Antonio Guterres

Receding glaciers to cut flows of rivers like Indus, Ganges: UN chief

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that major Himalayan rivers like the Indus, the Ganges and Brahmaputra, all hugely important for India, could see reductions in their flows as glaciers and ice sheets recede over the coming decades due to global warming. "Glaciers are critical to all life on earth. Over centuries, they carved out the landmasses we call home. Today, they cover 10 per cent of our world. Glaciers are also the world's water towers," Guterres said in his remarks to an event on the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation Wednesday. Guterres voiced concern that human activity is driving the planet's temperature to dangerous new levels and "melting glaciers are the canary in the coalmine". Antarctica is losing an average of 150 billion tons of ice mass every year while the Greenland ice cap is melting even faster losing 270 billion tonnes per year. In Asia, 10 major rivers originate in the Himalaya region, supplying freshwater to 1.3 billion people living

UN chief Guterres urges 'game-changing' commitments on clean water

The United Nations chief urged the first world conference on water in over 45 years on Wednesday to address the 21st century emergency that is wasting the world's most important resource and has left billions of people without clean water and basic sanitation. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the opening session that water is humanity's lifeblood and a human right, but the world is draining it through vampiric overconsumption and unsustainable use and evaporating it through global heating. In a challenge to all nations and the broader international community, he said the three-day conference must represent a quantum leap in recognition of the vital importance of water and the need for action to ensure its sustainable use. Guterres called for game-changing commitments toward U.N. goals, including ensuring that all people have access to drinking water and sanitation by 2030. The U.N. World Water Development Report, issued on the eve of the conference, says 26% of the world's .

Guterres asks G20 for pact to hold down warming amid food crisis warnings

he cautioned that "the climate time-bomb is ticking", he also sounded a note of hope: "Today's IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb. It is a survival guide for humanity"

UN agrees high seas treaty to protect ocean life in international waters

Guterres in a statement stated, "This action is a victory for multilateralism and for global efforts to counter the destructive trends facing ocean ocean health, now and for generations to come"

No joint communique on Ukraine conflict due to rift between West, Russia

With the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi unable to come out with a joint communique due to the sharp rift between the West and Russia over the Ukraine conflict, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this is not a reflection on India's efforts as host but of the divisions" seen among countries in the international fora. India as President of the G20 hosted the Foreign Ministers Meeting on Thursday in New Delhi, attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang among counterparts from other G20 nations. The meeting was unable to come out with a joint communique due to a sharp rift between the West and Russia over the Ukraine conflict despite efforts by host India to bridge the differences. Blinken told a news conference in the Indian capital that Russia and China were the two countries that did not support a joint communique at the meeting. Well, we are not a party to the

UN chief Guterres points to 'massive' rights violations in Ukraine

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most massive violations of human rights in the world today, the head of the United Nations said on Monday, as the war pushed into its second year with no end in sight. The Russian invasion has unleashed widespread death, destruction and displacement, UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres said in a speech to the UN-backed Human Rights Council in Geneva. After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital in the opening weeks of the invasion and suffering a series of humiliating setbacks in the east and the south during the fall, Russia has stabilised the front and is concentrating its efforts on a slow push to capture the rest of the Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas. Ukraine, meanwhile, hopes to use battle tanks and other new weapons pledged by the West to launch new counteroffensives and reclaim more of the occupied territory. He said attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure have caused many casualties

UN chief Guterres slams 'climate-wrecking' firms at human rights body

UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres on Monday stressed the importance of legal challenges against climate-wrecking corporations" like fossil-fuel producers, ratcheting up his call for the fight against climate change - this time before the UN's top human rights body. Guterres opened the latest session of the Human Rights Council, part of an address that decried summary executions, torture and sexual violence in places like Ukraine; antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and the persecution of Christians; inequality and threats to free expression, among other issues. Guterres also sought to undergird the concept of human rights which have faced "public disregard and private disdain and tie them together with environmental concerns. "Human rights are not a luxury that can be left until we find a solution to the world's other problems. They are THE solution to many of the world's other problems," he said. From the climate emergency to the misuse of technology, the answers to today's cri

Guterres calls on G20 finance ministers to find solutions to debt crisis

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is asking the G20 finance ministers meeting in Bengaluru to take bold steps to reform the international development banks and find ways to solve the debt crisis

UN appoints Indo-Canadian coordinator for Scaling Up Nutrition Movement

United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres has announced the appointment of Indo-Canadian Afshan Khan as the coordinator of the 'Scaling Up Nutrition Movement'. The Scaling Up Nutrition or SUN Movement is a country-driven initiative led by 65 nations and four Indian states united in their mission to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030, Stphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the secretary-general told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York. "Afshan Khan will succeed Gerda Verburg of the Netherlands, to whom the secretary-general expresses his gratitude for her efforts and dedication in leading the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement," he said. Born in India, Khan will lead the SUN Movement Secretariat, as well as coordinate the network of SUN Government Focal Points, the movement's stakeholders, and supporters, Dujarric said. She has both Canadian and United Kingdom citizenship. Khan holds a master's degree in public policy from the , and a bachelor's degree in political science

UN chief Guterres calls for action to address root cause of rising seas

'Sea-level rise is not only a threat in itself. It is a threat-multiplier,' Guterres told a Security Council debate on 'Sea-level Rise: Implications for International Peace and Security'

World heading toward a wider war, fears UN chief Antonio Guterres

The United Nations chief warned Monday that the world is facing a convergence of challenges unlike any in our lifetimes and expressed fear of a wider war as the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said experts who surveyed the state of the world in 2023 set the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight the closest ever to total global catastrophe, He pointed to the war in Ukraine, runaway climate catastrophe, rising nuclear threats, the widening gulf between the world's haves and have-nots, and the epic geopolitical divisions undermining global solidarity and trust. In a wide-ranging address Guterres urged the General Assembly's 193 member nations to change their mindset on decision-making from near-term thinking, which he called irresponsible and immoral, to looking at what will happen to all of us tomorrow and act. He said this year's 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should serve as a remin

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres codoles death of Musharraf

Musharraf, an Army general who seized power in a 1999 coup overthrowing the democratically elected government of Nawaz Sharif, died in exile in Dubai on Sunday

UN chief Antonio Guterres calls for data-driven fight against terrorism

Data drives every aspect of economic, business and social life," he said in remarks to a meeting of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact

Antonio Guterres urges member states to uphold UN values, rule of law

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all member states to uphold the vision and the values of the UN Charter and the rule of law in particular

UN chief shocked by deaths in Peru protests, calls for investigation

The Secretary-General underscores that demonstrations must be carried out in a peaceful manner, respecting life and public and private property, Dujarric told a daily press briefing

$9 bn pledged in support of Pak's flood recovery efforts: Guterres

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that more than $9 billion were pledged in support of Pakistans recovery efforts from the worst ever floods that hit the country last year

UN chief Guterres saddened by death of dozens in South Africa gas explosion

A total of 34 people, including 11 healthcare workers from a nearby hospital, had died as a result of a gas tanker explosion in Boksburg, South Africa's Gauteng Province, on Christmas Eve

UN chief Antonio Guterres welcomes cease-fire announcement in Colombia

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the announcement of a six-month cease-fire between the Colombian government and five armed groups

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Have no personal feelings about who manages Twitter: UN chief Guterres

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said he has no personal feelings about who manages Twitter, but he is very interested in how the platform is managed, underlining the importance of combating hate speech and ensuring freedom of expression, especially of journalists, on social media platforms. I have no personal feelings in relation to who manages a platform. I am very interested in about how the platform is managed, he said here on Monday. Guterres was responding to a question during his end of the year press conference on whether he thinks Twitter's owner Elon Musk was a threat to free speech and would he be relieved if the billionaire stepped down as head of the social media platform. Twitter users had voted on Monday for Musk to quit as head of the social media giant in a poll the technology tycoon ran on his future and promised to abide by its results. A total of 57.5 per cent of people voted "yes" after the 51-year-old billionaire asked his 122 million followers whethe