PRESS BRIEFING BY REEM ABAZA, SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT TIJJANI MUHAMMAD-BANDE
New UN International Day
The United Nations General Assembly adopted last evening resolution 74/275. The resolution proclaims the 9th of September as the International Day to Protect Education from Attack. It reaffirms the right to education for all and the importance of ensuring safe and enabling learning environments in humanitarian emergencies.
The President of the General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande welcomed the adoption of the resolution and said: “For children trapped in conflict, school provides stability and hope for a better future. Each year of education reduces the risk of a youth’s future involvement in conflict by 20%. We have to work together, especially as we fight the COVID-19 pandemic, to guarantee these children equal access to quality education. To fail to do so, would be to fail a generation.”
You can find more information on the resolution on our website.
Click here for more details on the resolution here.
Peacekeepers Day
In his message on UN Peacekeepers Day, the PGA said that “Peacekeeping remains one of the main tools for the United Nations to protect civilian populations, help prevent new conflicts, reduce violence, and strengthen security on the ground.”
He added that “the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increasingly complex operating environment for peacekeeping troops, however they continue to support governments and local communities in active peacekeeping operations around the world.”
The PGA pointed out that twenty years since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. He recognized the invaluable contribution of women in peacekeeping and said “more women in peacekeeping reflects the populations we serve building trust with communities.”
Financing for Development
On Thursday the PGA participated in a High-Level event on “Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” organized by the UN Secretary-General and the Governments of Canada and Jamaica.
In his remarks, Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said that “the COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic and financial shocks around the world that left many countries constrained in their response to the pandemic and its social and economic consequences. In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 we have to rethink our economic systems.
This requires leadership, political will and collaborative efforts among a wide variety of actors to safeguard the future for generations to come.”
The PGA said that now is the time to revise the international financial architecture. “This is our opportunity to combat the recurring scourge of illicit financial flows”, he added
In this regard, he said that he looks forward to the recommendations from the High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda, which he convened alongside the President of ECOSOC, Ambassador Mona Juul.
We shared the remarks with you and you can find the statement online as well.
Election of the PGA75
The PGA put under silence procedure until 1st of June at 5: 00 p.m., the General Assembly decision to elect Mr. Volkan Bozkir of Turkey as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session.
As you may remember the PGA Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande has introduced the procedure for taking decisions of the General Assembly during the (COVID-19) pandemic in March, to enable the GA to take urgent decisions while mitigating the spread of the disease.
The silence procedure enabled the Assembly to adopt 24 resolutions and decisions since March 27th.
E-Voting (Excluding elections)
Yesterday afternoon, the Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the UN, whom the PGA appointed as facilitator of the informal consultations of the General Assembly on the e-voting process (excluding elections), held virtual consultations on the revised draft decision on the “Procedure for taking decisions of the General Assembly by a vote without a plenary meeting during the (COVID-19) pandemic”.
We will keep you posted on this process.
Human Rights Treaty Body
On Tuesday, the PGA will be participating in virtual informal consultations to launch the review of the United Nations human rights treaty body system. The event is organized by the co-facilitators appointed by the PGA for this process, the Permanent Representatives of Switzerland and Morocco to the UN.
