NOON BRIEFING HIGHLIGHTS

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

Tuesday, 27 June 2023

 

TOWNHALL

The President of the General Assembly, Csaba Kőrösi today held a townhall with civil society.

The discussion – which is still underway – is about how global cooperation is crucial in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The townhall started off with moderator Maher Nasser posing some questions to the President, before opening it up to questions from the audience.

One of those questions was – what is the relationship between the Sustainable Development Goals and the Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda?

The President said that the Sustainable Development Goals were a “compromise between what is scientifically necessary and politically possible.” But that has changed. So the Our Common Agenda identifies some of the gaps since then. They go hand-in-hand.

The President also spoke about how we measure development – giving some examples of why the Gross Domestic Product or the GDP, is not able to measure development.

He also spoke about the need for a scientific-based verification system.

And asked the audience if they would also like to see a roadmap to provide regular checks, gamechangers and other ideas that are needed to get the SDGs back on track.

The full Town Hall is available on UN WebTV: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1r/k1rtxrz8fj

The Town Hall was supported by the Department of Global Communications, with additional support by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

 

GENDER EQUALITY

Turning to gender equality…

As you know, President Kőrösi and the head of UN Women, Executive Director Sima Bahous had launched a joint campaign to encourage all Permanent Missions to complete the UN online trainings on gender equality and the prevention of sexual harassment.

A reminder that the first phase of the campaign runs through 30 June.

 

BILATERALS

Among his bilaterals today, President Kőrösi will meet with the co-facilitators he appointed to consult on the preparatory process for the High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development of the General Assembly. That will take place in September 2023.

The co-facilitators are Ambassador Mathu Joyini, Permanent Representative of South Africa, and Ambassador Olivier Maes, Permanent Representative of Luxembourg

 

WEDNESDAY

Tomorrow, as you know is a UN Holiday for Eid al-Adha.

 

SYRIA

Then on Thursday…

At 3PM in the General Assembly, there will be a plenary meeting.

The first item is action on a draft resolution that would create an Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic. The agenda item is “integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields”. The draft resolution is A/77/L.79. While it is in the system, it doesn’t yet come up on the website, but it will by tomorrow: https://journal.un.org/en/new-york/meeting/officials/b7e67bea-8b3e-4eb5-6e04-08db6d6992bb/2023-06-29

 

The next item on the agenda is the report of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee, that’s the C34.

 

And the third and final item is about Security Council reform. Action is expected on oral decision on the intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reform. If approved, this will mark the end of the IGN, resuming in the 78th session.

 

 

QUESTIONS

The Spokesperson was asked how many Member States had signed on so far to the gender campaign, and which they are. The Spokesperson had announced each Mission since joining in May. The full list is:

 

1) Permanent Mission of Austria
2) Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan
3) Permanent Mission of Bangladesh
4) Permanent Mission of the Republic of Bulgaria
5) Permanent Mission of Costa Rica
6) Permanent Mission of Croatia
7) Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic
8) Permanent Mission of Cyprus
9) Permanent Mission of Denmark
10) Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic
11) Permanent Mission of El Salvador
12) Permanent Mission of Estonia
13) European Union Delegation
14) Permanent Mission of Finland
15) Permanent Mission of Germany
16) Permanent Mission of Hungary
17) Permanent Mission of Ireland
18) Permanent Mission of Israel
19) Permanent Mission of Italy
20) Permanent Mission of Latvia
21) Permanent Mission of Libya
22) Permanent Mission of Luxembourg
23) Permanent Mission of the Republic of Maldives
24) Permanent Mission of Malta
25) Permanent Mission of Monaco
26) Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
27) Permanent Mission of Portugal
28) Permanent Mission of Romania
29) Permanent Mission of Rwanda
30) Permanent Mission of Slovakia
31) Permanent Mission of Slovenia
32) Permanent Mission of South Africa
33) Permanent Mission of Sweden
34) Permanent Mission of Togo
35) Permanent Mission of Ukraine