NOON BRIEFING HIGHLIGHTS BY PAULINA KUBIAK GREER,
SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT ABDULLA SHAHID
United Nations Headquarters, New York

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General Assembly today took action on two draft decisions and one draft resolution. All three drafts were adopted by consensus, meaning without a recorded vote.

Member States first adopted A/76/L.51 entitled “Informal interactive hearing with indigenous peoples”. By its adoption, Member States decided to postpone to the seventy-seventh session of the GA, the request to the President of the General Assembly to organize and preside over an informal interactive hearing on enhancing indigenous peoples participation at the work of the UN and to prepare a summary of the hearing.

The second draft for action was A/76/L.50, circulated under sub-item (d) of agenda item 98 entitled “Reducing space threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviours”. The gist of the resolution is the schedule of meetings of an open-ended working group on reducing space threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviours. The first session of the working group will be held from 9 to 13 May 2022.

The third action was under agenda item 124 entitled “Strengthening of the United Nations system”. The draft resolution, issued as document A/76/L.52, is entitled “Standing mandate for a General Assembly debate when a veto is cast in the Security Council”.  The draft was adopted with 83 co-sponsors.

SIDS

The President of the General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, today is taking part in a roundtable event on “Urban Resilience in Small Island and Developing States (SIDS).”

SIDS account for less than 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet their size, geography, relative insularity, and remoteness make them particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

This roundtable is organized by UNDP and UN-Habitat.

It is being done within the framework of the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, which will be held this Thursday. And you have a media advisory about the High-Level event, which I shared last week.

And related to the high-level event, President Shahid will today meet with Ms. Daniella Levine Cava, the Mayor of Miami-Dada County.

BILATERALS

In terms of today’s other bilaterals…

President Shahid will meet with Ms. Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland. This is an opportunity for them to discuss issues of mutual concern and interest.

President Shahid is also meeting with Ambassador Maurizio Massari, the Permanent Representative of Italy, and some other Representatives of the “Uniting for Consensus” Group.

Also today, the President is meeting with Ambassador Alya bint Ahmed Al Thani, the Permanent Representative of Qatar. This is in the context of the adopted GA resolution entitled ‘Welcoming 2022 World Cup Football Championship under his presidency and also to present the official world cup ball”.

The President will meet with Ambassador Claver Gatete, the Permanent Representative of Rwanda. This will be their first meeting. The Ambassador recently arrived.

President will also meet today with Ambassador Jukka Salovaara, the Permanente Representative of Finland. The Ambassador will relinquish his duties at the end of this month.

 

HOPE FELLOWS

And on the HOPE Fellows, the eight young diplomats met yesterday with Ambassador Philippe Kridelka, the Permanent Representative of Belgium, and with the Special Representative Yves Wantens of Flanders.

They discussed diplomacy – global, European, regional and national diplomacy.

The discussion comes ahead of a field visit to Brussels that the Fellows will undertake next month. The costs of that visit are born by the European Union. And I’ll have more details about the visit in May.

 

QUESTIONS

The Spokesperson was asked about a comment from FM Lavrov that some Permanent Representatives and their children at UNIS were threated ahead of the first vote in the Emergency Special Session.  The Spokesperson said she would follow up.

The Spokesperson was asked how a resolution could have been adopted in the General Assembly “by consensus” if some Member States explained their votes in advance saying they would vote against or abstain. The Spokesperson said that the vote is considered “by consensus” because no Member States asked for a recorded vote. The statements that Member States given are national positions and approaches to the issue.