Secretary General Dr. June Soomer participated in a series of summits this week at the United Nations, culminating with the Meeting for the High-Level Review of the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway. The meeting focused on various aspects of global efforts to combat climate change. It also centred on the needs and expectations of Small Island Developing States, those most vulnerable and least responsible for climate change.
Intervention after intervention, there was recognition of the need to acknowledge and right the wrong of small states paying the big price for climate change. From various Caribbean Prime Ministers to the UN SG and actor Jason Momoa - the call was the same - island states must receive the help and attention they deserve. Small State exceptionalism, as PM Ralph Gonsalves of Saint Vincent & the Grenadines called it, must be addressed through a rules-based, juridically-founded and non-discretionary system of support. SG Soomer also participated in:
-SG’s Climate Action Summit -HLM on Universal Health Coverage
-General debate
-HLPF on Sustainable Development
-HL Commemorative event on Rights of the Child
-HL Dialogue on Financing for Development
-Commemoration of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
-HLM on SIDs
31 Oct 2019
01 Nov 2019
30 Oct 2019
28 Sep 2019
