Two bills before the Israeli parliament could put a halt to the lifesaving operations of UN Palestine relief agency, UNRWA, which has been indispensable and irreplaceable “more than ever” over the past year of war in Gaza, Secretary-General António Guterres said. “That’s why I have written directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express profound concern about draft legislation that could prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” he said at the Security Council stakeout in New York. 

World leaders, senior government officials and civil society representatives joined forces at UN Headquarters to reaffirm commitment to nuclear disarmament as a global priority. The High-Level Meeting was held to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, observed annually on 26 September. “There should be no place for these devices of death in our world,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. He warned, however, that “not since the worst days of the Cold War has the spectre of nuclear weapons cast such a dark shadow.” 
 

With global sea level rising faster than at any time over the last 3,000 years, UN Member States met to examine how to best address this existential threat. UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the need for “drastic action” - both to reduce emissions to limit sea level rise and to save lives.  He said everyone, everywhere must be protected by early warning systems by 2027, in line with a UN initiative. “Money is indispensable. We need a strong finance outcome at COP29 this year – including on new and innovative sources of capital,” he said, referring to the UN climate change conference in Azerbaijan in November. 

In a world where peace is “never automatic”, leadership is essential on the part of the UN Security Council which must find better ways to unite in the face of gridlock, the UN chief said on Wednesday. António Guterres was addressing a High-Level Debate in the Security Council on Leadership for Peace, designed to bolster support for the principles of the UN Charter and build on the call for reform contained in the ground-breaking Pact for the Future, adopted on Sunday.

The world is locked in a “purgatory of polarity” with a growing number of governments and others feeling entitled to a “get out of jail free card”, Secretary-General António Guterres told the UN General Assembly, which opened its annual high-level meeting. Delivering his 2024 report on the UN’s work ahead of the general debate, Mr. Guterres said world leaders were gathering in the shadow of raging conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere, and rising uncertainty over climate change, ending poverty and reigning in AI.