UNIS/SGSM/1314
19 May 2023
On the International Day for Biological Diversity, we reflect on our relationship with humanity’s life-support system.
From the air we breathe and the food we eat, to the energy that fuels us and the medicines that heal us, our lives are wholly dependent on healthy ecosystems.
Yet our actions are devastating every corner of the planet.
One million species are at risk of extinction -- the result of habitat degradation, skyrocketing pollution, and the worsening climate crisis.
We must end this war on nature.
Last year’s agreement on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework marked an important step – but now is the time to move from agreement to action.
This means ensuring sustainable production and consumption patterns.
Redirecting subsidies from nature-destroying activities towards green solutions.
Recognizing the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities, the strongest guardians of our world’s biodiversity.
And pushing governments and businesses to take stronger and faster action against biodiversity loss and the climate crisis.
Let us work together across governments, civil society, and the private sector to secure a sustainable future for all.
* *** *
"The poison of racism continues to infect our world – a toxic legacy of historic enslavement, colonialism and discrimination. It corrupts communities, blocks opportunities, and ruins lives, eroding the very foundations of dignity, equality and justice." — António Guterres
The members of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine will hold a hybrid press conference in Geneva to launch its comprehensive report to the Human Rights Council at the end of its third mandate.
"On this International Day to Combat Islamophobia, let us work together to uphold equality, human rights and dignity, and build inclusive societies where everyone, regardless of their faith, can live in peace and harmony." — António Guterres
With the deposit of the instrument of ratification at the UN Headquarters in New York, Paraguay becomes the seventeenth State Party to the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, also known as the "Singapore Convention on Mediation".