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STORY: GA / OPENING WRAP
TRT: 2.17
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGAUGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 16 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
16 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, General Assembly
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Kahamba Kutesa, President of the 69th General Assembly:
“I declare opened the 69th regular session of the General Assembly.”
4. Wide shot, General Assembly podium
5. Wide shot, press conference dais
6. Close up, photographer
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Kahamba Kutesa, President of the 69th General Assembly:
“A lot of work has been going on. It may not have appeared as spectacular as we would all have wanted it, but some progress has been made. But my view is that I need to take it a stage further and I want to come out with a text, a negotiated text, and on best issues for it to be negotiated. That is the outcome I would like to look forward to be.”
8. Pan right, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Kahamba Kutesa, President of the 69th General Assembly:
“I’ve heard that President Obama has said he wants to seek the Security Council permission, resolution to be able to afford this coalition in the Middle East against ISIS. And I think it’s been, it’s now begin to return to what we were. Multilateralism has always caused problems, but when you act with the United Nations and the backing of the international community, we have always seen greater success. And I think that we should be able to return to this and that is what I am going to try and forge forward.”
10. Med shot, reporters
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Kahamba Kutesa, President of the 69th General Assembly:
“While I am President of the General Assembly I conform to the regulations by the UN, but even about Uganda. Let me bring you up to date. There was a private member’s motion that was brought to Parliament against homosexuality and the bill was passed. The bill, that very act was challenged in a court of law. The courts have said it was unconstitutional and so I think the rule of law even in Uganda is working. So, the courts are independent, they have ruled that law to be unconstitutional, and that’s it.”
12. Pan right, journalists
13. Wide shot, end of presser
The 69th session of the General Assembly (GA) opened today (17 June) under the presidency of the former foreign minister of Uganda, Sam Kahamba Kutesa.
Kutesa’s chosen theme for the current session is “Delivering on and Implementing a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda.”
Speaking to reporters after the opening of the GA, the Ugandan diplomat spoke to reporters about some of the issues facing the Assembly.
On Security Council reform, he noted that “a lot of work has been going on” but said that his intention was to “take it a stage further” and produce “a negotiated text, and on best issues for it to be negotiated.”
Kutesa welcomed reports that US President Barack Obama wants to seek a Security Council resolution “to be able to afford this coalition in the Middle East against ISIS.”
He said “multilateralism has always caused problems, but when you act with the United Nations and the backing of the international community, we have always seen greater success.”
Asked about his country’s anti-homosexuality law, Kutesa told reporters that while exercising the GA presidency he will “conform to the regulations by the UN”, but also noted that the law had now been declared unconstitutional by the Ugandan Courts.
He said the Ugandan courts “are independent, they have ruled that law to be unconstitutional, and that’s it.”
