Opening remarks to final press conference
7 September 2022
Dear Friends,
Thank you for joining me today for my last press briefing in my capacity as the President of the General Assembly for the 76th session.
I would like to thank each one of you for your effective, objective and in-depth coverage of the issues that the General Assembly is seized of.
By asking the right questions you have kept me and my team accountable and in the process ensure greater transparency of the Office and its workings.
You have also helped take the messaging of my Presidency of Hope reach a broader constituency and I thank you for that.
Given that this is my last briefing, I wanted to highlight some of the work that has been done over the last one year.
First some figures.
This coming Monday, 12th September, the day of my handover as President, will be the last plenary of the 76th session. It will be the xxx formal plenary meeting of the General Assembly this session.
During those meetings, Member States acted on 300 resolutions and 129 decisions.
I convened 15 High-level meetings – which covered pertinent issues such as vaccines, climate, commodities, migration, road safety, tourism, food security and Africa.
I also oversaw 92 intergovernmental consultations and informal meetings as part of intergovernmental negotiation processes.
I appointed 27 co-chairs to lead on 15 intergovernmental negotiation process on my behalf.
While these are useful numbers to note, I would want to take you back to what the General Assembly was like in September 2021.
When I assumed office as President for the 76th session of the General Assembly, we were still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In many parts of the world schools and factories were shut, many lost loved ones, international travel was still not fully open, debt levels in a number of countries were on the rise, and global economic recovery was trudging along a precarious path.
While we were still suffering from the physical and mental toll brought about by the pandemic, we were made unwilling witnesses to the tragic and unwanted unfolding of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.
Come September 2022, the pandemic is still with us.
We started with the BA.1 variant, today we are dealing with the BA.5 variant. Vaccination still remains our only hope to tide the pandemic.
But at least here, in New York, thanks to the generosity of the host government and the New York city authorities, we are all vaccinated.
The General Assembly is open for in-person meetings, to journalists, to civil society and to the general public.
During the last 365 days, my team and I have endeavoured each day to deliver on the five priorities of my Presidency of Hope – that is, recovering from Covid-19, rebuilding sustainably, responding to the needs of the planet, respecting the rights of all, and revitalising the United Nations.
Whether it was the Holhuashi morning dialogues, the Haveeru Sai evening tea sessions, the townhall meetings with CSOs, podcasts with women leaders making a difference, working with the Chairs of the six UN committees, the President’s of the Security Council, and coordination meetings with the ECOSOC President and the Secretary General, I have used every occasion to push forward the UN agenda.
In the process, I have only been welcomed with open arms.
Whether it was the adoption of the oral decision pertaining to the intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reforms, or intervening when the negotiations on the road safety political declaration hit a road block, I thank Member States for their strong support and understanding.
76th session saw multilateralism both being put to test and demonstrating its resilience.
We saw this play out when the General Assembly on the request of the Security Council had to convene an Emergency Special Session, the first in the last forty years, to address the issue of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.
Amid growing criticism of inaction by the Security Council on the war in Ukraine, the General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution aimed at holding the five permanent Council members accountable for their use of veto. The resolution which was adopted by consensus, calls upon the President to convene a formal meeting of the General Assembly within 10 working days of the casting of a veto by one or more permanent members of the Council and hold a debate on the situation as to which the veto was cast.
Let me give you a few other instances where multilateralism and diplomacy overcame challenges.
- The General Assembly’s consensus resolution 76/6 on the follow-up to the Secretary-General’s landmark report “Our Common Agenda”;
- The inaugural International Migration Review Forum, and its outcome, adopted without a vote:
- Adoption of Political Declarations on “United against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”; “UN Ocean Conference”; “Improving Global Road Safety”; “…Combating Trafficking in Persons”, as well as a resolution reviewing the functioning of the reinvigorated resident coordinator system, including its funding arrangement, all without a vote.
These are essentially successes of Member States working together. And there is no other body where this spirit of multilateralism gets better reflected than the General Assembly, where each member is equal irrespective of its size, or influence.
For small countries like the Maldives, the General Assembly remains the only viable neutral international platform to voice their independent views on global issues and where Member States can strive for lasting consensus respecting the voices of one and all rather than exercising a veto.
Dear Friends,
As the President, I have traveled around the world, meeting not just with Government officials but with the people that we are working to help. The people that are driving change, and calling for change. The “We the Peoples’ of the UN Charter.
I have met with youth advocating for stronger action against climate change.
Women community leaders who are working at the grassroots to address injustices in the name of gender.
Students at schools and universities who are steeped into innovation and eager to contribute to decisions that would impact their future.
Refugees who long to go back to their homelands, but are unrelenting in their determination not to give up hope for a better tomorrow.
These are the people for whom the work we do here within these walls, matters.
That is why I called my Presidency, that of Hope. To bring hope at a time of turmoil. And I think that I have worked towards that objective.
Dear Friends,
A project that I was deeply committed to this session was was working to bring Member States together on the follow up and implementation of the proposals in the Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda report.
As you are all aware, the OCA report is a set of proposals suggested to Member States to help create not only give a booster shot to the attainment of the sustainable development goals, but also to address the challenges and gaps in multilateral frameworks and pave the way for a UN 2.0.
To this extent, I not only worked towards ensuring consensus on the resolution to follow up on the OCA report, but also post-adoption convened a five-part series of open, inclusive, informal consultations to see how to take forward the Secretary-General’s vision.
There were two discussions on acceleration of the SDGs – one on leaving no one behind and the other on financing and trust-building, one on “protecting our planet and being prepared for the future.”, and two discussions on ensuring a peaceful world and enhancing international cooperation.
These discussions involved the widest range of stakeholders. We held plenary debates, followed by discussions with UN system representatives, young people, civil society, parliamentarians, private sector and academics.
The goal was to identify initiatives that have broad support among membership and could start to be implemented right away. Many of those are well under way by different parts of the system.
Among the recommendations for Member States to act that gathered support was the creation of a youth office. I am pleased to report that discussions are now underway and a resolution is due to be considered in the General Assembly tomorrow.
The General Assembly has also moved forward with the discussions related to the Declaration for Future Generations, and the Summit of the Future.
Dear Friends,
I am a true believer that young people need to be more effectively represented and included in all the discussions and the work of the United Nations.
During my tenure, I created the PGA’s fellowship for Harnessing Opportunities for Promoting Empowerment of youth – which you all know as the Fellowship for HOPE.
You are acquainted with the eight young diplomats who make up the inaugural cohort. Each has briefed you on the training they received from our partner UNITAR, and on their educational visit to Brussels, Geneva and Florence organized by with the kind support of the European Union and the Swiss Government.
This Fellowship has proven to be a great success for the eight fellows, five of whom are women. I have more than once said – I want to be a Fellow, I want to be doing what they’re doing and going where they’re going.
I am pleased with the manner in which this Fellowship has shaped up. I am hopeful that going forward the Fellowship program will be further improved. I am strongly of the view that this initiative is a win for the future of multilateralism. I am also hopeful that one day these Fellows who have briefed you would be representing their delegations at the UN or in some other capacity, may be as the next PGA or Secretary General.
Gender representation and gender balance are also issues that are close to my heart. I am a fierce feminist and I leave with tangible results on this issue.
Coming in, I promised that I would not sit on any panel organized by my office that was not gender balanced. And I have kept my promise.
I promised that I would make the General Assembly more welcoming for breastfeeding parents. With support from the Governments of El Salvador and New Zealand, and in coordination with the Department of Operational Support, we refurbished eight lactation rooms and opened a new one, the first ever in the General Assembly area.
In keeping with the times, I am also happy to state that sanitary napkins are now freely available in women’s restrooms in the General Assembly building.
These developments are important not just for us all here. But to show that the United Nations is the gold standard in women’s equality. We walk the talk.
And I hope that this progress points to the world being ready for a women Secretary-General. The next Secretary-General needs to be a woman. It is time.
Dear Friends,
My work would not have been possible without the support, commitment and hard work of my Office.
Including myself, I had 74 people supporting the Office of the President, comprising of secondments from Member States and UN agencies, consultants, HOPE Fellows, interns, UN-provided security and administrative staff representing a total of 49 nationalities.
55% of my office is comprised of women and 45% men.
This is the largest and most diverse Office of the President in the history of the General Assembly.
In doing so I have immensely benefitted from a wide range of expertise and knowledge.
I wanted to thank them publicly here today.
Let me turn now to your questions.
