Along with the escalating climate crisis, the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing vaccine inequity captured the attention of world leaders gathered for the General Assembly’s seventy-sixth session this September.

The resumed thirty-first Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, presided by Holger Martinsen (Argentina), was held at United Nations Headquarters on 8 December.

NEW YORK, 24 November (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) ― The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf held its fifty‑third session at United Nations Headquarters from 6 October to 23 November.

The thirty-first Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was held at Headquarters from 21 to 25 June.

In a year rocked by the novel coronavirus that infected 84 million people, devastated economies and laid bare humanity’s starkest inequalities, the Security Council — working through peacekeepers, aid workers and logistics experts on the ground — pressed forward with its mandate to protect civilians and build peace in the world’s most complex conflict zones.

The COVID-19 pandemic cast a long shadow over what should have been a celebratory seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly, forcing Member States to adopt unprecedented working methods as world leaders grappled with the far-reaching consequences of the worst global health crisis in a century on top of long-standing issues ranging from climate change and poverty eradication to human rights and arms control.

The resumed in‑person plenary meeting of the thirtieth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was held at United Nations Headquarters on 9 December 2020, concluding all the items on the agenda of the thirtieth Meeting.  The background press release can be found here:  www.un.org/press/en/2020/sea2128.doc.htm.

The in-person plenary meeting of the thirtieth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was held, under strict COVID-19 preventive and risk-mitigation measures, at Headquarters from 24 to 26 August.

The Economic and Social Council’s high-level segment concluded on 17 July with calls to strengthen multilateralism and forge an inclusive path to recover better from the COVID-19 pandemic, yet failed to adopt a Ministerial Declaration approved at the closing of its 2020 high-level political forum session, held from 7 to 17 July via videoconference due to coronavirus-related restrictions at United Nations Headquarters.

Addressing what has become the worst human crisis in decades requires a new dynamic to overcome the widespread negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Economic and Social Council’s President said at its 2020 high-level political forum on sustainable development, held from 7 to 17 July via videoconference due to coronavirus-related restrictions at United Nations Headquarters.