General Assembly

Four and half months after the fall of the Assad regime, the recently appointed head of the entity investigating violent crimes committed in Syria since the start of its civil war highlighted new hope that justice will be served.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the General Assembly event in commemoration of His Holiness Pope Francis, in New York today:

"In the digital age, access to information has expanded, but the threat of disinformation and hate speech has become more precise." This was the clear conclusion of the Israeli delegation on the second day of the general debate of the Committee on Information, which is holding its forty-seventh session until 9 May.

At a time when it is engaged, with the UN80 Initiative, in a transformation aimed at making it more effective, the United Nations must more than ever demonstrate its relevance, an effort to which the Department of Global Communications is contributing by shaping a healthy “information ecosystem”, said Melissa Fleming, Under-Secretary-General for the Department, as she opened the forty-seventh session of the Committee on Information today.

The commission tasked with preparing for the entry into force of a new treaty on marine biodiversity concluded its first session today, completing its deliberations on issues including governance, the instrument’s Clearing-House Mechanism, financial and procedural rules, subsidiary bodies established by the accord and arrangements to enhance cooperation with other bodies.

After three weeks of discussions, the Disarmament Commission concluded its 2025 substantive session today, with the approval of its draft report to the General Assembly, as well as the reports of its two working groups — all by consensus.

The commission charged with preparing for the entry into force of a new treaty on marine biodiversity continued its first session today, with delegates resuming consideration of modalities for the operation of the instrument’s Clearing-House Mechanism and exchanging views on issues to discuss during the body’s second session in August.

The commission responsible for preparing for the entry into force of a new treaty on marine biodiversity continued its first session today, with speakers urging gender balance and equitable geographic representation in the membership of subsidiary bodies established under the accord and commenting on modalities for the instrument’s Clearing-House Mechanism.

The commission tasked with preparing for the entry into force of a new treaty on marine biodiversity continued its first session today, tackling matters such as how the accord’s Clearing-House Mechanism will function, where the agreement’s secretariat will be based and what rules of procedure should govern the various subsidiary bodies established under the instrument.

The commission tasked with preparing for the entry into force of a new treaty on marine biodiversity began today the second and final week of its first session, resuming its discussions on financial rules to govern the instrument’s operationalization, provisions concerning the Global Environment Facility trust fund and rules of procedure for bodies established under the accord.