General Assembly: Press Release

The General Assembly decided on 14 August to postpone a meeting of a committee tasked with drafting a global treaty to combat online crimes, noting with concern current COVID‑19 pandemic restrictions.

The General Assembly adopted 10 resolutions and decisions by its silence procedure from 6 to 12 August, including one extending its seventy-fourth session until mid-September and several postponing events and deadlines for report submissions, reflecting ongoing COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions.

The General Assembly — operating under the silence procedure it has embraced amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — adopted five decisions on 21 and 22 July, including one extending that procedure until 31 August and another setting out hybrid virtual and in-person modalities for its upcoming high-level general debate.

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations General Assembly will mark Nelson Mandela International Day (18 July) with a virtual informal meeting on 20 July.  The meeting will also feature official recognition of the laureates of the 2020 United Nations Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize.

The General Assembly on 10 July opened its thirty-first special session on the COVID-19 pandemic, the first special session convened in four years, with a general debate envisioned and questions remaining about the format and modalities for holding formal meetings on a virtual platform.

On the recommendation of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), the General Assembly adopted two decisions on 13 July, one deferring financial discussions around the closure of the United Nations operation in Côte d’Ivoire, and the second keeping the issue of a global service delivery model — aimed at consolidating the Organization’s administrative services — under review.

With the Games of the XXXII Olympiad rescheduled from 2020 to 2021, owing to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the General Assembly on 6 July confirmed that the Olympic Truce will now be observed from 16 July to 12 September 2021, in line with the new schedule for the premier global sporting events.

The General Assembly elected Vice-Presidents for its seventy-fifth session and adopted a basket of resolutions and decisions from 23 to 30 June, including 21 on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) authorizing the United Nations peacekeeping budget for the 2020/21 fiscal year, taking action under its temporary silence procedure due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The General Assembly adopted on 18 June a resolution on peacekeeping operations and a decision extending its “silence procedure” through July, allowing it to continue its work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The General Assembly elected Volkan Bozkir, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, as President of its seventy-fifth session and filled vacancies on the Security Council and Economic and Social Council, with Member States voting at United Nations Headquarters on 17 and 18 June, in line with restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.