COVID-19 Impact : No UNGA Meeting In New York In 2020, First Time In 75 Years

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World leaders will not travel to New York for the annual UN General Assembly session in September this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the President of the UN General Assembly has announced.  This will be for the first time in 75 years.

The landmark 75th session of the UN General Assembly is expected to begin on September 15 and the first day of the high-level General Debate is likely to be on September 22, according to SDG Knowledge Hub website, an online resource center for news on the UN.

“World leaders cannot come to New York because they cannot come as single individuals. A president doesn’t travel alone. We don’t expect therefore to have presidents,” Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said at a news conference Monday.

He said due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic battering nations across the world, in-person meetings at the UN headquarters were highly unlikely in the coming months.

The president said his office along with UN Member States were looking at mechanisms to ensure the General Debate, where leaders speak about national and multinational priorities, is held in a format compatible with the coronavirus restrictions.

“In terms of the broad direction, we are not going to have Heads of State and Government come into New York because it is impossible at this stage to think that it is possible in September,” he said.

Muhammad-Bande said the General Debate will be not be shifted to a future date and will be held as scheduled “but we cannot have it in-person as has happened in the last 74 years.”

He said the UN Secretariat, Member States, his office as well as other stakeholders were discussing possibilities of conducting the General Debate and a clear direction will emerge in the next two weeks.

“We have had many conversations around the subject. And I’m confident in the next two weeks the mechanics and the broad direction will become more clear,” he said.