Issues before 74th United Nations General Assembly

What you need to know:

  • Admitted. Uganda joined the UN soon after independence and was admitted on October 25, 1962, at a colourful ceremony at UN headquarters, as the 110th member state of the world organisation. The ceremony was attended by then prime minister Apolo Milton Obote and Mr John Kakonge and Apolo Kironde.

On Tuesday, September 17, the 74th regular session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 74) will convene at the United Nations headquarters in New York, USA. The UN General Assembly is the nearest forum to a world parliament at which all countries, big and small, rich and poor, powerful and weak, sit together under one roof to discuss global, regional and national issues peacefully and reasonably rationally.

According to a source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ugandan delegation will be led by Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, which is just as well because Foreign minister of Uganda is, according to US media, a wanted man by New York Police, a claim the Foreign Affairs minister denies.

On June 4, the UN General Assembly elected Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, the permanent representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, president of UNGA 74. Ambassador Muhammad-Bande will be assisted by 21 vice presidents elected from five regional groups, namely, Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Western Europe and others group which includes Canada and USA. The vice presidents from Africa are Cape Verde, Congo, Ethiopia, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.

During the second week, the UN secretary general will convene a Climate Action Summit on September 23 while UNGA will on the same day hold a high-level meeting on universal health coverage. The general debate of UNGA 74 opens in the morning of Tuesday, September 24, and the theme of the debate is “Galvanising multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion.”
In the afternoon of September 24 and the whole of September 25, UNGA will convene a meeting of the UN High-level political forum on sustainable development.

Issues before UNGA 74
The General Assembly has a long agenda which consists of 172 items covering a wide range of issues including political, economic, social, humanitarian, legal and financial matters.

The following items should be of interest to Uganda: item 12: Improving global road safety; item 13: Decade to roll back malaria in developing countries, particularly Africa; item 15: Culture of peace; item 20: Globalisation and interdependence; item 22: Eradication of poverty and other development issues; item 24: Agriculture development, food security and nutrition; item 26: Advancement of women.

Forty years ago this month, I was a member of the Uganda delegation to the 34th regular session of the UN General Assembly led by president Godfrey Binaisa (RIP) who made an eloquent and passionate speech at the plenary of UNGA. Binaisa replaced Yusuf Lule as president in June 1979 and had been Uganda’s head of State for barely four months.

At a personal level, in 1979 I was first secretary at the Permanent Mission of Uganda to the UN and Uganda’s representative on the Second (Economic) Committee of UNGA. Ambassador Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania was elected president of the 34th session of UNGA and he did Africa proud by a stellar performance.

This being the first UNGA following the overthrow of Gen Idi Amin, there was so much goodwill for Uganda which translated into many pledges and promises of assistance from several countries and international organisations, but many of these did not materialise, partly due to political instability which bedevilled Uganda for many years.

Uganda joined the UN soon after independence and was admitted on October 25, 1962, at a colourful ceremony at UN headquarters, as the 110th member state of the world organisation. The ceremony was attended, inter alia, by then prime minister Apolo Milton Obote, Mr John Kakonge and ambassador Apolo Kironde. Uganda has been a loyal member which is committed to the lofty ideals and principles of the United Nations.

Against this background, it’s a disgrace, embarrassing and indefensible that Uganda owes thousands of US dollars of arrears arising from non-payment of assessed contributions to several UN organisations. I appeal to government to urgently honour its obligations to all international organisations whose support for Uganda since 1962 is enormous and much more than what our country pays as membership fees.

The United Nations has stood by Uganda during good and difficult times and, in my opinion, the organisation deserves the full support of the people and government of Uganda.

Mr Acemah is a political scientist and retired career diplomat.
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