Plenary and informal meetings of the General Assembly & other topics – PGA Spokesperson Briefing

Hey.
Mike is on.
Hi, everyone.
Happy Tuesday.
I hope everyone's staying dry.
Just wanted to give you some updates of what's happening in the GA this week as we finish up the 80th session.
As many of you know, this morning and actually happening now, there is a general debate on the Item 63 on the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
It opened with a PGA statement, and now member states are taking turns speaking there.
That will be this morning's plenary session.
There is no plenary or informal meetings this afternoon.
Tomorrow morning in the trusteeship council, there's the high level forum on the implementation of the program of action on a culture of peace.
The theme for this year's meeting is women's leadership to promote a culture of peace, and the high level forum will provide an opportunity to review the implementation of the program of action and discuss the role of women's leadership at all levels to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence.
The forum also aims to share good practices and explore prevailing challenges for the promotion of women's leadership for a culture of peace, including international commitments, such as the advancement of the 2030 Sustainable Development agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 16.
In the afternoon tomorrow in GA Hall, there will be the debate on the item of the report of the United Nations Youth Office, and that is the SGs report, and there will also be action on the draft resolution on access to assistive technology, and that's looking at ensuring that everyone has access to technology and that states are doing what they can to implement that and make it accessible and available to everyone.
On Thursday the 3rd of September, PA, the outgoing PGA Alena Berbach will hold her last press briefing of the 80th session.
That will be at 11:15 A.M.
Here in the press briefing room, get your questions ready for her.
Then in the afternoon in the trusteeship council, at 3:00 P.M.
There will be a briefing on the UNAy Reform Initiative.
For those of you who have been following that closely throughout the session.
The Secretary-General will brief member states, and we will also hear from the co chairs for Workstream two, and that is the ad hoc working group on mandate implementation review, who will provide an update on the progress in that regard.
Then on Friday, September 4th, there is a plenary meeting at 10:00 A.M.
In the General Assembly Hall, and this will look at all the agenda items that remain open for consideration during the 80th session and the closing of the remaining agenda items.
Then at 10:45 that morning, there will be the unveiling of the UNAy charter, which was signed by all member states in a commemoration of Charter Day this year.
The event will take place at level two entry to the GA Hall outside of the GA Hall doors and is open for photography, although there will not be any statements or remarks given, and the UN AD charter serves as a symbolic recommitment to the UN charter at its enduring principles even amid increasingly complex global challenges.
Um, as you all know, we have the holiday weekend, so there are no meetings on September 7th, that is the Labor Day weekend here in the US.
And then on Tuesday, September 8th, at 10:00 A.M.
There is a plenary meeting in the GA Hall.
There will be a statement by the Secretary-General, a statement by the President of the General Assembly, a moment of silence, and then we will have the oath of office by the president elect of the 81st session of the General Assembly and a closing of the 80th session.
Then that afternoon of September 8th, at 3:00 P.M.
It will be the official opening of the 81st session of the General Assembly.
So that is a look ahead at the remainder of the 80th session, a year gone by just like that.
Are there any questions? Eric, quickly search.
Abdel Hamid is also grabbed his mic.
Eric, yes.
First, on behalf of the UN Correspondence Association, thank you for the work you've done over the past year.
Do you know when the next revision of the speakers list for the journal debate will be released? We are waiting to get that in our hot little hands.
Hopefully, we'll have something for you this week, but I'll keep following up with colleagues in DGACM so that when we get the next revision, we can share that with you.
Abdel Hamid.
Thank you so much, Denise.
We really appreciate your cooperation and being so close to the journalists, responding to their questions and allowing us to interview the PGA also.
First, my question, do you have any update on the visa situation for the Palestinian delegation that been now considered to be denied by the United States.
The second, this is the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
It was headed by miss Berbck, which is the former foreign minister of Germany, the two big events, I mean, the G 80th and Germany.
What could be concluded that combination of the PGA from Germany and the 80th session, which should be a remarkable session.
What can you tell us about the legacy of this session? Thank you.
Well, first on the question of visas, as you know, this was also a question that came up last year.
And so the PGA's position remains the same, that there is a host country agreement that governs the work of the UN and the relationship with the host country, and people who are coming here to attend UN meetings and to do the work and participate in the work of the United Nations, their entry should be facilitated, and that is outlined in the host Country Agreement.
And so the hope is that that will be honored and that people who are coming here to do the work of this organization will be allowed entry to do so.
In terms of looking at legacies, that is really not my strong suit.
And so it is not for me to assess the legacy and whether, you know, our PGA came here, and she has said repeatedly throughout the year that she is here to represent the views of 193 member states.
She was not here as a German.
She was not here as the former foreign minister of Germany.
She was here to represent the most representative body of this organization, which is the General Assembly, which represents all 193 member states, and she did that every day that she came into this building to represent those views.
She did it in the way that she conducted the selection and appointment process for the Secretary-General, ensuring that the views of 193 member states were reflected in that work and were represented in that work.
And she knew that she was undertaking this job in very difficult times.
And so her first and foremost goal was to uphold the charter on which this organization is built and in which all of our work will not function if we do not abide by the charter and standing up for that and defending that.
So really, it will be up to all of you to assess how you felt this year went with all of the big challenges that we were facing, including reform, the selection of the next Secretary-General who will lead this organization, as well as all of the complex challenges and conflicts and things that we faced that were difficult when the year started and became even more so as the year went on.
So I look forward to seeing your roundup and your views on that.
Abdel Hamed.
Yes, Frank.
Well, first of all, thank you for being so available and being informative this year.
We really appreciate that.
I just wanted to catch up on the Secretary-General race.
How many candidates do we have now and are you expecting anybody to enter within the next week or so? We currently have eight candidates, and you can find all the information about them on the official website on the selection and appointment of the next Secretary-General.
And again, if I had any facility, any ability to guess whether there would be other candidates, then I could certainly go and place a bet maybe on Kalish or Poly Market.
So your guess is as good as mine of whether there will be more candidates coming forward? There's no deadline, though, correct? They can just keep coming.
Correct.
They can keep coming.
The one deadline that is fast for us is that on January 1st, a new Secretary-General should take the oath of office and take up their duties and take up the post.
Between now and that date, anything could happen.
Let's hope not.
Well, as this is my final briefing, as spokesperson at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, I would like to thank all of you for the professionalism and patience that you've shown me throughout the year and your amazing work that you do every day to bring the work of this organization to a global audience.
I know that it's oftentimes opaque and it is not clear what all of these resolutions and debates and talk actually mean for the 8 billion people that we are meant to serve.
And so I am forever grateful to you for the work that you do every day to bring that to people around the world.
Yes, Ed.
Thank you, Lonice, on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association, and I'm sure everyone in this room and watching, thank you for being so open to all of our questions, answering them in person and in writing, and we will miss you.
And I'm sure we'd all like to know.
Are you going back to the Department of Global Communications? Yes.
You will not have time to miss me because I am only going up to the tenth floor.
So I am still in the same elevator bank.
You will see me.
As you all may know, the spokesperson for the PGA always comes from the Department of Global Communications, so we simply go back to our previous lives.
I will With a new section, I'll be working with colleagues in the Creative Community Outreach Initiative, which oversees our messengers of peace and relationship with the creative communities, something new and interesting for me, it's a change because I had previously worked on outreach to colleges and universities.
Yes, it will be something new and different, but you will not have time to miss me.
I will be haunting these halls.
You will see me on Wednesday morning as if nothing has changed.
Not to worry, You will be in good hands.
You will be actually working with an excellent colleague with the incoming spokesperson for the 81st session.
Melissa Summers is a UN staff member of the Department of Global Communications who is bringing a wealth of experience to this role, having worked over nearly 20 years.
I don't want to date her make her older than she is for nearly 20 years.
She has worked in the UN systems across UNICEF, UNEP, UNEP, as well as the UN Secretariat here in New York and Nairobi.
So you will be working with an exceptional colleague who is incredibly experienced and a wonderful person and is a joy to work with as a colleague.
So without further ado, it's my pleasure to introduce the spokesperson for the 81st session, Melissa Summers, and I will pass the floor and the baton to her.
Um, hi, everyone.