Statement by UPU Secretary General Bishar A. Hussein, Istanbul, Turkey, 3 October 2016
Thank you Mr. Chairman for allowing me the opportunity to make an intervention at the start of this plenary meeting.
Mr. Chairman,
Honourable delegates,
Dear participants,
As we embark on the third and final week of this Congress, I wish to thank all members who have been with us during our past meetings and welcome those who have joined us today. This will be the most important week of our Congress at which key decisions will be taken.
As we move forward, I would like to call upon us to reflect on the activities of the past weeks. On this note I would like to thank all committee chairs and vice chairs for having guided our deliberations very professionally in preparation for the plenary.
We have had considerable success in most of our discussions and did so through consensus. Some decisions were easy to take, while others created long debates before agreement. This is normal in meetings of this nature. Thank you very much the leadership of the committees for assisting us in those decisions.
We, however, have had challenges in moving forward with some proposals, where we were not able to find consensus or agreement altogether. Decisions on some of these proposals are still pending and others have gone for appeal. I do hope that finally we will have agreement on all these issues or have an consensual way forward.
In this regard, I wish to appeal to all of us, even in the face of these challenges, to always put the interest of our Union and industry above all other considerations. That way, we shall all be guided by the common interest, which will make it easier for us to reach consensus.
Even where we cannot come to an agreement because of differences in our analysis of issues, we must cultivate an atmosphere where we make progress through trust and mutual respect of our differences. Differences in opinion, focus or even interests should not cause us to undermine the overall good of keeping our organization’s membership united for the Union to continue serving the purpose for which it was formed.
UPU has served us as the umbrella body of the postal family for over 140 years and we have all the time resolved our differences through consensual approach.
It is my belief we all need the UPU, and more importantly, one that serves us efficiently and effectively.
To achieve this, we must always unite as members and seek to strengthen our Union so as to make it serve us better.
As we open for discussion at this plenary the topics that we have not had common agreement, I wish to appeal for all of us to make our interventions in the spirit of finding workable consensus.
The International Bureau shall be on hand to provide all the necessary assistance and clarifications required of us to make your deliberations smooth.
Let us build one strong UPU that we are all proud of. Let us have a shared vision of a Universal Postal Union that promotes solidarity across our unique Postal territory.
Thank you for your attention.