PRESS BRIEFING BY REEM ABAZA, SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT TIJJANI MUHAMMAD-BANDE
In-person Plenary Meeting
For the first time since March, the President of the General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande is convening, today and tomorrow, in-person plenary meetings to take note of more than 70 decisions and resolutions adopted under silence procedure over the past 6 months and to finalize other matters on the agenda.
This morning the President welcomed all delegates to the General Assembly Hall and said: “As the chief deliberative body of the United Nations, this forum allows us to continue the work of our Organisation and forge and deepen partnerships which will accelerate our progress to build back better.”
He pointed out to the adoption of more than 70 decisions and resolutions under silence procedure which has ensured business continuity on issues of critical importance, and the successful organization of socially-distanced elections back in June for the President of the 75th session of the General Assembly, the non-permanent Members of the Security Council, and Members of the Economic and Social Council.
The President also applauded the success of the intergovernmental negotiations, during the past months, on the Declaration for the commemoration of the seventy-fifth (75th) anniversary of the United Nations which will be formally adopted during a high level meeting on September 21.
I would like to add, about the meeting, that after walking-through the General Assembly Hall, last week, with the President’s team and the Secretariat, the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) team concluded that the proposed meetings are at low risk if precautionary measures aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19 are put in place.
You can find the list of these measures on the PGA’s website.
31st Special Session
This week the President spoke at the first informal consultation on the draft resolution on the modalities for the 31st special session of the General Assembly in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The event was organized by the co-facilitators overseeing the consultations, Mr. Yashar T. Aliyev, Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan, and Ms. Louise Blais, Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations.
Mr. Muhammad-Bande said that the proposal to hold a special session on the pandemic is a veritable platform to mobilise global commitment against COVID-19.
He thanked Azerbaijan, as Chair of NAM (the Non-Aligned Movement) for pushing for this very important session.
The President said that he trusts that the special session will ensure greater involvement of world leaders toward a result-oriented response to the pandemic, which will further strengthen the General Assembly as a critical global partner in the fight against the pandemic and its impact on lives and livelihood.
The full statement is on the website.
Road Safety
The General Assembly adopted resolution 74/299 entitled “Improving global road safety”.
In the resolution the Assembly proclaims the period 2021–2030 as the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety, with a goal of reducing road traffic deaths and injuries by at least 50 per cent during this period.
In this regard the General Assembly calls upon Member States to continue action through 2030 on all the road safety-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.
PGA Press Conference
The President will hold his end of session press conference on Tuesday September 8th at 11 a.m. in a hybrid format. The President be here in the press briefing room, you can join online of course on the same press briefings’ link. The President will answer your questions and talk about the highlights of the 74th session of the General Assembly and the important events he is convening next week, including the Youth Plenary on Wednesday and Culture of Peace on Thursday.
