UN General Assembly during the COVID-19 pandemic

Processes have been developed during the past months to ensure that the work of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) continues albeit in a more truncated way. For those of us who live away from New York it may, however, be more difficult to find out information as to what is happening. Hopefully this posting will help to demystify some of the processes.

Apart from the updates that are being sent out dealing with specific issues from various parts of the UN Secretariat, Major Groups, CSOs and others, the most helpful website is that of the President of the 74th UNGA session, which has a page on COVID-19.

On 27 March 2020 the UNGA adopted Decision 74/544 on “Procedures for taking decisions of the General Assembly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic”. It authorized the President, where a plenary meeting was not practicable because of the pandemic, to “circulate, after consultant with the General Committee, draft decisions of General Assembly to all Member States under a silence procedure of at least 72 hours.”

The President increasingly communicates through letters to the Permanent Representatives of Member States. While (co-)coordinators or (co-)facilitators have been appointed in the past to negotiate on key issues and draft resolutions and decisions, it is now a key mechanism. A ‘silent procedure’ for a specific period of time is used for adopting by consensus once the draft is final and a decision is adopted unless a Member State contacts the President to ‘break the silence’. Unless the silence is broken, a decision is considered adopted with the General Assembly taking note of it at the first plenary as soon as circumstances allow, given the COVID-19 situation.

Currently the Ambassador of Jamaica is the facilitator for reaching agreement on voting going forward for issues on which no consensus is reached.

Ambassadors Adela Raz of Afghanistan and Ivan Šimonović of Croatia have been appointed as co-coordinators for the General Assembly on COVID-19-related initiatives, and are working with Member States to “inter alia, facilitate the exchange of views, coordinate approaches and initiatives, as well as leverage the influence of the Assembly to effectively advocate for measures aimed at defeating COVID-19, while mitigating its social and economic impact.”  On Monday 27 April, they held a “virtual town hall meeting”, in which the President of the General Assembly participated, to “discuss how the General Assembly could coordinate approaches and combine initiatives, as well as leverage its influence to effectively advocate for measures aimed at defeating COVID-19, while mitigating its social and economic impact…

Although the co-coordinators hoped that the meeting would be a first step in a meaningful, transparent and inclusive process, participation was limited to Member and Observer States only, with no opportunities for CSO participation. This is of concern, as while CSOs do not have consultative status with the GA, in the process leading up to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and in its subsequent follow-up, there have been more opportunities for involvement than before.

Finally, in his letter of 1 May 2020, the President announced he will be submitting a draft decision extended the arrangements as set out in 74/544 beyond the end of May up to the end of June 2020.