecretariat", says Schlesinger. For example, in the text onpattern of conferences a provision states that all resourcesshould be made avail able for meetings. Then In th e sameparagraph, there is a request to the Secretariat to cont inueprov id ing th ese resources on an ad hoc and as-availab lebasis. 'Then it Is only the practiceof the Secretariat that deter­mines what Is the actual meaning of that", according toSchlesinger. "And Member States in subsequent years areapprised of this practi ce, and i f they approve and don'tgive a different direction to the Secretaria t, the practice Ismaintained."

However, Kelaplle holds another view. "It is an ambiguitythat is not only difficul t for th e Secretar iat to implementbut also often opens the door to subsequent fri ctions overdivergent int erpretati ons."

He offered an example of how "construct ive amb iguity"could comp licate matters. "A particular delegate wanted

sta ff of a certain peacekeep­i ng mi ssi on wh o had beenrelocated from point A to pointB to be given an allowa nce forth ei r hardship in th e newsta t io n. Now in drafting th edocu ment, when the delegatewas talking in terms of a mon­etary allowance, the meanin gin the text apparently read thatallowance must be made for

-..o-:-:-~",,'<J debating this proposal in futureCollen Kelapile, coordinator In 2000, meeti ngs. In the next session,Pattern of conferences.

the concerned delegate lookedat the document [edit ed by the

Secretariat) and asked, 'What happened to the allowa nceI requested?' Here you have to un derst and th at th eSecretariat meant something else."

Another instance, says Kelapile, was when they weredebating th e adm inist ration of ju sti ce in th e UN system,"An advisory commi ttee had identified a gap between theStatute of the UN AdministrativeTribunal and theAdministra­ti ve Tribunal of the Int ernati onal Labour Organization. Wewere discussing whether the right way to draft would be 'toask the UN to close that gap, to brid ge that gap, or ask theUN to narrow it wit h a view to closing it'."

Construc tive ambiguit y in a text helps a country to moveawayfrom a position it init ially defended when such languagemay create difficulties once the Secretaria t im plementsit, says Schlesinger. "On the one hand, It means a leewayfor the Secretariat, and, on the other hand, if the imaginaryboundaries are overstepped, then the Secretariat receivescrit icisms". These imaginary boundaries are defi ned byth e "national interests" of all countries negoti ating thetext. He adds th at th e Secreta ria t is certa in ly aware ofth e di fferent posit ions and is frequently asked by delega­ti ons how it would implement a "constructi vely ambiguous"

Tbe couveqaeuceoWith six years of experience wit h the Fifth Committee,

Schlesinger says that in his personal op inion the conse­quence of these informals is two-fold. first is the imp act onrepresentativesof theSecretariat and academics;and second,the relationship between diplomats,

When delegati ons cannot rely on officia l doc-uments to recall precedents, Secretariat represen­tatives are accompanied by note-takers froni theirdepartments. "I know that memos are written byrepresentati ves of the Secretary-General so thatinsti tutional memory as to how a decisio n wasreached is preserved. These notes are not open tothe public and to delegati ons", he says. "If scholarsor academics want to find ou t how decisions aretaken in the Fifth Committee, they clearly areat adisadvantage, because what they see is from sum­mary records-first, there isa formal meeting wheredelegationshave opposing views and no consent,but miraculously,after one, two or three months,adecision Is reached again in the formal meeting,"

The second consequence,Schlesinger says, is the atmos­phere among the delegates. "If you negot iate in the infor­mals, convi ncing other delegat io ns depends upon yourpersonal negoti ati on style. At the end of each session, theFifth Commit tee is meeting days and nights, and even onthe weekends. You then need a relationship of mutual under­standing because otherwise you are not successful. That Iswhy you also see great friendship across a regional adher­ence and pos itions taken", he says. "By th e way, it's th etrad ition on the weekends that you don't dress form all y­you come in turtleneck sweaters and what have you:'

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·We don't celebrate, It's the wrong word-we sit together and are happythat the negotiations are over. it 's not that we go to a bar and drlnkl I thinka lunch Is something symbolic:

Michel Tilemans, Belgian delegate to theAfth Committee.

in the room. "One of the duties of a Coordinato r is toshow the middl e way out. And the midd le way is that youmay be siding with one side of th e room, but you have tooffset it by balancing it on another issue:

"Go to tlse Fijtl" Cotle»!"Colle n Vixen Kelapile was with the UN desk in 1998 in

the Foreign Mi nistry of Botswana when he learned of histransfer to New York. His supervisor, fif teen years olderthan him, called and offered him sagely advice: "Coll en,If you want to know the UN system, don' t hesit ate totake the Fifth Committee." Kelap ile dived straight into it.Says another dip lomat about him: "He is smart, knows thesubject thoroughly: .

Both Schlesingerand Kelapile became coordinatorsquit equ ickly. Schlesinger, within a year of his arrival at theUnited Nations,coordinated a resolution on human resourcemanagement in 1997. "A tough subject", says Kelapll e, whohi mself was the Coordinator last year on the pattern ofconferences.

One criticism of the process of informal negotiati ons,which holds for all Committees, has been the secrecy ofproceedings. Schlesinger differs with that opinion. "Thesenegotiations are open to all delegatio ns 01all MemberStates: he stresses.

That night, as the text on the pattern 01 conferenceswas approved by midn ight. and before Schlesinger left forhome, many delega tes were seen walking across andoffering him a firm handshake of appreciation. A fair mindatt racts it s own admirers. 0

decision. SaysSchlesinger: "I therefore refrain from sayingit is unfair to the Secretariat to use constructive ambiguity:What also happened in the past was that a representativeof the Secretariat would make their understanding knownto Member States. "Thev phrase it diplomatically:

Michel Tllernans,representat ive ofBelgi um, says: "Ittakesa certain timefor any refo rm tocapitalize. It is nor­mal that you do nothave a resol uti onth at Is clear-cut ,definitive and withimmediate results.... It'sa step-by-stepappro ach, to con-st ruct year afte r

year. One should not dally, but should certainly take intoconsiderat ion in this constructi ve ambiguity the need toreach consensus, to bu ild up-sometimes quite fast, butst i ll step by step- towards a visible reform: '

SchleJ;lIgerj ~g(}I()ell I'llleJ"Much of the consensus in the informals depends upon

the personality and ind iv iduali ty of the Coordinators.Says a Comm ittee delegate about Schlesinger, Kelapileand Coordin ators of the Fifth Commit tee in general: "Theyare excellent. neutral, well prepared and smart:

Schlesinger is also a scholar of the UNfinancial history. He contributed a chapteron "Financingand Finallcial Crises"in a bookenti tled 'j fleUnil,,! Nations- La.. andPmctice",(2001 Kluwer Law International).

"I would say a golden rule when youarrive in the Filth Committee is 'masterand demonstrate that you have in-depthknowl edge of a topi c'. You cannot relyexclusively on the fact that you're underinstructions of your Capital. In the FifthCommitt ee, you have to constantly beaware of the latest developments so thatcapitals may revise their instructions:

Schlesinger's other golden rule is fai r­ness. As a conciliato r of different Interests,he must not only be lair, but also appear tobe so. "I'm a delegate of the Austr ian del­egation , but In my capacity as CoordinatorI'm not Austrian-I'm coordinati ng in mypersonal capacity, neith er an Austrian norfrom the European Union. it 's just ThomasSchlesinger: He matter-ot-factly adds thathe takes care to see that he distributessatis faction and di ssati sfacti on equally

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