Ministerial Segment of the High-Level Political Forum & other topics – PGA Spokesperson Briefing

All right.
Everything is in order.
Hi, everyone.
Happy Monday.
I hope you all are well.
Just wanted to give you some updates of activities in the GA this week.
As I'm sure you're aware, this morning was the opening of the ministerial segment for the high level political forum.
The PGA delivered remarks there today and tomorrow, both in the morning and the afternoon today, and at 3:00 P.M.
Tomorrow, there will be informal consultations on the political declaration for the high level meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
That's happening in conference room one.
And at 10:00 A.M.
Today, there was also the beginning of informal consultations on the participation of indigenous peoples representatives and institutions, and that's taking place in conference room two.
Tomorrow morning at 10:00 A.M.
There will be an informal meeting of the General Assembly on taking stock of the Pact for the future, and that will be taking place in the Economic and Social Council chamber.
And there will be two ministerial roundtable discussions, which will be held under the themes delivering for people and Planet and making multilateralism fit for the future, in which member states are invited to take stock of their national level implementation of the Pact for the future using the SDGs under in depth review at the high level political forum as the thematic frame.
Speakers there will include the DSG, the PGA, and Mr.
David Pasarelli, who is the director of the UN University's Center for Policy Research.
On Wednesday, the 15th of July, there are no informal or formal meetings of the plenary scheduled.
And on Thursday at ten and 3:00 P.M.
There will be plenary meetings, the high level meeting on the midterm review of the new urban agenda.
That will include the opening segment, adoption of the political declaration, statements by member states, and observers of the General Assembly.
And that will continue as well on Friday, both at 10:00 A.M.
And 3:00 P.M.
When it will move to the trusteeship council, where there will be multi stakeholder panels on various topics as part of that midterm review of the new urban agenda.
On Thursday this week after the opening plenary, of the high level ministerial meeting midterm review of the new Urban agenda.
The PGA will undertake official travel.
She will attend the 2026 Aspen Security Forum 2016-17 July in Aspen, Colorado.
And through her participation, the president of the General Assembly aims to discuss key international affairs issues with global leaders and the role of the UN in sustaining multilateral action for global peace and security.
While she is there, she will have bilateral meetings with government leaders and representatives from think tanks, as well as private philanthropies and media engagements.
And as many of you may have seen, the PGA has shared additional information via a letter to member states on the SG selection process.
She has communicated to member states that she will convene a town hall debate on Thursday 23 July.
5:00 P.M.
In the GA Hall.
This 90 minute town hall will be streamed on UN web TV, and interpretation will be provided in all official UN languages.
These are very sort of preliminary details.
We just wanted to let you know the date and time and place and length, but we will be sharing additional details in terms of which of the SG candidates will participate.
Obviously, all of the nominated candidates have been invited.
Participate in this town hall, and as soon as we have confirmations from the candidates who have said that they can attend and participate, we will share that with you, as well as details, technical details on streaming or getting the feed of the town hall, and as well as how press can attend in person and the details for that and the format of the town hall.
So all of that to be communicated in due course as soon as we have all of the details finalized, but just wanted to keep you abreast of those latest developments.
So that is it for me this week for updates.
We have a question, Abdel Hamed, and then Gabriel.
Denise Yes.
I saw that member states can attend civil society and UN staff.
I didn't see the media is invited to attend.
Yes, there will be as with the interactive dialogues, there will be provisions made for media to attend as well.
So we're just working out how that process will work, but it will be very similar to the interactive dialogues.
There can I have a second question? Yes, please.
In Pass Blue, there was a piece written mentioning that Nikolai Lv might jump in and become a candidate.
Do you have any information about that? Other than speculation, hearsay, rumor, I have no information on that, that has not been communicated to our office, and we have not received any formal nomination materials through the formal process.
Thanks, Denise, just to follow up on the town hall, obviously, more interaction with candidates is better than less, so it's probably going to be welcomed to be able to hear from more candidates, or the same candidates again.
But I'm just curious, was there any particular reason why the PGA thought this was important? Was she getting some feedback that maybe the interactive dialogues were not enough or a different format was needed to give us any more thinking on her thinking regarding this? No, there had not been any feedback that the interactive dialogues were not sufficient or that people, you know, wanted additional to hear from candidates in an additional forum, but the PGA really does believe in the transparency of this process, making it as inclusive as it can be.
And so she was very much committed to continuing this established process that had been established a decade ago of having this sort of different format, this town hall where you might be able to bring in more views, more perspectives, ask a broader range of questions in a different sort of format that is not exactly like the interactive dialogues.
And so she felt that that was important to continue that and to, you know, build on it where possible by including maybe some social media aspects or things like that.
It's been ten years since we've selected a new Secretary-General to lead the organization, and so it is important that we continue to reach out to people using as many means as possible, and that includes this type of town hall debate format.
Abdel Hamid, you have your microphone back in hand.
So since you have a follow up Yeah.
Follow up to my friend Gabriel.
Yes.
You know, and I know it's a political decision in the hands of the security council, in particular, in the hands of those permanent seats.
And all these debates or would it really influence the final decision of who will be selected by members of the security council? I think it can.
And the worst thing that you can do is sort of give in to this pessimism that, well, it's really a selection, it's not an election, and therefore, why even bother? But the more that you expose these candidates, the more that you expose the process to as many people as possible, then the more difficult it becomes for maybe a member state who is in that position that has, you know, that has a veto power to depart from what is maybe the overwhelming desire for all of the member states.
And more importantly, It is true that this is a selection process and that the P five do have a veto power over proposed candidates.
But at the same time, the GA also has to appoint the candidate and approve the candidate.
So it is very important for the Security Council to work hand in hand with the GA because they don't want to send a candidate there that does not get the votes in the GA.
And at the end of the day, it is up to the member states and the GA to vote to appoint this candidate.
And so they do also have a role to play in this.
And so the more people around the world who are seeing these candidates and saying, Okay, but, you know, how is it that what we saw seems to be so different than what you saw and what happened here, and it does provide that type of inclusion, oversight, accountability that can make a difference.
Okay.
Any questions online? No.
I don't see any colleagues offline.
Okay, then.
Then that is it for me today.
Thank you.