Screenshot_9-1-2025_114458_www.canva.com

Priorities of the 79th Session of the General Assembly

H.E. PHILEMON YANG

President of the General Assembly

Vision Statement

The theme of my mandate is

“Unity in diversity, for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for everyone, everywhere”,

which, I believe, covers the three pillars of United Nations action.

Key Priorities

The priorities of the President of the General Assembly H.E Philemon Yang during the 79th Session of the General Assembly encompass the 3 pillars of the UN: Peace & Security, Human Rights, & Sustainable Development and are guided by his vision for this 79th session—

Guided by a strong belief in the power of language to connect and empower, President of the General Assembly H.E. Philemon Yang has made multilingualism a central priority of his Presidency.

As he has underlined, he considers multilingualism essential to the work of the United Nations, enabling meaningful dialogue and cooperation among Member States and indispensable for building bridges and fostering connections among nations, peoples and cultures.

In this context, the President of the General Assembly established a Task Force for the advancement of multilingualism in his Office and launched an Action Plan on Multilingualism for the 79th Session of the General Assembly. He also convened a Palaver Tree Dialogue on multilingualism, which has already led to meaningful outcomes.

As a direct result of that discussion, several Member States have taken the initiative to support the translation of the Pact for the Future, which itself emphasizes inclusive and participatory governance, into the official and mother tongues of their countries.

Thanks to these collective efforts — and in the true spirit of shared ownership — the Pact is now available not only in the six official UN languages, but also in 27 other languages. This means the Pact can now be read in the native languages of over 3.5 billion people, thus addressing the need for awareness of this historic document among “we the peoples” who we serve.