Delegates stressed the need to address barriers to women’s human rights and empowerment, including female genital mutilation, obstetric fistula, gaps in female political representation and limited access to economic production, as the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) continued its debate today on the advancement of women.

The world is in the midst of multidimensional macroeconomic crises and urgently requires reform of the international financial system to ensure COVID‑19 recovery and sustainable development, United Nations experts and Member States warned today as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) took up the issue.

The persistent question of Western Sahara took centre stage in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today as petitioners from both sides presented differing positions regarding that Non-Self-Governing Territory’s relationship with Morocco.

The United Nations is concerned about the safety of journalists in Myanmar. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as of this week, at least 170 journalists have been arrested since the military takeover of that country in February of 2021.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the Group of Twenty (G20) Parliamentary Speakers Summit, in Jakarta today:

A holistic approach, combining enhanced regulatory policies and law enforcement mechanisms, greater supply chain transparency, support for counter‑terrorism frameworks, as well as cross-border coordination and information-sharing, is required to clamp down on the illicit trafficking of natural resources and its fuelling of terrorism and violent extremism by armed groups and terrorists in African continent, speakers said during a debate on the issue, one of the signature events of Gabon’s presidency.

The new Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations, Leonor Zalabata Torres, presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the discussions in advance of the Twenty-seventh Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, today:

The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the attack perpetrated on 3 October against the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) near Koui through an explosive device, following which three peacekeepers from Bangladesh were killed and one wounded.