NOON BRIEFING HIGHLIGHTS

Spokesperson for General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi
United Nations Headquarters, New York

Tuesday, 7 March 2023

PLENARY MEETING/ECOSOC, HLPF and UN WATER CONFERENCE

Starting with the General Assembly plenary.

Member States today adopted by consensus a decision on the annual theme of the 2024 session of the Economic and Social Council and the 2024 high-level political forum on sustainable development and the set of SDGs to be reviewed by the high-level forum.

The theme of ECOSOC and the HLPF in 2024 will be “Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and eradicating poverty in times of multiple crises: the effective delivery of sustainable, resilient and innovative solutions”.

The five SDGs to be reviewed in depth will be:

  • Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere;
  • Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture;
  • Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts;
  • Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels;
  • Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.

 

Agreement on the theme is one of the 16 mandated processes by the General Assembly. For which the President assigns co-facilitators. This process successfully wrapped up under the direction of facilitator Ambassador Paula Narváez Ojeda, Permanent Representative of Chile.

The President noted this in the General Assembly. He said that many Member States felt that the negotiating processes mandated may prove to be too many at the same time. “Out of 16, now successfully completed one. So let’s go ahead,” he told today’s plenary.

Member States today also adopted an oral decision on the UN Water Conference. The decision changes the starting time on 22 March to 9:30AM ET; takes note of the co-chairs of the interactive dialogues; and accredits two additional international Governmental Organizations.

ARREARS

In terms of voting rights in the General Assembly…

President Csaba Kőrösi, who presided over today’s plenary, announced that Gabon, Lebanon and South Sudan have made the payment necessary to reduce the arrears below the amount specified in Article 19 of the Charter.

As of 2 March 2023, four Member States are subject to the provisions of Article 19 of the Charter. Those include Comoros*; Sao Tome and Principe*; Somalia* and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of). But because of resolution 77/2 adopted on 7 October 2022, the General Assembly decided that the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, and Somalia would be permitted to vote in the Assembly until the end of the 77th session.

BILATERALS

Turning to bilaterals…

President Kőrösi’s will meet today with Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. They are expected to discuss plans for the SDG Summit, and other issues.

Earlier today, the President met with Ms. Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Ms. Susana Malcorra. This was in the context of the Global Women Leaders Voices for Change and Inclusion, which is an advocacy group for multilateralism and gender equality.

The President will also meet today with Ambassador Vladimir Vucinic, from the Permanent Mission of Montenegro.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Looking to tomorrow..

It is International Women’s Day.

The President will participate in the morning in an event on Women in Islam. That’s at 9AM ET in ECOSOC. He will make remarks.

President Kőrösi will then take part in the official commemoration in the General Assembly Hall at 10AM ET. He will make remarks. You can expect the speakers to be wearing blue, which is the color for this year’s theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”.

Then at 1:30PM ET will be the conversation between President Kőrösi, senior leaders from Governments, the UN system, parliamentarians, the private sector and civil society on “the role of technology in addressing violence against women and girls”. The event will be held in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Reading Room.

IGN WEBCAST

And on Security Council reform…

I wanted to let you know of a change in the intergovernmental negotiations aimed at making it more transparent, and also as a way of keeping record of discussions.

The first part where Member States deliver statements will be webcast on UN WebTV.

Member States are also encouraged to submit their statements to estaements.

This was a proposal from the co-chairs, Mr. Tareq M. A. M. Albanai, Permanent Representative of the State of Kuwait, and Mr. Alexander Marschik, Permanent Representative of Austria.

The first webcast meeting will be this Thursday at 10AM ET.

 

QUESTIONS

There were no questions for the Spokesperson.