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UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Mogens Lykketoft, the president of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly, announced that the 193-member body, in the shadow of a bribery scandal involving one of his predecessors, passed on Tuesday a Code of Ethics for the office and introduced an oath to be sworn by his successors.
Minutes before his last formal meeting with reporters as president of the General Assembly (PGA), the General Assembly passed the measure as part of a move to "revitalize" the UN body.
He was to be replaced later in the day by Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji as president of the 71st session of the General Assembly and the first to take the 100-word oath.
Lykketoft, a Danish politician who was not involved in the scandal, worked hard to ensure there will be no further abuses of the office.
Ambassador John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, 61, was found dead in June in his home in Dobbs Ferry in the U.S. state of New York, following an accident while lifting a barbell during an exercise session, U.S. authorities said.
Ashe, president of the 68th General Assembly session from September 2013 to September 2014, was accused by federal prosecutors of accepting more than 1 million U.S. dollars in bribes, turning his position into a "platform for profit." He pleaded innocent.
Instead of "giving an assessment of the year we have been through," Lykketoft said, "I wanted to inform you in particular ... we just adopted the revitalization resolution a few minutes ago and what we have now is quite new Code of Conduct and an oath for the next president and all the transparency we have worked for also on the issue of the President of the General Assembly."
Lykketoft also said he sent a letter to the president of the Security Council and to the incoming president, copied to all UN member states on transparency in selection of the next secretary-general.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon retires on Dec. 31 after serving two five-year terms. There have been complaints that the selection process is not transparent enough.
"I think that this new standard should be seen as a bar, not the ceiling, and should be maintained throughout the entirety of the selection of the appointment process," he said. "That's also the reason why I've repeatedly had some critical remarks on the presumed lack of transparency in what the Security Council does in its straw polls."
"It's not a big issue because you (members of the media) are so quickly able to get hold of the outcome of the straw polls so we all know about it," he said. "But, I think it would have been more in line with the transparency we have fought for in the General Assembly if also formally there had been a transparent process in the Security Council."
"When we go forward it may be worth considering how to establish such an exercise or exploring ways to insure the memberships' own assessments of candidates can be fed into the selection process in the council," Lykketoft said.
The UN Charter says only the 15-member Security Council should recommend a candidate for the General Assembly to appoint as secretary-general.
Lykketoft this year instituted a program of "debates" in the assembly where announced candidates put forward by their governments were interviewed by members of the assembly.
He also said Christiana Figures, a Costa Rican diplomat, has dropped out, leaving nine candidates in the race.
The nearly 450 word Code of Conduct says consulting with member states the president must not receive or accept instructions "from any individual or governmental or non-governmental organization or group whatsoever ... shall avoid any situation involving a conflict between his or her own personal or private interest."
It also wants the PGA to insure the "greatest possible transparency in the utilization of property, premises, services and resources made available for the discharge of the functions of the office and ensure that they are used only for the official business of the Presidency and not for other purposes."
