Near verbatim transcript of the opening remarks by the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa, at the Press Conference in Geneva – 23 October 2018

President of the United Nations General Assembly: This is my first press conference in my capacity as the President of the General Assembly in Geneva, when I assumed my post on 17 September. I am really delighted to visit the United Nations Office here in the midst of our anniversary, because tomorrow is the United Nations Day and the United Nations anniversary. So, happy anniversary to all of us, especially to the press corps in Geneva! You perform such an excellent job. As you may know, I used to be the Ambassador of Ecuador here, in Geneva, and I followed your briefings with great interest, as one of my main sources of information, so thank you for that.

Today, as the President of the General Assembly, it’s my plan to foster more cooperation with the teams in New York and in Geneva and in Vienna and all the United Nations offices around the world, so that we can work together to bring the United Nations closer to the people and bring the people closer to the work of the United Nations. As you know, the theme for this year’s General Assembly is to make the United Nations relevant to all people and for that I think that the role of the media, of the press, is crucial and we count on you to help us to disseminate the work that the United Nations do.

My Presidency, dear friends, is also very strongly guided by a commitment to multilateralism. I think that the need to strengthen multilateralism, to make it worthwhile, to make it more relevant, more efficient, to deliver more and better, is much needed nowadays. I firmly believe that the only way to address and solve global challenges is through a multilateral approach. Even if we are told or see every day that multilateralism and national interests do not match, I firmly believe that it is possible to safeguard national interests and sovereignty at the same time as we embark on a collective action and shared responsibilities on the key issues. Can we perhaps think that the climate change, or tuberculosis, or AIDS, or natural disasters, or disarmament, can be achieved by one single country? It is even impossible to think about unilateral responses to global challenges.

And since we are talking about countries working together, I would like to highlight the work we have been doing for the first international conference of this General Assembly Period, which is on the issue of migration. We are very much committed to making the December conference in Marrakesh on migration a unique, a great opportunity, not only to adopt the Global Compact for Migration that is aimed at insuring safe, orderly and regular migration, but to take this moment to boost the migration agenda and boost the commitments of the world and of Governments around the world regarding the very timely and current challenge of migration and refugees.

As you know, migration and refugees are a part of my seven priorities – I have established seven priorities for this Session, one of them being migration and refugees, but also we will be working on issues of gender equality, decent work, the rights of persons with disabilities, environmental action, basically on two main issues: climate action, the implementation of the Paris Agreement especially on climate finance, capacity-building and technology transfer, but also on a global campaign against plastics. The issue of plastic pollution in oceans is of a great concern as it has a direct impact not only on sea biodiversity but also an impact on human beings and our health. So this is going to be very much an important part of our work. We will be working on youth, peace and security - another of the seven priorities – and revitalization of the United Nations. These seven priorities will be the motor that drives our agenda during the seventy-third Session.

We will perhaps, if you are interested, talk about the revitalization of the United Nations, with three pillars: the implementation of the reform process, to boost politically the process of revitalization of the General Assembly, of course the reform of the United Nations Security Council – three very important parts of our agenda. During the high-level week in New York a couple of weeks ago, one word that came up over and over again, I think almost unanimously, was the support for multilateralism, and of course, the support for the seven priorities that I have established for my tenure as the President.

Yet again, the theme for this year is “Making the United Nations relevant to all people: Global Leadership and Shared Responsibilities for Peaceful, Equitable and Sustainable Societies”. It is the umbrella under which we will deliver on the seven priorities that I just mentioned. The seven priorities are cross-cutting, they touch on all the Sustainable Development Goals and on the work that the General Assembly is to perform this year. For this year, we have 15 high-level events and conferences that we will organize, the first one in December in Marrakesh, then in March the South-South Cooperation in Argentina, and so on and so forth.

Another very important issue is that we will join forces with the International Labour Organization, which is celebrating its centenaire. We will team up with them to celebrate their anniversary around the issues of the future of work and decent work, which is the Sustainable Development Goal N°8 which will be assessed by the Economic and Social Council in New York also this year.

I came to Geneva to meet with all the heads of agencies, with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to meet with Michael Møller, the United Nations Office at Geneva Director, and I also came to be a part of the very important moment for the United Nations, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), but also for the business world. I came to take part in the “Global Leaders Investment Summit” which gathers several thousand people coming from the private sector. I think the message to the Summit is bold and very straightforward: we need more engagement and involvement of the private sector in delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals. We are aware that for 2030 we need new jobs, 600 million new jobs have to be created by 2030, we need more and better investment, sustainable investment, especially in areas such as low carbon technologies for example, much needed investments to make a reality the blue economy, and the investment to boost the inclusion and participation of women and youth – we cannot think about inclusive economy that would leave half of the population behind. Here, I am speaking for the economic empowerment of women: if you look at the numbers, we are doing better perhaps in the number of women parliamentarians, at the government level we are doing a little better, but the number of women CEOs of private companies, then the number drops. We need more women in positions of power in the private sector as well.

I am fully committed to working with all Member States in this House to make this a productive, smooth and efficient year, and to achieve concrete results for the people we serve around the world. And I mean what I say: my challenge but also my strong commitment is to listen more to people out there and translate their needs and demands into action. That is my commitment. And I am here to do just that. My Presidency is being guided by an acronym that I repeat to my team every day: D.A.R.E. acronym, dare to do things better, dare change the status quo when is needed, and dare stands for delivery, accountability, relevance and efficiency.

Thank you and ready to respond to any of your questions.