Lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines should be considered “global public goods”, the UN chief told journalists, covering the G7 Summit of leading industrialized nations taking place in the United Kingdom. Speaking via videolink in London, Secretary-General António Guterres said there was no other way of defeating a virus that spreads across developing countries “like wildfire” and risks mutating, other than through equitable, mass vaccination, adding that shots need to be “available and affordable to all”. 

With a focus for this year’s International Day of UN Peacekeepers on youth, peace and security, the UN chief told a commemorative ceremony that “peace cannot be achieved without the active participation of young people”. “From CAR to DRC to Lebanon, our peacekeepers work with youth to reduce violence and sustain peace, including through Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration and Community violence reduction programmes”, Secretary-General António Guterres said.

Extracting minerals, metals and other valuable raw materials from the earth, represents a “crucial juncture” between resources, ecosystems and people, all of which have an essential role to play in advancing sustainability and equity, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, speaking at the Global Roundtable on Transforming Extractive Industries for Sustainable Development. 

Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the ceasefire declared between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, following 11 days of rocket and air attacks, which have left more than 240 reportedly dead and thousands injured, the majority in the occupied Palestinian enclave of Gaza. The UN chief made a statement to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, a few minutes before the negotiated ceasefire was due to take effect.

The past ten days have witnessed a “dangerous and horrific” surge in deadly violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), particularly Gaza, and in Israel, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the General Assembly. “If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza”, he said, expressing deep shock at the continued air and artillery bombardment by the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza that has so far claimed the lives of more than 200 Palestinians, including 60 children, and injured thousands more.