SAINT GEORGE’S, Grenada, 3 May – Participants expressed diverging views today over the manner in which Charter principles of the United Nations such as self-determination and territorial integrity apply to Western Sahara, the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) and Gibraltar, as the Caribbean Regional Seminar on Decolonization entered its second day.
In progress at UNHQ
General Assembly
SAINT GEORGE’S, Grenada, 2 May – Opening the Caribbean Regional Seminar on Decolonization today, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for renewed commitment to accelerating efforts to end colonialism by 2020.
The Department of Global Communications is counting on Member States to help it accelerate the pace of modernization and improve the ways it informs the world about the work of the United Nations in an era of challenge for multilateralism, the Committee on Information heard today.
As the Committee on Information entered the second day of its forty-first session today, speakers took opposing stances on the Special Information Programme on the Question of Palestine — which the Department of Global Communications oversees — while also spotlighting the potential negative impact of fake news on international relations.
The newly named Department of Global Communications is instilling a culture of collaboration and innovation and undertaking measures to create broader public engagement needed to tackle global challenges, the Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications told the Committee on Information today as it opened its forty-first session.
The General Assembly today held a multi-stakeholder hearing as part of the preparatory process for its high-level meeting on universal health coverage, addressing the theme of “moving together to build a healthier world”.
The Special Committee on Decolonization will hold the 2019 Caribbean Regional Seminar in Saint George’s, Grenada, from 2 to 4 May with a view to accelerating action in implementation of the third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2011-2020).
While the world needs multilateralism more than ever to address increasingly complex challenges, its institutions — including the United Nations — must embrace reforms in order to be effective and relevant, speakers said today as the General Assembly concluded its inaugural high-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace.
Warning against unilateral moves, speakers called for reinvigorated multilateral responses to the contemporary challenges facing the international community, including climate change, geopolitical tensions, terrorism, poverty and inequalities, as the General Assembly today held a commemorative meeting observing the United Nations International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace.
The highest-ranking official of the United Nations mechanism that acts as the central repository of information and evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Syria described progress made collecting and documenting evidence, while also stressing the immediate and urgent need to prepare for justice, as the General Assembly took up the latest report on the matter today.