With nuclear arsenals expanding and arms control safeguards eroding worldwide, speakers today warned of mounting nuclear risks, from tensions in the Middle East and emerging technologies to the enduring consequences of nuclear testing, as the General Assembly held a high-level meeting to mark the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
Twenty-five years after the landmark Durban Declaration was adopted, speakers gathered at United Nations Headquarters today to warn that racism persists, as artificial intelligence and digital platforms risk amplifying discrimination and legacies of slavery and colonialism continue to drive inequality.
Global leaders met on the margins of the General Assembly’s annual general debate to hold a high-level meeting today on addressing the existential threats posed by rising sea levels, as speakers called for urgent action to protect States most severely affected by this phenomenon.
Development is not just about gross domestic product (GDP); it is about equity and human dignity, speakers underscored today at a meeting to mark the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of the Right to Development.
On 2 June 2026, the United Nations General Assembly elected Khalilur Rahman of Bangladesh as President of its eighty-first session, which runs from September 2026 until September 2027.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, as delivered by Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet, to the General Assembly on the Observance of the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, in New York today:
