Roundup: Senior Fijian diplomat elected UN General Assembly president

Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji narrowly defeated veteran Cyprus diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis to become president of the next session of the UN General Assembly, vowing to give voice to small island states and developing countries through support for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

He won the one-year post, 94-90 on a single ballot, to replace President Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark when the 71st session begins on Sept. 13. Thomson will become the first representative of the Small Islands and Developing States (SIDS) group to become president of the General Assembly (PGA).

"It's a great moment for the Pacific Islands and I thank you all for your support," he told the General Assembly after his election. "The Pacific SIDS, we bring special perspectives on climate change and on oceans issues and you can expect me to be vocal on those issues in the 71st session."

Thomson added that despite the support he received from groups advocating for countries confronted by similar problems, "I want to assure everyone that this is a presidency for the whole house. We are bound together not only by the UN Charter but we are bound by the 2030 Sustainable Development agenda which is a universal agenda."

During the president-elect's brief, formal acceptance speech at the green-marble podium in the General Assembly hall where he lauded his opponent for a gentlemanly campaign and praised Lykketoft's work, the white-bearded Thomson, sporting a pink tie, called attention to his wife, sister and daughter sitting in the gallery.

"As you see the three of them and know that my grandchildren are all girls you'll know why I am a 'he for she' and why I stand for gender parity," evoking light laughter and applause. "He for she" is a solidarity campaign for gender equality initiated by UN Women.

He later told reporters he would like to see a dozen women serve as PGAs following his term to make up for lost gender equality in the post.

"I'm too old for a sex change at this point," he joked with media members after the election in the General Assembly hall, referring to an appeal for a woman to be chosen to stay at the helms of the world body.

"By the end of the 71st session, we must be accountable; we must have progress on all 17 of the SDGs and that is going to require transforming systems," he said. "It's going to mean overcoming structural and intellectual barriers. We have to implement that agenda. It's there for the good of our children and grandchildren. With it we will have a sustainable place on this planet."

"The 71st session will see progress on all 17 SDGs or be judged a failure in my book and I shall be judged a failure," he told reporters. "I am committed to making that 2030 agenda more than a beautiful pile of words. It is the agenda that is going to change the world."

"Without getting grandiose about it, I do see the agenda as our species survival plan for this planet," Thomson told reporters. "A couple of months ago my country, Fiji, was decimated by a tropical storm of unprecedented severity. The strongest tropical storm to make landfall in the Southern Hemisphere, just wiped out beautiful islands that I know with thousands of people living on them, every home demolished, every school gone, every tree leafless."

"These superstorms are predicted to be more often, less predictable in terms of their course," he said. "They are going in directions we never heard of before. That's us in the Pacific. But go to Africa and see what desertification is doing there."

While he promised to work with Lykketoft and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the 2030 Agenda, he added that following Ban's retirement at year's end he would be "also helping the lady who takes over in January," evoking chuckles from reporters.

While the next secretary-general has not yet been determined there is a strong push for a woman in the post.

He also told reporters he chose the pink tie in honor of the 49 people killed in a gay night club in Orlando in the U.S. state of Florida early Sunday by a young Muslim man. Police said the shooter, who they shot dead, had declared himself allied with the Islamic State (IS) movement.

But, Thomson, declaring himself on the side of the LGBT community, expressed another concern.

"It's horrific stuff, these mass shootings and as revolted as we are of these acts of hate we have to remember that the power of love does prevail in this world." he said. "As a Christian I want to speak out on Islamophobia. On occasions like this, as you look at the incidences of these mass shootings, they are not in the main carried out by young Muslim men."

Listing countries that suffered mass shootings from New Zealand and Norway to the United States, Thomson said, "It's young white males who are the main problem. This is a psychological problem. It's not a religious problem and we should not let this horrific incident in Orlando, stoke the flames of Islamophobia." Enditem