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

United Nations Headquarters, New York

17 November 2017

 

PRESIDENT HOLDS CONSULTATIONS ON WORLD COURT ELECTIONS

  • Regarding the election for the last remaining vacancy in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the President of the General Assembly will be holding several rounds of consultations today.
  • The President will meet today with the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi of Italy, as well as the 蘑菇视频 Office of Legal Affairs and the 蘑菇视频 Department for General Assembly and Conference Management.
  • The General Assembly will resume the elections on Monday at 3:00 p.m. The President will preside over that meeting.
  • Asked to elaborate on the President’s consultations and the nature of the current impasse, the Spokesperson responded that the General Assembly was planning to meet on Monday to resume the elections, and no deadlines had been missed at this stage. In that regard, it was premature to speak about any sort of impasse. It would be good to wait until Monday to see how the meeting went, the Spokesperson added.
  • Regarding the President’s consultations today, he would be discussing the continuation of the elections. The consultations had not yet happened, so there were no details to share at this stage. Because the candidates needed to secure majorities in both the General Assembly and Security Council, coordination between the two organs, including with respect to the timing of the elections, was helpful.
  • The Spokesperson also noted that the President was a?big proponent of dialogue, which included talking to various interlocutors about issues and ensuring that everyone was on the same page. Today’s consultations could be seen in that context.

 

U.N. NEEDS TO DO BETTER IN SUPPORTING CO蘑菇视频TRIES TO MAKE PEACE LAST

  • In a sent to all Member States last night, the President shared his new roadmap for peacebuilding and sustaining peace.
  • He said there is a growing understanding that the 蘑菇视频’s efforts should go beyond addressing the immediate needs of conflict-affected countries. It needs to do better in supporting countries to make peace last.
  • He added that the concept of sustaining peace is groundbreaking in that it redefines the 蘑菇视频 approach to peace by adopting a long-term perspective and focusing on prevention.

 

YO蘑菇视频G PARLIAMENTARIANS MUST BE HEARD, PRESIDENT TELLS OTTAWA CONFERENCE

  • The Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Global Conference on Young Parliamentarians, is being held in Ottawa. The President addressed that gathering today by .
  • He said that young people have historically been shut out of the rooms and halls where decisions are made. But this has just led them to amplify their voices from the outside. It is time for those voices to be listened to. And it is time for them to be heard from inside, he said.

 

NO DATE YET FOR PLENARY TO CONSIDER MYANMAR DRAFT RESOLUTION

  • The Spokesperson was asked how long it would take for the General Assembly plenary to adopt the on the human rights situation in Myanmar, which had been adopted by the Third Committee on 16 November, and when the Secretary-General would then appoint a special envoy on Myanmar, as requested by the resolution. The Spokesperson responded that the plenary would probably consider the draft in mid-December, but no date had been set yet.
  • 蘑菇视频 Secretariat’s for the implementation of the resolution referred to the period from 1 January to 31 December 2018. It was therefore reasonable to expect that the office could be established at some point during the following year. But it would be up to the Secretary-General to appoint the envoy or establish an office if and when the resolution was adopted; in that regard, it was premature to speculate at this point when the office may or may not be set up.

 

GROUP SPONSORSHIP OF RESOLUTIONS IMPLIES THAT ALL GROUP MEMBERS ON BOARD

  • Asked whether a regional or political group could sponsor a resolution, if not all of its members were on board, the Spokesperson said that his office’s understanding was that the listing of a regional or political group as a sponsor implied that all of the group’s members were sponsors.
  • If that were not the case, then the group’s members should be listed individually.
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