“Do not be bystanders to injustice and impunity,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres implored delegates today, speaking candidly as he presented the Organization’s priorities for 2026 to the General Assembly.
Emerging from complex negotiations, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved the United Nations programme budget for 2026, totalling $3.45 billion, as they concluded the main part of their eightieth session. The budget largely reflects the Secretary-General’s proposed 15 per cent reduction in financial resources and a nearly 19 per cent cut in staffing.
Following complex negotiations in its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), the General Assembly today adopted the United Nations programme budget for 2026 — totalling $3.45 billion — as it concluded the main part of its eightieth session.
The General Assembly today appointed former Iraqi President Barham Ahmed Salih as the new head of the United Nations refugee agency and adopted 35 texts emerging from its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, delivered by Elizabeth Spehar, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, to the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the anniversary of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, in New York today:
The General Assembly today adopted, without a vote, the outcome document of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society.
Ministers from around the world today underscored the role of the UN in creating a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented digital future as the General Assembly took stock of the implementation of commitments made at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
The General Assembly took action on dozens of draft resolutions and decisions emerging from its Third (Social, Humanitarian, Cultural), Second (Economic, Financial) and Sixth (Legal) Committees today, defying slowdowns caused by protracted procedural wrangling that threatened to reshape the day’s proceedings.
By a recorded vote of 139 in favour to 12 against with 19 abstentions, the General Assembly today adopted a resolution welcoming the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on Israel’s obligations in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations, other international organizations and third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
As the General Assembly took up a series of resolutions regarding humanitarian and disaster relief assistance, the annual omnibus text on strengthening the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance was withdrawn — after three decades of consensus adoption — as delegates expressed divisions about the role of the UN in humanitarian work, and what that work should include.
