The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, arrived in Cali, Colombia, from New York on Monday night, 28 October, to attend the high-level segment of the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16).
The United Nations’ anti-racism commitment must extend to the Palestinian people, an independent expert told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural) today, underscoring the need to combat deep-rooted racism against them within international policies, media narratives and institutional frameworks.
Backing the Organization’s efforts to retain and build a highly skilled workforce, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today reviewed the complex compensation package meant to fairly reward thousands of United Nations employees — including those working in dangerous locales around the world.
As the Sixth Committee (Legal) began its consideration of the Secretary-General’s report on the status of the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 today (document A/79/174), speakers underscored those instruments’ continued relevance — and the need to respect their provisions — despite the reality that modern war looks different than it did 75 years ago.
The war in Sudan and political uncertainty in South Sudan have stalled progress in political dialogue on the final status of Abyei and border issues, a senior UN official told the Security Council today, as Security Council members urged greater support to be lent to the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in fulfilling its mandate, ahead of its expiration on 14 November.
In Lebanon, the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Public Health opened a new Trauma and Burn Management Unit at the Turkish Trauma and Emergency Hospital in Sidon and a humanitarian convoy successfully delivered one month of medical supplies, medicine and hygiene kits to the Primary Healthcare Centre in Labweh.
The General Assembly today took up the Economic and Social Council’s report, with Member States emphasizing the need to boost efforts toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and concluded the Assembly’s debates on the Human Rights Council and revitalization of the work of the 193 member organ.
Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the twenty-ninth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) Religious Leaders’ Summit, in Baku, Azerbaijan today:
The Security Council received an update today from the Committee monitoring implementation of sanctions targeting individuals and entities involved in actions that threaten Yemen’s peace and stability.
Despite the resource crunch, United Nations communications continue to operate where public interest media are struggling to operate or are prevented from covering the truth, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard as it began its review of questions relating to information.
