Russia fails to win back seat on human rights council after UN vote

Country was suspended from body last year after Ukraine invasion but scale of support for readmittance will worry Kyiv and allies

Russia has been defeated in its attempt to regain a seat in the UN’s top human rights body by a significant majority at the general assembly, which voted last year to suspend Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia was competing against Albania and Bulgaria for two seats on the Geneva-based human rights council representing the East European regional group.

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EU aid to Palestinians will ‘not be cancelled’ as decision reversed

EU foreign ministers back continued support after European commissioner declared suspension of payments

EU foreign ministers have reversed the decision by the European Commission to suspend payments to the Palestinian Authority, after an emergency meeting in Oman.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, said the “overwhelming majority” of EU states were in favour of continued support, adding the funds would “not be cancelled”.

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Climate crisis is ‘not gender neutral’: UN calls for more policy focus on women

Only a third of countries with climate crisis plans include access to sexual, maternal and newborn health services, UNFPA report finds

Only a third of countries include sexual and reproductive health in their national plans to tackle the climate crisis, the UN has warned.

Of the 119 countries that have published plans, only 38 include access to contraception, maternal and newborn health services and just 15 make any reference to violence against women, according to a report published by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Queen Mary University of London on Tuesday.

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Campaigners aim to lower support for China on UN human rights council

Parliamentarians from 15 countries urge reduction in vote to signal disapproval of country’s crackdown on Uyghur population

An effort is under way to drive down the Chinese vote at the UN human rights council this week in an attempt to show continuing worldwide disapproval of its human rights record.

The elections on to the world’s premier human rights body take place by secret ballot on Tuesday with China guaranteed a seat in one of the uncontested seats from its region, but human rights campaigners are working to lower the level of Chinese support to show pressure on the country is not dissipating.

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UN votes to send Kenyan-led security force to Haiti to combat gangs

Security council approves mission but UN faces concerns over outside force with its own record of abuses

The UN security council has voted to send a Kenyan-led multinational security force to Haiti to help its government combat violent gangs, which have driven the Caribbean country into anarchy.

A US resolution to approve the force, six years since the closure of a previous UN stabilisation mission, drew 13 votes in favour with Russia and China abstaining.

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Sergei Lavrov dismisses Ukraine peace plan and UN effort to revive grain deal

Russian foreign minister says Zelenskiy’s 10-point proposal to end the war and resumption of exports from Black Sea are ‘not realistic’

Russia’s foreign minister has told the UN that Ukraine’s proposed peace plan and the latest proposals to revive the Black Sea grain initiative were “not realistic”.

Sergei Lavrov spoke at a press conference on 23 September after a week of intense global diplomacy at the annual gathering of world leaders at UN headquarters in New York where Ukraine and its western allies sought to drum up support for Kyiv.

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Smorgasbord of conspiracy theories join forces at Sydney’s unofficial no rally – as it happened

This blog is now closed

And now that I’ve introduced you to the “wanking off the dolphin” story, I’m going to skedaddle. Jordyn Beazley is set to steer the mighty blog ship for the next little bit, enjoy!

Our reporter Ben Doherty has been following developments at the UN this week and here’s the top of his story on Penny Wong’s speech, which was delivered in New York this morning Australian time.

With its special responsibility as a permanent member of the security council, Russia mocks the UN every day it continues its illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine.

The rest of the permanent members and all member states must be unyielding in our response to Russia’s grave violation of Article II of our shared UN charter.

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Eliminate malaria once and for all or it will come back stronger, UN warned

World faces ‘malaria emergency’ from resistance to insecticides, waning efficacy of drugs, funding shortfalls and climate change

African leaders have warned that the world is facing the “biggest malaria emergency” of the past two decades.

Heads of state and experts came together in a show of unity to call for urgent action on malaria at the UN general assembly on Friday, saying progress on eradicating the disease faced serious setbacks from mosquitoes’ growing resistance to insecticides, and the decreased effectiveness of antimalarial drugs and diagnostic tests.

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Exclude fossil fuel firms from Cop28 if they only want to obstruct, says ex-UN chief

‘My patience ran out,’ said Christiana Figueres, who for years had advocated oil companies should be involved in policymaking talks

Fossil fuel companies should not be included in the Cop28 climate summit if they continue to block climate action, the UN’s former climate chief told reporters on Thursday.

“If they are going to be there only to be obstructors, and only to put spanners into the system, they should not be there,” said Christiana Figueres, who was pivotal to the delivery of the landmark Paris climate agreement in 2015.

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Zelenskiy calls for Russia to lose UN veto power; UN chief says ‘humanity has opened gates of hell’ on climate – live

Ukrainian president says war impossible to stop while Russia vetoes all efforts at peace; Guterres condemns world leaders’ inaction on climate crisis

The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, addressed UN ambassadors at the annual general assembly on Tuesday where he accused America of fanning the flames of violence in Ukraine, prompting protests from Israel’s representative to the UN.

Raisi claimed any Iranian-made drones hitting Ukrainian cities had been sold before the war started and said he was in favour of peace in Ukraine, on the same day that Tehran hosted a Russian defence delegation led by its defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.

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Zelenskiy says only way to ensure peace is fundamental UN reform

Ukrainian president says UN general assembly should have power to override veto and calls for Russia’s to be removed

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told the UN security council that the way to bring peace in Ukraine and to prevent further wars of aggression is through fundamental UN reform.

The Ukrainian president argued that the war had demonstrated the need to limit veto power, give the UN general assembly the power to override vetoes, and expand the council’s permanent members beyond the current five powers, who acquired their privileged position in the wake of the second world war.

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Extreme weather shows need for early warning systems, says Spanish minister

Teresa Ribera calls for alert systems in every country by 2027 after spate of natural disasters across the world

The latest spate of natural disasters – from the floods in Libya, Greece and Spain to the wildfires in Hawaii and Canada – has further underscored the need for early warning systems to help the world cope with the realities of the climate emergency, Spain’s environment minister has said.

Speaking to the Guardian as she prepared to travel to New York to take part in the UN’s climate ambition summit and sign a landmark treaty to protect the high seas, Teresa Ribera said the calamities laid bare the challenges the planet faced.

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UN inquiry into rights in Iran urged to look at detention of dual nationals

Free Nazanin campaign says Iran’s ‘hostage diplomacy’ is becoming normalised and calls for more coherent response

A UN inquiry into human rights in Iran has been asked to intervene in the growing detention of Iranian dual nationals and to identify the practice as unlawful state hostage-taking.

The inquiry, set up last November by the UN human rights council and being overseen by three lawyers, is due to report in March 2024. A submission from the Free Nazanin campaign, which worked for the release of the British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, warns the UN body that Iran is normalising the capture of dual nationals for use as diplomatic bargaining chips.

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Australia news live: Central Land Council executive condemns Jacinta Price’s ‘denial of history’ in press club comments as ‘disgraceful’

The CLC executive – 90 elected members who represent 75 communities across nine regions – said comments insult survivors of 1927 Coniston massacre. Follow the day’s news live

New report combats ‘inaccurate assertions’ about teaching courses

Almost three-quarters of Australian teachers are satisfied with their training programs, a new report has found, undermining the suggestion poor course content is leading to workforce shortages in the field.

Rather than focusing on the unsubstantiated claim that teachers are generally dissatisfied with ITE programs, we should instead focus on the willingness and capacity of ITE providers to continually improve these programs.

This will require a shift in focus from policymakers - away from the overwhelming emphasis on ITE and towards effective, system-wide [development] that becomes a regular part of teachers’ workload rather than a bolt-on.

Not a preamble. Not a footnote in the Constitution. First Nations people want structural change that can make a practical difference.

A mechanism that can make children’s lives better. Not just something that will feel good - something that will do good.

As the Minister, I will go to the voice and say: ‘this school attendance program isn’t working’. Help me to get the best possible advice to fix it … From every corner of the country – about how we can do better.

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Zelenskiy accuses Russia of genocide and urges world leaders to attend peace summit

Ukrainian president says all leaders ‘who do not tolerate any aggression’ would be invited to a peace summit

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told the UN general assembly that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine and urged world leaders to attend a peace summit to help stop the invasion and future wars of aggression.

Appearing in the assembly chamber in New York for the first time in person, the Ukrainian president used the opportunity to try to galvanise support for his country’s plight among many countries, especially in the global south, many of whom have sought to sit on the fence in the face of the full-scale Russian invasion.

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Brazilians applaud Lula’s return to diplomacy as he addresses UN general assembly

Relief in Brazil as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks at the UN after four chaotic years of rule by the far-right Jair Bolsonaro

“Our world is becoming unhinged,” the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned as he kicked off the body’s assembly general on Tuesday.

But many Brazilians felt that in their country’s case at least, sanity had returned as its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, took to the rostrum in New York to proclaim a new dawn after the chaotic term of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

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UN report urges countries to consider financial reparations for transatlantic slavery

UN secretary general says no country has comprehensively accounted for the past

A UN report calling on countries to consider financial reparations for transatlantic slavery has been hailed as a significant step forward by campaigners.

The report by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said no country had comprehensively accounted for the past and addressed the legacy of the mass enslavement of people of African descent for more than 400 years.

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Israeli ambassador protests as Iranian president speaks – as it happened

The United Nations general assembly liveblog is now closed, but please see the following stories to stay on top of the day’s news:

Guterres says countries such as Russia are creating a “world of insecurity” for everyone following its invasion of Ukraine, which he says has “unleashed the next phase of our lives: historic human rights abuse, families torn apart, children traumatised, hopes and dreams shattered.”

The war in Ukraine has “serious implications” for the world beyond Kyiv, he says, pointing to the collapse of the Black Sea grain initiative.

The world badly needs Ukrainian food and Russian food and fertilisers to stabilise markets and guarantee food security.

Sudan is descending into full scale civil war. Millions have fled and the country risks splitting apart.

In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, millions are displaced and gender based violence is a horrific daily reality in a country that suffered centuries of colonial exploitation, is today overwhelmed by gang violence and still awaits international support.

Authoritarianism is on the march, inequalities are growing, and hate speech is on the rise.

What we need is determination and determination which is in the DNA of our United Nations, summoning gods with the first words of the charter.

We the peoples of the United Nations, determined, determined to end the scourge of war, determined to reaffirm faith in human rights, determined to uphold justice and respect international law and determined to promote social progress and better lives for all people.

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Blinken unveils steps to tackle ‘global threat’ of synthetic drugs at UN summit

US secretary of state announced the formation of an international coalition to address crisis that has ‘an immeasurable cost’

US diplomats at the UN general assembly in New York have unveiled steps aimed at tackling the proliferation of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs which the American secretary of state, Antony Blinken, described as a “global threat”.

At a meeting on Monday, the most senior US diplomat announced the formation of an international coalition to address the crisis, saying that the US “may have been to some extent a canary in the coalmine when it comes to fentanyl, but alas, we are not alone”.

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Tigray atrocities continuing almost a year after ceasefire, UN experts warn

Ethiopian government is failing to protect its citizens from ‘grave’ human rights abuses, amid rising violence and hate speech – report

Human rights abuses are still being committed in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region more than 10 months after a ceasefire formally ended the bloody civil war, according to a group of UN experts.

The latest report by the UN’s International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said the nation’s government was failing to protect its citizens from “grave and ongoing” human rights abuses being committed by militias and Eritrean troops, who fought alongside Ethiopia’s federal military and remain in border areas of Tigray.

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