NOON BRIEFING HIGHLIGHTS BY PAULINA KUBIAK GREER,
SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT ABDULLA SHAHID
United Nations Headquarters, New York
SC ELECTION
The General Assembly this morning elected five non-permanent members of the Security Council for the 2023/2024 terms.
There were 192 Member States voting. Each candidate needed a 2/3 majority.
The new Security Council members are:
Ecuador with 190 votes
Japan with 184 votes
Malta with 185 votes
Mozambique with 192 votes
Switzerland with 187 votes
The President of the General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, congratulated the new Member States.
SC REPORT
The General Assembly today also discussed the Security Council report for 2021. Ambassador Ferit Hoxha, Permanent Representative of Albania and President of the Security Council for the month of June 2022, presented the report.
One of the findings is that more women took part in the Security Council meetings in 2021 than in 2019.
President Shahid, in his remarks, said that this Report and today’s discussion is an opportunity for membership to exercise its right to assess the work that the Security Council executes on our behalf.
As with any UN organ, the Security Council must be held to account for its actions, or for its lack thereof, the President said.
HOLHUASHI
Prior to the General Assembly meeting, President Shahid held a Holhuashi Dialogue.
These are the informal discussion that President Shahid holds with Permanent Representatives.
Today’s topic was on “Greening the Blue: How the UN system secures coherence between words and actions in fighting global warming.”
The event take place under Chatham House rules with summaries of key themes are circulated among Member States.
REST OF THE WEEK
And then looking to the rest of the week…
This afternoon, as mandated, by the Declarations of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, the UN General Assembly will convene its 2022 Annual Review of HIV/AIDS;
The Secretary General’s report “Implementation of the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030” will guide the discussion.
The report highlights that AIDS is still a pandemic and is responsible for more than 13,000 deaths every week, undermining efforts to achieve global health targets and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The AIDS pandemic is also colliding with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic
The report calls for prioritizing the removal of societal barriers to services and the empowerment of communities in greatest need of services.
And then tomorrow, 10 June…
In the morning, the General Assembly will elect members of the Economic and Social Council.
That will be followed by action on a draft resolution related to multilingualism.
Also tomorrow, we expect the continuation of the Veto Initiative debate that started yesterday.
There are still at least 27 speakers on the list, starting with Uruguay.
QUESTIONS
The Spokesperson was asked for further clarification on the Veto Initiative debate, whether Member States could, for example, send the issue back to the Security Council or impose sanctions. The Spokesperson said that this is a Member State-led process, but the General Assembly could not send the issue back to the Security Council or impose sanctions.
The Spokesperson was asked about today’s vote in the GA for the new Security Council Members. Mongolia received three votes. The Spokesperson clarified that this means three Member States voted for Mongolia out of the total received, but that did not clear the 2/3 majority hurdle.
The Spokesperson was also asked about UNGA 77 logistics. She said that there was nothing new to announce, but she expects the arrangement details to be set in a few weeks.
