GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The Secretary-General spoke this morning at the closing session of the 76th session of the General Assembly, saying that the session was marked by a series of deepening challenges, from rising prices, growing food insecurity and the gathering shadows of a global recession to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic to deadly heatwaves, storms, floods and other natural disasters.
He said he had just come back from Pakistan, telling the delegates that it is unimaginable to see a flooded area that is three times the size of his own country – Portugal – and the suffering of the people that is taking place there.
He thanked the outgoing President, Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives, for his strong leadership over the last year and said he looks forward to working with the new President, Csaba Kőrösi, to carry forward the Assembly’s spirit of cooperation and hope.
Mr. Guterres told the Assembly that we can pave the way to a better and more peaceful future for all people. And we can renew the faith in the United Nations and the multilateral system, which remain humanity’s best hope.
SECRETARY-GENERAL/ANNUAL PRAYER SERVICE
The Secretary-General has a pre-recorded video to the annual prayer service that takes place before the start of every General Assembly.
In it, he said that this session will test us like few others before. The crises we face are complex and many, from war and conflict, to hate and discord, to hunger and poverty, and to the nuclear threat and a burning planet.
He stressed that we must stay true to the essential values common to all religions and central to the United Nations: compassion; solidarity; respect for the human person; and the Golden Rule “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
PAKISTAN
Over the weekend, the Secretary-General wrapped up his visit to Pakistan. He landed back in New York on Sunday.
On Saturday in Pakistan, he met men, women and children in the areas most-impacted by the floods.
Accompanied by the Prime Minister of Pakistan as well as the Foreign Minister. The Secretary-General travelled to Balochistan, where he met families at a camp for displaced people. He also went to Larkana and Sukkur, in Sindh province.
The Secretary-General said that the most emotional moment during this visit was listening to a group of women and men who abandoned everything to help their neighbours reach safety as their houses flooded.
He paid tribute to the efforts deployed by Pakistan to respond to this disaster but added that the needs are enormous, and he called for massive support from the international community. It’s not a question of solidarity, he said, it’s a question of justice.
And in the press conference at the end of the day, he said he had never seen climate carnage on this scale.
He told journalists that wealthier countries are morally responsible for helping developing countries like Pakistan recover from disasters like this one, but they also need to help them adapt and build resilience to climate impacts.
UKRAINE
Turning to Ukraine, our humanitarian colleagues there are telling us that the country this weekend faced another wave of fighting, causing civilian casualties and disruptions of power and water supplies in six oblasts in the east and centre of Ukraine. According to local authorities and our partners on the ground, areas impacted by fighting in the past months have limited water and electricity supplies.
We, along with our partners, are working with local authorities in Kharkivska oblast to provide aid to conflict-affected people. A humanitarian convoy is planned this week to the areas of Kharkivska oblast that are now back under the Government of Ukraine’s control. Across the country, more than 585 partners have reached 12.8 million people with humanitarian assistance.
We and our partners aim to reach nearly 18 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection across the country.
AFGHANISTAN
Our colleagues in the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan today expressed their mounting concern about the de facto authorities’ actions against Afghan female employees of the United Nations. The Mission urges the de facto authorities to abide by their obligations to respect the privileges and immunities of the UN and all its staff, including their freedom of movement throughout the country.
Our colleagues in the country say that there has been an emerging pattern of harassment of Afghan UN female staff by the de facto authorities, including an incident today in which three Afghan women working for the United Nations were singled out and temporarily detained for questioning by armed security agents of the de facto authorities. The UN in Afghanistan calls for an immediate end to such acts of intimidation and harassment targeting our female colleagues, calling on the de facto authorities to reiterate and enforce explicit guarantees for the safety and security of all UN personnel operating in the country in a manner consistent with Afghanistan’s obligations under international law.
We urge the de facto authorities to ensure respect for international human rights obligations for all people in Afghanistan.
MALI
We have an update from Mali, where our peacekeeping mission reports that one of their patrols hit an improvised explosive device close to their camp in Timbuktu.
Unfortunately, eight peacekeepers were injured. The Mission deployed an Explosive Ordnance Team to the incident site to conduct a post-blast investigation.
UZBEKISTAN
Our friend Rosemary DiCarlo, the head of Peacebuilding and Political Affairs Department, will travel to Samarkand in Uzbekistan to take part in this week’s Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. She will be representing the Secretary-General. She will address the Council and hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit.
ETHIOPIA
You will have seen over the weekend we issued a statement on Ethiopia in which the Secretary-General welcomed the announcement by the Regional Government of Tigray of its readiness to abide by an immediate cessation of hostilities and to peacefully resolve the conflict in northern Ethiopia.
SRI LANKA
Quick note from Sri Lanka, where an estimated 6.3 million people are facing moderate to severe acute food insecurity and their situation is expected to worsen unless life-saving assistance and support are provided, that’s according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme.
Two back-to-back seasons of poor harvests led to a nearly 50 per cent drop in production, on top of reduced grain imports due to foreign exchange constraints.
The new report stressed that immediate food assistance and livelihood programmes are critical to enable households to access nutritious food.
MODERN SLAVERY
And an update from the International Labour Organization which says that fifty million people were living in modern slavery in 2021. Fifty million people. This is co-sponsored by the International Labour Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the human rights organization, Walk Free, in their report released today and is entitle Global Estimates of Modern Slavery. Of these people, 28 million were in forced labour and 22 million were trapped in forced marriage.
The International Labour Organization warns that the number of people in modern slavery has risen significantly in the last five years. Ten million more people were in modern day slavery in 2021 compared to 2016, according to global estimates, and women and children remain disproportionately vulnerable.
I encourage you to take a look at the report.
HYBRID BRIEFINGS TOMORROW
Tomorrow there will be a briefing here at 9:30 a.m. – it’s a little early for some of you – we will be joined by Amir Abdulla, the United Nations Coordinator for Black Sea Grain Initiative, who will be briefing from Ankara, and he will be joined by the Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Rebeca Grynspan, who as you know has been dealing with the Russian grain and fertilizer aspect of our joint efforts. She will be speaking to you from Geneva and they’re here to update you and give you more information on both those very important activities.
GUESTS TOMORROW
Tomorrow my guests will be, at the briefing, will be Dr. Becky Telford, Chief of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Education Section, and Adriana Elizabeth Figueredo Costero to discuss UNHCR’s education report.
As a programming note, on Wednesday, you will not see me, but you will see the Secretary-General. There will be a press conference at 11 a.m. on Wednesday here in this room. We will have, due to COVID-19 regulations placed during the General Assembly, limited capacity. We will work with UNCA and MALU to give you all the details. That will be at 11 a.m. and therefore, there will be no noon briefing
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
We thank our friends from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Sierra Leone for their contributions. That takes us to 125 fully paid-up countries.
