Events

Hungary, together with the Steering Group of the Friends of Water, has organized a discussion with H.E. Csaba Kőrösi, Director for Sustainable Development, Office of the President of Hungary. The former co-chair of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals has shared his views and expectations with regard to the challenges and opportunities related to the implementation of the water dimensions of the SDGs.

The General Assembly considered the current migration and refugee crises at its meetings on 19 and 20 November. Member States agreed in the need for a comprehensive and global approach and supported the Secretary General’s initiative to hold a High-Level Summit on managing large-scale movements of migrants and refugees in September 2016. Aside from the urging humanitarian needs, many states emphasized the need to address the root causes of conflicts together with the importance of fully implementing the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development.

Amid added urgency fuelled by last week’s terrorist attacks in Beirut and Paris, Security Council held its first open debate on security, development and the root causes of conflicts on 17 November 2015. Member States have underlined the fundamental link between security and development and the important role to be played by the Council in the field of conflict prevention.

The President of the Human Rights Council, Mr. Joachim Rücker presented the annual report of the Council to the 70th session of the UN General Assembly on 16 November 2015. In the national statement following the presentation Ambassador Zsolt Hetesy, Deputy Permanent Representative of Hungary to the UN, reiterated Hungary’s strong support to the work of the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms.

Although Member States are still divided on how to move forward with Security Council reform, the majority of them consider the “improved framework document” prepared by the previous Chair as a good basis for text based negotiations and request the Chair to provide a detailed work program for the intergovernmental negotiations (IGN). However, some countries still think that, after more than 10 years, the situation is still not ripe for such a decisive step.