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

United Nations Headquarters, New York

27 September 2017

 

PRESIDENT OPENS HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING

  • This morning the President opened and delivered remarks to the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the appraisal of the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.
  • The meeting aims to appraise progress achieved in the implementation of the Global Plan of Action. Today it adopted a political declaration as an outcome document.
  • Among other things, the 2010 Global Plan aims to help Member States to reinforce their political commitments and legal obligations to prevent and combat trafficking in persons.
  • Additional speakers this morning included the Secretary-General; Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); actress and UNODC Goodwill Ambassador Mira Sorvino; and South African activist and human trafficking survivor Grizelda Grootboom. The President later met separately with Ms. Grootboom and Ms. Sorvino in his office.
  • There are plenary meetings being held on 27 and 28 September – as well as two interactive panel discussions this afternoon.

 

PRESIDENT WELCOMES NEW COLOMBIA MISSION

  • On Twitter today, the President warmly welcomed the new mandate of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia.
  • He tweeted, “Arms were collected, and now it’s time to further strengthen peace throughout Colombia.” He can be followed on Twitter at: UN_PGA.

 

PRESIDENT DISCUSSES MIDEAST DYNAMICS WITH IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

  • The President held a bilateral meeting today with the Foreign Minister of Iran, H.E. Mr. Mohammad Javad Zarif. The Spokesperson later noted that multilateralism was addressed during the meeting.
  • The discussion also focused on the dynamics in the broader Middle East region.

 

NEW ADVISORY TEAM NAMED

  • At his press conference on 26 September, the President announced that he had formed a new Team of External Advisors. Their role will be to advise him on how best to advance his priorities for the General Assembly’s 72nd session.
  • The 15 advisors are as follows: Antonio de Aguiar Patriota; Amina Mohamed; Carl Bildt; Carlos Lopes; Francisco José Pereira Pinto de Balsemão; Igor Ivanov; Irina Bokova; Jean-Marie Guéhenno; Jeffrey Sachs; José Ramos Horta; Karen Donfried; Kishore Mahbubani; Marty Natalegawa; Nik Gowing; and Susana Malcorra.
  • Asked how the President would interact with the Team of External Advisors and how they would be compensated for their work, the Spokesperson said that there would be an initial meeting in October in New York for all team members who were able to travel at that time. Also, since the members were based in different parts of the world, the President would meet with them during his international travels, as well as in New York, on an ad hoc basis. Regarding compensation, they would work pro bono, without salaries, and their travel to New York would be funded from the Trust Fund of the Office of the President of the General Assembly.
  • Asked how the experts were chosen and why there were no Arabs on the team, the Spokesperson said they were selected based on their areas of expertise, and they represented a wide cross-section of the globe.
  • On the question of Arab participation, he later added that this list only contained the names of those who had already confirmed their interest and availability. Invitations had indeed been sent to Arab personalities. However, none of those invitees had been able to confirm their availability yet. Therefore, the list was not final and could grow, as more invitees confirmed their participation.