MICHELE MONTAS is the Spokesperson for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General and the Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly.

TV: UN WEBCAST TV VIDEO - 28 minutes

UN: UNITED NATIONS BRIEFING AND TV - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: WEDNESDAY, 04/06/2008 (MaximsNews Network)

UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / - 04 June 2008 -- Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General and UN Webcast TV Video.

**Questions and Answers

Question: What’s that construction in the hallway, do you know?

Deputy Spokesperson: I just saw that as I was coming in and I understand it is part of the fire standards being required by the city in the building.

Question: I read Ban Ki-moon’s statement regarding the Rome food Conference, but can you tell us what are the most important outcomes of this Conference regarding the food crisis? According to Ban Ki-moon himself, what are the main recommendations that came out of it?

Deputy Spokesperson: As you know, the Secretary-General has been there the last two days. He has outlined the immediate needs that needed to be met, which were access to food to the most vulnerable and to increase agricultural production. Then, he also outlined a series of medium- and long-term measures that he wants not just the agencies, but the international community to work on. This was spelled out in greater detail in the joint communiqué that was issued earlier today and, as you know now, the Conference is still continuing today and tomorrow for the Member States attending this important summit to work on the blueprint that was outlined by the Secretary-General.

Question: Marie, can you tell us what is the timeline on the appointment of the new Human Rights Commissioner?

Deputy Spokesperson: I mentioned to you the other day about the selection process, and her last day is not until the last of the month, so the target date for a name to be submitted to the General Assembly should be by the end of the month.

Question: When is the Secretary-General coming back?

Deputy Spokesperson: In a couple of hours.

Question: So you won’t be able to give us any shortlist?

Deputy Spokesperson: There is nothing unusual about not disclosing a shortlist for this post. They have not been made public in the past.

Question: Is there anything concrete that’s come out of the summit that the Secretary-General’s happy with? For instance, like the Task Force report asks countries to stop export restrictions on rice and wheat and all this other stuff.

Deputy Spokesperson: Let’s wait until the Conference finishes. As you know, it’s still going on. As you know, he has galvanized world leaders to be there; he has come up with a blueprint and now they are still tackling all the issues. And the joint communiqué, as I mentioned to you, does outline some of the measures that they’re agreeing on, so let’s wait until the end of this Conference.

Question: But while he was there, has he gotten any commitments or responses from Governments saying “yes we’ll go ahead with that” or “we’ll do this” or “we’ll do that”, nothing like that?

Deputy Spokesperson: I have no specific readouts yet of the outcomes of the Conference, but I think that’s why we will have to wait until the end of the Conference.

Question: Does he have a list of Governments that said we’ll do this or this or this?

Deputy Spokesperson: He’s on an airplane. We’ll have to wait until he gets back.

Question: Marie, I wonder if you have a follow-up on the use of excessive force against peaceful demonstrators in South Korea?

Deputy Spokesperson: No, I don’t.

Question: One Congressman in the United States is calling on Secretary of State [Condoleezza] Rice to withdraw funds from FAO because it elevated and gave the stage to people like [President Robert] Mugabe and [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad. What about the allegation that this is the outcome of this meeting, that Mugabe got into Europe because it was a UN thing and both got an audience with Secretary-General Ban? Isn’t the UN Secretary-General concerned that that is the real outcome of this Conference?

Deputy Spokesperson: No, he’s not. As you know, he himself appealed to world leaders to gather in Rome and address this very pressing issue that affects countries around the world. And as I mentioned to you before his departure today, he called the meeting a success that it needed to be. He said there’s a clear sense of resolve, a shared responsibility and political commitment among Member States to make the right policy choices and to invest in agricultural productivity for years to come, especially for smallholder farmers. And I outlined a number of areas where these issues have been agreed upon. In terms of your other questions about meetings with the Heads of State, I haven’t tallied up the number, but, during the course of two days, it’s quite common for the Secretary-General to meet with world leaders gathered at summits on the sidelines to discuss not just the issues at the summit, but other pressing issues of either common concern or concern.

Question: Even with those he has denounced in his other statements in the past?

Deputy Spokesperson: As you know, he meets with leaders around the world. That’s part of his job.

Question: Regarding Darfur, a new mediator might be appointed, with or without Mr. Eliasson. How will his mandate be different from Mr. Eliasson’s?

Deputy Spokesperson: I’d like to refer you to the latest report of the Secretary-General on Darfur to the Security Council, because it spells out what is expected of him, but the idea, in my understanding, is that this person will be on the ground full time to try to get the parties to the negotiating table, because this is something that needs to be done.

If there are no other questions for me, we’re ready for the General Assembly President-elect.

Briefing by the Spokesperson for the General Assembly President

Good afternoon, good to see you all. Let me give you a short briefing on the activities of the current President and then the General Assembly and then of course, we will have our guest, who is the President-elect for the sixty-third session, Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua. But let’s start with the meetings of the Assembly today.

**General Assembly Elects President for Sixty-third Session

The General Assembly held two plenary meetings this morning. First it elected, by acclamation, the President for the sixty-third session, Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua. Then the six Main Committees of the Assembly held their meetings to elect their Chairpersons for the sixty-third session, and then, following this, the Assembly held another plenary meeting, which has just concluded, to elect the Vice-Presidents for the sixty-third session. Now, altogether, this means that there are 21 Vice-Presidents and there are six Main Committee Chairs, and with the President, they form the General Committee of the Assembly, which makes the recommendations for the Assembly about the adoption of the agenda, allocation of agenda items and organization of its work.

Let me give you a run-down of the countries. As regards the six Main Committees, the countries that will be heading them as of 16 September, when the sixty-third session starts, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) will be headed by the Permanent Representative of Honduras. The Special Political and Decolonization Committee, also referred to as the Fourth Committee, will be headed by the Permanent Representative of Argentina. The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) is going to be headed by the Permanent Representative of Nigeria; the Third (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) by the Permanent Representative of Netherlands; the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) by the Permanent Representative of Hungary; and the Sixth Committee (Legal) will be headed by the Permanent Representative of Iraq.

As regards the Vice-Presidents, the 21 that we mentioned, 5 of them are the permanent members of the Security Council. The others are allocated according to the following when it comes to regional distribution: African States will have six, and these are Cameroon, Egypt, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Togo; Asia has five, these are Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Myanmar and Solomon Islands; Eastern Europe has one, that’s Moldova; Latin American/Caribbean States have two, those being Bolivia and Jamaica; while the Western Europe and Other States Group has Portugal and Spain. So, all together 28 with the President making up the General Committee of the sixty-third session.

Following the election of the President for the sixty-third session, the Deputy Secretary-General drew lots to determine the Member State which would occupy the first seat in the General Assembly Hall at the sixty-third session, which starts on 16 September. The Member State drawn was Barbados. So Barbados will be sitting in the first seat and then all the other Member States would come in alphabetical order. That’s the same order, by the way, as they would be seated in the Main Committee meetings.

Following the elections, General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim congratulated the new President-elect and noted that, in his experience, while it was indeed a privilege to be endorsed by the entire membership of the General Assembly, this carried with it a great responsibility to balance competing interests and forge consensus and, above all, to assist Member States to be the driving force of the Assembly’s work.

**General Assembly Debate on Human Trafficking

Let me now get back to something that happened yesterday. The Assembly wrapped up a full-day thematic debate in the form of two panel discussions on human trafficking. The stress was on raising awareness to the problem, sharing views and experiences on prevention, protection of victims, prosecution of perpetrators and promoting international partnerships for practical actions to combat trafficking.

General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim, in his concluding remarks, summed up the message of the discussions by stressing that it was clear from the deliberations that effective policy was needed to be put into practice as a matter of urgency to fight sexual and labour exploitation. It needed to be comprehensive and include preventive and protective measures, as well as stronger measures to end the traffickers’ impunity. President Kerim also noted that, most of all, the need for closer partnership was highlighted in the debate by many participants. This was necessary at the local, national and international levels, and there was a need for more effective partnership among all stakeholders, including Governments, parliamentarians, civil society, the private sector, the media and non-governmental organizations. He called on Member States to use the momentum generated by the discussions to take the common fight against trafficking in human beings a step further and obliterate it from our world.

**Upcoming Events on Climate Change and HIV/AIDS

A couple of things on upcoming events:

On Friday, the Assembly is expected to meet in plenary to consider a draft resolution on the global forum on migration and development. The resolution is going to be out on the racks (document A/62/L/25/Rev.1).

On Monday, 9 June, on the initiative of President Kerim, the General Assembly will hold a half-day meeting on investment and climate change, which will focus on the reciprocal links between private investment and public decision-making in the context of curbing carbon emissions. This debate is one of the follow-up meetings to the 11-13 February high-level meeting on climate change. You may remember that the other planned follow-up meeting is going to be on vulnerable States. That’s going to be in a couple weeks’ time. We’ll announce that for you later. The programme of the 9 June meeting on private investments and carbon emissions, with participants and a background note, is available for you on the President’s website, which is http://www.un.org/ga/president/62/. And if you go to the letters column, then you will find it.

A day later, on Tuesday, the General Assembly will begin its high-level meeting on a comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realizing the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. Leaders from Governments, international organizations and civil society will review the return on the substantial investments made over the past years; outline solutions and policies needed to meet the agreed targets, including universal access to prevention and treatment by 2010; urge political leaders to live up to their promise on the targets; explore bold, innovative ways to meet the special needs of women and girls; and mobilize resources and ensure that money gathered works by investing in evidence-informed programmes. Background information is available on the President’s website under “focus issues”.

**Counter-Terrorism Strategy

And one other announcement: the President of the Assembly has appointed the Permanent Representative of Guatemala, Ambassador Gert Rosenthal, to serve as the Facilitator for consultations with Member States on the outcome of the General Assembly meeting to review the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which is set for 4 September.

That’s all I have. If you have any questions, I am ready to answer them. If not, then we’ll have the President-elect come and brief you.

**Questions and Answers

Question: Are you aware of any move by any Member States on Security Council reform, whether there’s a resolution or not?

Spokesperson: No, I’m not aware of any concrete development on that. Where the consultative process stands at the moment is that the President, with his Task Force made up of the Ambassadors of Bangladesh, Chile, Djibouti and Portugal, is in the final phase of consultations with Member States to see where the process can be taken further, including the possibility of convening another meeting of the open-ended working group. But I’ll let you know when we have more on that.

Thank you very much. Then let me welcome and bring in our noon guest.

Labels: United Nations,  U.N., Secretary-General

 

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