As 179-member Assembly opens, an action-oriented United Nations is 'more intensely felt worldwide.' (includes related information on committee highlights).

"The presence of the Organization is being more intensely felt worldwide as it helps people in danger, need or despair", UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali asserted as the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly got under way on 15 September in New York.

"Never before in its history has the United Nations been so action-oriented, so actively engaged, and so widely expected to respond to needs both immediate and pervasive", the Egyptian-born UN chief executive, who took office on 1 January 1992, stated. His report on the work of the Organization (A/47/1), reflected the near-universal concern of a membership which had increased by 20 in the 10 months between 17 September 1991 and 31 July 1992, when the former Soviet republic of Georgia became the 179th UN Member State.

At the outset of his tenure, Mr. Boutros-Ghali maintained it was possible to sense "a new stirring of hope among the nations of the world and a recognition that an immense opportunity is here to be seized". Not since the end of the Second World War, he said, had "the expectations of the world's peoples depended so much upon the capacity of the United Nations for widely supported and effective action".

A |New chapter'

With "the end of the bipolar era and the opening of a new chapter in history", States once again saw the UN as "an instrument capable of maintaining international peace and security, of advancing justice and human rights, and of achieving, in the words of the Charter, |social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom'".

However, he went on the transition from the old to the new UN was neither easy nor risk-free. As the international community looked towards days filled with promise, it must also be prepared to deal with uncertainty.

"The departure of one set of global problems has been followed by emergence of a multitude of others", he said. But a better world was within reach in 1992. It was time, he concluded, "to move forward deliberately and conscientiously towards the realization of the vast potential of this unique Organization and to bring new life to the world of the Charter".

Peace Endowment

Fund

In his report, Mr. Boutros-Ghali proposed the establishment of a $1-billion peace endowment fund to finance the initial cost of authorized peace-keeping operations and a levy on arms sales and international air travel.

The proposals were presented in the face of the ever-deepening financial crisis of the UN and to ensure that the Organization was fully prepared to respond to new challenges of international action. The Fund should combine the assessed and voluntary contributions from Governments, the private sector and individuals. As tax on arms sales would help maintain a UN arms register, while an international air travel tax was justified because secure air travel depended largely on the maintenance of peace, the Secretary-General indicated.

Other proposals would authorize the UN to borrow from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and allow a general tax exemption for contributions made to the UN by foundations, businesses and individuals.

Mr. Boutros-Ghali also supported previous proposals that interest be charged on Member States' assessed contributions not paid on time and that the Secretary-General be allowed to borrow commercially, should other sources of cash be inadequate.

|Unique historic

transformation'

Samir S. Shihabi of Saudi Arabia, President of the...