Roundup: Annual General Debate of 71st UN General Assembly session winds up

The last scheduled speaker, from the small West African country of Togo, yielded the dark green marble podium on Monday to end the General Debate of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, where all 193 member states had the opportunity to talk over the past week.

There was almost a collective sigh of relief from within UN Headquarters situated along the East River in New York City. The marathon, week-long event was over, security restrictions relaxed and traffic was back to its usual pace.

There were no major incidents, diplomatically or security related, although there were terrorist bombings only a few kilometers away on the even of the big annual gathering in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of New York.

But Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji, president of the General Assembly (PGA), delivered a rebuke on decorum in the General Assembly Hall.

The six days of speeches began on Sept. 20 opening up the familiar rostrum in the vast General Assembly Hall to an orderly parade of heads of state and governments, royalty, vice presidents and foreign ministers, with Sunday off.

The final session ended in mid-afternoon after a diplomatic volley-ball-like exchange between India and Pakistan on their long-running dispute over Kashmir during the usual end-of-session "right of reply."

Representatives of the 17 nations listed to speak Monday ranked as ministers and chiefs-of-delegations, relatively low on the diplomatic scale compared to big names like British Prime Minister Theresa May, U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Remarks on the closing day echoed those of the earlier five days: concern for Syria and the Middle East in general, conflicts in Africa and southeast Asia, refugees, migrants, climate change, gender equality, UN, and specifically Security Council, reform and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 2030 agenda.

Ambassador Durga Prasad Bhattarai of Nepal, a vice president of the assembly who is acting as president, read out the actual closing remarks of the General Debate from Thomson.

Thomson was accompanying UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Cartagena, Colombia for the official agreement signing ceremony Monday between the government and rebels, ending nearly half a century of conflict.

The annual General Debate served up "a portrait of the current state of our world, painted for us by the heads of State, heads of government and ministers of our members," said Thomson in the remarks read out for him by Bhattarai.

"Over the past 6 days, we have heard ... about your priorities and your concerns as well as your hopes for peace, human rights and sustainable development," Thomson said. "Many leaders expressed their commitment to implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development."

"I am greatly encouraged by the fact that so many member states have already embedded the SDGs into their plans and policies," he said. "The task at hand is implementation of the SDGs, and I was encouraged by the many side-events last week that emphasized this need for action."

"Wednesday's parallel meeting (Sept. 21) on Anti-Microbial Resistance stressed the urgent need for a global response to address this critical issue, the impact of which threatens millions of lives and progress across the SDGs," Thomson said.

"The plight of refugees, internally displaced persons and migrants right across our world was a focus of last week's deliberations, with the adoption of the New York Declaration at last Monday's Summit (Sept. 19) being an important step forward," he said.

The PGA said the current global humanitarian and refugee crisis "has its roots in a number of ongoing conflicts in our world, and has been exacerbated by the impacts of climate change."

"Many member states called for a resumption of the Middle East Peace Process in order to find a lasting solution" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said. "They also stressed the need to solve other conflicts and to address the spread of violent extremism and terrorism."

Thomson also said "numerous" speakers "stressed the pressing need for reform of the Security Council, while many others highlighted the critical importance of advancing disarmament.

"Your engagement, and that of the many stakeholders that joined us this week, demonstrates once again the unique nature of the General Debate," the PGA said.

"It is the embodiment of the equality of nations and provides Member States with an opportunity to advance our collective pursuit of solutions to global challenges through dialogue and cooperation."

Thomson apparently intends to run a tight ship.

In closing out his speech today, the PGA said he was "concerned that the standard of decorum during the General Debate appears to be slipping -- with high levels of noise in the Hall and its surrounds; with the allocated speaking time often ignored; with low attendance by delegations as the Debate progresses; and with the proliferation of mandated and other events happening simultaneously to the General Debate."

Thomson promised to look into the problem of competing events.

Getting back to business in the Hall after Obama's address, he repeatedly banged his gavel for quiet and called for UN Safety and Security officers to hush or help crowds gathered on the side to exit.

He even called out a delegate talking on a mobile telephone in an aisle directly in front of him, pointing the gavel at the apparently embarrassed individual. Endit