Transcript of the Press Briefing by the Spokesperson of the President of the General Assembly
14 January 2025
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s briefing
Good afternoon, everyone,
The President of the UN General Assembly Philemon Yang briefed Member States earlier this morning on his priorities, stating that as “with all our priorities, we will be measured by our actions. He added that the challenges we face require that we commit to work together to achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves”.
The speech and more on the President’s priorities may be found on the UN General Assembly’s website.
This afternoon, there will be informal consultations on the high-level meeting on a comprehensive review of the progress achieved in the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases and the promotion of mental health and well-being at 3 pm in the Trusteeship Council.
The Week Ahead
On Monday 20 January, there will be a joint briefing by the President of the UN General Assembly and the President of the UN Economic and Social Council in the Trusteeship Council at 10 am.
On Tuesday and Wednesday next week (21st and 22nd January), there will be informal meetings of the plenary on the intergovernmental negotiations on the question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Council. Both meetings will take place in the Trusteeship Council.
On Thursday 23rd January, there will be a meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly. This will be in the form of a thematic debate on strengthening the accountability, transparency and institutional memory of the Office of the President of the General Assembly.
Appointments
The UN General Assembly and the Security Council called for a comprehensive review of UN peacebuilding to be conducted in 2025. The 2025 review of the peacebuilding architecture will be based on the terms of reference prepared by the Peacebuilding Commission through an extensive and consultative intergovernmental process.
The President of the General Assembly has appointed H.E. Abdel Khalek, Permanent Representative of Egypt and H.E. Samuel Zbogar, Permanent Representative of Slovenia, to co-facilitate the intergovernmental consultations during the formal phase. This follows the informal phase of the review process.
Media Contacts
Sharon Birch, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly, Tel: + 212 963 0564, M: +1 646 342 5873, Email: birchs@un.org
Dr. Mariam Shaikh, Adviser/ Social and Digital Media/Media Relations M: +1 917 3614990, mariam.shaikh@un.org
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