Ending attacks on medical workers, facilities and transports in conflict hotspots — including by several of its own permanent members — must remain an urgent priority for the Security Council, speakers emphasized today as the body convened to consider hospital bombings in embattled Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
Despite yet another delay in Somalia’s planned elections — the first national polls held since 1969 — the country remained committed to advancing hard-won democratic progress and electing a new President on 30 November, the Security Council heard this morning as it was briefed by top officials from the United Nations, the African Union and the Somali Government.
Spotlighting examples of persistent inequality around the globe – from skewed banking practices to entrenched poverty to lingering systemic racism – world leaders participating in the final day of the General Assembly’s seventy-first annual debate nevertheless expressed optimism that efforts to promote equitable growth, peace and prosperity would prevail.
The only way to ensure the world was safe from nuclear weapons was to eliminate them entirely, speakers said at a high-level meeting of the General Assembly held to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
As the United States and the Russian Federation traded accusations in the Security Council today of misconduct in their handling of the crisis in Syria over the past two weeks, the United Nations top official addressing the conflict urged them to salvage their recent cessation of hostilities agreement before all hope was lost.
While the United Nations had been founded on the belief that States could solve problems collectively, the time had come to move in a new direction, the General Assembly heard today, as speakers underlined the need to embrace a new era of engagement based on common needs, innovative ideas and mutual respect.
Marking the twentieth anniversary of the opening for signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the Security Council today called for the instrument’s early entry into force and for all States to refrain from and maintain their moratoriums on nuclear-weapon tests or any other nuclear explosions.
With 65 million people displaced and on the move, several European countries discussed myriad ways to deal with the unprecedented phenomenon by defeating terrorism, bringing human traffickers to justice, while others called on Member States to make the better choice between engagement and isolation as the General Assembly continued its annual debate today.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development had unprecedented potential to fulfil the aspirations that had motivated the Declaration on the Right to Development, which remained critical to the present day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly today, as it convened a high-level meeting to commemorate the Declaration’s thirtieth anniversary.
The General Assembly moved into day three of its general debate today with a push to elevate the Palestinian legal and political leadership in the world body so as to allow for their chairing of committees and international groups, the ability to sponsor resolutions, and to proclaim 2017 as the International Year to end the Israeli Occupation.
