The United Nations General Assembly opens its seventy-sixth session

New York-Sana

The United Nations General Assembly opened last night its 76th session, chaired by Abdullah Shahid, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives.

In his opening speech, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that wars should stop and that the time had come to focus on fighting the common enemy of humanity represented by the Covid-19 pandemic, calling on member states to stimulate the spirit of pluralism to confront the challenges that threaten all humanity, pointing out that pluralism is the only way to a better future. For all through actions and cooperation.

Guterres considered that the Covid-19 pandemic has made the Sustainable Development Goals out of reach, calling on countries to speed up the response to the epidemic by ensuring vaccines, treatment and basic services for all, including health care, nutrition, water, education, protection and full equality for girls and women.

Guterres described the opening of the 76th session as a moment of "great challenge and division" marked by conflict, climate change, deepening poverty, exclusion and inequality, and an epidemic that continues to threaten lives, livelihoods and the future, noting that these challenges have been exacerbated by the divisions afflicting our world... the divisions between the rich and the poor. Among those who take basic services for granted and those for whom these basics remain a distant dream .. Among those who have a seat in the classroom and the skills to build a better future and those who are denied this opportunity because of poverty or their gender .. Among those with access To life-saving COVID-19 vaccines and those who can't.

In his opening speech, the President of the General Assembly called on Member States to embrace hope and embark on a new beginning after a challenging year of climate disasters, conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shahid said that the past year was a very tragic and difficult year, but this year we can turn the page and choose to write a new chapter, noting that hundreds of millions have contracted the disease, millions have died, billions have suffered from the pandemic, and the world’s collective anxiety has increased about climate change, disasters, conflicts and instability, calling for the need to create A change, stressing that the United Nations should have a role in this, as it was 76 years ago, declaring that he adopts hope as the title of his presidency.

Shahid identified five areas of action and spreading hope in the coming period related to equality in the provision of vaccines, rebuilding after the pandemic, climate change, gender equality and the survival of the United Nations, a forum for all.

The General Assembly concluded the work of its 75th session after Shahid took the oath and took over the presidency of the Assembly from his predecessor Volkan Bozkir.