With the global security environment deteriorating, nuclear weapons remain a clear threat to international peace and security, and urgent steps must be taken to resume progress on the long road to total disarmament, speakers said today at the General Assembly’s high-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
With the world suffering from a bad case of “trust deficit disorder”, its leaders must not only advance the welfare of their people, but also promote a reformed, reinvigorated and strengthened multilateral system, Secretary-General António Guterres said today as the General Assembly opened its seventy-third general debate.
Unanimously adopting a political declaration at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit, nearly 100 Heads of State and Government, Ministers, Member States and representatives of civil society today committed to redoubling efforts to build a just, peaceful, prosperous, inclusive, and fair world, as they paid tribute to the late South African President’s celebrated qualities and service to humanity.
Acting on the recommendation of its General Committee, the General Assembly adopted the work programme and agenda for its seventy-third session today, deciding to include the item “Situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine”, and for the second consecutive year, the item “The Responsibility to Protect and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity”.
Against a “bleak” landscape in Yemen marred by a worsening humanitarian crisis, intensified fighting and attacks cutting off vital food and trade routes, the international community must take swift, concerted action to prevent a widespread famine, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs told the Security Council today.
Paying homage to the late Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who passed away on 18 August, Member States, colleagues and family convened in the General Assembly today to remember him as a child of Africa, the first and only United Nations chief to rise through the ranks of the Secretariat, and a leader who steered the Organization during some of its most troubling times.
The Security Council today adopted a resolution aimed at enhancing the performance of peacekeeping personnel at all levels, both at Headquarters and in the field, stressing the need to improve posture, behaviour, leadership, initiative and accountability while effectively promoting international peace and security.
The Security Council expressed its outrage today over the fact that civilians continue to account for the vast majority of casualties in situations of armed conflict, and over its short- and long-term impact on them, from forced displacement to sexual and gender-based violence.
Warning that current trends are jeopardizing the possibility of a two-State solution for Israelis and Palestinians, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council today that the international community must step in to change this grave trajectory.
Speakers in the Security Council today said a relatively stable security situation in Abyei makes it time to consider adjustments to the United Nations peacekeeping force there. Many stressed, however, that changes to its composition and mission must be preceded by thorough consultations with Khartoum and Juba.
