TRANSCRIPT AND VIDEO OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY UN PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, H.E. MOGENS LYKKETOFT AT THE UNITED NATIONS
21 SEPTEMBER 2015: 1PM EST
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DANIEL THOMAS, SPOKESPERSON: Good afternoon. Thank you for coming here in person or tuning in to the webcast.
My name is Daniel Thomas – I usually go by the name Dan — I am the Communications Director and Spokesperson for the President of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly, Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, who started his one-year term on September 15th.
In advance of this press conference we have issued a press release which you can now find on our website un.org/pga
Now let me hand over to the President of the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Mogens Lykketoft for an opening statement.
MOGENS LYKKETOFT, President of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly:
Thank you for coming.
Today is the International Day of Peace — a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. The theme of this year’s commemoration is “Partnerships for Peace – Dignity for All.”
I am therefore using this opportunity to call on all countries to contribute to solving the global refugee crisis, whether they have the luxury of distance or face the challenges of proximity.
The international community has an unequivocal obligation towards the women, men and children seeking refuge from conflict and violence.
I call on the Member States of the United Nations to urgently live up to their international obligations and to take courageous decisions to address the needs of refugees around the world.
“The world has not seen a global humanitarian crisis of this magnitude since the Second World War and with winter approaching in the northern hemisphere, it is only going to get worse,”
“The tragic stories and heart-breaking images we are seeing in the media are only the tip of the iceberg – the manifestation of much bigger issues which only multilateral cooperation and global leadership can solve. This is a global crisis. And it requires a global solution.
“Rich countries should either welcome more refugees or give more funds to supporting them, and preferably both. Saying no to both is not an option,”
“It is not a crime to seek refuge and asylum. The future of millions of women, men and children are at stake. We need to ensure that our responses are tangible, focused and that we work towards lasting, sustainable solutions.”
I intend to discuss the issue with Pope Francis during his visit to the UN on Friday and I will also bring it to the direct attention of the Heads of State and Government who will be attending the General Debate.
“The situation of refugees and migrants crossing into Europe from the Middle East and Africa is of serious concern to me. I have already stressed the individual and collective responsibility of European states to respond responsibly and humanely. I also encourage other countries to demonstrate their sense of humanity and participate in voluntary resettlement programmes.
“The United Nations was created 70 years ago with the fundamental purpose of promoting peace, protecting vulnerable populations and ensuring their human rights. If we continue to idle and hesitate, we will fail those we are entrusted to protect.”
**Question & Answer
DANIEL THOMAS: Thank you, Mr. President, and now let’s take some questions.
Question: Hello. My name is Shawna McGee from Kyoto News, and on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association, thank you very much for having this briefing, and I hope we’ll have more and you’ll be available to us.
The first question I have, you mentioned you’d be speaking with the Pope. What specifically do you want to say to the Pope with regard to the refugee issue? And I had a secondary question if I may on UN reform. Last week you said you would carry forward the mandate. When will be looking at hosting a meeting? Or what will be your first steps? Thank you.
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: Well, I will not have the possibility of a very long conversation with the Pope, but I will certainly want to thank him for having so strong attention to the humanitarian needs in the present situation, and I hope that he will… and I’m sure he will continue to use his leadership also to convince Heads of States and Government to act, and to act now.
On the UN reform in general, I mean, there are two aspects here. There are the new process, more transparent process, of selecting the next Secretary-General. Here we have a clear Resolution from the outgoing session of the General Assembly. And we are to fill in and act accordingly.
The first thing that should happy think is this letter asked for in the Resolution, Common Letter between the President of the General Assembly, that’s me, and the at the time monthly President of the Security Council. I cannot tell you exactly when that will happen, but I think we should move as quickly as membership would agree, in order to have good time to get the candidates announced and presented to the membership.
On Security Council reform, I mean, what we have from last Monday is a roll-over of the work done by the facilitator. Of course, that’s not any kind of conclusion of models, and I’m not going to try on my own to make that conclusion, but it represents a strong demand from the vast majority of Member States of the United Nations that there should be a reform of some kind reflecting the geopolitical realities of the 21st Century. And I hope that we can get some steps further towards that goal, but it’s obvious what the problems are.
They’re not solving them but the hope the process can be (indiscernible) I would not promise that. You know how many years it’s been on going already.
DANIEL THOMAS: You Sir, in the orange tie.
Question: Thank you.
DANIEL THOMAS: Could you identify yourself?
Question: My name is Ahmed Fadi, I’m correspondent for Arabic News Media across the Middle East and North Africa. You come with unique experience for the PGA especially at this time at European Union level. What do you expect the Summit is going to be held on September 30th to achieve especially from the European leaders since we have seen discrepancies between the values and civility of east… West Europe versus the opposite on the eastern partners? So there’s not a part among the European partners.
What do you expect being that you know the intrinsics of the working inside European Union?
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: Well, for me it’s hard to answer precisely on that question, but a few reflections would be possible. I mean, it seems that it has come as an understandable surprise to much of Europe that when you have an ongoing conflict for more than 4 years, and you have millions and millions of displaced persons and refugees in the neighboring area, and you have seen this tragic lack of reply to the UN and other relief organizations asking for sufficient money to supply the refugees and help the neighboring countries, that for that reason, you will see a movement like the one you’re seeing now towards Europe.
It’s quite understandable. It’s not, to me, quite understandable that it was not predicted earlier, and reacted upon much earlier. It is a totally unsustainable situation when it’s only maybe 1/3 of the requirement from the United Nations and relief organizations that are actually met, that we have to cut food rations to refugees to half, and you know all these examples of the situation.
And we have to address that immediately. I hope that what comes out of the European Summit at least is that there is a follow-up on the appeal from the German Vice Chancellor Gabriel and the Austrian Chancellor Faymann to provide at least a number of extra billion dollars for the international relief assistance to make it possible and sustainable for people to stay in neighboring countries, and sustainable for neighboring countries to have such great an influx of refugees.
But, of course, it would be desirable also that the European Union found a common platform for the internal distribution of refugees, and we all have seen the difficulties they have with that.
DANIEL THOMAS: Thank you. I have a question there and we’ll come over here and then to the back.
Question: Thank you, Dan, my name is Errol [inaudible], which I’m representing Republica Press, which is multimedia news Agency, representing also a few clients from Western Balkans in Eastern Republic just for your information, and since I’m coming from Western Balkans we are very much interested this year and next year in the choosing of the new Secretary-General, and you mentioned that revitalization reform… reform agenda and the Resolution that was adopted. However, the critics are saying that even the Resolution was adopted with concerns of the United Nations, still everything stays in the hands of the Security Council. So I guess my question for you is: Who is going to move first? Either you or the President of the Security Council in that direction? And do you think, as the President of the General Assembly who has only one year mandate that your sort of leverage is diminished with that time framework to push with any kind real initiative in that direction? Thank you.
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: Of course, there are limitations to what you can do in general when you only have a one-year term. That’s obvious. But…
When you are talking about the selection of the next Secretary-General, I think this coming year will be the one that matters anyway.
We are, of course, totally aware that the consensus Resolution from 10 days ago in the General Assembly didn’t address all the wishes to a more transparent process. I mean, there is no demand for more than one candidate, as an example. That has been asked for by a number of countries, and from these moment of one for 7 billion.
We all know at the end of course, there is, due to the [inaudible] Regulations in the Security Council and the role of the Security Council as defined in the Charter, there is a kind of… there is the need of the permanent 5 to agree on the final selection of the Secretary-General. We all know that.
But the new movement forward in transparency is there anyway, and very clear, because when the general membership of the United Nations will have the possibility of meeting the candidates early and asking questions to them in an open dialogue, there is to my… in my mind, there’s a much higher degree of real influence anyway but we are fully aware of the limitations of the Charter, regulations from the Charter.
We have to get the acceptance finally from the G5, from the P5, the Security Council.
Question: What about are you going to move forward first or waiting for Security Council to push for? And what is… as Shana told before, some dates at least when the first candidates will appear and come… how it will look like. We are in the dark.
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: I understand. I am a little in the dark also about it because I think I have to consult somewhat more with the membership about where to begin and when to begin but my personal ambition is that we move pretty quickly, because we need a long period to look at the candidates.
And [inaudible] rather early final decision in the second half of next year.
Thank you. There’s a question here.
Question: Thanks a lot. Matthew Lee inner city press. Thanks a lot for the briefing and hoping you’ll do stakeouts and other things after GA meetings so we can ask you more questions. What I wanted to ask you about is I’ve seen your opening remarks on the refugee crisis and I asked you about the candidacy for the next refugee Commissioner process and there’s obviously a Danish candidate so some people in looking at that have said Denmark’s own policies have been subject to criticism by the UN system. They published an advertisement in Lebanon telling people that they won’t get certain benefits if they get to the country. Prior to that there were some switches in policy. You may disagree but it seems like it’s not viewed as among the most welcoming of European countries. How does that square with what you said? And perhaps relatedly I’ve looked at the team on your website. I wanted to know this is a problem that, not a problem, an issue for all PGAs. How many of the positions in your office are funded by the UN? And how many are funded by countries I.E. secunded staff? And it seems like there may be 6 or 7 that are from Denmark. Are they all funded by the Danish Government? Do all the staff in your office work during this year entirely for the UN System? Thanks.
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: I can say for sure for myself, and that means also for the staff, we are all working for the UN System. I come from Denmark. I’m proud of that. But I’m not representing as President of the General Assembly, in specific the Kingdom of Denmark. That’s one thing.
And how the staff is composed, I have not the exact figures, but I think that more than half of the members of the staff are secunded from member countries outside Denmark, a few from the UN, and more than a handful from Denmark.
That’s the composition of the 30 men and women we have in the Cabinet. And about the Danish candidate for UN HGR, I can only recommend her. I’m not part of the decision who is brought forward to the General Assembly. It’s a procedure of the Secretary-General. But I can only add one thing to your comments on Danish policies: It was certainly not the candidate that was leader of the Government that put the advertisement in the Lebanon… Lebanese papers.
DANIEL THOMAS: Thank you. The woman at the back, please. Yes.
Please identify yourself.
Question: Dulcie Leimbach from PassBlue. I have two questions if you could elaborate further on your meeting with the Pope, how long the schedule is for you to meet with him. What specifically you’ll bring up with him about the refugee crisis. And again if you could elaborate further on your own opinions about your country’s saying it doesn’t want to take in any refugees right now. Thanks.
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: To the last question, I will not go into much details and discussion about Danish refugee policy but I think Denmark is among the top 5 of countries receiving refugees up till now so it’s not a question of Denmark not taking in refugees. But on the other question, was about what I’m going to speak with… to talk about with the Pope.
I think we have, as I said, rather limited time. I have of course received His Holiness. I’ll bring him to the General Assembly hall, and welcome him, and we will have time for a very short conversation afterwards.
But I will certainly… I don’t think it’s necessary, but anyway, I will certainly hope that he is encouraged also to use further on his influence when he talks with other world leaders to promote the international solidarity we are talking about in this question of refugees and migrants.
DANIEL THOMAS: Thank you. Yes, you, Sir.
Question: Thank you. My name is Abdelhamid Siyam from the Arabic Daily [inaudible] is based in London. I have two questions, one is simple and one is a little bit more complex. The first question: Would you participate in the flag-raising of the Palestinian flag in the Rose Garden on 30th with President Abbas?
And my second question: There are certain items that have been traditionally discussed by the General Assembly. During the transition period, when… after the end of the cold war, the Security Council grabbed those items and took it to itself, like poverty, children in armed conflict, root causes of conflict, Sustainable Development, many issues which has been traditionally discussed by the General Assembly, and they were moved to the Security Council.
Do you have an opinion on those items that they should go back to where they belong, to allow the whole world discuss them? Or they should be just for the exclusive 15? Thank you.
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: About the flag-raising for Palestine and for the Holy See as well, I certainly intend to be present, as invited to be. I hope also I will have the possibility of bilateral meeting with President Abbas, whom I met last time in February last year, when I as a speaker of [inaudible] Parliament visited Palestine.
On the so to say division of labor between the General Assembly and the Security Council, I think it is like this, what has to do with the management of ongoing conflicts is certainly in the Charter and business for the Security Council and not for the General Assembly.
But what we will do, what is also so to say in the cards already, is that we will have a discussion on the report of peace-keeping operations, on the report on women and conflict. We will have the discussion on the peace building architecture, and how better to integrate the range of activities from trying to prevent conflict, by special political Missions or other kind of activities from the United Nations, the more hardware peace-keeping operations, and the State-building activities, institution-building activities to have in place after the ending of a peace-keeping operation.
And get that much better integrated than it is now, organizational and in the political thinking about it. I think there will come out to the General Assembly a number of proposals also very fast now from the Secretary-General’s comments or reports of peace-keeping operations and we will try, as presidency, at a high level at the debate in May I think it will be to put much better together all these different building blocks of the peace-keeping and peace-building operations of the U.N.
DANIEL THOMAS: We have a question here and then we’ll come here to the front.
Question: Joseph Klein of Canada Free Press. You have described yourself as a social democrat, and one of the SDGs —
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: Not only described. I am.
Question: And one of the SDGs has to do with reducing inequality between nations, within nations. Pope Francis has talked about the problems with the excesses of capitalism, and trying to put in place reductions on production and consumption, perhaps more reforms of global institutions to have more global regulation.
What are your views in terms of fleshing out the SDG of reducing inequality among nations, within nations? What kind of means do you see would be worth exploring at the UN level? And will this be one subject you might also try to take up with Pope Francis in the limited time that you have? Thank you.
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: I don’t know how much more than a minute we have for every item but anyway, I think the Sustainable Development Goals is not only specific goals for the next 15 years. As I see it, it’s also a very new philosophy, asking for a different course than the one we have taken in the economic and social development for the last 50 or for the last 70 years.
The necessity of integrating… well, if you see what came out of the Millennium Development Goals it was about poor people in poor countries. We reached about the main goal, cutting into half the number of extremely poor people in this world, and that was good. But what we realize in the Sustainable Development Goals, is that we cannot eradicate poverty going along the exactly same road the next 15 years.
We have to realize that there is a total interdependency between eradication of poverty, much stronger fight against inequalities, environmental catastrophes and climate change. Because if we don’t act on environmental catastrophes and climate change, we will see conflicts and costs and uncontrolled migration develop to a size where there’s not any resources for development, and not left any possibility of sustainability in living conditions on the planet.
That’s the so to say revolutionary conclusion of the Sustainable Development Goals. But that also means that if you can’t go along the same road you’ve walked where everybody was uplifted but inequalities became bigger, you have to put more emphasis on fighting against inequalities, inside nations, between nations.
There’s a long story, I could elaborate on this for hours. I don’t think you have the time.
DANIEL THOMAS: Thank you. Question here and then we’ll go to the gentleman there.
Question: Thank you, Dan. Again, welcome. Very glad to see you. Carla Stea, Global Research. For many decades, a number of the countries in the developing world, which are the majority of countries at the UN, have pleaded for a more just international economic order, and the sovereign debt restructuring that was the movement that was adopted and spearheaded by Argentina seems to be a step in that direction, and this is also something with one of your predecessors, Miguel d’Escoto was fighting to get.
Now, historically, I’ve attended some of these sessions. There has been opposition to any transformation in the international economic architecture. How far do you think you can progress along this, which would make a permanent and more egalitarian economic system globally and eliminate many of the conflicts and crises we see as a result of poverty and injustice?
And where do you expect opposition to this movement to come from?
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: Of course, there will always be opposition from the traditionalists of any kinds against any change in the distribution of income and welfare.
But I think that the… what the sustainable… the whole process on the Sustainable Development Goals shows us is that there are an increasing understanding, for instance also inside the global business community, that in the long run, in order to have sustainable, stable social and environmental framework to work in and earn money in, you have to be… you have to comply with the goals of the SDGs.
I think personally that it was framed pretty good in the document from Addis Ababa in July that if we will fulfill the financial needs of the Sustainable Development Goals being implemented, there are three pillars. The rich countries have finally to live up to their obligations on ODA, the 0.7%, which is a long way to go still, unfortunately. But even if that happens, most of what should be done should be financed from other sources because we hear about billions of dollars necessary to invest in sustainability.
And the other pillar is much stronger international corporation and national institution building in taxation, so that rich companies and rich people actually pay taxes where they earn their money. That will be much more important for many developing countries than traditional ODA if we support each other in reaching that goal.
And the third one is any way, the lion’s share of all of this will have to come from private sources investing in their own interest in Sustainable Development, and the Role of Governments here is to create a framework, a regulatory framework, taxation framework that makes it obvious that a green investment is the best investment.
DANIEL THOMAS: Thank you. So we’ve got time for two last questions, and then the President will have to leave. Sir?
Question: Yeah, thank you, President. Congratulations again for your important position, Stefano Virginia [inaudible] and [inaudible] Radical in Rome.
You mentioned before answering one colleague up there that is strange that Europeans took so long to realize about the migrants and the refugee crisis. But you said in answering that question, you looked like you focused on the situation in the Middle East and in Syria in particular.
Instead, my… I have a problem with that, and probably even Pope Francis will have one. We’ll see in a few days. Is that maybe you recall Pope Francis two years ago went to the Sicilian Island in the middle of the Mediterranean in between Sicily and Africa and put some flowers on the sea because was already four years, not two, not three, not four, probably 10 years that a lot of people were dying on that sea. But here, that I remember, in these rooms at the United Nations, for years, nobody was talking about it.
Now we see, yes, people that are in need, terrible need, thousands are coming from here to another side and now all the world is talking about it. So my direct question is: Why all of a sudden the refugee crisis becomes so important that you have a special meeting here? And before when even the Pope, the new Pope, call to the world to have attention to this problem, nobody cared?
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: Well, I don’t think I am better able to answer that question than you are. Of course, much has to do with many more realizing hopefully now their own self-interest in supporting in the areas around the conflict zones, and supporting sufficiently with relief efforts there.
But of course, this whole question of refugees and migrants are much more than the Middle East. I think we mentioned… I mentioned the Middle East because most of the displaced persons and refugees are from the conflicts in the broader Middle East, but there are certainly also very, very serious conflicts elsewhere going on.
While Yemen is probably a part of the broader east but you mentioned Yemen, which is not a question of a lot of refugees coming to Europe, because they don’t, but it’s a question of billions of people being in very, very catastrophic conditions, and we ought to address that right now.
But also, a number of situations in Africa, of course, you have to deal with conflict-wise, but the other part of what is implicit in your question is: This is not only about refugees from war and persecution. This is also a migration out of poverty, and how do we regulate that? There are going to be a Summit, as you know, between the European Union and the African Union in Malta very soon, where they will discuss some of those problems which are not directly related to our well-defined international obligations to take care of people on refuge, but has to do with the other part of the challenges we have here.
But I think that all this will be much more on the agenda of the United Nations than it has been ever before, because the size of the problems we are facing are bigger than ever before.
DANIEL THOMAS: Thank you, Sir. We have time for one last question. Then the President will have to go. Thank you.
Question: Majid [inaudible], based in the Kyrgyzstan region of Iraq. Mr. President, thank you for this briefing. As a speaker of Danish Parliament, you’ve been a vocal supporter of the forces that are fighting ISIS, especially the Kurdish forces Peshmarga, and right now the Kurdish officials say it’s been four months they haven’t received any ammunition or support for the forces that are fighting ISIS right now. And they are dealing with 2 million refugees with no enough humanitarian support. It’s been more than one year this ISIS war is going on and with not much improvement, because of disunity mainly at international level.
As President of General Assembly, how do you think that international communities should deal with ISIS issue? And how they should find the way to support those on the ground that are fighting ISIS? Thank you.
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: Well, I think that’s a little apart from the agenda I have the responsibility for, if you ask me about how to support militarily the Peshmarga forces. I have the utmost admiration for what they have done in order to contain ISIL, but I think it’s something to be decided elsewhere, which kind of… which side of corporation will take place on the military side but of course the humanitarian crisis, the Kurdish population is also trying to manage, has to be supported as much as all the other areas of humanitarian catastrophes I’ve mentioned here, of course. Of course.
And we are very aware… I am very aware of the challenges and humanitarian problems in the Kurdish region, as well.
DANIEL THOMAS: Thank you very much. If I can ask you to stay seated while the President leaves. He has other meetings to attend.
And myself and my colleagues will be happy to follow up with any other questions that you have afterwards. But thank you very much, Mr. President.
MOGENS LYKKETOFT: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
DANIEL THOMAS: Thank you for taking the time. Thank you.
[End of Press Conference]