UNIS/SGSM/1362
15 November 2023
Toilets transform lives.
They deliver dignity, boost school attendance – particularly for girls, and enhance health and nutrition by preventing the spread of disease.
Gradually, the world is making progress towards bringing sanitation to all – and fulfilling one of the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. Over nine hundred million more people have access to safely managed sanitation services than in 2015. And almost three hundred million more people have been spared the indignity of open defecation over the same period.
But a massive sanitation shortfall still exists, with billions of people cut off from safe services. We’re racing the clock. To meet the 2030 deadline for the SDGs, we need to move five times faster.
This World Toilet Day focuses on accelerating action on sanitation to drive progress across the SDGs. The world must respond urgently to this call. We need a massive cash injection across the board to get the SDGs on track. My proposal for an SDG Stimulus of $500 billion a year is gaining traction, and I urge leaders to act now to make it a reality.
On this World Toilet Day, let’s recommit to realising every person’s human right to safe sanitation, to help to flush away poverty and indignity for good.
* *** *
"The epidemic of violence against women and girls shames humanity." — António Guterres
"On this Day of Remembrance for All Victims of Chemical Warfare, we pay tribute to those killed or injured, and resolve to end this horror." — António Guterres
Gabon signed the United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships (the "Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships") at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 14 November 2024.
During the 141st session of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the Board held consultations with Member States on the human rights dimensions of drug control.
