I am pleased to be with you on World Water Day to launch the International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development.
We are at a pivotal moment for women’s rights. The historical and structural inequalities that have allowed oppression and discrimination to flourish are being exposed like never before. From Latin America to Europe to Asia, on social media, on film sets, on the factory floor and in the streets, women are calling for lasting change and zero tolerance for sexual assault, harassment, and discrimination of all kinds.
UN chief Antonio Guterres was criticized on Thursday by a watchdog group for failing to condemn Syria’s election to a committee charged with working towards decolonization. UN Watch called on US Ambassador Nikki Haley, and European ambassadors to condemn the world body for handing Bashar Assad’s regime what it called “a propaganda victory.”
United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres has referred the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In a statement which was published on the UN’s website on Tuesday, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General stated that Mr Guterres has fulfilled the responsibility that has fallen to him within the framework set by his predecessor in December 2016, and has chosen the International Court of Justice as the means to be used for the solution of the controversy.
The United Nations on Sunday kicked off in Paris, France, a year-long campaign to honor the foundational human rights document, which next year marks its 70th anniversary.
Karen Pierce, currently Director-General Political at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has been appointed as the new UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations. . Karen is the first woman appointed to this role, and is uniquely suited for the position having previously served as Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, and more recently as the Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva.
Russia, China, Egypt and Bolivia boycotted an informal public United Nations Security Council meeting on Venezuela on Monday organized by the United States, saying the 15-member body should not be involved in the situation.
Argentina presented on Thursday a formal protest to the United Kingdom embassy in Buenos Aires rejecting the military exercises with Rapier missiles in the Falkland Islands, scheduled to take place next week.
Israel has said it will join the US in pulling out of the UN's cultural organization Unesco, after US officials cited anti-Israel bias. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the US decision as brave and moral, a statement said.
The United Kingdom had no doubt about its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Islands, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas, and there could be no dialogue on sovereignty over them unless its people so wished, the UK representative Stephen Hickey said at the United Nations Fourth Committee meetings this week.