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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.

UN Photo/Manuel Elías

‘Don’t give up on the Central African Republic’, urges UN humanitarian coordinator

Don’t give up on the people of the Central African Republic, or CAR, or the chance that a lasting peace can finally be established there.

That’s the plea from Najat Rochdi, who is UN Deputy Special Representative in CAR, as well as humanitarian coordinator there.

In an interview with UN News on Wednesday, she explained that 64 per cent of people there need assistance this year, and the humanitarian budget for the year is less than 40 per cent funded.

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UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

Prisoner, paediatrician, president: how Michelle Bachelet’s background informs her new role as UN human rights chief

As former President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet knows the hard realities of politics that Heads of Government face as they try to push through their agenda.

Her earlier life was very different: she was detained and tortured under the Chilean dictatorship and later worked as head of the medical department for an NGO helping child torture survivors.

And now, Ms. Bachelet is the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, tasked with co-ordinating human rights activities across the UN, and supervising the Human Rights Council.

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Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Council of State and Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Cia Pak

Capitalism’s greed fomenting terrorism, hurting sustainable development, asserts Cuban President

The consequences of capitalism, imperialism and neoliberalism are not only manifesting in fascism and conflicts around the globe, they are also diverting much needed resources which could have helped implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development or address climate change impacts, the Cuban President told world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly.

Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Cia Pak

In UN address, Afghan leader lays out vision of peaceful, prosperous State in talks with Taliban

Saying his country had turned a page with its unprecedented overtures to the militant Taliban opposition, Afghan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah on Wednesday called on the United Nations, the European Union and State partners to help promote a new Afghanistan in a country that has known nothing but conflict over the past four decades, with hundreds of thousands of casualties.

King Tupou VI of the Kingdom of Tonga addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Cia Pak

At UN, Pacific Island leaders warn climate change poses dire security threat to their fragile countries and marine resources

Ensuring Sustainable development and surmounting the ‘devastating impacts’ of climate change were on the top of the agenda at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, where King Tupou VI of Tonga was joined by a host of other Pacific Island leaders calling for action on what they saw as “the defining issue of our time”.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of the Republic of Mali addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Cia Pak

At UN Assembly, Mali’s president gives heartfelt thanks for UN’s help in bringing stability

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, whose West African country has benefitted from a 15,000-strong United Nations Stabilization Force (MINUSMA) to bring peace after Tuareg rebels and militant Islamists devastated its northern and central regions, mounted the General Assembly podium on Wednesday to thank the world Organization for “its immense and multi-dimensional” support.