HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS BRIEFING BY BRENDEN VARMA,?SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT MIROSLAV LAJ??K

United Nations Headquarters, New York

22 December 2017

 

PRESIDENT APPOINTS GENDER BALANCED TEAM TO FACILITATE ALIGNMENT PROCESS

  • The President has appointed co-facilitators to lead the intergovernmental consultations on aligning the General Assembly’s work with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
  • Those co-facilitators are the Permanent Representatives of Belgium and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. As per the President’s commitment to gender balance, this team of co-facilitators, like all others that he has appointed, consists of one woman and one man.

 

ASSEMBLY TO CONSIDER DRAFT ON NELSON MANDELA PEACE SUMMIT

  • This afternoon, the General Assembly will consider a submitted by South Africa, which is related to the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela.
  • If the draft is adopted, the Assembly would convene a high-level plenary meeting, to be known as the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit, a day before the start of the general debate of the seventy-third session.

 

BUDGET COMMITTEE MAKES STEADY PROGRESS

  • In response to questions, the Spokesperson said that the Fifth Committee was making steady progress and working hard to conclude its work before Christmas.
  • The Spokesperson added that the Fifth Committee’s intergovernmental negotiations were still continuing; in that regard, he had no budget announcements to make.
  • After the Fifth Committee held its closing session, around two hours would be needed for the processing of documents, and after that, the General Assembly plenary would meet to consider the Fifth Committee’s reports. It was not clear when that would happen, and the Fifth Committee had until the end of the year to complete its work, the Spokesperson said.

 

NO FURTHER ACTION EXPECTED FOLLOWING EMERGENCY SPECIAL SESSION

  • Asked whether there would be any further action following the tenth emergency special session that had been held by the General Assembly on 21 December, the Spokesperson replied that none was expected. The President had resumed the session at the request of Member States. The session had been held, a resolution had been adopted, and nothing further was scheduled in the General Assembly at this time.
  • Asked if there had been any other requests to the President for other emergency special sessions on other topics, the Spokesperson said there had been none. Asked if the President could initiate an emergency special session on his own, the Spokesperson said that there would have to be a request or initiative from a Member State.