The heavyweight debate session meeting of the 79th General Assembly United Nations concluded Monday September 30, in New York.
General debate session of the United Nations’ 79th General Assembly was inaugurated on September 24 with the address speech, as per UN tradition, of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and concluded after the address by José Javier De La Gasca the Permanent Representative of Ecuador.
Being the host country, President of the United States of America Joe Biden addresses the General Assembly in second and for all other Member States, the speaking order is based on the level of representation, preference and other criteria including geographic balance.
Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli addressed the afternoon session of the General Debate on September 26, Thursday.
The General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly is the opportunity for Heads of State and Government to come together at the UN Headquarters and discuss world issues.
During a six days long debate session where 190 Member States were protocolled to the iconic green marble podium to stand and expressed their views of international issues including their nation’s laudable points in one of languages among Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
As per the UN News, during the 79th Session (2024-2025), Yemen occupies the first seat in the Hall, including in the Main Committees (followed by all the other countries, in English alphabetical order) as per the sitting arrangements in the General Assembly Hall that changes for each session.
Three Observers– the Holy See, the State of Palestine and the European Union were also invited to participate in the general debate and speak.
A voluntary 15-minute limit is asked to be observed, but some speeches are longer.
In 1952, Iceland, believed to be the oldest democracy in the world, presented the UN with a special gavel. This gavel has since been used to open and close meetings open or closed, mark the approval of the agenda, etc. and sometimes to restore order.
Closing the General Debate session of the 79th session General Assembly of the United Nations, the President of the General Assembly Philémon Yang (a Cameroon diplomat) on Monday stressed on saying “Only through dialogue, listening, and collective action, there can be solutions.”
“Let us all move forward together with the spirit of the theme for the 79th Session – Unity in diversity, for the advancement of peace, sustainable development, and human dignity for everyone, for unity and shared responsibility. Let us continue our work, with the clear aim of building a peaceful, just, and dignified future for all,” UNGA President Yang emphasized.
Meanwhile, a concert was held in Central park in New York on Saturday observing the Global Citizen Festival where about 60,000 people were gathered to be entertained from Doja Cat, Post Malone, Ed Sheeran and Chris Martin.
The annual concert is held against the backdrop of the UN General Assembly’s high-level week dedicated to ending extreme poverty of the world.
Global Citizen has been calling on the G20 countries to support a high volume of funds to the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank aiming to eradicate poverty in the world’s poorest countries.
Various distinguished personalities from various walks-of-life including UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon attended the concert inside the huge Central Park.
