Latest news with #UNHeadquarters
Scoop
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Scoop
‘Justice Is Long Overdue': Guterres Calls For Reparations For Enslavement And Colonialism
'Africa is a continent of boundless energy and possibility. But for too long, the colossal injustices inflicted by enslavement, the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism have been left unacknowledged and unaddressed,' he said. The United Nations has repeatedly said that slavery and the transatlantic slave trade constituted crimes against humanity, and the Secretary-General has repeatedly called for redress for these injustices. Speaking to the Africa Dialogue Series — which is focused on the theme of justice through reparations — the Secretary-General noted that the movement for reparatory justice is gaining momentum around the world as reflected by the declaration of the Second Decade for People of African Descent, which runs through 2035. The last decade, which ended in 2024, yielded tangible results, with over 30 Member States revising laws to better tackle racial discrimination. However, the Secretary-General noted that much work remains. 'We point to the poisoned legacies of enslavement and colonialism, not to sow division but to heal them,' he said. 'Long shadow of colonialism' Mr. Guterres underlined the entrenched nature of racism and exploitative systems, saying that these systems have disadvantaged African countries and people of African descent beyond the end of colonialism and enslavement. 'Decolonization did not free African countries, or people of African descent, from the structures and prejudices that made those projects possible,' he said. In fact, when the United Nations was founded and many of the global structures established, some African countries were still colonies. 'When African countries gained their independence, they inherited a system built to serve others — not them,' the Secretary-General said. The President of the General Assembly, Philémon Yang, underlined the importance of teaching this history through national curricula and monuments such as The Ark of Return at UN Headquarters. 'Knowledge of our true history can serve as a powerful compass in our onward march towards progress,' he said. The Ark of Return, the Permanent Memorial to Honour the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, located at the Visitors' Plaza of UN Headquarters in New York. Transforming 'poisoned legacies' To address the inequities of this system, the Secretary-General called upon the global community to take action on international financial systems which are burdening developing economies in Africa and the Caribbean. Specifically, he emphasized the importance of restructuring debt systems which are 'suffocating' these countries' economies. Previous UN reports have noted that some poor countries spend more on debt repayments than they do on health, education and infrastructure combined Mr. Guterres also called for massive investments into clean energy infrastructure in Africa which has been deeply impacted by climate change. 'African countries did not cause the climate crisis. Yet the effects of our heating planet are wreaking havoc across the continent,' he said. He also reiterated his call for the establishment of a permanent Security Council position for an African Member State. Mr. Yang, the General Assembly President, underlined the urgency of the Secretary-General's remarks, urging member states to act imminently. 'Now is the moment to turn recommendations into rights, apologies into action and aspirations into accountability.'
Scoop
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
UN Aims To Transform Urgency Into Action At Nice Ocean Conference
27 May 2025 The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 3) from 9-13 June will bring together Heads of State, scientists, civil society and business leaders around a single goal: to halt the silent collapse of the planet's largest – and arguably most vital – ecosystem. The ocean is suffocating due to rising temperatures, rampant acidification, erosion of biodiversity, plastic invasion, predatory fishing. 'A state of emergency' ' Our planet's life support system is in a state of emergency,' said Li Junhua, head of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Secretary-General of the upcoming summit. He insisted that there is still time to change course. ' The future of the ocean is not predetermined. It will be shaped by the decisions and actions that we are making now,' Mr. Li said on Tuesday during a press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York. In the eyes of the senior official, UNOC 3 'will not be just another routine gathering.' 'We hope that it proves to be the pivotal opportunity to accelerate action and mobilize all stakeholders across the sectors and borders.' World-class conference More than 50 world leaders are expected on the Côte d'Azur, alongside 1,500 delegates from nearly 200 countries. The programme includes 10 plenary meetings, 10 thematic roundtables, a blue zone reserved for official delegations, and a series of parallel forums during five days of negotiations. For France, which is co-hosting the conference alongside Costa Rica, the challenge is clear: to make Nice a historic milestone. 'This is an emergency,' declared Jérôme Bonnafont, Permanent Representative of France to the UN, during the press conference. 'An ecological emergency: we are witnessing the deterioration of the quality of the oceans as an environment, as a reservoir of biodiversity, as a carbon sink.' France hopes to make the conference a turning point and the goal 'is to produce a Nice agreement that is pro-oceans, as the Paris Agreement 10 years ago now was for the climate.' This agreement will take the form of a Nice Action Plan for the Ocean, a 'concise action-oriented declaration,' according to Mr. Li, accompanied by renewed voluntary commitments. Three milestones Three events will prepare the ground for UNOC 3. The One Ocean Science Congress, from 4-6 June, will bring together several thousand researchers. The Summit on Ocean Rise and Coastal Resilience to be held the following day will explore responses to rising sea levels. Finally, the Blue Economy Finance Forum, on 7-8 June in Monaco, will mobilize investors and policymakers. For Costa Rican Ambassador Maritza Chan Valverde, there is no more time for procrastination. ' We're expecting concrete commitments with clear timelines, budgets and accountability mechanisms. What is different this time around, zero rhetoric, maximum results,' she said. 'Transform ambition into action' The conference's theme Accelerating Action and Mobilizing All Stakeholders to Conserve and Sustainably Use the Ocean will address several topics, ranging from sustainable fishing to marine pollution and the interactions between climate and biodiversity. ' This is our moment to transform ambition into action,' Mr. Li concluded, calling for governments, businesses, scientists, and civil society to come together in a common spirit. He also praised the 'visionary leadership' of France and Costa Rica, without whom this large-scale mobilization would not have been possible. A slogan promoted by Costa Rica seems to sum up the spirit of the summit: 'Five days. One ocean. One unique opportunity.'
Scoop
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Scoop
Champions For Change: World Football Teams Up With UN Development Goals
The Football for the Goals Forum brought UN leaders and some of the top voices in the world's most popular sport to UN Headquarters in New York for the inaugural Champions for Change: Football and the UN Unite for the SDGs event. The UN has long recognised the role of sport in advancing the SDGs – promoting peace, gender equality, health, and climate action – as affirmed in a General Assembly Resolution on Sport adopted in December 2022. With unparalleled global reach, football holds a unique position to drive progress on these goals. Launched in July 2022, Football for the Goals is a UN initiative engaging the international football community to advocate for the SDGs. Wednesday's forum aimed to mobilise the football community for action across key SDG areas. The kick off After introductions from football executives, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, UN communications chief Melissa Fleming, and the Qatari Representative to the UN, the opening panel – Bolstering Community Engagement with the SDGs – outlined the origins of Football for the Goals and explored how the football community can deepen its contribution to the SDGs. This was followed by a brief discussion on the football sector's commitment to climate sustainability. The programme then shifted to some of the Forum's most substantive panels, exploring how football both reflects global inequalities – between the Global South and North, and between men and women – and has the potential to help address them. North-South divide Júlia Pimenta of Street Child United highlighted that football organisations in the Global South, which serve the children who need support most, often lack adequate funding and must compete with well-resourced programmes in the Global North. Sarah Van Vooren of Atoot in Nepal similarly noted that grassroots organisations connecting football and sustainable development, frequently lack the resources needed to reach their full potential. When these organisations are properly supported, they can provide safe, educational environments for children – often with life-changing results. Panellists emphasised that funding such initiatives is key to advancing SDGs related to education and reducing inequality. Levelling the gender playing field Jayathma Wickramanayake, a policy advisor on sports partnerships at UN Women, noted that the gender equality agency is responsible for most of the targets under SDG 5 related to closing the gender gap. She emphasised that progress has been slow – and in some areas, it's even regressing – largely due to the persistence of rigid social norms, attitudes, and behaviours. These norms often manifest in the sports world through unequal pay and incidents of sexual harassment. However, Ms. Wickramanayake and other panellists highlighted how sport can be a powerful tool to challenge stereotypes and empower women and girls to succeed – both on and off the pitch.
Malay Mail
12-05-2025
- General
- Malay Mail
The East River keeps the UN HQ cool in New York — can this decades-old system help other cities too?
NEW YORK, May 12 — Deep in the bowels of the UN headquarters, a pump sucks in huge amounts of water from the East River to help cool the complex with an old but energy-efficient mechanism. As more and more people want to stay cool in a planet that is steadily heating up, energy experts point to this kind of water-based system as a good alternative to air conditioning. But in many cases they are hard to set up. The system has been part of the New York complex since it opened in the 1950s, chief building engineer Michael Martini told AFP during a tour of the cooling equipment. The system, overhauled with the rest of the complex from 2008 to 2014, cools the UN centre using less energy than a conventional air conditioning system. UN policy is to bring the air temperature down to about 24 degrees Celsius, or 75 degrees Fahrenheit. In summer in New York, the river running beside the UN headquarters — it is actually a salt water estuary — stays much cooler than the surrounding air, which can reach 100 degrees. So cooling the building eats up less energy. As many as 26,000 litres per minute (7,000 gallons) of water flow through fibre glass pipes to the complex's cooling plant, which uses it and a refrigerant gas to produce cold. The system has two independent loops to prevent contamination of the water that flows back into the river at a higher temperature, said the head of the cooling system, David Lindsay. Looking at the gleaming glass tower of the UN headquarters and the dome of the General Assembly, you would never know that the East River serves this purpose for the UN and is more than just part of the scenery. The UN's New York headquarters is not its only building that depends on water. In Geneva, its Palais de Nations features a cooling system that uses water from Lake Geneva. And the UN City complex in Copenhagen, which houses 10 UN agencies, depends on cold seawater that almost eliminates the need for electricity to cool the place. This a huge benefit compared to the estimated two billion air conditioning units installed around a world. Why so rare? With the number of air conditioners due to increase so as to help people who are more and more exposed to dangerous temperatures, energy consumption for the purpose of cooling has already tripled since 1990, says the International Energy Agency, which wants more efficient systems. Water supply pipes are seen at the Chiller Plant at United Nations Headquarters. — AFP pic Examples of these are centralised air conditioning networks using electricity, geothermal systems or ones that use water, like the UN complex in New York. This latter system 'has not been deployed as much as it should be for the issues we face today,' said Lily Riahi, coordinator of Cool Coalition, a grouping of states, cities and companies under the aegis of the United Nations. Some big organisations have been able to run such systems on their own, like the United Nations or Cornell University in New York State, which relies on water from Lake Cayuga. But for the most part these systems require a lot of coordination among multiple stakeholders, said Riahi. 'We know it's technically possible, and we know actually there are many cases that prove the economics as well,' said Rob Thornton, president of the International District Energy Association, which helps develop district cooling and heating networks. 'But it requires someone, some agent, whether it's a champion, a city, or a utility or someone, to actually undertake the aggregation of the market,' he said. 'The challenge is just gathering and aggregating the customers to the point where there's enough, where the risk can be managed,' Thornton said. He cited Paris as an example, which uses the Seine River to run Europe's largest water-based cooling grid. These networks allow for the reduced use toxic substances as coolants, and lower the risk of leaks. And they avoid emissions of hot air — like air conditioning units spew — into cities already enduring heat waves. But hot water from cooling units, when dumped back into rivers and other bodies of water, is dangerous for aquatic ecosystems, environmentalists say. 'This challenge is quite small, compared to the discharge from nuclear plants,' said Riahi, adding the problem can be addressed by setting a temperate limit on this water. — AFP
The Star
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Malaysia proposes formal convention to strengthen UN Forum on Forests
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has proposed that the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) be strengthened into a formal convention to enhance national commitments towards the sustainable management, conservation and development of forest resources. The proposal was presented during the 20th session of the UNFF (UNFF20) at UN Headquarters in New York last week. The Malaysian delegation was led by Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Ministry secretary-general Datuk Dr Ching Thoo a/l Kim. In a statement, the ministry said Malaysia called for the transformation of the UNFF from a voluntary and non-legally binding instrument into a more formal, convention-based framework. "This would strengthen the commitment of countries in the sustainable management, conservation, and development of forest resources,' the statement read. During the session from May 5 to 9, Malaysia also shared its views and input in line with the ministry's aspirations, particularly its efforts to maintain forest cover, which currently stands at 54.31% of the country's total land area. Malaysia also emphasised the importance of implementing land-use policies such as the National Forestry Policy and the National Policy on Biological Diversity 2022-2030. The Malaysian delegation also highlighted the need to support the forestry sector through technology transfer, capacity building, and financial assistance for developing nations. In addition, it highlighted the crucial role of forests in addressing climate change and conserving biodiversity, including their function as carbon sinks – an important element in achieving the national target of net zero emissions by 2050. This is in line with Malaysia's commitments under the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. "These efforts contribute directly to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 15 (Life on Land),' the statement read. The UNFF serves as a platform for policy development, especially in implementing sustainable forest management, and facilitates continuous dialogue among governments, international organisations, and other forestry stakeholders. Over 300 delegates from 70 countries, including Malaysia, attended the meeting. – Bernama
