NOON BRIEFING HIGHLIGHTS BY PAULINA KUBIAK GREER,
SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT ABDULLA SHAHID
United Nations Headquarters, New York
MIGRATION
The International Migration Review Forum resumed this morning with the third and fourth roundtables.
They ran simultaneously in the Trusteeship and Conference Room 4.
The third roundtable is chaired by Ambassador Ana Paula Zacarias, Permanent Representative of Portugal to the United Nations and Ambassador Suriya Chindawongse, Permanent Representative of Thailand to the United Nations.
The fourth roundtable is chaired by Mr. Vusal Huseynov, Chief of the State Migration Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Ambassador Omar Hilale, Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations.
This afternoon, the IMRF will have a policy debate, consisting of a panel discussion followed by an interactive discussion.
MAYORS MIGRATION COÄ¢¹½ÊÓƵCIL
Coming up this hour, the President of the General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, will meet with the Global Mayoral Delegation on Migration and Refugees.
This is a delegation that includes representatives from Freetown, Sierra Leone (Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr) ; Kampala, Uganda (Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago); Milan, Italy (Mayor Giuseppe Sala); Montr¨¦al, Canada (Mayor Val¨¦rie Plante) and others.
They are here to participate in the IMRF and to make pledges.
And in terms of pledges, I will have an update tomorrow. In the meantime, let me introduce Florence Kim, the communications director for the United Nations Network on Migration. You have her contact information from the media advisory and press release that went out last week.
PRESS CONFERENCE
In terms of looking ahead at the IMRF¡
The opening plenary segment will be tomorrow at 10AM in the General Assembly Hall.
And then on Friday, the guests in the noon briefing will be President Shahid and IOM Director-General Ant¨®nio Vitorino, who is also the Coordinator of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Network on Migration.
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WMO
From migration to climate change¡
The World Meteorological Organization¡¯s 2021 State of the Global Climate Report is out.
President Shahid called it quote ¡°yet another reminder of the heavy price we pay for inaction.¡±
He said the conclusion is unequivocal: we are losing the battle to control climate change and are as yet unable to halt environmental degradation.
As a small islander, he is aware of the risks of sea-level rise.
As President of the General Assembly, he remains hopeful that this urgency will translate into increased political will and collective action.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON SUSTAINBLE URBANIZATION
Related, President Shahid is today meeting for the third time with his advisory committee on sustainable urbanization.
This is the first time that the advisory committee is meeting since the High-level event at the General Assembly on the progress in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.
BILATERALS
There are many bilaterals on the President¡¯s schedule today.
Perhaps I will include them in the notes, but not go through each one here.
[In the context of the IMRF, President Shahid is today meeting with Mr. Panagiotis Mitarachi, Minister of Migration and Asylum of Greece and Mr. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan.
President Shahid is also meeting today with
- Shirin Amonzoda, Minister of Labour, Immigration and Employment of the Population of Tajikistan
- Luigi Di Maio, Foreign Minister of Italy
- Francesco Rocca, President of the IFRC
- Ambassador Sophia Tesfamariam, Permanent Representative of Eritrea to the United Nations
- And Mr. Guillermo Carmona; Secretary for the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic of Argentina]
HOPE FELLOWS
And our HOPE Fellows… they continue their study visit to Switzerland.
The Geneva Science and Diplomacy Week is underway, so they are participating in various sessions.
One of the bilaterals they had today was with the Executive Director of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵITAR, Nikhil Seth.
You hear me every Friday mentioning a new Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵITAR training session for the Fellows. This is a key component of the HOPE Fellowship program. And today, this was one of the discussion topics between Mr Seth and the Fellows.
The Switzerland led of the study trip has been organized and funded by the Swiss Government.