General Assembly

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the General Assembly and Security Council on the 2020 Report on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, in New York today:

The General Assembly decided on 14 August to postpone a meeting of a committee tasked with drafting a global treaty to combat online crimes, noting with concern current COVID‑19 pandemic restrictions.

The preparation meeting for the 2020 United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 concluded today, with delegates outlining their views on the potential content of the political declaration amid calls that it reflect the historical urgency to improve the state of the world’s waterways.

The world must galvanize collective action to protect and preserve the planet’s major water bodies, experts said today at the opening of a two-day preparatory meeting on the 2020 United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14.

The global climate emergency as well as zero-sum geopolitics, declining development assistance and rising global debt set the backdrop for world leaders as the General Assembly began the annual general debate for its seventy-fourth session, with many calling for solidarity to meet the planet’s most pressing challenges.

Landlocked developing countries still face significant hurdles in trade, infrastructure and financing, and risk falling short of development targets, delegates heard today as they concluded the Midterm Review of the Vienna Programme of Action aimed at helping the world’s 32 inland countries surmount their geographic constraints.

The first ever Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction concluded today with the adoption of a political declaration.

Delegates extolled the long overdue urgency of creating a nuclear‑weapon‑free zone in the Middle East today to quell chronic regional tensions and build an inclusive foundation of peace and security, as the inaugural Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction opened at Headquarters today, without the participation of Israel and the United States.

Some 16 countries pledged a total of $516 million at today’s 2019 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities, representing a considerable increase over 2018 which saw $425.69 million promised.

World leaders gathered at United Nations Headquarters today endorsed a political declaration aimed at protecting small island developing States from the impacts of climate change and accelerating sustainable development in those countries, as the General Assembly held a midterm review of the 10-year action plan, known as the Samoa Pathway, for transforming the lives of people in those islands.