Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization

By Executive Office of the Secretary-General

The Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization (A/75/1) highlights how the UN Secretariat translates resources into impact. The Report covers nine sections: (i) promotion of sustained economic growth and sustainable development; (ii) maintenance of international peace and security; (iii) development in Africa; (iv) promotion of human rights; (v) effective coordination of humanitarian assistance; (vi) promotion of international justice and law; (vii) disarmament; (viii) drug control, crime prevention and combating international terrorism; and (ix) effective functioning of the Organization. In light of developments in 2019/2020, the Annual Report will also include information on the UN response to COVID-19 (coronavirus). The e-book for this publication has been converted into an accessible format for the visually impaired and people with print reading disabilities. It is fully compatible with leading screen-reader technologies such as JAWS and NVDA.

• Language: English
• Publisher: United Nations
• Release date: Sep 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9789213583593

Book preview

A girl stands and smiles into the camera while holding a sign. The sign says “Stop throwing rubbish in the sea because it causes pollution”. Another other girl stands next to her, also holding a sign and smiling.

Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization

2020

COPYRIGHT:

Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization (A/75/1, seventy-fifth session)

Published by the United Nations

New York, New York 10017, United States of America

Copyright © 2020 United Nations

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ISBN: 978-92-1860051-6

eISBN: 978-92-1005329-7

epubISBN: 978-92-1-358359-3

Print ISSN: 0082-8173

Online ISSN: 2518-6469

Sales No. E.GB536

Designed and produced by:

Division of Conference Management, United Nations Office at Geneva

Department of Global Communications, United Nations, New York

Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, United Nations, New York

Credits:

All photographs used in this publication have been sourced from the United Nations Secretariat and other United Nations entities. Unless otherwise indicated, all data in this publication have been sourced from the United Nations.

Cover:

A student with her climate action sign in Albert Park, Suva, during a visit by Secretary-General António Guterres to Fiji as part of a trip to spotlight the issue of climate change ahead of the Climate Action Summit. The Secretary-General met with government leaders, civil society representatives and youth groups to hear from people impacted by climate change and those who are successfully engaging in meaningful climate action (16 May 2019)

Contents

INTRODUCTION

THE UNITED NATIONS RESPONSE TO COVID-19

PROMOTION OF SUSTAINED ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

MAINTENANCE OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY

DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

EFFECTIVE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

PROMOTION OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND LAW

DISARMAMENT

DRUG CONTROL, CRIME PREVENTION AND COMBATING TERRORISM

EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF THE ORGANIZATION

Introduction

A view of the UN General Assembly hall. The hall is mostly empty. At the front of the hall is a sign for the Climate Action Summit.

Behind the scenes during the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly

(New York, 22 September 2019)

KEY PRIORITIES

Promotion of sustained economic growth and sustainable development

Maintenance of international peace and security

Development in Africa

Promotion and protection of human rights

Effective coordination of humanitarian assistance

Promotion of international justice and law

Disarmament

Drug control, crime prevention and combating terrorism

A view from the back of the General Assembly hall. Participants are seated, listening to the Secretary-General speak from the podium.

View of the General Assembly Hall as Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony, 75 years after Auschwitz – Holocaust Education and Remembrance for Global Justice (New York, 27 January 2020)

In 1945, world leaders gathered in San Francisco to sign the Charter of the United Nations, which gave birth to an organization that represented new hope for a world emerging from the horrors of the Second World War. Our founders were in no doubt about the kind of world that they wished to banish to the past.

In 2020, as the United Nations celebrates 75 years since the Charter’s signing, we have an opportunity to reflect on our shared progress, as well as our common future. Our vision and values – based on equality, mutual respect and international cooperation – helped us to avoid a Third World War, which would have had catastrophic consequences for life on our planet. For 75 years, we have forged productive cooperative relationships for global problem-solving and the common good. We have put in place vital norms and agreements that codify and protect human rights, set ambitious goals for sustainable development and charted a path towards a more balanced relationship with the climate and the natural world. Billions of people have emerged from the yoke of colonialism. Millions have been lifted out of poverty.

Today, day in and day out, around the clock, around the world, the United Nations is helping to save millions of lives every year. Women and men of the United Nations are assisting 80 million refugees and displaced people and enabling more than 2 million women and girls to overcome complications from pregnancy and childbirth. Over 40 political missions and peacekeeping operations comprising 95,000 troops, police and civilian personnel strive to bring and keep the peace and to protect civilians. Our electoral assistance now extends to 60 countries each year, and our help for victims of torture reaches 40,000 people. Some 7,500 monitoring missions every year seek to protect human rights, make violations known and hold perpetrators accountable.

A close-up photo of António Guterres, the Secretary-General. Underneath his photo is a quote, which reads: We must commit to building a more inclusive and sustainable world.

We must commit to building a more inclusive and sustainable world.

António Guterres, Secretary-General

Yet these efforts have not been enough to hold back the tides of fear, hatred, inequality, poverty and injustice. Moreover, early in 2020, we were brought to our knees by a microscopic virus: the virus responsible for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has taken a horrific toll on individuals, communities and societies, with the most vulnerable disproportionately affected.

The pandemic has demonstrated the fragility of our world. It has laid bare risks ignored for decades: inadequate health systems; gaps in social protection; structural inequalities; environmental degradation; the climate crisis.

The United Nations family mobilized quickly and comprehensively, leading on the global health response, continuing and expanding the provision of life-saving humanitarian assistance, establishing instruments for rapid responses to the socioeconomic impact and laying out a broad policy agenda in support of the most vulnerable communities and regions.¹ But the setback to the fundamental Charter goals of peace, justice, human rights and development has been deep and may be long-lasting.

BUILDING A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by the target date of 2030. Now, we face the deepest global recession since the Second World War and the broadest collapse in incomes since 1870. Approximately 100 million more people could be pushed into extreme poverty. Already in its fifth year of implementation, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development remains humanity’s blueprint for a better future. In January 2020, the United Nations launched a decade of action to accelerate implementation; the COVID-19 pandemic has made the decade of action both more challenging and more urgent.

With the onset of the pandemic, the United Nations called for massive global support for the most vulnerable people and countries – a rescue package amounting to at least 10 per cent of the global economy. Developed countries have stepped up support for their own people, but we are promoting mechanisms of solidarity to ensure that the developing world will also benefit, including through a debt standstill, debt restructuring and greater support through the international financial institutions. This rescue package has yet to fully materialize.

The Secretary-General is standing in front of a blue background, speaking to a group of students. On the background there is a logo, which states: “UN75, 2020 and beyond. Shaping our future together”.

Secretary-General António Guterres speaks to students at Lahore University of Management Sciences on the role of youth in the United Nations of the twenty-first century (Lahore, Pakistan, 18 February 2020)

This failure of solidarity compounds a much-longer-standing struggle to secure the financing necessary for the success of the 2030 Agenda, complicated by slow growth and high debt. We must act now to maintain progress made on sustainable development. We share a common fate. Only with true solidarity and unity will we achieve our shared goals and uphold our values.

COVID-19 also brought home the drastic need to rebalance the human relationship with the natural world. We were already approaching the point of no return on climate change. Recovery from COVID-19 must go hand in hand with climate action. With global emissions reaching record levels, I hosted the Climate Action Summit and the Youth Climate Summit in 2019. Seventy countries committed themselves to more ambitious national climate plans to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Beyond climate change, and after more than 15 years of intense efforts, the 2020 intergovernmental conference on marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction must now