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GA / FIGUERES WRAP
STORY: GA / FIGUERES WRAP
TRT: 03:00
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: 14 JULY 2016, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT
RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations Headquarters
14 JULY 2016, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, ECOSOC chambers
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):
“Unfortunately we have thousands of years of society actually hopping along with only one leg, or one foot, the male foot. And it is time for society to be able to benefit from two legs, from two feet, that will give us a much more balanced way forward and be able to empower women to meet shoulder to shoulder the responsibilities that we have to undertake.”
4. Med shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):
“If it is proven, right? Because we can’t act just on hearsay, but if it’s proven that a UN staff member has not acted in fullest standards of UN, I would not have a problem in asking that person to step down.”
Wide shot, applause
6. Med shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):
“I would have the courage and the need frankly, the personal need, to ask for forgiveness of the Haitian population. Because that is an unintended consequence, but it has had huge impacts, so there is a moral responsibility here. There is a moral imperative to act according to our own standards. Even if that were not the case, even if that were not the case, there is also a development imperative here. Because Haiti, as we all know is an LDC. Haiti, as we all know has been beset by impact after impact – whether it’s natural, political, social, economic; that country can just stack up all of the negative impacts that they have had to endure. And so, in the face of an LDC that has had that experience, would we not want as the United Nations to focus our efforts and free Haiti from Cholera?”
8. Wide shot, audience applause
9. Wide shot, Figueres walks up to the podium
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Christiana Figueres, Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):
“I have a lot of respect and endearment for Susana. Costa Rica’s candidacy has no intention of being a contentious candidacy. Instead it is a candidacy that aims to add options and to allow the General Assembly and the Security Council to have all the options available in front of them, in order to be able to make the best decision they would want to make.”
11. Wide shot, Figueres walks away
A candidate for the post of the United Nations Secretary-General, Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica today (14 Jul) said “unfortunately we have thousands of years of society actually hopping along with only one leg, or one foot, the male foot.”
Figueres said a “much more balanced way forward” would be to “empower women to meet shoulder to shoulder the responsibilities that we have to undertake.”
All eight United Nations Secretary-Generals since the founding of the organization have been men. There has been wide consensus that next Secretary-General should be a woman.
Taking part of a series of informal dialogues with candidates for the position, Figueres addressed the issue of misconduct by UN staff. She said that “if it is proven that a UN staff member has not acted in fullest standards” of the organization, she “would not have a problem in asking that person to step down.”
Speaking on the cholera epidemic in Haiti, which has been traced down to the Nepalese peacekeeping contingent of the UN Mission in the country, Figueres said “I would have the courage and the need frankly, the personal need, to ask for forgiveness of the Haitian population.”
Noting that Haiti is a Least Developed County (LDC) which “has been beset by impact after impact” she asked “would we not want as the United Nations to focus our efforts and free Haiti from Cholera?”
Responding to a reporter’s question after the meeting, Figueres said she has “a lot of respect and endearment” for the Foreign Minister of Argentina, Susana Malcorra, who is also running for the post.
She said “Costa Rica’s candidacy has no intention of being a contentious candidacy. Instead it is a candidacy that aims to add options and to allow the General Assembly and the Security Council to have all the options available in front of them, in order to be able to make the best decision they would want to make.”
Figueres is the former chief of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and headed the negotiations that led to the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.
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