Following the battlefield death of President Idriss Déby Itno on 20 April, senior United Nations officials and representatives of regional groups convened in the General Assembly today to pay tribute to the late Chad leader, many describing him as a valiant defender against the extremist violence spreading relentlessly across Africa’s Sahel region.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the General Assembly tribute to the memory of Idriss Déby Itno, late President of Chad and Head of State, today:
Speakers began discussing the Secretary-General’s proposed $6.47 billion budget to cover the cost of a dozen United Nations peacekeeping missions in 2021/22, while stressing the need to break a four-year deadlock over issues that cut across operations, notably sexual exploitation and abuse, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened the second part of its resumed seventy-fifth session today.
On 28 April, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People urged the Security Council to intervene immediately to ensure that Israel ceases its interference in the preparation and holding of democratic Palestinian elections throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
The General Assembly, adopting four resolutions and one decision this morning, pledged its support for all those affected by a series of devastating recent volcano eruptions on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, designated two annual observance days — one to advocate for more women judges and another to spur global action to prevent drowning — while also holding a debate on the impact of rapid technological change on sustainable development.
The Committee on Information continued its annual session today, as delegates decried the epidemic of disinformation spreading around the world faster than the COVID-19 virus and tasked the United Nations with strengthening multilingual strategic communications to inoculate populations against this harmful trend.
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the General Assembly high-level thematic debate on digital cooperation and connectivity, today:
International cooperation is vital in reducing disaster risks and building resilience as the world is not insured against future tragedies, speakers told the General Assembly during its commemoration of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in 1986.
The massive spread of misinformation and disinformation and surge of hate speech that has coalesced to undermine global public health during the COVID-19 crisis presents an “immediate test case” for the United Nations Department of Global Communications and its vision of a world thriving in peace, dignity and equality, its chief told the Committee on Information today, as delegates began their annual session.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message, as delivered by Ghada Waly, Executive Director of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), to the high-level debate of the General Assembly on “Urban Safety, Security and Good Governance: Making Crime Prevention a Priority for All”, in New York today:
