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

United Nations Headquarters, New York

4 April 2018

 

PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN BAKU FOR N.A.M. CONFERENCE

  • The President is about to land in Baku, Azerbaijan.
  • He is going there to address the Mid-term Ministerial Conference of the Non- Aligned Movement (NAM).

 

PLENARY TO CONSIDER DRAFT TEXTS ON TUBERCULOSIS & BUDGETARY MATTERS

  • The General Assembly plenary will meet at 3:00 p.m. today to consider a entitled: “Scope, modalities, format and organization of the high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis”.
  • According to that draft, the Assembly would decide that the President of the General Assembly would convene a one-day high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis in New York on the second day of the next general debate. That would be 26 Sept 2018.
  • This would be the first ever high-level meeting of the General Assembly on tuberculosis, which is the infectious disease that kills the most people every year. The meeting will be an opportunity to strengthen commitment and accelerate progress toward the elimination of tuberculosis by 2030.
  • The General Assembly plenary will also consider two draft decisions and three draft resolutions that were adopted by consensus by the Fifth Committee last Thursday.

 

DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM CONSULTATIONS CONTINUING TODAY

  • At 3:00 p.m. today, the co-facilitators for the repositioning of the United Nations development system will convene a second day of informal consultations on the latest draft resolution on this matter.
  • During yesterday’s consultations, Member States discussed such topics as United Nations Country Teams, the Resident Coordinator System, the role of regional economic commissions, and funding mechanisms for development, among others.
  • In today’s consultations, Member States will be able to give additional comments on the revised draft, and the Secretariat will answer their questions.
  • The co-facilitators, who were appointed by the President, are the Permanent Representatives of Algeria and Denmark. They plan to produce a revised text by the end of the week.

 

“HARMONY WITH NATURE” DIALOGUE TO BE HELD ON 23 APRIL

  • The President will convene the 2018 Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature during the commemoration of International Mother Earth Day on 23 April in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber.
  • The Dialogue will aim to inspire people to reconsider how they interact with the natural world.