UN Photo/Ryan Brown Secretary-General António Guterres (2nd right) speaks at a Town Hall meeting held as part of the sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

‘Power is not given, power is taken’, UN chief tells women activists, urging push-back against status quo

After hearing from many of the world’s top women politicians in a session on “Women in Power”, Secretary-General António Guterres, held a Town Hall meeting for civil society activists where he underscored the importance of women seizing the initiative in the struggle for gender equality.

UN Photo/Jean Marc Ferré Secretary-General António Guterres and Mark Lowcock, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, attend the High Level Pledging event on Yemen in Geneva, 26 February 2019.

With 10 million Yemenis ‘one step away from famine’, donors pledge $2.6 billion

Donors have pledged $2.6 billion to provide urgently needed support to millions of Yemeni civilians facing an “overwhelming humanitarian calamity” after nearly four years of brutal war, Secretary-General António Guterres said at the pledging conference in Geneva, where he welcomed the generosity of Member States, who pledged 30 per cent more than last year.

UN Photo/Antonio Fiorente Secretary-General António Guterres (left) attends a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) event on digital coding at the 32nd Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Female African coders ‘on the front-line of the battle’ to change gender power relations

Speaking after meeting girls taking part in the African Girls Can Code Initiative, a joint initiative from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and UN Women, Secretary-General António Guterres said that young female African coders are “on the front-line” of the battle to change traditionally male power relations and bring about a more equitable balance between men and women, during his visit to Ethiopia to attend the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa. 

UN Photo/Evan Schneider Secretary-General António Guterres addresses UN Security Council meeting on mercenary activities as a source of insecurity and destabilization in Africa.

World must do more to tackle ‘shadowy’ mercenary activities undermining stability in Africa, says UN chief

From antiquity to the medieval era to the present-day, those who fight for financial reward or other material compensation have been a near constant on the battlefield”, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tells the UN Security Council, noting that the shadowy nature of mercenary activities has evolved over the years. 

UN Photo/Manuel Elias Secretary-General António Guterres (right) briefs journalists on his priorities for 2019. At left is his Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.

‘The best-selling brand today is fear’: UN chief highlights urgent need to address global ‘deficit of trust’

Warning against the dangers of widespread fear and mistrust in our planet, Secretary-General António Guterres told journalists he wants to reaffirm the United Nations as a “platform for action to repair broken trust in a broken world.”