{"id":26446,"date":"2014-09-19T20:32:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T12:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=26446"},"modified":"2014-09-19T16:51:54","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T08:51:54","slug":"un-general-assembly-president-begins-year-long-term-during-period-of-tumult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/09\/19\/un-general-assembly-president-begins-year-long-term-during-period-of-tumult\/","title":{"rendered":"UN General Assembly president begins year long term during period of \u2018tumult\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ugandan<\/a>
Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa with Henry Bellingham. Photo from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office<\/a> \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sam Kutesa began his first day as president of the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday by describing the current year as \u201ctumultuous\u201d and the year ahead as \u201cmomentous\u201d for the United Nations as it marks its 70th anniversary.<\/p>\n

The Ugandan foreign minister said his priority will be to ensure agreement on new U.N. goals to fight poverty and preserve the environment.<\/p>\n

Kutesa said next week\u2019s ministerial meeting of the 193-nation\u00a0world\u00a0body, where some 140\u00a0world\u00a0leaders are expected, is happening at a volatile time, when the\u00a0world\u00a0is beset by poverty, hunger, persistent unemployment, armed conflicts, faltering education systems and climate change.<\/p>\n

Kutesa, who will preside over the meeting, also cited Ebola, which has been spreading in West Africa and has already claimed some 2,400 lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust in recent months, we have seen health systems overwhelmed in the face of new, dire threats like Ebola; while new challenges to peace and security have emerged with alarming frequency, including a rise in polarization, extremism and terrorist activities,\u201d Kutesa said. \u201cTo say we are living in tumultuous times would seem an understatement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kutesa, a wealthy businessman and longtime member of parliament, takes over from John Ashe of Antigua, just as the 69th session of the General Assembly gets underway. The presidential post is largely ceremonial but carries prestige and rotates annually by region.<\/p>\n

The June election of Kutesa to the helm of the General Assembly drew controversy, in part because rights activists said he supported life sentences for people who are convicted of engaging in gay sex.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0news\u00a0conference that followed Kutesa\u2019s opening remarks to U.N. diplomats, a reporter asked about nongovernmental organizations\u2019 reports that address human rights violations in Uganda.<\/p>\n

Kutesa responded by saying that Uganda\u2019s courts were independent while referring to the country\u2019s Anti-Homosexuality Act, which passed its Parliament earlier this year and drew widespread international condemnation before it was overturned by Uganda\u2019s constitutional Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these (reports) have become an industry,\u201d Kutesa said. \u201cLet me leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch reported in May that Uganda\u2019s anti-gay legislation triggered \u201ca surge in human rights violations,\u201d including arrests, police abuse and evictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam Kutesa began his first day as president of the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday by describing the current year as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-w","mauthors-trenton-daniel","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}