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Sep 24, 2023 | 
passblue.com | Arthur Bassas |Dulcie Leimbach |Dawn Clancy |Banjo Damilola |Maria Luisa Gambale |Anastasiia Carrier | +2 more
Welcome to This Week @UN, where we summarize the most important news coming out of the organization. This week, world leaders descended on New York City for the opening debate of the 78th session of the General Assembly. It attracted 88 heads of state, 6 vice presidents, 43 heads of government, 4 deputy prime ministers, 41 ministers, 7 chiefs of delegations and 3 speakers from UN "observer states," totaling 192 VIPs, according to the UN.
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Sep 24, 2023 | 
passblue.com | Clair MacDougall |Dulcie Leimbach |Dawn Clancy |Banjo Damilola |Maria Luisa Gambale |Richard Ponzio | +2 more
Burkina Faso hit out at the "diplomatic hypocrisy" of France, the United Nations and other West African states for their treatment of Sahelian countries and threats to Niger, including its exclusion from speaking at the General Assembly, a story that PassBlue broke last week. In a 38-minute speech read in the UN General Assembly on Sept.
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Sep 22, 2023 | 
passblue.com | Banjo Damilola |Dulcie Leimbach |Dawn Clancy |Richard Ponzio |Joris Larik |Maurizio Guerrero
China called for advancing human rights through dialogue in its speech at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Yet days earlier, the Chinese mission to the UN tried to quash an event discussing the continued marginalization of the minority Muslim Uyghur community in the Xinjiang region. "Promoting and protecting human rights is a cause pursued by all countries and ensuring a good life for people is the biggest human right," said Han Zheng, China's vice president, on Sept. 21.
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Sep 21, 2023 | 
passblue.com | Maria Luisa Gambale |Banjo Damilola |Richard Ponzio |Joris Larik |Dawn Clancy |Maurizio Guerrero
The poor progress of the Sustainable Development Goals continued to be a common theme through the middle of the General Assembly high-level week. On Wednesday, heads of state, ministers and representatives from institutes and civil society organizations got down to brass tacks on global financing.
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Sep 20, 2023 | 
passblue.com | Dawn Clancy |Banjo Damilola |Richard Ponzio |Joris Larik |Fergal Mythen |Maurizio Guerrero
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine promoted his 10-point peace formula to the United Nations Security Council, meant to end Russia's war in his country. Among the points he referenced was how the plan would revive the UN Charter and trigger long-awaited reform of the Council, including use of the veto by Russia. The Council meeting, informally called a "Ukraine summit," was held on Wednesday, the second day of the General Assembly's high-level week.
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Sep 19, 2023 | 
passblue.com | Dawn Clancy |Maurizio Guerrero |Banjo Damilola |Richard Ponzio |Joris Larik |Fergal Mythen
President Joe Biden called for unity and partnership as world leaders gathered at what he described as an "inflection point in world history," where nations must work together to "preserve peace, prevent conflict and alleviate human suffering" for everyone, everywhere. "Let's bend the arc of history for the good of the world," Biden said in his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly's annual high-level week in New York City on Tuesday.
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Sep 18, 2023 | 
passblue.com | Banjo Damilola |Fergal Mythen |Richard Ponzio |Joris Larik |Arthur Bassas
The common thread woven across the dozens of speeches by world leaders at the opening of the two-day United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Summit was a clarion call for faster progress toward achieving the goals' deadline of 2030. National leaders and UN Secretary-General António Guterres all expressed hope amid minimal progress on the SDGs. They even agreed on a declaration to push for gains in the next seven years, despite divisiveness among the 193 countries.
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Sep 15, 2023 | 
passblue.com | Arthur Bassas |Fergal Mythen |Richard Ponzio |Joris Larik |Banjo Damilola
You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, we focus on the bookended natural disasters in Libya and Morocco. And, of course, we bring you more news on the UN General Assembly annual leader-fest starting this weekend.
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Sep 14, 2023 | 
passblue.com | Banjo Damilola |Fergal Mythen |Richard Ponzio |Joris Larik |Hasmik Egian |Mouin Rabbani | +1 more
Moroccans affected by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the North African country on Sept. 8 are calling for humanitarian aid as they search for and hope to rescue loved ones still trapped under the rubble. Yet the country's leadership is being selective in deciding who can help. Since the disaster in Atlas Mountain villages that has now claimed approximately 3,000 lives, the country has welcomed assistance only from four countries: Britain, Qatar, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.
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Sep 13, 2023 | 
passblue.com | Banjo Damilola |Hasmik Egian |Mouin Rabbani |Fergal Mythen |Richard Ponzio |Joris Larik | +1 more
The world is wary that the Sustainable Development Goals will not be achieved by their deadline of 2030, but Lachezara Stoeva thinks that people should instead be focusing on how to speed up progress at this crucial midpoint. "Although all statistics show that we're not there, and it's likely that we're not going to be achieving them by the 2030 deadline," Stoeva said in a Zoom call from Bulgaria in August, "the important thing is reaching the end goal, not about the timing.
