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UN General Assembly 74th Session

Special Coverage of the 74th General Debate
24 September-30 September 2019

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. This year, the debate will run alongside a series of key summits and meetings, guided by the UN’s landmark Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), seeking to boost action on climate change and accelerate progress on sustainable development:
♦ 21 September – Youth Climate Summit;
♦ 23 September – Climate Action Summit and the High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage;
♦ 24 and 25 September – Sustainable Development Goals Summit;
♦ 26 September – High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development;
♦ 27 September – Small Island Developing States.

Vinzealhar Ainjo Kwangin Nen, a youth speaker from Papua New Guinea, addresses a meeting on Small Island Developing States at the United Nations in New York...
UN Photo/Laura Jarriel

‘We may be small islands, but no man is an island’, Papua New Guinea youth tells world leaders

“All of us from small islands can relate to the word’s perception of us, as small islands”, but rather than treating them as distant vessels, imagine instead “an undivided Pacific, connected by an ocean highway.” That was the plea to world leaders from Vinzealhar Ainjo Kwangin Nen, on Friday, speaking on behalf of her generation, on the front line of climate change. 

Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo, President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, addresses the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly’s General Debate. (26 September 2019)
UN Photo/Laura Jarriel

At UN, Somalia’s President spotlights country’s progress, but cautions eradicating terrorism ‘will not be easy’

Somalia is “the perfect example of the success of the multilateral system,” President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed told the UN General Assembly on Thursday, while acknowledging that the Horn of Africa country still needed international and regional support and cooperation, particularly to deal with threats from Al-Shabab.