UN News Centre

An independent UN human rights expert has called on Mali’s coup leaders to release former government officials, who have been detained for more than a month. 

The President of Sri Lanka has highlighted the success of his country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring the importance of a well-coordinated approach, underpinned by robust local health care system, to contain the disease. 

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations needs to prove “multilateralism delivers”, the President of Indonesia has said, telling world leaders, gathered virtually “all of us bear the responsibility” to further strengthen the global Organization. 

In a virtual address to the UN General Assembly’s annual general debate, the President of Rwanda on Tuesday noted that while milestones on gender, climate and development have demonstrated the achievements of multilateral action, they also serve to remind “how much remains to be done”.

Facing the coronavirus pandemic, the global community is at an inflection point, which should spur fresh thinking about broader international cooperation and way to ensure a sustainable and fair future for all, Iván Duque, the President of Colombia told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. 

The coronavirus pandemic requires cooperation between nations and should serve as an “electric shock” to wake up the United Nations, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed on Tuesday during the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, held virtually this year.

Addressing the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called on the international community to strengthen cooperation on a range of pressing issues and praised the UN’s successes, particularly through adherence to the world body’s Charter, in ensuring the post-war peace. 

This year’s International Day of Sign Languages is being commemorated in the midst of a pandemic that has “disrupted and upended lives everywhere”, including those of the deaf community, the UN chief said on Wednesday.

Iran is not a “bargaining chip” to be factored into elections and domestic policy in the United States, the country’s President, Hassan Rouhani has said, stressing that the overall era of dominance and hegemony by a few world powers is “long over.” 

The President of the Republic of Korea has signaled his country’s support to developing nations during the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes ensuring they have equitable access to any vaccines against the deadly new coronavirus.  

Despite the continent-wide approach taken by African countries to combat COVID-19, the pandemic has set back their development aspirations, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

As the world enters the threshold of the century’s third decade, it continues to face “emerging and unprecedented challenges”, Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, told the opening session of the UN High-level General Debate on Tuesday.

The assaults by security forces in Myanmar on villages in Rakhine state “need to stop”, and a ceasefire should be declared immediately, said the UN independent rights expert on the situation across the country on Tuesday.

While every country has its own strategy to fight coronavirus, the world needs coordinated international efforts and a common purpose to end the crisis, the President of the Philippines said on Tuesday, underlining the importance of universal access to anti-COVID-19 technologies in the recovery from global pandemic. 

The Chinese President Xi Jinping called for enhanced international solidarity to fight the coronavirus on Tuesday during his UN General Assembly address, declaring that his country would aim to become carbon neutral, in the wider battle against climate change, by 2060. 

Speaking on the first day of the UN High-level General Debate, the President of Turkey stressed the need to “accurately and sincerely evaluate” what is happening in the world today.

Faced with a global pandemic that has infected millions, killed thousands, forced borders to close, upended economies, and drastically changed lives, the world today needs the United Nations today as much as it did 75 years ago, the President of Cuba underlined on Tuesday. 

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has highlighted social and economic measures his administration implemented, to address the COVID-19 pandemic and what he views as the politicization of the virus in South America’s largest country. 

The COVID-19 pandemic may have prevented world leaders coming to New York to address the General Assembly in person, but the president of the world body stressed on Tuesday that the need for deliberation, is “higher than ever”.

Speaking on Tuesday, United States President Donald Trump lauded the military power of his country, which, he said, demonstrates that the country is “fulfilling its destiny as peacemaker, but it is peace through strength”.