The Secretary-Basic’s annual report, launched on Thursday forward of the eightieth session of the UN Basic Meeting’s yearly high-level session, affords a sobering but resolute account of the Group’s efforts within the face of mounting challenges.
Mr. Guterres highlighted the resilience of UN personnel, dedicated to delivering hope and assist to these in want regardless of working beneath troublesome circumstances. “The current report demonstrates that regardless of enormously making an attempt instances – certainly, exactly due to them – we will and should maintain pushing for the higher world that we all know is inside attain,” he mentioned.
Along with companions, the UN coordinated a $50 billion enchantment for the humanitarian wants of 198 million folks. “In 2024, the United Nations helped to mobilize $25 billion of the $50 billion funding goal, enabling life-saving humanitarian help to succeed in 116 million folks in pressing want throughout 77 nations and territories.”
This enabled life-saving programmes within the Horn of Africa, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen and areas affected by pure disasters like earthquakes in Vanuatu, drought in Southern and Eastern Africa and floods in South-East Asia.
On the identical time, UN operations in 2024 got here at a heartbreaking human value. It was the deadliest year on record for UN staff and humanitarian workers, with 373 support staff killed. The overwhelming majority of these casualties had been personnel from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), working in Gaza beneath excessive and harmful circumstances.
In launching the report, the Secretary-Basic paid tribute to their sacrifice, reaffirming the UN’s unwavering dedication to standing with the world’s most weak.
Youngsters discover shade and participate in leisure actions organized by UN personnel in entrance of destroyed buildings within the Gaza Strip.
Peace and safety core to UN’s mission
Diplomacy for peace remained core to the Group’s work amid escalating international challenges to peace and safety. Regardless of rising threats, the UN’s diplomatic efforts continued to guard lots of of hundreds of civilians each day and advance peace processes.
In the course of the political transition in Syria, the UN engaged stakeholders in step with Security Council resolution 2254 – which in 2015 endorsed a road map for a peace process within the nation – to de-escalate violence defend civilians and forestall regional spillover.
In the meantime, within the Occupied Palestinian Territory, together with East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Financial institution and the broader area, the UN intently engaged all events to finish violence, improve humanitarian entry and maintain help to affected populations.
In Lebanon the UN supported de-escalation and a resumption of a cessation of hostilities in step with our mandate beneath Safety Council resolution 1701, enabling folks to return to their properties on each side of the Blue Line.
The UN additionally facilitated peace talks, supported state-building efforts and helped to protect civilians globally, including in the Sudan. The Group’s efforts to assist promote a peaceable coexistence in Abyei, noticed a decline in intercommunal violence.
The Peacebuilding Fund allotted over $116 million to assist nationwide peace plans in 32 nations and territories, with a concentrate on gender equality. Partnerships with regional organizations, just like the African Union, additional bolstered battle prevention.
A renewed imaginative and prescient for the longer term
The 2024 Summit of the Future marked a historic turning level for multilateralism. World leaders adopted the Pact for the Future, a landmark settlement to revitalize worldwide cooperation and ship options for folks and planet.
The Pact requires stronger diplomacy and battle prevention, reforms to the worldwide monetary system, pressing local weather motion, and accelerated progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It additionally commits to extra consultant and efficient international governance, together with reforms to the Safety Council and larger voice for creating nations.
The Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations were adopted as annexes to the Pact, underscoring its breadth and ambition. The Compact advances a imaginative and prescient for a secure, open and inclusive digital future, committing Member States to shut digital divides, promote common digital public infrastructure, and strengthen governance of information and synthetic intelligence.
The Declaration, in the meantime, represents the primary international settlement to systematically account for the rights and pursuits of tomorrow’s residents in right this moment’s selections, embedding foresight in policymaking and paving the way in which for long-term, sustainable motion.
Collectively, these outcomes type the muse of a generational renewal of multilateralism. As Secretary-Basic Guterres underscored: “By addressing the urgent problems with our time, the United Nations is paving the way in which for a extra equitable and sustainable future, making certain that digital applied sciences are harnessed for the good thing about all humanity.”
Members collect for the opening of the Summit of the Future, with Youth Lead for the Future because the opening Motion Day theme.
Human rights and sustainable improvement
The United Nations continues to be guided by the imaginative and prescient that human rights are a driving pressure for options to the various international challenges we face, and are the muse for peace, justice and sustainable improvement. In 2024, the Group superior initiatives to eradicate violence towards girls and women, empower rural and marginalized communities, and guarantee girls’s participation in peace and constitutional processes.
Human rights had been additionally woven into responses to battle, migration, local weather change and digital governance, serving to to strengthen safety, accountability and inclusion throughout the Group’s work.
On the identical time, sustainable improvement and local weather motion remained central. The UN supported 170 nations in implementing their nationally decided contributions to cut back emissions and supplied focused help for low-carbon transitions in creating States.
The Group additionally pressed for reforms to the worldwide monetary system to shut the widening SDG financing gap, making certain that probably the most weak nations have a good probability to ship on the promise of the 2030 Agenda.
A dedication to workers is a dedication to humanity
The Secretary-Basic highlighted the dedication of UN personnel working beneath extraordinary danger. He voiced alarm on the erosion of humanitarian norms, condemning deliberate assaults on civilians, hospitals, faculties and support staff, which undermine worldwide regulation and the values of the UN Charter.
Regardless of document risks, workers carried ahead their mission with braveness and resilience.
“The current report demonstrates that regardless of enormously making an attempt instances – certainly, exactly due to them – we will and should maintain pushing for the higher world that we all know is inside attain. We’ll renew our efforts to realize peace, foster sustainable improvement and defend and uphold human rights, for all of humanity,” mentioned Mr. Guterres.
Collectively, these strands embody the spirit of an Group striving not solely to confront right this moment’s crises however to uphold rights, ship improvement, and serve folks in all places with integrity and compassion.
