REPRESENTATIVE
Thank you very much Co-Chairs,
and let me express my admiration for your work and your stamina in particular. As others, we
have serious concerns with the text overall. We think in particular that, in the area of gender,
the text is certainly not a step forward - and indeed we are afraid in some respects even a step
back. This is not only the case in 5.a, in particular, but also in 10.2, where we do deviate from
established terminology. Also, we do not think that the Rule of Law is reflected properly in this
text. In 16.a, we are of the opinion that, clearly, something needs to be fixed at the end.
Moreover, the High Level Political Forum and the review mechanism do not have their rightful
place in this text. It will be one of the most important elements in the implementation of this
agenda and we would have liked to see something better, in particular more in line with the GA
resolution establishing the High Level Political Forum. Finally, we are seriously concerned about
the repeated references to national legislation and circumstances in the text, which are simply
not necessary given that this is addressed in the chapeau. We have of course listened to the
debate, we know that others have similar issues. We are aware of them and we do respect
them. The discussion has painted a rather daunting picture of what we would be facing if we
were to look at this text in its entirety again. If this is where you want to take us, we will
certainly go with you, but we cannot say that we look forward to that; and in particular not
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because we will have another chance to do it anyway. If we proceed as you have suggested at the beginning of the meeting, we would like to echo the comments made by our colleagues - most recently from China and from Tanzania - on the forwarding of this document. We would then, I guess, all cut our losses, put our reservations on the record and take comfort in the temporary nature of this exercise. We look forward to finalizing everything with the view to having a very good text in 2015.
I thank you very much!
