President of the General Assembly on her tenure - Press Conference | United Nations

Hybrid Press Briefing by Ms. Annalena Baerbock, outgoing President of the United Nations General Assembly, on her tenure and the way forward. Outgoing General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock described international law as “life insurance”, urging countries to uphold it amid global challenges, while emphasizing that courage is “infectious” for collective action. As her term as the President of the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly coming to an end, Baerbock said that besides all the headwinds during the Session, and besides all the fragmented times out in the world, “here inside the building, Member States were more united then divided.” The President of the august Hall highlighted the Session opened “a new, entirely chapter for the United Nations in the field of AI.” She said, “for the first time ever, an Independent International Scientific Panel on AI was established, composed not only from experts from all around the world, but also for the first time in gender parity.” On UN reform, Baerbock said, “we need less bureaucracy, and we need to be way more effective and efficient in a digitalized world. And this is why implementing UN80 reform measures was, besides protecting the Charter, my second priority of my presidency.” Asked about the selection of the new UN chief, the President of the General Assembly said, “because the choice UN makes about the 10th Secretary-General will send a message about whether this Organization truly represents the people it is meant to serve.” She added, “Who leads this Organization matters not only to the people in this building, but to billions of people around the world,” urging the “continuation of this spirit of openness and scrutiny through the final stages of the selection and appointment process of the next Secretary-General.” Asked about UNRWA, the President of the General Assembly said, “I had always have a very clear stance on the support of UNRWA,” calling on Member States “not only to underline that UN premises have a special protection, as the SG did as well, but also call on Sember States to fund UNRWA, because otherwise, not only was the situation in Gaza, but also with neighboring countries, be it Jordan, be it Syria, be it Lebanon, we are not delivering on what we are promising here.”


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