For the first time ever since its creation, this year’s United Nation’s general Assembly will be held virtually due to the corona-virus pandemic. This was announced Wednesday by the organization’s president, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande in a letter the member countries.
“I surmise that the limitations on international travel and convening of large in-person meetings as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, may, in varying degrees, still be in effect in September 2020,” Muhammad-Bande wrote.
The meeting is scheduled for September 22 -29 but will be carried out with previously recorded speeches by world leaders, Muhammad-Bande, who hails from Nigeria informed.
The body’s member states are required to send the UN an embargoed speech of up to 15 minutes by their president, prime president, some government minister or UN ambassador at least five days before the assembly, he said.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres had last month hinted that world leaders are unlikely to meet in September as planned as a result of concerns of the global health crisis. The General Assembly is the world’s largest diplomatic gathering, and entails hundreds of side events and bilateral or multilateral meetings of world leaders.
It has never been canceled since the United Nations was founded in 1945.
But it has been postponed twice: in 2001 because of the September 11 attacks in the United States, and in 1964 because of a financial crisis.
Source: Arab News