"INDEPENDENCE"

The UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said that the arrest, detention, and sentencing of human rights defenders in Viet Nam who advocate for the environment and the country’s transition to clean-energy use raises serious concerns “not only with respect to the charges leveled against them but also the conduct of their trials.” UNTV CH

With the first-ever elections in South Sudan slated for next December, the United Nations Mission in the country supported a Political Parties Forum focused on the need to pick up the pace in the long-delayed democratic transition. UNMISS

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “As the northern hemisphere winter approaches, we continue to see concerning trends for COVID-19. Among the relatively few countries that report them, both hospitalizations and ICU admissions have increased in the past 28 days, particularly in the Americas and Europe.” WHO

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) ambassador Kim Song told the General Assembly that some UN member states are “instigating confrontation between camps and bloc-forming in pursuance of hegemony and self-profits”, adding that “because of their prejudiced behavior, conflict and bloodshed among nations, forces, ethnics and religious sects are continuing unabated in the international arena.” UNIFEED

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine is concerned by the continuous evidence of war crimes committed by the Russian armed forces in Ukraine and the suffering of the people in Ukraine who have been continuing to cope with the loss and injury of loved ones, large-scale destruction, as well as economic hardship that have resulted from it, the investigators said in their latest report. UNTV CH

John Rosso, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Immigration, Lands, and Physical Planning of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, addresses the general debate of the 78th Session of the General Assembly of the UN (New York, 19 - 23 and 26 September 2023).

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Farhan Al Furhan Al-Saud, in his address to the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, offered his country’s vision on the various conflicts affecting the region. UNIFEED

Fiame Naomi Mataafa, Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Independent State of Samoa, addresses the general debate of the 78th Session of the General Assembly of the UN (New York, 19 - 23 and 26 September 2023).

Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, said, “the issues of debt sustainability cannot be left on the sidelines, particularly with a number of countries, more than 60 countries, facing debt row today, as we speak, because of the polycrisis.” UNIFEED

The President of Honduras, Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento, said, “It is impossible to understand the magnitude of the tragedy the majority of the Honduran people suffer and the constant caravans of emigrants that arrive to the United States if we ignore the 13 years of dictatorship supported by the international community, that multiplied the public debt six times and reached the highest poverty rate in the history of Honduras, 74 per cent.” UNIFEED