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General Assembly: 54th plenary meeting, 78th session
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<a href="https://press.un.org/en/2024/ga12582.doc.htm" target="_blank">Meeting Coverage</a>
Although peace is the “raison d’être” of the United Nations, it is the one thing missing most dramatically from the world, Secretary-General António Guterres warned the General Assembly today as he laid out his critical priorities for 2024 amid a global landscape roiled by conflict, inequity and intensifying interlocking crises.
Presenting his Report on the work of the Organization (document A/78/1), the Secretary-General stressed that people want peace with security and dignity, “and frankly, they want peace and quiet” — from anger, hate and war. However, for millions of people caught up in conflict around the world, “life is a deadly, daily, hungry hell”. The situation in Gaza is “a festering wound on our collective conscience”, he stated. Nothing justifies the horrific terror attacks launched by Hamas against Israel on 7 October, nor is there any justification for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. The situation urgently requires an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages, rapidly leading to irreversible actions towards a two-State solution.
In Ukraine, he repeated the call for a just and sustainable peace, further voicing support for the people of the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, Libya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Myanmar and Haiti, all facing various degrees of terrorism, lawlessness, conflict and acute food insecurity. Next, he warned that the Security Council is deadlocked by its worst-ever geopolitical divisions. Countries are “creating new ways to kill each other — and for humanity to annihilate itself”, he warned. It further remains totally unacceptable that the African continent is still waiting for a permanent Council seat.
Noting that antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, persecution of Christian minorities and white supremacist ideology are on the rise, he called for renewal of the social contract, based on trust, justice and inclusion. Addressing the global economic outlook, he noted that the world’s poorest countries owe more in debt service in 2024 than their public spending on health, education and infrastructure combined. He called for a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Stimulus of $500 billion annually in affordable long-term finance for developing countries, and a new Bretton Woods moment. Today’s financial architecture is outdated, dysfunctional and unfair, favouring “the rich countries that designed it nearly 80 years ago”, and the Summit of the Future will consider the need for deep reforms.
On harnessing the power of technology, he noted that generative AI is the most important potential tool to build inclusive, green, sustainable economies and societies — but is already creating risks around disinformation, privacy and bias, and is concentrated in very few companies — and even fewer countries. Calling on the international community to ensure adequate guardrails and ethical standards, he stressed that artificial intelligence (AI) “was created by humans and must always be under human control”.
Turning to climate change, he warned: “Humanity has waged a war we can only lose: our war with nature.” Limiting global temperature rise to 1.5ºC degrees demands cutting emissions by 45 per cent by 2030, compared to 2010 levels, with emissions peaking by 2025. “The fossil fuel era is on its last legs,” he affirmed, requiring tripling the global renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030. A just transition further requires urgent action to unlock the finance developing countries need to leapfrog fossil fuel dependence.
He affirmed that every element of the agenda “connects to the most essential of all human endeavours: the pursuit of peace”. However, while “in today’s troubled world, building peace is a conscious, bold and even radical act”, he affirmed: it is humanity’s greatest responsibility. “In this difficult and divided moment, let’s meet that obligation for today and future generations,” he stressed. “Starting here. Starting now.”
In the ensuing debate, delegates welcomed the Secretary-General’s multifaceted report while echoing his alarm over conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine and global security in general, the threat of climate change and interlocking crises and inequities in development, financing and the prospects for AI.
The representative of Tunisia, speaking on behalf of the Arab Group, welcomed the Secretary-General’s position on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, and repeated calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, delivery of humanitarian aid and prevention of forced displacement. He categorically rejected the policy of collective punishment undertaken by the occupying authorities against the people in the Gaza Strip and the remaining occupied Palestinian territories and any forced displacement.
Using a wider lens, the representative of Venezuela, speaking for the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, warned of the deterioration of the global security architecture. Approaches that are based on a zero-sum game negatively impact multilateral disarmament, non-proliferation and arms-control regimes, requiring a revitalized architecture based on non-intervention in internal affairs and the prohibition against the use or threat of force.
The representative of Guatemala, speaking for the Group of Friends of the Responsibility to Protect, welcomed that preventing and addressing the risks of atrocity crimes are recognized as key objectives in the Secretary-General’s report. She underlined the need for the Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect to be able to operate at full strength.
Turning to the SDGs, the representative of Pakistan quoted the Secretary-General that they are “on life-support” — noting that over 100 developing countries confront food, fuel and financial insecurity and over 60 developing States are trapped by unsustainable debt. In that light, there is a need for a binding international convention on the right to development.
The Assembly further paid tribute to the recent passing of President Hage Gottfried Geingob of Namibia, with the Secretary-General stating: “It is no exaggeration to say that President Geingob dedicated his life to his country.” Recalling the President’s early years of activism during Namibia’s struggle for independence and against apartheid, to his years of service as Prime Minister and then as President, he observed that “Namibia shaped him, and he shaped Namibia”.
Dennis Francis (Trinidad and Tobago), President of the General Assembly, expressed profound sadness over the death of a “towering figure” in Namibian history and politics, and a beacon of leadership on the African continent. As the third President of independent Namibia, he noted, his legacy is indelibly etched in the history of his nation’s liberation struggle and the ensuing journey of freedom, democracy, and prosperity. “His remarkable life journey epitomized true resilience, dedication and unwavering commitment to the ideals of justice and equality.”
Also paying tribute were the representatives of Botswana (for the African Group), United Arab Emirates (for the Asia-Pacific Group), El Salvador (for the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean), Türkiye (for Western European and Other States Group), United States and Namibia.
In other business, the General Assembly adopted, without a vote, two decisions: one titled “Authorization for the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction regarding the hosting of the secretariat of the Santiago network for averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change” (document A/78/L.36/Rev.1); and another titled “Participation of non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, academic institutions and the private sector in the third United Nations Conference on the Landlocked Developing Countries” (document A/78/L.40).
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