Twenty‑five years after the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women, global societies need an unqualified push to meet the elusive promise of gender equality that had brought millions to Beijing in 1995 to demand action, Secretary‑General António Guterres told a High‑level General Assembly meeting to review progress.
In progress at UNHQ
General Assembly
Mayerlín Vergara Pérez from Colombia is the 2020 laureate of the Nansen Refugee Award, the UN refugee agency announced today. The Caribbean Regional Coordinator for the Renacer Foundation has spent more than two decades helping the non-profit pursue eradication of sexual exploitation and abuse of children and adolescents.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the High‑Level Meeting on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held today:
The COVID‑19 pandemic is a wake‑up call to the world to halt an alarming decline in its rich biological diversity, but it is also a unique opportunity to put bold and ambitious environmental action at the heart of national post‑coronavirus economic recovery strategies as the international community strives to fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals, speakers said today as the General Assembly hosted the first‑ever global summit ever dedicated to biodiversity.
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed’s closing remarks at the Biodiversity Summit, held today:
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the United Nations Biodiversity Summit, held today:
The COVID‑19 pandemic has been a test, demonstrating that multilateral cooperation is the key to overcoming global challenges, the President of the General Assembly said today at the conclusion of the seventy‑fifth session’s unprecedented general debate, as Member States — largely via pre‑recorded video statements — overwhelmingly stressed the need for collective action to tackle common threats and “vaccine multilateralism” to combat the coronavirus.
Undaunted by the global forces shaping their societies and challenging their very existence, the leaders of small countries — which comprise about half of the United Nations membership — took centre stage in the General Assembly today, reminding the world of their service to bygone power structures and outlining visions for progressive cooperation that favours their ingenuity and mettle.
Climate change continues to pose an existential threat to many small island developing States, even as the coronavirus pandemic presents an immediate crisis, world leaders said today as they beamed their pre‑recorded messages into a socially distanced seventy‑fifth General Assembly hall.
Fears that the COVID‑19 pandemic is reversing hard‑fought development gains, particularly in Africa, were conveyed today with 33 Heads of State and Government taking the digital stage as the General Assembly continued its seventy‑fifth session under unprecedented conditions.