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September 16, 2025 UN

The main news of the day at the UN and in the world: New York prepares to host the leaders of almost 150 states and governments; Independent international commission accuses Israel of genocide; UN budget proposed to be cut by $500 million in 2026; September 16 marks International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.

UN General Assembly

New York is preparing to host leaders of nearly 150 states and governments for the 80th High-Level Week of the General Assembly. The UN Secretary-General told a news conference at the UN headquarters that the coming week should be a time for solutions, not political rivalries. According to the Secretary-General, it will open up opportunities for dialogue and mediation. He said he will hold more than 150 bilateral meetings and will use each one to encourage leaders to talk to each other and “find solutions.”

Independent Commission Accuses Israel of Genocide

Independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday said Israel's actions in Gaza constituted genocide, a charge Tel Aviv categorically rejected. In a new report released amid escalating Israeli military operations in Gaza, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel called on Israel and all states to fulfil their obligations under international law "to end the genocide" and punish those responsible.

UN Budget Cuts

The United Nations has completed a review of its 2026 budget estimates, proposing cost reductions of more than $500 million and staffing reductions of 19 percent compared to the 2025 budget. The cuts will also affect UN peacekeeping missions around the world. However, the changes will not affect programmes and activities that directly support UN member states, especially least developed, landlocked and small island states, or development initiatives in Africa.

Ozone layer

September 16 is the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. On this day in 2009, the Vienna Convention, which concerns measures to protect people and the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation, and the Montreal Protocol, according to which chemicals that destroy the ozone layer began to be gradually phased out, received universal ratification. The UN calls on countries to continue to take measures to protect the environment and combat climate change.

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September 16, 2025 UN

New York is preparing to host leaders from nearly 150 countries and governments for the 80th High-Level Week of the General Assembly. The UN Secretary-General said the world was in “uncharted waters” and stressed that the coming week should be a time for solutions, not political rivalries.

"Some call this the World Cup of Diplomacy. But this is not about scoring points, it is about solving problems. There is too much at stake," he said at a press conference at the Organization's headquarters.

António Guterres noted that the global community is facing growing problems: growing geopolitical tensions, a crisis of international cooperation, numerous conflicts, climate change, and the uncontrolled development of new technologies.

According to the Secretary-General, the next week will offer opportunities for dialogue and mediation: "This UN week offers every opportunity for dialogue and mediation. Every opportunity to develop solutions. Thousands of world leaders will meet here."

He said he would hold more than 150 bilateral meetings and would use each one to urge leaders to talk directly to each other, "reduce risks" and "find solutions."

Our times require more than posturing and promises.

Guterres stressed that people around the world are looking not for words, but for action: “Our times demand more than posturing and promises. They demand that leaders make progress and deliver on their commitments.”

The Secretary General highlighted key areas in which concrete steps are needed, primarily peace and conflict resolution.

"Let this week be a week of decisions. For peace – in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and beyond – and a just and lasting peace in the Middle East based on the principle of two states," he said.

He also stressed the need to find solutions in areas such as climate, technology including AI, the fight for gender equality, financing for development and UN reform.

In closing, Guterres stressed: “The UN is the place. Next week is the time. Leaders must get serious – and act.”

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September 16, 2025 Humanitarian aid

As Israel continues to bomb Gaza City as part of its escalating military offensive, families with starving children are being forced to move south, from one "hell" to another, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

The Israeli military has stepped up its offensive on the city, ordering residents to evacuate. UNICEF representative Tess Ingram, based in the southern enclave, called the forced displacement of families a "mortal threat" to Gaza's most vulnerable residents.

"To expect nearly half a million children, exhausted and traumatised by more than 700 days of ongoing conflict, to leave one hell for another is inhumane," she said.

150 thousand people moved to the south of the sector in a month

UN partners monitoring the movement of people in Gaza have recorded nearly 70,000 movements south in the past few days and nearly 150,000 in the past month, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The only accessible route, the Al-Rashid road, is congested.

Ingram described meeting a mother who had walked more than six hours from Gaza City south with her five children, "exhausted by thirst and hunger," two of whom were shoeless.

She said they, along with tens of thousands of other children, were being sent to a "so-called humanitarian zone" covering al-Mawasi and surrounding areas.

"Sea of Despair"

A UNICEF spokeswoman described the destination of Palestinians evacuating Gaza City as "a sea of makeshift tents and human despair." She stressed that there are not enough resources to even support the hundreds of thousands of people already living there.

The problem of malnutrition among children in the Gaza Strip is becoming increasingly acute, Ingram continued, noting that UNICEF estimates that about 26,000 children in the enclave currently require treatment for the effects of malnutrition, more than 10,000 in Gaza City alone.

Food centers are closed

A UNICEF spokeswoman said the escalation in fighting and evacuation orders this week in Gaza City had forced more feeding centres to close, leaving many children without access to much-needed food aid.

While humanitarian organizations remain in Gaza and continue their operations, “with every bombing and every denial [of aid], it becomes more difficult for them to operate,” Ingram stressed.

According to OCHA, as of last Sunday, humanitarian teams were attempting to organize 17 missions in coordination with the Israeli authorities. In the end, only four were supported, seven were refused, and others encountered obstacles on the ground or were cancelled.

Ingram described the dilemma facing desperate Gazans: “to stay in danger or to flee to a place they know is dangerous.” She recalled that al-Mawasi was attacked about two weeks ago, killing eight children, the youngest three, while queuing for water.

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September 16, 2025 UN

The United Nations has completed a revised budget estimate for 2026, proposing cost reductions of more than $500 million and presenting the first measures under the Secretary-General’s UN80 initiative to make the Organization more effective and sustainable in honor of its 80th anniversary.

Revised estimates presented to the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions on Monday project a 15.1 percent reduction in expenditures and an 18.8 percent reduction in staff positions compared with the 2025 budget. The cuts will affect the peacekeeping support budget, which funds personnel and services that support UN missions around the world.

The committee, which advises the General Assembly, will consider the proposals and make its recommendations to the General Assembly's Fifth Committee, where all 193 Member States make decisions on administrative and budgetary matters.

Targeted reductions

In a letter to Member States, Secretary-General António Guterres said the cuts were the result of a comprehensive review of resource allocations, while ensuring a balance between supporting the three pillars of the UN Charter, including peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development. António Guterres stressed that the cuts were “carefully calibrated and targeted rather than across the board.”

Programmes and activities that directly support Member States, especially least developed, landlocked and small island developing States, as well as African development initiatives, have been protected from funding cuts. Support for the Peacebuilding Fund and the Resident Coordinator system has been maintained. The Regional Economic Commissions will not face major adjustments, and the Regular Programme of Technical Cooperation will continue to expand, strengthening support for country development.

Proposals for reform

The revised budget estimates include the first proposals for reform of the UN Secretariat. Among the measures mentioned are the creation of new administrative centres in New York and Bangkok, the consolidation of payroll into a single global team (New York, Entebbe, Nairobi), and the transfer of some functions from high-cost locations (New York, Geneva) to more cost-effective ones.

Additional savings are planned through real estate, including the UN moving out of two rented buildings in New York by 2027. These measures are aimed at reducing duplication, improving quality and ensuring mandate delivery.

Next steps and staff support

The budget proposals will be considered at a hearing of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, which starts this week. The documents will then go to the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly, where all 193 member states will make a final decision. A verdict is expected by December of this year. If approved, the changes will be implemented in stages, starting in 2026.

In a message to UN staff, Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged that the changes ahead will affect their daily work and professional lives. But he assured that no one will be left behind along the way.

Guterres noted that the decisions taken as part of the budget review were not easy. He took personal responsibility for these steps, adding that this also rested with managers and staff across the Organization. The Secretary-General called for fairness, compassion and professionalism in implementing the changes, stressing that every staff member plays a key role in preserving and strengthening the values of the UN.

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September 16, 2025 Human rights

Independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said on Tuesday that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute genocide, a charge Tel Aviv categorically rejected.

Conclusions of the Commission

In a new report released amid escalating Israeli military operations in Gaza, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel called on Israel and all states to fulfil their obligations under international law “to end the genocide” and punish those responsible.

"The commission finds that Israel is responsible for committing genocide in Gaza," said commission chair Navi Pillay. "It is clear that there is an intent to exterminate Palestinians in Gaza through actions that fall within the criteria set out in the Genocide Convention."

The members of the Commission are not UN staff, but are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as independent experts.

Israel's reaction

Israel's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, strongly rejected the commission's "selective" findings, stressing that the more than 70-page report "advances the narrative of Hamas and its supporters who seek to delegitimize and demonize the state of Israel." The report, he said, "falsely accuses Israel of genocidal intent without providing evidence."

Convention for the Prevention of Genocide

At a press conference in Geneva, commission members Navi Pillay and Chris Sidoti explained that as a result of their investigation into the Gaza war, beginning with the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, they had concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces “committed four of the five acts of genocide defined in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”

Such acts include:

murder; causing serious physical or mental harm; deliberately creating conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of Palestinians; measures aimed at preventing the birth of children.

According to Pillay, responsibility for these crimes "lies with the Israeli authorities at the highest level", with "direct statements" humiliating the Palestinians coming from Israeli civilian and military officials.

The commission noted that it had analysed the actions of the Israeli authorities and security forces in Gaza, including "the use of starvation and inhumane living conditions", and had concluded that "genocidal intent was the only reasonable conclusion to draw from the nature of their operations".

Methodical investigation

The commission said its findings were based on an analysis of Israel's military operations, including "the killing and serious harm of an unprecedented number of Palestinians" and the imposition of "a total siege, including the blocking of humanitarian aid, which has led to famine."

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), famine has been confirmed in Gaza, with residents being bombed daily and "denied access to means of survival after Israeli forces ordered them to vacate the city."

The report also describes the "systematic destruction" of the health and education systems in Gaza, as well as "systematic" acts of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians.

"Stop the genocide"

The commission also pointed to instances of “direct targeting of children” and that Israel “is ignoring the orders of the International Court of Justice, which in March 2024 ordered that all necessary measures be taken to ensure the unimpeded provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians throughout Gaza.”

“The international community cannot stand idly by as Israel wages genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Pillay stressed. “When clear signs and evidence of genocide emerge, inaction amounts to complicity. All states have a responsibility to use all means reasonably available to them to stop the genocide in Gaza.”

Israel's Strike on Qatar

The Human Rights Council changed its agenda on Tuesday to hold an emergency debate on Israel's strike several days ago on the Hamas leadership, which was then in Qatar.

The strike on Doha reportedly killed six people, including five Hamas members. The Israeli move drew widespread international condemnation, including from the Secretary-General. Antonio Guterres called the attack a violation of Qatar's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

At a Security Council meeting called in response to the strike, UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo said the attack, which violated Qatar's sovereignty, posed a serious threat to regional peace and security and undermined international mediation efforts to end the war in Gaza and return the hostages.

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September 16, 2025 Climate and Environment

Forty years ago, states united to adopt Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, and agreed on measures to protect people and the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation. Soon, on September 16, 1987, a new scientific data-driven Montreal Protocol, under which chlorofluorocarbons began to be gradually phased out, allowing the ozone layer to begin to recover.

On September 16, 2009, the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol became the first treaties in the history of the UN to receive universal ratification. International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer – September 16 – The UN celebrates this historic achievement and looks to the future with hope. The ozone treaties embodied the vision of moving from science to global action and will remain its solid foundation for many years to come.

"This achievement reminds us that when countries heed scientific warnings, progress is possible," said the UN Secretary-General. Antonio Guterres in his message on the occasion of the International Day.

At the same time, “scientists are sounding the alarm again,” he continued, as the world rapidly approaches increase in global temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, which “is fraught with catastrophic consequences.”

The Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol continue to play a key role in monitoring ozone and ultraviolet radiation levels, as well as controlling ozone-depleting substances and other chemical compounds, including hydrofluorocarbons – highly potent greenhouse gases used primarily in refrigeration technologies and being phased out under the Kigali Amendment to the Protocol.

The UN chief called on governments to fully ratify and implement the Kigali Amendment, which commits them to phase out hydrofluorocarbons. He also noted the need to incorporate this commitment into new national climate plans. According to Guterres, implementing the Kigali Amendment will reduce temperature rise by 0.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, and when combined with energy-efficient cooling, these gains can be doubled.

“Every fraction of a degree counts. Every action counts,” the Secretary-General said, calling on the global community to renew its commitment to preserving the ozone layer and protecting people and the planet for future generations.

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September 15, 2025 Humanitarian aid

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher warned on Monday of a massive funding crisis for humanitarian work around the world, a situation he said was being exacerbated by rising violence against aid workers.

"The era of indifference and impunity"

He noted that funding levels were down sharply from last year. "We've only received 19 percent of what we need. That's 40 percent less than last year," Fletcher said.

"It's terrible and it makes our era an era of indifference," he added.

Budget cuts, he said, are forcing UN agencies to set tough priorities. This year, $29 billion is planned to save 114 million lives. Fletcher noted that this amount is just one percent of global military spending in 2025.

The emergency relief coordinator drew attention to the rising number of casualties among humanitarian workers. Last year, more than 380 people died, and 270 deaths have already been recorded in 2025 alone.

Fletcher warned of the normalisation of violence against aid workers, calling the situation an “era of impunity”. He stressed the importance of asking questions about the origins of the weapons used in these attacks.

"Where do these weapons come from that are killing us and those we serve? They don't come from nowhere," he said.

Crisis situations around the world

Speaking about the situation in Gaza, Fletcher said that more than half a million residents of the strip are already suffering from catastrophic hunger, and the number of hungry people could exceed 640,000 in the coming weeks.

"We can stop this. Women, old people, children of Gaza cannot be fed with statements of concern," he said.

Fletcher recalled that during the ceasefire earlier this year, thousands of trucks carrying humanitarian aid were able to enter the Strip, which he said was proof that with access, a lot of people could be helped.

The emergency relief coordinator stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire, the opening of crossings, safe passage within Gaza, and the release of hostages.

He called what is happening in Sudan the world's largest humanitarian crisis. More than half a million people are already in conditions close to starvation, and 30 million need help. In the besieged city of El Fasher, about 900,000 people are in a critical situation.

In Syria, Fletcher said, humanitarian responses need to be balanced with long-term development to reduce the population's dependence on aid.

He spoke about his visit to Haiti, where gang violence and mass displacement have increased. Of particular concern, Fletcher said, is the rise in gender-based violence.

The Emergency Relief Coordinator stressed the role of women in humanitarian operations in Afghanistan: “Women humanitarian workers and the women we work with in the country are absolutely indispensable… They are under even more pressure, more challenges in their work, and this is unacceptable. We cannot do our work without them. We cannot operate without them.”

In closing, he noted that the situation in Yemen is complicated not only by the lack of funds and security threats, but also by the detention of humanitarian workers. “This is unacceptable,” Fletcher stressed.

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September 15, 2025 Peace and security

Addressing delegates to the 69th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi called on states to reaffirm their commitment to the nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Grossi stressed that support for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the agency itself is now of utmost importance, as the conference is taking place against the backdrop of increasing terrorist attacks, growing armed conflicts and weakening nuclear controls.

The agency's head spoke about the IAEA's work to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and the peaceful uses of nuclear technology – from treating cancer and ensuring food security to monitoring plastic pollution, diagnosing diseases and developing artificial intelligence.

Challenges and achievements

Grossi noted with satisfaction that Syria agreed to work closely with the agency this year and that an agreement was reached last week with Iran to resume technical measures to ensure the peaceful nature of its nuclear developments.

As for Ukraine, where nuclear facilities are under threat due to the conflict, the agency, according to its director, has sent more than 200 missions there and is present at all nuclear power plants.

However, he continued, challenges remain: North Korea is developing its nuclear weapons program, and some countries that still adhere to the NPT are discussing the possibility of revising it.

"Just imagine a world where there are 20 or 25 countries armed with nuclear weapons," he warned.

Nuclear technology for good

Three years ago, the IAEA launched its flagship Rays of Hope initiative, which has catalyzed real progress in cancer treatment. The program has built hospitals, purchased radiotherapy equipment, and trained specialists in 40 countries.

A joint programme with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Atoms4Food helps to strengthen food security and reduce the environmental impact of agriculture.

The IAEA chief also spoke about other initiatives of the agency, from the fight against plastic pollution to improving global preparedness for epidemics.

An optimistic outlook for the future

With the rise of artificial intelligence, Grossi says, “the future will be too exciting to miss.” Nuclear energy could power AI infrastructure, and AI could improve nuclear technology. In December, the IAEA will hold the first-ever symposium on this connection.

Another promising area is the development of thermonuclear energy, thanks to investments from both the public and private sectors.

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