PRESS BRIEFING BY BRENDEN VARMA, SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT VOLKAN BOZKIR

United Nations Headquarters, New York

12 October 2020

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PRESIDENT DISCUSSES SOCIOECONOMIC IMPACTS OF COVID-19 WITH Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵCTAD CHIEF

  • This morning the President held a with Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵCTAD). They discussed areas of synergy between Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵCTAD and the President¡¯s priorities for the General Assembly¡¯s 75th session.
  • They also spoke about the global actions needed to respond to the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19.

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SIXTH COMMITTEE¡¯S WORK CRUCIAL TO MULTILATERALISM

  • This afternoon, the President will be addressing the General Assembly¡¯s Sixth Committee, which deals with legal matters.
  • He is expected to note how the Committee has progressively developed and codified international law ¨C in such varied areas as peace and security, diplomatic law, criminal law, treaty law and the environment. He will also ask the Committee to keep up its work, as it is crucial to multilateralism.

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HUMAN RIGHTS COÄ¢¹½ÊÓƵCIL ELECTIONS TO BE HELD TOMORROW

  • Tomorrow morning, elections for the Human Rights Council will be held in the General Assembly Hall.
  • The President has advised delegates to arrive early so that they can pick up their ballot papers. They will then move to their respective national seats to fill in the ballots.
  • A ballot box will be placed at the front of the Hall. And the Secretariat will call upon the delegates one-by-one to cast their ballots. After that, delegates will leave the Hall and exit the building. Once all the delegates have cast their vote, the President will suspend the meeting.
  • Upon receiving the results, the President will resume the plenary meeting to announce them. This will all be webcast.
  • These are the first elections of the 75th session, and the first to be held in this manner by the General Assembly.
  • The elections are done by regional group, and currently, for most of them, the number of candidates equal the number of open slots. In other words, there are clean slates. The only exception is the Asia Pacific Group where 5 Member States are running for 4 seats.
  • The five countries running are: China, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

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KUWAIT: ASSEMBLY TO PAY TRIBUTE TO LATE AMIR TOMORROW

  • Also tomorrow, the General Assembly will hold its plenary meeting to pay tribute to the late Amir of Kuwait.
  • This formal meeting will be in person ¨C and feature statements by the President of the General Assembly; the Secretary-General; the chairs of the five regional groups; the host country; Egypt on behalf of the Arab Group; the United Arab Emirates on behalf of the Organisation of?Islamic?Cooperation (OIC); and the Permanent Representative of Kuwait.
  • After the President of the General Assembly speaks, there will be a minute of silence.

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MEMBER STATES TO DETERMINE FORMAT OF SPECIAL SESSION ON COVID-19

  • Asked about the format for the General Assembly special session on COVID-19, the Spokesperson said that this would be determined by the Member States, who were currently negotiating a draft resolution on the modalities. Consultations on the draft had been held on 9 October and would be held again on 15 October. After the resolution was adopted, then there would be clarity on the format.
  • In response to a further question, the Spokesperson explained that, while Member States were coalescing around the dates of 3-4 December, those dates would not be confirmed until the adoption of the modalities resolution.