62nd Plenary Meeting - General Assembly 74th Session

General Assembly adopts 2 drafts on sustainable development in Africa, text regarding status of Georgia’s refugees, internally displaced.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / General Assembly
• Video Length: 03:08:24
• Production Date: 3 September 2020
• Asset Language: Arabic; Chinese; English; French; Russian; Spanish
• Personal Subject: TIJJANI MUHAMMAD-BANDE
• Subject Topical: CORONAVIRUS DISEASE - COVID 19; DISPLACED PERSONS; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE; REFUGEES; SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• Geographic Subject: AFRICA; GEORGIA
• MAMS Id: 2555421
• Parent Id: 2555138

Description

Delegates Also Take Note of Over 70 Texts Previously Adopted under Silence Procedure since 27 March

The General Assembly adopted three resolutions today, as the world body held its first plenary meeting since the start of coronavirus-related restrictions at Headquarters, taking note of more than 70 texts it had adopted under its silence procedure since 27 March.

During the course of the previous five months, the Assembly had acted on a range of issues via videoconference meetings and silence-procedure voting, electing Volkan Bozkir, Foreign Affairs Minister of Turkey, as President of its seventy-fifth session. (See Press Release GA/12250.) Among other actions, it filled vacancies in other organs, decided to reschedule several international conferences and proclaimed 2021 to 2030 the second Decade of Action for Road Safety.

Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of its seventy-fourth session, recalled the restrictions on holding live meetings at Headquarters, during which he had convened virtual meetings and presided over a nearly empty General Assembly Hall on days when delegates had cast their votes in socially-distance-guided elections for his successor and new members of the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. Today, he cautioned representatives that they must strictly maintain social distancing and wear masks throughout the day-long meeting except when addressing the Assembly, otherwise he would be forced to suspend or adjourn the meeting.

Commending Member States for taking a lead role in the COVID-19 response, including by adopting two related General Assembly resolutions, he said these actions will help the world overcome challenges and work towards the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its goals and targets.

Taking up a range of draft resolutions and decisions, the Assembly first adopted the resolution “Status of internally displaced persons and refugees from Abkhazia, Georgia, and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, Georgia” (document A/74/L.89), by a recorded vote of 84 in favour to 13 against, with 78 abstentions. By its terms, the Assembly recognized the right of return of all internally displaced persons and refugees and their descendants, regardless of ethnicity, to their homes, including in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, and stressed the need to respect the property rights of all internally displaced persons and refugees affected by the conflicts in Georgia.

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MEETINGS COVERAGE