High-level Debate Opened at the UN General Assembly

United Nations, Sep 25 (Prensa Latina) The UN General Assembly opened today the high-level debate of its seventy-third session, under the premise of making the United Nations relevant to all people.

The opening included a moment of silence in remembrance of the former Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan, whose recent death still shocks the multilateral organization.

This first day will be marked by the intervention of several Latin American presidents: that of Ecuador, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic, in accordance with the program foreseen by the UN.

As has been the tradition since 1947, Brazil opened the general debate, followed by the president of the host country of the United Nations, Donald Trump, who has been criticized for pushing the abandonment of his nation by several important international agreements and organizations.

A high-level meeting on United Nations peacekeeping operations is also scheduled for Tuesday, and on Wednesday the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and a meeting on the fight against tuberculosis will be held.

Another meeting, on health, will take place on September 27 with the high-level meeting to carry out a comprehensive review of the prevention and control of no communicable diseases.

When the presidency of the largest UN agency took office the previous week, the Ecuadorian diplomat María Fernanda Espinosa recalled that in the General Assembly all countries have the same seat, the same button to vote, and the same right to ask for the floor and be listened.

But it is also urgent to make the UN more relevant to all people, and 'that will be the main focus of my work to get closer as an organization to society,' stressed the first Latin American woman to assume the head of the Assembly.

Precisely, the official theme of this high-level debate is 'to make the United Nations relevant to all people: global leadership and shared responsibilities for peaceful, equitable and sustainable societies.'

The General Assembly brings together the 193 member states of the UN and this year it is expected that more than 100 heads of States and Government will make their interventions in the high-level debate.