Plenary

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ briefing to the General Assembly meeting on the priorities of the Organization for 2025, in New York today:

Runaway conflicts, widening inequalities, the intensifying climate crisis and the unchecked rise of technology were among the pressing global challenges highlighted by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as he presented the Organization’s priorities for 2025 to the General Assembly today.

During the first three months of its seventy-ninth session, the General Assembly plenary adopted landmark resolutions, including one demanding Israel end its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory within 12 months and another outlining a blueprint for future generations, while also holding sessions deploring the Security Council’s failure to address the crises in Gaza and Sudan.

Concluding the main part of its seventy-ninth session today, the General Assembly adopted a 10-year action programme to address the unique challenges faced by landlocked developing countries, a historic cybercrime convention and the $3.72 billion United Nations budget for 2025.

Acting on the recommendations of its Second Committee (Economic and Financial), the General Assembly today adopted 39 resolutions — eight by recorded vote — and two decisions on topics ranging from Palestinian natural resources, entrepreneurship and small island States to international trade, adverse climate impacts and global tax cooperation.

The General Assembly adopted 47 draft resolutions and one decision recommended by its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, covering a wide range of issues, from countering violence against children and combating the glorification of Nazism to protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and ensuring the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

The General Assembly today adopted four resolutions, including one on oceans and the law of the sea, with delegates from small island developing States emphasizing the importance of preserving the ocean and equipping future generations to live in harmony with this critical, life-sustaining resource.

The General Assembly today underscored the importance of the ocean in sustaining life on Earth for present and future generations, underlining the need to maintain and promote a healthy, sustainable and rules-based global marine life as it considered the Secretary-General’s related report (document A/79/340).

Concerned about worsening global humanitarian and economic crises, natural and man-made disasters, threats to international peace and security and the effects of climate change on forced migration and food production, the General Assembly today took action on several resolutions addressing these issues.

The General Assembly today adopted several resolutions on a variety of topics, including one stressing the need to return cultural property to countries of origin, with Member States emphasizing the importance of adhering to regulations safeguarding such artefacts, amid an unprecedented increase in trafficking and attacks against them during armed conflict.