HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS BRIEFING BY REEM ABAZA, SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT TIJJANI MUHAMMAD-BANDE
Parliamentarian Hearing.
Today at 5:15 in the Trusteeship Council, the President of the General Assembly will speak at the closing of the 2-day Annual Parliamentary Hearing under the theme: Education as a key to peace and sustainable development. In his opening remarks yesterday, Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande thanked the Inter-Parliamentary Union for the continuous work providing policy guidance, best practices, needs assessments, and direct assistance to national parliaments with implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.
The PGA added that to provide youth with the best possible start in life we must implement SDG 4: Quality Education, and to do so we must adequately finance our efforts.
The PGA said that parliaments have a major role to play in scaling up action in this vital area and urged them to ensure that adequate financial resources are allocated to education, girls’ education and technical and vocational training throughout the national budgetary processes.
Meetings
This morning the PGA met with Ambassador Zhang Jun, the Permanent Representative of China and President of Security Council for the month of March.
Ambassador Zhang briefed the PGA on the efforts of the Chinese Government to contain the spread of the coronavirus which he described as challenging but stable. He thanked the PGA and the international community for their solidarity adding that China continues to work closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other relevant entities.
Ambassador Zhang also briefed the PGA on China’s programme of work during its Security Council presidency in March.
Also, around now the PGA is meeting with with Ms. Ghada Waly the newly appointed Executive Director of the United Nations Office on drugs and crime (UNODC) who assumed her position on February 1st.
They are expected to discuss priorities and venues for collaboration.
Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations
The PGA spoke yesterday at the opening Session of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations. He said that the work of the Committee is very important as it has the responsibility of carrying out the “comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects”.
Looking at the weight of this responsibility, the PGA expressed concern that the Committee closed its 2019 substantive session without reaching consensus.
He called on all delegations to work together in line with the structure of the new report, complementing the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping Initiative which provides a roadmap to advance political solutions to conflict and enhance the political impact of peacekeeping.
He emphasized the need to improve the capacity of peacekeeping and to ensure that “we do everything in our power to protect those who protect the people we serve.”
Later this week
On Friday the PGA will be participating in several events including the 2nd Edition of the African Union Challenges Conference: Shaping the African Emergence, consultations on the 75th anniversary of the UN and International Mother Language Day.
