UN General Assembly to go virtual for the first time in 75 years

The United Nations General Assembly session this year will not see the usual hustle and bustle of top world leaders and diplomats as has been the practice for the past 75 years, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time in the UN’s history the General Assembly is going virtual.

The landmark 75th session of the UN General Assembly is expected to begin on 15 September and the first day of the high-level general debate is likely to be held on 22 September. This year’s summit is on bio-diversity.

The general debate is held at the beginning of each session of the General Assembly and usually runs for over a week when leaders and ministers from the 193 UN members address the world from the iconic lectern in the General Assembly hall.

The 193-member organisation decided that the world leaders will submit pre-recorded statements for the session. The decision to depart from the usual practice of having world leaders attend the UN General Assembly session in person was announced on June this year by UNGA president Tijjani Muhammad-Bande.

“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 here,” Muhammad-Bande told a news conference on June 9.

He said due to the covid-19 pandemic, in-person meetings at the UN headquarters were highly unlikely in the coming months.

Most of the UN’s meetings currently are being held online.