[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.87″ background_layout=”light” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Rome, 21 January 2018<\/em> \u2013 The President of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Miroslav Laj\u010d\u00e1k, met with his team of external advisers in Rome, Italy, for their second meeting.<\/strong><\/p>\n President Laj\u010d\u00e1k appointed the sixteen-member team, from all five United Nations regional groups, in October 2017 to advise him on how best to advance his priorities. The top priorities of his Presidency are peace and conflict prevention, migration, sustainable development, human rights and human dignity and reform proposals for a modern United Nations.<\/p>\n Twelve of the sixteen external advisers attended the meeting in Rome, hosted by Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Ambassador of Brazil to Italy, former Foreign Minister of Brazil, and former Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations. Also in attendance were: Amina Mohamed, Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Kenya; Carlos Lopes, Professor at the University of Cape Town and former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; Francisco Jos\u00e9 Pereira Pinto de Balsem\u00e3o, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Group IMPRESA and former Prime Minister of Portugal; Irina Bokova, former Director-General of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵESCO and former Member of Parliament; Jean-Marie Gu\u00e9henno, President and CEO of the International Crisis Group and former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations; Nobel Peace Laureate Jos\u00e9 Ramos-Horta, Chair of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations and former President of Timor-Leste, Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and former Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations; Marty Natalegawa, Distinguished Fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute and former Foreign Minister of Indonesia; Nik Gowing, Co-Author of \u2018Thinking the Unthinkable\u2019; Susana Malcorra, Advisor to the President of Argentina, former Foreign Minister of Argentina and former Chef de Cabinet of the United Nations Secretary-General; Nabil Fahmy, Dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and former Foreign Minister of Egypt.<\/p>\n During the one-day meeting, President Laj\u010d\u00e1k and his advisers discussed a wide range of global issues and topics of interest.<\/p>\n One topic of discussion was efforts undertaken, successes, failures and overall efficiency of the United Nations on sustaining peace and preventing conflict. This discussion will help to shape the President\u2019s high-level event on peacebuilding and sustaining peace on the 24th<\/sup> and 25th<\/sup> of April 2018.<\/p>\n Another topic discussed was the work of the General Assembly during the main part of the 72nd<\/sup> session, expectations for the resumed part and how to strengthen the overall work of the Assembly in the future.<\/p>\n The first meeting took place in New York on 6 October and focussed on impressions of the General Assembly\u2019s high-level week in September 2017, and the messages emanating from the General Debate.<\/p>\n While in Rome, the President also met with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See\u2019s Secretary for Relations with States. They discussed peace and conflict prevention, migration, climate change, the Sustainable Development Goals, and United Nations reforms. They also spoke of the need to protect multilateralism and foster a culture of real dialogue at the United Nations.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n For media inquiries, please contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n Katharina Kandt, Adviser to the President of the General Assembly, Kandt@un.org, +1 917-244-3890<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_gallery _builder_version=”3.0.87″ posts_number=”6″ show_title_and_caption=”off” show_pagination=”off” gallery_ids=”136598,136574,136622″ fullwidth=”on” db_image_max_width_tablet=”51″ db_image_max_height_tablet=”501″ db_image_row_spacing_tablet=”51″ db_image_object_fit=”initial” orientation=”landscape” zoom_icon_color=”#00a8ff” hover_overlay_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” background_layout=”light” db_image_center_titles=”left” border_style=”solid” border_style_top_image=”solid” border_style_right_image=”solid” border_style_bottom_image=”solid” border_style_left_image=”solid” pagination_font_size_tablet=”51″ pagination_line_height_tablet=”2″ border_style_all=”solid” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rome, 21 January 2018 \u2013 The President of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Miroslav Laj\u010d\u00e1k, met with his team of external advisers in Rome, Italy, for their second meeting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":136574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[69,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-pressreleases","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n