HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS BRIEFING BY BRENDEN VARMA, SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT MIROSLAV LAJČÁK

United Nations Headquarters, New York

25 September 2017

PRESIDENT TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE TOMORROW

  • The President of the General Assembly will hold a press conference tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. He will share his observations from the General Debate, outline what was achieved and lay out his expectations for the rest of the session.

 

FIRST TIME IN 11 YEARS THAT ALL MEMBER STATES & OBSERVERS ADDRESS GENERAL DEBATE

  • The General Debate ended today. It was the first time in 11 years that all Member States and Observers addressed the General Assembly.
  • In his closing remarks, the President said that, over the past week, he had heard overwhelming support for the proposal to prioritize peace and prevention. Member States had also talked about the needs of people all over the world. He heard calls to look beyond the labels of refugee or migrant, to see, simply, people. He had listened to accounts of the work being done to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. Some Member States also made clear that climate change had become a matter of life or death. Finally, delegates had reaffirmed their commitment to the United Nations and each other.
  • As of today, from 15 to 25 September, a total of 421 meetings have been held in UN conference rooms. Around 356 of those were side events and other meetings. Also, as of today, from 18 to 25 September, there have been 1,528 bilateral meetings held.

 

PRESIDENT HAS MORE THAN 50 BILATERAL MEETINGS, GIVES NEARLY 30 SPEECHES, CHAIRS OVER 20 HOURS IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY HALL

  • Over this past week, the President held 55 bilateral meetings and 29 speaking engagements. He also spent more than 20 hours chairing in the General Assembly Hall.
  • On Saturday 23 September, he held bilateral meetings with the Prime Minister of Togo as well as the Foreign Ministers of Algeria and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The readouts for those and all other bilateral meetings can be found here.
  • Also on Saturday, he spoke at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park. There, he met with Daesh survivor and Yazidi activist, Shireen Ibrahim. He invited her to visit him at the UN.
  • Today he would be meeting the Foreign Minister of Venezuela.
  • Tomorrow, the President will convene a high-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapon – in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at 10: 00 a.m.

 

HIGH-LEVEL HUMAN TRAFFICKING MEETING TO BE HELD THIS WEEK

  • Asked for details about the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly, which would be convened on 27 and 28 September 2017 to appraise progress achieved in the implementation of the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, the Spokesperson referred the journalist to the following web site.