The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday, 11 November, to attend the twenty-ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, also known as COP29.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the United Nations Foundation’s Leadership Awards Dinner, in New York today:

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural) concluded its session today by approving seven draft resolutions — including measures aimed at eliminating racism and addressing the world drug problem — bringing the total number of those texts forwarded to the General Assembly for adoption to 49.

In Sudan, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports that since the war began 19 months ago there, the first domestic UN flight travelled today from Port Sudan to Kassala. The WFP-managed flights will now offer regular flights to transport aid workers and light humanitarian cargo from Port Sudan to Kassala once a week.

“Syria remains in a profound and active state of war and division,” Najat Rochdi, Deputy Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria told the Security Council today, during its monthly briefing on the political and humanitarian situation in the country, as speakers echoed her calls for the protection of civilians, a de-escalation of hostilities and re-engagement in dialogue towards a long-overdue political settlement of the nearly 14 years of war and conflict.

On 8 November 2024, in pursuance of paragraph 5 of resolution 2664 (2022), a representative of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), on behalf of the Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2653 (2022) concerning Haiti on the delivery of life-saving assistance and other activities that support essential human needs in Haiti.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message on paternity and child support to children born out of sexual exploitation and abuse, today:

Concluding its work for the current session, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) approved five texts today, four of which were draft resolutions concerning Israel and Palestine, which took recorded votes.

With extreme levels of gang violence continuing to erode state authority in Haiti and no improvement in sight, a senior United Nations official urged Member States to boost their contributions to the acutely under-resourced Multinational Security Support Mission at an open briefing held by the Security Council to discuss a proposal to transform that Support mission — authorized by the 15-member body in 2023 to assist the Haitian National Police — into a UN peacekeeping operation.

With another two vetoes cast this week in the Security Council — one on a cessation of hostilities in Sudan and one on a Gaza ceasefire — the importance of the “veto initiative” is now “even more profound”, the General Assembly heard today.