Statement of the President of the General Assembly at the UNGA72

Quotes/References to WPS:

Conflict Prevention: “ First, I heard overwhelming support for the proposal to prioritize peace and prevention. Many of you reiterated the call of the Secretary-General for a surge in diplomacy to stop today’s conflicts. And you called for the UN to do more to prevent conflicts from breaking out. We must draw from national, regional and international experiences of mediation and conflict prevention. We must realign our approach to emphasize the peace in what we now call peace and security."

Peacekeeping: ”You also stressed your continued support to UN peacekeeping. Peace operations are doing a vital job. They work to protect civilians. They support national actors to build and maintain peace.”

Gender equality/ Human Rights : “Second, you talked about the needs of people all over the world. You expressed a vision in which human rights, gender equality, and the rule of law are norms. Today they often unfortunately remain the exceptions. So, we have more work to do in realizing this vision.”

Implementation: “We must remember that differences in unilateral positions do not prevent multilateral agreement. They might give us more work to do. Our negotiations might be more difficult. But they can also make the outcome stronger. So, I want to embrace both the consensus and contention that came as part of this year’s General Debate.”