Delegates of the Sixth Committee (Legal), concluding their consideration on diplomatic protection, today discussed a wide variety of issues ranging from challenges arising from their relations with the host country, along with its related report, to deliberating the use of sanctions as a tool for maintaining international peace and security under the Charter of the United Nations, following the Special Committee on the Charter’s presentation of its report.

It is about time for the United Nations – the world’s largest multilateral body - to be headed by a woman for the first time since its founding nearly 80 years ago. This was the overwhelming position of delegates today at the General Assembly as the 193-member organ observed its annual consideration of the revitalization of the body’s work. They also addressed concerning aspects of the Assembly’s functioning and relationship with other organs.

Meeting on the heels of the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 31 October, Security Council members today renewed their calls for de-escalation, dialogue and a return to unity within the 15 nation organ, as speakers sparred over the imposition of sanctions and the real source of security threats in the Korean Peninsula.

The General Assembly would condemn in the strongest possible terms the use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances as unacceptable and an international law violation, and express its strong conviction that those responsible for their use must and should be held accountable, according to one of six drafts on mass destruction weapons approved today by the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security).

Politicians mobilizing hostile rhetoric against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) persons subject them to violence and hamper their rightful political participation, a human rights expert told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.

On 17 October 2024, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2140 (2014) held informal consultations to hear a briefing by the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in accordance with paragraph 5 of resolution 2664 (2022) on the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Yemen.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks to the Member States briefing on the outcomes of the Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, in New York today:

In West and Central Africa, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that the region continues to experience catastrophic flooding, with more than 7 million people impacted across 16 countries. Chad, Niger, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been the most affected.

On Sunday, 20 October, the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, arrived in Addis Ababa from New York, to take part in the eighth African Union–United Nations annual conference.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, departed Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, shortly after midnight on 22 October.  He arrived in Kazan, in the Russian Federation, early on Tuesday evening to attend the sixteenth BRICS Summit.