Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
 
I am pleased to join you on this year’s International Day, to celebrate the participation and leadership of persons with disabilities and action towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
 

[Watch the video on webtv.un.org]

I am pleased to greet this important Forum on business and human rights.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights offer guidelines for companies to prevent, address, and remedy human rights abuses committed in business operations.

Ms. Najat Rochdi condemns in the strongest terms the missile attack, reportedly fired from Syrian-government controlled territory, that hit the densely populated Qah IDP camp and exploded near a maternity hospital in Idlib province. At least 12 people were killed and some 50 injured, including children—with confirmed casualties expected to rise.

The civilians in Qah have already been forced to flee their homes, some displaced multiple times, seeking safety and are living in extreme conditions. Tents and other shelters were destroyed, as temperatures are dropping.

I am pleased to greet this important conference.
 
I commend your vital role in ensuring that international organizations uphold the highest standards of conduct and effectiveness. 
 
For multilateralism to work, we need to be trusted partners, committed to integrity.  
 
Current reforms at the United Nations aim to enable us to make more effective and efficient use of our financial resources to deliver better for the people we serve.
 

Thank you so much Jenifer and good to see you all.  Also, to those who have travelled far, good to see you here in Geneva.

Actually, as we are speaking the 150 members of the Constitutional Committee are arriving here in Geneva. 

As you know we have agreed that this is to be a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned Constitutional process– facilitated by the United Nations and I think Jenifer already mentioned it will be launched here on Wednesday, this Wednesday, I will get back to that.

Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
It is with great pleasure that I join you today in celebrating the commitment of States to end statelessness.  We are here to witness the accession of Angola and Colombia to both of the Statelessness Conventions. We will also recognize the 15 States that have acceded to one or both of these instruments in the past five years – the first half of UNHCR’s decade-long “I-Belong” Campaign. 
 

The United Nations is today releasing the agreed Terms of Reference and Core Rules of Procedure for a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned, credible, balanced and inclusive Constitutional Committee to be facilitated by the United Nations in Geneva.

​They can be found here https://undocs.org/en/S/2019/775, in the authoritative English version and in translation into Arabic and all other official languages of the United Nations.​

Thursday in the International Syria Support Group’s (ISSG) Humanitarian Task Force meeting, Member States were urged to use their influence to support the reduction of violence in northwest Syria, and to increase their support for critical humanitarian needs in Syria.