– Non–verbatim –
Statement by H.E. Tijjani Muhammad Bande, President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
8 June 2020
Ladies and Gentlemen of the press,
It is certainly an honour to meet with you today to discuss a number of issues affecting all of us as members of the United Nations, even if we do so virtually.
You recall that one of the first things we started the Presidency with, was the very important political declaration on health coverage. Today, the significance and wisdom of this declaration are still self-evident.
COVID-19 has shown the necessity for all of us to work closely to deal with global problems in healthcare, transportation, education, energy, climate change and a host of other issues.
Since the pandemic, life has not been the same for individuals, communities, nations and certainly not for the United Nations. The character of work at the UN as we knew it has changed in terms of its tempo and method.
The current situation underscores the necessity to work together to defeat COVID-19, and to strengthen multilateral cooperation on all matters affecting us as a global community.
With difficulty to meet in-person, following medical advice globally, the General Assembly had to find means to work within the unfolding constraints. To do so, we had to adopt decision 74/544; which allowed us to take decisions and resolutions via silence procedure without plenary meetings.
So far, this had allowed us to take 26 decisions and resolutions since 27 March 2020. It also put a lot of focus on us to work harder to reach consensus.
Today, COVID-19 has forced all of us to work differently as we navigate the current moment and reflect deeper at what will happen past the devastation which the pandemic has brought to our social and economic life.
It is for these reasons, that the important initiatives taken by Member States to have decisions and resolutions that would guide us during and after the pandemic deserve commendation.
As you know, 2020 is a very critical year for the United Nations. We are preparing to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Organisation. Already, serious work is proceeding on how to have a robust forward-looking political declaration to place before our Heads of State and Government on 21 September 2020.
We are confident that this very important political declaration will be agreed to by all Member States.
This year coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration of 1995, a very important process for the world in terms of inclusion and gender equality.
We are celebrating all these at the same time we are dealing with what we call a “super year” for nature. This is bearing in mind that there are many processes and mandates related to diversity in the biological world. Some of these processes have been scaled down because of the necessity to observe social distancing; while some processes will continue on virtual platforms.
Virtual meetings have shown us what technology can do to get us to solve problems, but they have also exposed that technology is not evenly distributed.
Since the pandemic, life has not been the same for individuals, communities, nations and certainly not for the United Nations. The character of work at the UN as we knew it has changed in terms of its tempo and method.
The current situation underscores the necessity to work together to defeat COVID-19, and to strengthen multilateral cooperation on all matters affecting us as a global community.
In this connection, we have seen that it is far easier for some countries to deal with continuity in education than others. This again speaks of the necessity to find means of mutual support, especially for countries that need help in technology to continue to provide education for children.
The Global Community made 2030 an important milestone to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 2020 marks the beginning of the Decade of Action and Delivery to implement these goals.
Previously, we were worried that financing gaps will make it impossible for some countries to achieve the SDGs in a substantial manner. Now that we are confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic, we should do more in areas of cooperation, sharing of information and ideas and mutual support to guarantee the achievement of the SDGs.
I would like to conclude by saying that the General Assembly, like other Organs of the United Nations, is committed to its responsibility to serve the people and to do everything possible, even under the current difficulties to ensure business continuity.
Of course Member States are at the forefront of pushing so we continue to serve the people on this very important platform.
I would like to thank respective media organisations for their interest in the work that we do as United Nations.
