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

United Nations Headquarters, New York

28 June 2018

The President just met with civil society representatives working on migration.
They discussed the negotiations on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the way forward.

The President will meet this afternoon with Abi Williams, the Director of the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University.
They’re expected to discuss the importance of multilateralism and a rules-based system for international relations – and the need for leadership in that regard.

Member States will hold consultations this afternoon on the draft political declaration that will be adopted at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit this September.
The draft will be introduced by the Summit’s co-facilitators, who are the Permanent Representatives of Ireland and South Africa.

Asked for updates on the Secretary-General’s management reform proposals and his Global Service Delivery Model (GSDM) report, the Spokesperson said those matters were still being considered by the Fifth Committee.
Asked whether the Fifth Committee would work through the weekend, the Spokesperson said that it was up to the Fifth Committee to decide on its own schedule and that he could not predict how that schedule would develop.

Asked about technical issues facing journalists at United Nations Headquarters, the Spokesperson said that such questions should be directed to the Secretariat. Solving technical problems in the building was not a matter for the President of the General Assembly.
Asked whether the President could raise this matter with Member States, since it was Member States that had agreed to finance the renovation of the building, the Spokesperson said that, while the General Assembly did approve budgets, it was the Secretariat that implemented mandates. In that regard, the journalist could follow up with the Secretariat.