16 September 2008: Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, a former
foreign minister of Nicaragua and the new President of the UN General Assembly
(UNGA), opened its 63rd session with a call to democratize the UN in order to
deal more effectively with the world’s most pressing problems, including the
impact of climate change, widespread hunger and poverty, and unequal access to
water.

He noted that the session’s main objective would be to democratize the
UN and ensure the Assembly has the ability to fulfil its mandate. The President
added that the UNGA would focus during this session on examining the root
causes of major problems, such as the current food crisis and its effect on
hunger and poverty.
The previous day, outgoing UNGA President Srgjan Kerim
closed the Assembly’s 62nd session, noting that while Security Council reform
had been the most difficult issue of the session, climate change and the
Millennium Development Goals had been “the closest to his heart.” He recalled
the commitments by member States to negotiate within the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change to fix the common goals for future greenhouse gas
emission targets after the Kyoto Protocol expires.
He also highlighted the
importance of the discussion of public-private partnerships to tackle climate
change, underlining that this challenge cannot be resolved solely by
intergovernmental negotiations. [UN
press release (new President’s speech)] [UN
press release (outgoing President’s speech)]