This year’s General Assembly, the 77th, will be the first fully in person after the pandemic. Many Heads of State, Heads of Government, and Foreign Ministers are expected to participate.
What will the main themes and moments be? And what initiatives are on Italy’s agenda?
I am going to start with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine that will necessarily pervade the debate due toopen on September 20. The aggression is a blatant violation of the principles of the UN Charter and of the rules-based international order, which it is the interest and duty of all member states to defend. A Security Council session on Sept. 22, under the French presidency, will be devoted to Ukraine.
But above all, Ukraine and the repercussions of the war on its three fronts – food security, energy and finance – will be discussed at the High-Level event of the Global Crisis Response Group, the format established by Guterres, composed of the Heads of more than 30 UN entities and international financial institutions.
Other major High-Level events will be:
the Transforming Education Summit, to be opened by Guterres on the 19th. The right to education is one of the main Goals of the 2030 Agenda, Goal No. 4. More than 90 percent of the world’s children suffered disruptions in their education during the pandemic, with the picture further worsened by conflicts, food, and energy insecurity. The event’s purpose is to reinvigorate in concrete terms the governments’ commitment to ensuring the right to education for all and everywhere, and in the most vulnerable countries. The outcomes of the Summit will be summarized in the relevant documents, above all in a “Vision Statement” by the Secretary-General that will also reflect input received from participating States.
Another important High-Level event chaired by Guterres on September 21, in the afternoon, will be the ‘Climate Moment,’ where the focus will shift to boosting the governments’ engagement ahead of Cop 27 in Sharm el Sheik in November. The dramatic floods in Pakistan, which caused 1400 deaths, are the latest tragic proof of the risks that climate change poses to our planet. Mitigation, adaptation, climate finance are the main themes of the debate.
But on Climate, the role of civil society and youth is also important, so they must be involved in the relevant decision-making processes. This is why the Youth 4 Climate format launched by Italy and first held at Pre-COP26 in Milan last year has become a permanent platform. This year, for the first time, it will be held in New York on the sidelines of the UNGA (on September 20), in collaboration with UNDP and with about 150 young people participating from all over the world.
Two other important issues on the global agenda are at the heart of two ‘side events’: health and food security.
The right to health is another central goal of the 2030 Agenda. One event is planned for Sept. 21 on re-funding the Global Fund on HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Its aim is to encourage States to ramp up their pledges up to $18 billion. On Covid, on the other hand, a ministerial meeting organized by the United States is scheduled for Sept. 23 under the title “COVID-19 Global Action Plan.”
On the other hand, Food security, an issue on which Italy is particularly committed at the United Nations. We host, as is well known, the UN’s agricultural and food hub is located in Rome; during our G20 presidency, we promoted the adoption of the Matera Declaration, and we chair the Group of Friends on Food Security & Nutrition at the UN. The UN estimates that more than 380 million people are at serious risk of starvation. The Sept. 20 side event will be co-sponsored by the U.S., European Union and African Union with a select number of stakeholders including Italy. The resumption of grain exports from Ukraine is an important development, but not enough. Immediate support measures are needed for the most vulnerable regions in Africa and South Asia and structural interventions to adapt agricultural crops to climate change.
Italy, besides participating in the above-mentioned high-level events, will organize and chair three important meetings:
One on the Horn of Africa on Sept. 21, to address the consequences of the severe drought that has affected Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, beset with a crisis already compounded by escalating conflicts and violence. Co-organizing the event with our country will be OCHA, which is the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Emergencies, the U.S.A., the U.K. and Qatar, in collaboration with the governments of the three mentioned countries. The aim isto stimulate concrete and urgent actions in support of the more than 20 million people that are starving – a figure already estimated to grow to 23 or even 26 million by February 2023.
We will then organize a ministerial meeting on the universal moratorium on the death penalty, on which Italy is promoting the biennial Resolution in the General Assembly. The goal is to defend the record of 123 votes in favor of the moratorium obtained in 2020, and hopefully increase this number. From the first historic resolution in 2007 promoted by Italy until today, the progress made is indisputable: today as many as 144 countries have abolished or no longer practice the death penalty. However, it is a context of lights and shadows if we consider that in 2021 as many as 579 executions were recorded worldwide-and the real number is probably much higher.
Finally, the meeting chaired by Italy of the Uniting for Consensus Group on Security Council’s reform will be held again this year. As is well known, Italy and the eleven other state parties to the UfC Group are seeking to consolidate consensus around a proposal to make the UN more effective and democratic but also agile in responding to the growing challenges and threats to peace. The UfC proposal advocates the increase only in the number of non-permanent Council seats and theextension of their term. This is meant to ensure a more balanced and inclusive geographic representation for today’s under-represented regions, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and island states.
It’s all for today, stay tuned with us next week!
