UN General Assembly
2007

and fraught with serious implications. We believe this anomaly can easily be remedied. My Government is of the view that the General Assembly should invite the Economic and Social Council to revisit the graduation rule in the light of the ongoing debate, and that the experts who advise the Council should be mandated to explore reform of the rule with a view to making human assets and economic vulnerability paramount. Such a reform would do justice to countries that have not achieved the implied structural progress. The Government of Vanuatu will do its utmost to cooperate with the relevant United Nations bodies and other like-minded nations and friends in forging consensus on this matter. I am convinced that such consensus implicitly exists, and needs only to be formalized. Experts and members of the Committee for Development Policy should also be encouraged to undertake in-country consultations and to experience first-hand the development conditions of countries that are on the verge of graduation. We are talking about the livelihoods of peoples who may be seriously affected