PRESS BRIEFING BY BRENDEN VARMA, SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT VOLKAN BOZKIR

United Nations Headquarters, New York

18 November 2020

 

PRESIDENT SADDENED BY LOSSES FOLLOWING HURRICANES IN LATIN AMERICA

  • In a tweet this morning, the President said (in English and Spanish) that thousands of families in Latin America have been brutally hit by Hurricane Iota – just two weeks after Hurricane Eta and in the middle of a pandemic.
  • He said he was saddened by the losses and standing in solidarity with Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua and all those affected.

PRESIDENT MEETS WITH HEADS OF U.N. ENTITIES

  • The President is meeting separately with a number of UN officials today, including the President of the Human Rights Council and the heads of UN-Habitat, UN Women and the UN Global Compact.

THIRD COMMITTEE TAKES ACTION ON COUNTRY-SPECIFIC RESOLUTIONS

  • The Second Committee, which handles economic and financial issues, will be taking decisions on 15 resolutions today, including a resolution entitled “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources”.
  • Meanwhile, the Third Committee, which handles social, humanitarian and cultural issues, is taking action today on the Russian Federation’s annual draft resolution on “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”.
  • The United States called for a vote on that draft. It was adopted by a vote of 122 in favor to 2 against and 53 abstentions. The countries voting against were Ukraine and the United States.
  • Also on the Third Committee’s agenda is action on so-called “country specific resolutions”. That includes drafts on the human rights situations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which was adopted without a vote; Iran, which was adopted with a vote of 79 in favor to 32 against with 64 abstentions; Syria; and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine.
  • Also on the table is a draft resolution on the human rights situation of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, which was introduced by the United Arab Emirates on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and Germany on behalf of the European Union.
  • Asked when the draft on combating glorification of Nazism would go to the General Assembly plenary for further action, the Spokesperson said that, after the Third Committee finished its work, it would include all approved resolutions into a report that would then go to the plenary for further action. As of now, there was no set date for action in the plenary although it would probably happen in December.
  • Asked how it was possible for a draft resolution to be adopted without a vote, the Spokesperson said that, if no Member State requested a vote on a draft resolution, then it could be adopted by consensus.