Seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly

The Seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly is the current session of the United Nations General Assembly which was opened on 16 September 2020. The President of the UN General Assembly is from WEOG group.

Seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly
16 September 2020 - 15 September 2021
President of the 75th General Assembly
Volkan Bozkır
Host country United Nations
Venue(s)United Nations Headquarters
CitiesNew York City, United States
ParticipantsUnited Nations Member States
PresidentVolkan Bozkır
Websitewww.un.org/eng/ga

Organisation for the session

President

On 17 June 2020 Turkish diplomat, and former Minister of European Union Affairs, Volkan Bozkır was elected as President of the United Nations General Assembly. He was the sole candidate for the post and was elected by an overwhelming majority.[1][2][3]

In his vision statement, Bozkır laid out some of his priorities for the session. Specifically, he pledged to underline the irreplaceable nature of the rules-based international system and of multilateralism, with the theme of the 75th session being selected as: "The future we want, the United Nations we need; reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism." He further pledged to give a voice to the most vulnerable, namely, refugees, immigrants, and stateless persons through the UN. In regard to the 2030 Agenda, he pledged to strengthen global partnership, paying special attention to Least Developed Countries that are falling behind on meeting their SDG obligations. Finally, he stated his commitment to improving the living standards and rights of women around the world by strengthening their status within society, and of achieving gender parity at all levels at the UN.[4][5]

Vice-Presidents

The General Assembly elected the following countries as the vice-presidents of the 75th session:

The five permanent members of the Security Council:[6]

As well as the following nations:[7]

Committees

The following were elected Chairs and Officers of the General Assembly's Main Committees for the 75th Session:[8]

First Committee (Disarmament and International Security)[9]
Name Country Position
H.E. Augustin Santos Maraver  Spain Chair
Ariel R. Penaranda  Philippines Vice-Chair
Corina-Cristina Lefter  Romania Vice-Chair
Maria del Rosario Estrada Giron  Guatemala Rapporteur
Second Committee (Economic and Financial)[10]
Name Country Position
H.E. Amrit Bahadur Rai    Nepal Chair
Rosemary O'Hehir  Australia Vice-Chair
Christine Bailey  Jamaica Vice-Chair
Maria Danielcakova  Slovakia Vice-Chair
Diamane Diome  Senegal Rapporteur
Social, Humanitarian & Cultural Issues (Third Committee)[11]
Name Country Position
H.E. Katalin Bogyay  Hungary Chair
Pilar Eugenio  Argentina Vice-Chair
Myriam Oehri  Liechtenstein Rapporteur
Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth Committee)[12]
Name Country Position
H.E. Collen Vixen Kelapile  Botswana Chair
Administrative and Budgetary Committee (Fifth Committee)[13]
Name Country Position
H.E. Carlos Amorín  Uruguay Chair
Katlego Boase Mmalane  Botswana Vice-Chair
Jakub Krzysztof Chmielewski  Poland Vice-Chair
Armağan Ayşe Can Crabtree  Turkey Vice-Chair
Tsu Tang Terrence Teo  Singapore Rapporteur
Sixth Committee (Legal)[14]
Name Country Position
H.E. Milenko E Skoknic  Chile Chair
Ghanshyam Bhandari    Nepal Vice-Chair
Kristina Pelkiö  Czech Republic Vice-Chair
Sarah Weiss Ma'udi  Israel Vice-Chair
Solomon Korbieh  Ghana Rapporteur

Seat allocation

As is tradition before each session of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General drew lots to see which member state would occupy the first seat in the General Assembly Chamber, with the other member states following according to the English translation of their name. For the 75th Session, Iceland was selected to sit in the first seat by Secretary-General António Guterres. This same order is followed in the six main committees, as well as other United Nations bodies.[15][16]

Agenda

The agenda for the 75th session, as approved by the General Committee, is as follows:[17]

  • Promotion of sustained economic growth and sustainable development in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and recent United Nations conferences
  • Maintenance of international peace and security
  • Development of Africa
  • Promotion of human rights
  • Effective coordination of humanitarian assistance efforts
  • Promotion of justice and international law
  • Disarmament
  • Drug control, crime prevention and combating international terrorism in all its forms and manifestations
  • Organizational, administrative and other matters

New agenda items can also be included in this list if proposed by Member States. This is done via a formal submission of an agenda item by letter, which must be accompanied by an explanatory memorandum. However, this is rare and relies on the support of the General Committee.[18]

General debate
Main article: General debate of the seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly

Each member of the General Assembly will have a representative speaking about issues concerning their country and the hopes for the coming year as to what the UNGA will do. This is an opportunity for the member states to opine on international issues of their concern. The General Debate will occur from the 22 of September until 29 September 2020.[19]

The order of speakers is given first to member states, then observer states and supranational bodies. Any other observers entities will have a chance to speak at the end of the debate, if they so choose. Speakers will be put on the list in the order of their request, with special consideration for ministers and other government officials of similar or higher rank. According to the rules in place for the General Debate, the statements should be in of the United Nations official languages of Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish, and will be translated by the United Nations translators. Each speaker is requested to provide 20 advance copies of their statements to the conference officers to facilitate translation and to be presented at the podium.[19]

References
  1. "Press Release Regarding Ambassador Volkan Bozkır's Election to the Position of the Presidency of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly". Ministry of Foreign Affairs Turkey. Republic of Turkey. 17 June 2020. Archived from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  2. "Turkish diplomat elected President of historic 75th UN General Assembly". UN News. United Nations. 17 June 2020. Archived from the original on 24 June 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  3. Muhammad-Bande, Tijjani (17 Jun 2020). Result of the President of the General Assembly Election 2020 (Speech). Election of the President of the General Assembly for the 75th Session. United Nations General Assembly: United Nations. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  4. Bozkır, Volkan (26 March 2020). "Vision Statement by the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Ambassador Volkan Bozkır as Candidate for the Presidency of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly" (PDF) (Press release). Ankara: Republic of Turkey. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  5. "INTERVIEW: The top diplomat shepherding the General Assembly through its 75th year". UN News. United Nations. 14 September 2020. Archived from the original on 27 September 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  6. "Security Council Members | United Nations Security Council". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2019-03-26. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  7. "General Assembly of the United Nations - General Committee". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2020-09-19. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  8. "Main Committees of the General Assembly of the United Nations". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2018-10-23. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  9. "General Assembly of the United Nations". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  10. "75th session - Bureau - Economic and Financial Committee (Second Committee) - Links - UN General Assembly". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  11. "73rd session - Bureau - Social, Humanitarian & Cultural Issues (Third Committee) - UN General Assembly". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  12. "General Assembly of the United Nations". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  13. "UN General Assembly - Fifth Committee - Administrative and Budgetary Questions". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  14. "UN General Assembly - Legal - Sixth Committee". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  15. United Nations General Assembly Session 75 Memorandum 1. Organization of the seventy-fifth regular session of the General Assembly, adoption of the agenda and allocation of items A/BUR/75/1 page 5. 15 September 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  16. "63rd Session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner's Programme: Information Note" (PDF). United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. United Nations. n.d. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 June 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  17. United Nations General Assembly Session 75 Agenda of the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly A/75/251 18 September 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  18. Aeschlimann, Johann; Nakano, Kenji; Ruder, Nicole (2017). Aeschlimann, Johann; Regan, Mary (eds.). The GA Handbook: A practical guide to the United Nations General Assembly (PDF) (2nd ed.). New York: Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations. pp. 36–38. ISBN 978-0-615-49660-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-24. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  19. "A/INF/75/4 - E - A/INF/75/4". undocs.org. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
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