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Source: United Nations (video statements)

UN Secretary-General António Guterres appeals for an end to the United States-Iran war and the toll it has taken on global trade, as he begins an official visit to Pakistan.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YYpT_KPRYzE

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:

– Secretary-General is in Pakistan
– Deputy Secretary-General at the Pre-COP Leaders’ Summit
– Israel
– Occupied Palestinian Territory
– Security Council/African Union – UN Cooperation
– Ebola/Kenya and Democratic Republic of the Congo
– Ethiopia
– Ukraine
– El Niño/Children

SECRETARY-GENERAL IN PAKISTAN

The Secretary-General is in Pakistan, where today he held discussions with Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan.

In a joint press takeout afterwards, the Secretary-General saluted Pakistan’s leadership in helping create the conditions for dialogue between the United States and Iran, noting that Pakistan’s efforts helped lead to the 17 June Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, the subsequent ceasefire, and the framework for further negotiations. The Secretary-General called on all parties to end the conflict, return to diplomacy, and fully restore navigational rights and freedoms in accordance with international law.

The Secretary-General also met with President Asif Ali Zardari, with whom he discussed regional and international issues. He also accepted an honorary award from the President on behalf of the UN.

The Secretary-General visited the National Disaster Management Authority, where he received a briefing on Pakistan’s disaster preparedness and resilience. He then visited the headquarters of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), where he paid tribute to the mission and to UN peacekeepers serving around the world. This was followed by a meeting with the UN country team in Islamabad.

Tomorrow, the Secretary-General will meet with Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and hold further engagements in Islamabad. He is expected back in New York on Thursday.

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL AT THE PRE-COP LEADERS’ SUMMIT

The Deputy Secretary-General took part today in the Pre-COP Leaders’ Summit in Tuvalu. She attended an event with Heads of State and Government from the region, as well as local communities on the front lines of the climate crisis.

Ms. Mohammed and other leaders also visited a multimillion-dollar climate resilience initiative supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), designed to protect Tuvalu’s low-lying areas from rising sea levels as well as storm surges.

Returning to Fiji, Ms. Mohammed held bilateral meetings and participated in the Leaders’ Pre-COP meeting, where leaders addressed the Taku Pakasoa Declaration, underscoring that every fraction of a degree above 1.5 degrees centigrade brings further destruction and costs for every nation.

Further information on Ms. Mohammed’s programme will be provided tomorrow.

Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2026-10-06

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCZp9w1CWa0

Source: United Nations (video statements)

According to a new UN report, one in three institutions built to advance gender equality have been stripped of power in just two years.

The UN warns that a deliberate political retreat from gender equality is reversing decades of progress and calls for equal power for women everywhere.

The Gender Snapshot 2026 report, released by UN Women and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), shows that where women hold real power, outcomes improve across every dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – from peace to education, and from poverty to climate action.

Yet the very institutions built over decades to advance gender equality are being systematically weakened, stalling or reversing progress at precisely the moment when the world cannot afford to go backwards.

The findings of the Gender Snapshot 2026 report reveal a political retreat from gender equality that is crosscutting, measurable, and compounding.

One in three institutional mechanisms for gender equality has had its institutional power eroded over the past two years.

Around one in four have seen their operating budgets cut over the same period, and nearly one in ten have lost control of their budget altogether.

Funding for gender equality has fallen to its lowest level since 2021, with funding for women’s rights organizations most impacted.

Meanwhile, amid funding cuts, 42 percent of UN entities report a weakening of their gender equality efforts.

The concentration of political power remains stark: six in seven countries are led by men. Women continue to face systemic barriers at every stage.

The cost of running for office can exceed 100 times a country’s average per-capita income, excluding many women before the race even begins.

In some countries, as many as eight in 10 women running for office face violence in public life.

And when women do reach cabinet, they are still disproportionately steered away from the portfolios that command the highest security and economic power.

Close to nine in 10 defense ministers and more than eight in 10 finance ministers are men.

As women continue to face barriers to equal participation and influence, decades of political and legal gains on gender equality are increasingly being contested and, in some cases, dismantled.

Not one single indicator on the Sustainable Development Goal for gender equality (SDG5) is on track to be met by 2030.

The pattern extends beyond government.

Women hold only 6 percent of corporate Chief Executive Officer positions globally and lead fewer than 20 percent of the highest courts, leaving the decisions shaping business, law, employment, and the global economy overwhelmingly in the hands of men.

The findings of the report come at a consequential moment for the multilateral system.

World leaders are gathering for the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA81) as the United Nations moves towards selecting its tenth Secretary-General – a position that no woman has held in the UN’s 80-year history.

As governments debate the future of multilateralism, the report argues that no vision for the future of the world is credible without women and girls having an equal share of power in shaping it.

UN Women and UN DESA are calling for a reversal of the political retreat on gender equality – and for power to be shared more equally.

That means ensuring women have an equal voice in political and economic decisions, properly funding gender equality institutions, protecting women’s rights organizations and civic space, and ensuring women have equal power to shape the decisions that affect economies, peace and security, technology and public life.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/K8aYFEAq-l8