Following fraught deliberations on its reappointment of the standing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for another four-year term, the General Assembly today also adopted several draft texts concerning sustainable development, peace and international law.
At today’s Security Council open debate on the peaceful settlement of disputes, speakers called for greater use of the UN’s diplomatic toolbox — including mediation, fact-finding and early action under Chapter VI of the world body’s Charter — stressing that diplomacy is the only path forward with Council members leading by example.
The best chapters of the Economic and Social Council are still being written, that organ heard today as Nepal handed over the presidency to Algeria and a vision of a leaner, more substance-oriented Council.
Countries and communities, especially in resource-rich Africa, must benefit most from the minerals in their own backyards, speakers affirmed today at a Security Council debate on “Natural resources governance: the foundation of peace, security and prosperity”.
Syria’s political transition has reached an important institutional milestone with the establishment of a People’s Assembly and Constitutional Supreme Court, senior UN officials told the Security Council today, warning that continued insecurity, Israeli military activity and a severely underfunded humanitarian response threaten the country’s delicate progress.
As experts warned that road traffic crashes have become a silent pandemic and called on the international community to build transport systems that put people first, a text in which Governments around the world committed to improve road safety was put to a vote in the General Assembly today.
Awash in gang violence, scarred by past foreign interventions and long paralysed politically, Haiti now stands at a crossroads between a return to order and tipping into total chaos, the Security Council heard today, as a range of senior United Nations officials provided their latest updates.
In a high-level meeting to review implementation of the New Urban Agenda 10 years after its adoption, speakers in the General Assembly today both underscored the connection between urban policy and sustainable development and urged renewed action towards both given flagging global progress.
The high-level political forum on sustainable development concluded its 2026 session today, adopting a ministerial declaration, as amended, calling for transformative, equitable, innovative and coordinated action to accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals.
The International Criminal Court has made major strides in investigating crimes committed recently in Sudan’s Darfur region — including linking grave crimes against civilians directly with the perpetrators — the Security Council heard today, as its deputy prosecutor described a “breakthrough” marked by her Office’s expanded cooperation and its accelerated interviews with witnesses.
