AS DELIVERED

Mr. Chairman, thank you for running an effective and smooth process in bringing about adoption of these important resolutions. The United States continues to strongly support UN efforts to protect and advance core shared principles including respecting freedom of expression for members of the press, international cooperation on reducing barriers to access of information, and strengthening communications capacity in developing nations. As such, we maintain our strong support for efforts to facilitate the transparency of UN operations and activities.

The United States is a leading proponent of all of these efforts and so we once again support this annual resolution which reflects our shared priorities.

However, we must once again disassociate from consensus on paragraph 49 of the resolution entitled “United Nations public information policies and activities.” As the United States has not participated in the UN process to negotiate the Global Compact on Migration, GCM, and will not endorse this instrument, we will not accept any commitments or outcomes stemming from the GCM, nor can we support UN efforts, including the proposed UN Department of Public Information campaign, to promote the Compact and prejudice Member State views on the same.

Thank you for your time.