This high level week in September is the one when world leaders gather in New York for the general debate of the UN General Assembly, and while there, they can take part in other summits and initiatives of high importance.
This year was no difference, these are three main achievements of this past week at the United Nations.
1. Two separate summits on refugees and migrants resulted in major commitments to solve the current crisis
On Monday the UN’s High Level Meeting on Refugees and Migrants was mainly a political event where political commitments of all UN member states were put in a document called the New York Declaration. Tuesday’s Leader’s Summit was convened by President Obama and co-hosted by the UN Secretary General and major refugee hosting states, and involved 50 governments and NGOs. One day after the political commitments, it resulted in concrete monetary pledges and other takings.
/Picture source: @UN on Twitter./
2. The Paris Agreement got closer to entering into force
Significantly closer, but not yet close enough. 60 states have signed it already, but those 60 doesn’t add up to 55% of global emissions. This doesn’t necessarily signal the lack of political will, but the process of ratification in a lot of countries are more difficult than merely signing the document, so we have to give it some more time.
/Picture source: @GlobalGoalsUN on Twitter./
3. Global commmitment to take action against antimicrobial resistance
It doesn’t happen very often that the UN holds a high level meeting on a health issue, this is only the fourth such time, which signals the importance of its topic. What health workers can do (see the above infographic) is just a small portion in the solution of the problem and a global cooperation is clearly needed.
/Picture source: @WHO on Twitter./
