UN General Assembly 73rd Session

Special Coverage of the 73rd General Debate

25 September-1 October 2018

As world leaders gather in New York in the coming days, the curtain will rise on the busiest diplomatic season of the year at United Nations Headquarters.

Here, UN News gives you a front row seat to all the action during the General Assembly’s annual; high-level segment, known as the general debate. Follow monarchs, presidents and prime ministers, as they define global responses to many of today’s pressing challenges, including climate change, international migration, protracted conflicts, and extreme poverty and hunger.

María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, President of the seventy-third session of the General Assembly, gavels to a close the General Assembly’s annual general debate.

UN Assembly wraps up annual general debate, its global multilateral role reaffirmed; now comes the task of reform

1 October 2018

Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the opening of the general debate of the General Assembly's 73rd session.

Climate change and multilateralism figure high on first day of UN General Assembly debate

25 September 2018

United Nations General Assembly prepares to hold a meeting on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.

On day two of UN General Assembly’s annual debate, it’s multilateralism all the way

26 September 2018

Wide view of the General Assembly Hall at the opening of its seventy-third session, on 18 September 2018.

On day three, of UN Assembly debate, Israel and Palestine put sharp focus on complexities thwarting peace

27 September 2018

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.

On Day four of UN Assembly debate, leaders from vulnerable island States turn out in force to plead for climate action

28 September 2018

President Jovenel Moïse of the Republic of Haiti addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.

UN Photo/Cia Pak

Haitian President at General Assembly calls for essential development aid as UN mission shifts away from peacekeeping

27 September 2018

Economic Development

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse on Thursday called on the international community to provide the necessary development aid as the Caribbean island nation prepares for the transition nest year of the United Nations mission to a non-peacekeeping presence in the country.

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-third session.

UN Photo/Cia Pak

‘Jerusalem is not for sale’ Palestinian President Abbas tells world leaders at UN Assembly

27 September 2018

Peace and Security

Taking the podium of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, President Mahmoud Abbas declared that “Jerusalem is not for sale and the Palestinian people’s rights are not up for bargain.”

Nicos Anastasiades, President of the Republic of Cyprus, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-third session.

UN Photo/Cia Pak

Cyprus President urges collective leadership to address ‘root causes’ of world’s crises

27 September 2018

UN Affairs

“Blatant violations of international law” were foremost on the mind of Nicos Anastasiades, President of Cyprus, as he brought the issue to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, urging States to readjust their policies in “hope for a better future.”

The UN Security Council debates the issue of nuclear non-proliferation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

UN Photo/Loey Felipe

‘Path to peace’ on Korean Peninsula only possible through diplomacy and full denuclearization: US tells Security Council

27 September 2018

Peace and Security

If the leadership of North Korea follows a diplomatic path to end its nuclear weapons programme, then a “much brighter future lies ahead” for its people, the US Secretary of State told the Security Council on Thursday.

Explorer and UNEP Goodwill Ambassador Bertrand Piccard (right) speaking to UN News's Conor Lennon at UN Headquarters in New York on 26 September 2018.

UN Social Media

Bertrand Piccard’s new global challenge: 1000 solutions for a cleaner planet

27 September 2018

Interviews

The global explorer Bertrand Piccard piloted the first balloon to traverse the globe in 1999, and in 2016 he was at the controls of the first plane to fly around the world powered only by the sun: Solar Impulse.

But his next challenge might be his toughest: Mr. Piccard, a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), has launched the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, a not-for-profit project endorsed by UNEP and several other UN Agencies.

HeForShe

From Wakanda to Women’s Rights: actor Winston Duke shows his support for gender parity

27 September 2018

Interviews

Winston Duke, best known for his role as M’Baku in the hit film Black Panther, is an avowed activist and feminist.

On Wednesday, he joined Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan and award-winning actor Anne Hathaway at an event organised by UN Women, on the side-lines of High-Level week at UN Headquarters in New York.

Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-third session.

UN Photo/Cia Pak

Reject passivity and embrace ‘responsibility for our future,’ Lithuania’s President tells UN Assembly

27 September 2018

UN Affairs

Multilateralism and cooperation must be the focus of dialogue between United Nations Member States as Lithuania’s President warned against ‘nationalism and division’ at the General Assembly on Thursday.

Nearly 160 tons of food from Uganda was sent via Sudan to help 8,000 of the 20,000 internally displaced people in south-eastern Central African Republic, including Pombolo, Gambo, Rafai, Zemio.

UN Photo/Hervé Serefio

Security, human rights, political upheaval in war-torn Central African Republic, focus of key Friday meeting at UN

27 September 2018

Peace and Security

What are the key events that have led the Central African Republic (CAR) to go from being a land-rich nation full of optimism at independence, in 1960, to an impoverished country facing multiple challenges, and the subject of a high-level meeting at UN Headquarters on Friday?

In Mexico City, an artistic installation consisting of a number of signs of Venus, representing women, stresses the magnitude of femicidal violence. (March 2018)

UN Women/Dzilam Mendez

Deputy UN chief hails ‘political courage’ of Latin American countries ‘to confront and end femicide’

27 September 2018

Women

A 50 million euro investment aimed at helping to end the scourge of femicide – where women and girls are killed just because of their gender – was announced at United Nations Headquarters on Thursday, thanks to the ‘political courage’ of a group of Latin American countries, said the UN deputy chief.