Final Press Conference by General Assembly President - 73rd Session

The final press conference by Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa, President of the 73rd session of the  General Assembly.
Ms. Espinosa wraps up her Presidency before to hand it over to Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President-elect of the 74th session of the General Assembly.
The outgoing President of the General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, on Monday (16 Sept) looked back over her yearlong tenure and ahead to continuing her commitment to the core issues on the global agenda. Expressing her strong faith in the value of the United Nations and in particular its General Assembly, she pledged to continue advancing the international community’s shared goals for a better world.
The General Assembly President extolled the value of dialogue through the United Nations. She said, “We need to have a conversation. We need to have a dialogue. We need to take wise and informed decisions and the policy-making and the norm-setting that our parliament does, which is our General Assembly, happens because of dialogue.”
Asked about the imposition of sanctions, she said, “It is clearly established that unilateral sanctions are not part of the scope of the United Nations, and unilateral sanctions do affect the right to development for peoples and their ability to enjoy all the benefits of development. Often, such sanctions polarize or hinder agreements or consensus and sustained peace processes in some cases.”
Looking ahead to her future assignments, she pledged to continue advancing the ideals of the United Nations.
During the 73rd Session, the Assembly adopted more than 340 resolutions ranging over 178 agenda items – the highest number since 2001. Among the highlights were support for the global campaign against plastic, high-level events on Women in Power, and work to advance the multilateral agenda.