Transcript of the Press Briefing by the Spokesperson of the President of the UN General Assembly
(4 March 2025)
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s briefing
Good afternoon, everyone,
Ceasefire agreement
The President of the UN General Assembly Philemon Yang is monitoring what is happening in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. He calls on all parties to fully respect and implement the terms of the ceasefire agreement. This includes the unhindered entry of humanitarian assistance to and throughout the Gaza Strip and its delivery to all Palestinian civilians who need it. He also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
Liquidity crisis
The President also shared with Member States last week a letter on the restrictive measures to be taken because of the liquidity crisis at the UN. The President has stated that these measures will deeply impact the work of the UN General Assembly and the UN and calls on Member States to fulfill their financial obligations in full and on time, including the payment of arrears.
Advisory Board on Gender Equality
Yesterday there was the first meeting of the Advisory Board on Gender Equality under the theme “Accelerating the achievement of women’s economic rights and empowerment: recommendations and promising practices to address the barriers”. President Yang, in his opening remarks, said that he intends to rally political support for multilateral cooperation and action, bringing governments, the private sector, civil society, academia and others – to call for more resources, to scale up best practices and to reach more women.
Gender equality and women’s empowerment is one of the priorities of the President
Early this year he re-established the Advisory Board on Gender Equality as an informal mechanism to help mainstream a gender perspective across his priorities and the work of the General Assembly.
Address of the President of Poland to the General Assembly
There is an informal plenary meeting taking place now in the General Assembly Hall to hear an address by Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland. We do not have details on what his address will focus on. You can follow online on UN WebTV
Informal briefing on COP30
Tomorrow, 5 March, there will be an informal briefing on the priorities and the preparations for the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) by the President-designate of COP30 Ambassador Andre Aranha Correa do Lago.
Plenary meeting “Use of Veto”
Let me also say in addition to the meetings I had shared previously for this week, the President has now convened a plenary meeting of the General Assembly “Use of the veto” on Thursday 6 March at 10 am. This follows the use of the veto at the Security Council meeting held on 24 February under the agenda item “Maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine”
In terms of meetings next week
- Intergovernmental consultations on the UN 2025 Ocean Conference (10 March)
- Informal consultations on the World Summit on the Information Society (13 March)
- Informal plenary meeting of the General Assembly to commemorate the International Day to combat Islamophobia (14 March)
Meeting on small arms and light weapons
Finally, to flag that a joint meeting of the General Assembly and ECOSOC – in cooperation with the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs – takes place on Monday 17 March on small arms and light weapons control for preventing violence and advancing sustainable development. This is one of the President’s signature events and we will provide more details shortly.
Questions
Question: Thank you, Sharon, my question is about Security Council reform. Does this President, has he seen any sign of progress in the latest round which concluded yesterday and if not, does he plan to do anything different?
Response: So thanks for your question. As you know, the co-facilitators have been arranging these meetings on Security Council reform. The last one last week was on working methods. At this point, there’s not much to say, because there will be other meetings coming up. But what we can say – again – is that the President is encouraged by the discussions that are taking place. Of course, you know it is a Member-State driven process. So we will keep you updated on what is happening with regard to these discussions.
Question: Has the President commented on the closure of aid routes into Gaza?
Response: Yes, as I stated at the beginning of the briefing, he has called for all parties to respect the terms of the ceasefire agreement and this includes, as well, unhindered access in terms of humanitarian aid to all those who are in need. So he has made that call. He has reiterated his call again.
Media Contacts
Sharon Birch, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly, Tel: +1 212 963 0564, M: +1 646 342 5873, Email: birchs@un.org
Dr. Mariam Shaikh, Adviser/ Social and Digital Media/Media Relations, M: +1 917 3614990, Email: mariam.shaikh@un.org
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