António Guterres was addressing the Council of The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the world’s largest regional security body in terms of landmass and population which currently includes China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and new member Iran. The UN has had a cooperation agreement with the Asia-focused SCO...
Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report, from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the UN Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO), warns that current efforts are not enough to achieve the SDG 7 on time. There has been...
The aim is to reinvigorate international engagement around key issues, such as human rights, in particular women’s and girls’ rights, inclusive governance, countering terrorism and drug trafficking. “The meeting is intended to achieve a common understanding within the international community on how to engage with the Taliban on these issues,”...
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called the Public Order Bill “deeply troubling legislation”, after it completed its passage through parliament on Wednesday. “It is especially worrying that the law expands the powers of the police to stop and search individuals, including without suspicion; defines some of the...
“In a number of countries, key sectors are facing labour shortages, because people are increasingly reluctant to engage in work which is not properly, adequately, fairly valued by society and rewarded in terms of better pay and improved working conditions,” said Manuela Tomei, Assistant Director-General for Governance, Rights and Dialogue at the International Labour Organization...
On the heels of recent news reports about Canada and the United States shooting down several flying objects, including an alleged Chinese ‘spy balloon’, inside their borders, WMO points out that weather balloons provide just a tiny fraction of the millions of observations gathered worldwide daily. On Thursday, US President...
The conference is being billed as a major biodiversity COP, because it is expected to lead to the adoption of a new Global Biodiversity Framework, guiding actions worldwide through 2030, to preserve and protect our natural resources. The delegates and organizers will be hoping that this framework will have a...
In his message, Mr. Guterres noted that greater public-private sector collaboration is needed, in order to develop strategies that benefit persons with disabilities, who should also be involved in their development. The UN chief pointed to the UN’s internal efforts to make the Organization more accessible to persons with disabilities,...
Ambassadors and UN leaders recently reaffirmed their support for the Organization’s Resident Coordinators, who lead teams servicing more than 160 countries and territories. These 130 senior officials are the Secretary-General’s designated representatives in the field and coordinate UN operational activities for development. They are critical to achieving the Sustainable Development...
“We have advanced the substantive programme of the [Economic and Social] Council (ECOSOC) and initiated concrete foundational action to implement the decisions of the General Assembly” in resolutions on strengthening the HLPF and ECOSOC, said the body’s president, Collen Kelapile. Urgency and ambition Although the COVID pandemic continues, “we are...
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