Special Session on COVID 19: Two new letters from the President of the UN General Assembly

The President of the UN General Assembly has circulated two letters dated 2 December related to the Special Session.

The first letter relates to the ‘risk assessment’ for holding the meeting, and states that access to the meeting will be restricted to delegates (one delegate per Member State and one delegate each from Holy See, the State of Palestine and the European Union, as well as, time permitting, a limited number of representatives from relevant organizations attending the special session, in line with paragraph 3 (c) of A/RES/75/4) and staff members of the United Nations Secretariat.” No one will be able to enter the building without a secondary colour-coded access card.

The second letter sets out the final programme, the revised list of speakers for the general debate and biographies for the panellists and moderators for the interactive dialogue to be held on Friday 4 December. 

The general debate will immediately follow the opening segment today (Thursday) and will also now continue tomorrow (Friday) from 18.00 to 21.00 hours after the conclusion of the interactive dialogue.

The following representatives from relevant organizations, have been invited to participate in the general debate, time permitting:

• Mr. Vladimir Cuk, Executive Director, International Disability Alliance 
• Ms. Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, President, World Organization for Early Childhood Education 
• Mr. Mohamed Boudra, President of United Cities and Local Governments 
• Ms. Marianne Haslegrave, Director of Commonwealth Medical Trust (Commat) 
• Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow of the Center for Policy Dialogue 
• Ms Harmala Gupta, Board Member of International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc. 

For the Question and Answer session of the interactive dialogue, only those Member States who have previously registered to pose a question will be given the floor to ask questions. Permanent Observers and other stakeholders have been invited to submit questions in writing ahead of the meeting, which may be drawn upon by the moderator, time permitting.