The United Nations General Assembly is about to begin. This is what you need to know

New York (CNN) – The world’s diplomats are back, to the regret of the coronavirus.
New Yorkers who last year enjoyed the peace and quiet of the virtual United Nations General Assembly will again face traffic jams from diplomatic caravans next week, when world leaders and their entourages arrive at the headquarters of the international body. in Manhattan.

The 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) is about to start its high-level week, in which member states will have to deliberate on two parallel challenges: ending the pandemic and redefining the post-pandemic global economy to be healthier for the planet.

The UN sees the present moment as a potential turning point. “The decisions we make will ensure human, economic and environmental health for generations to come, or reinforce old patterns that are destroying nature and causing the division of society,” says the official summary of the week’s agenda. “An inclusive, sustainable and resilient recovery from COVID-19 is essential to steer the world towards a just transition to a 1.5 ° C trajectory.”

The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, who is about to embark on a second five-year term, put it more forcefully on Tuesday: “The war against our planet must end“.

But first the pandemic must be ended, and the issue of access to vaccines will be high on the UNGA agenda. Health experts have repeatedly warned that the world will not get out of COVID-19 without widespread immunization, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has harshly criticized richer countries hoarding vaccines and distributing booster vaccines while poor countries suffer from shortages.

More than 70% of the world’s covid-19 doses have been administered in just 10 countries, the WHO said on Thursday.

Covid-19: a problem at the UNGA in more ways than one

The General Assembly did not exactly get off to a unified beginning.

Despite a letter from the US encouraging member states to participate virtually and help prevent the creation of “a super-spread event,” the speaker program for the General Debate, which begins Tuesday, features more than 100 heads of state and government attending in person, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and US President Joe Biden.

Even Korean pop icons BTS are ignoring the stay-at-home recommendation, as the band will make an appearance at the UN headquarters on Monday.

New York City requires proof of vaccination against covid-19 for indoor gatherings, a rule that local authorities have asked the UN to follow. To facilitate compliance, a single dose vaccination post will be installed on site. But visiting dignitaries are not fully cooperating.

Brazil and Russia are already drawing attention to their local hosts, vehemently rejecting the sanitary requirement. “We strongly oppose the admission of only people with proof of vaccination to the GA room,” Russian UN representative Vassily Nebenzia wrote in a letter to the organization, according to the state news agency TASS. Nebenzia also noted that not all countries use vaccines approved in New York.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro pointed out the problem on social media, stating flatly on Thursday that he would not be vaccinated before the General Debate. He is scheduled to address the assembly in person on Tuesday morning, in Brazil’s traditional role as first speaker.

The UN has said it relies on a vaccination “honor system”.

Geopolitics in the auditorium

The General Debate is always the centerpiece of the week, as delegates take turns bragging about their countries and weighing in on global issues, which this year will likely include covid-19, the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan, tensions with Iran and North Korea and the growing rivalry between the United States and China.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will not travel to New York, but his recorded statement will deserve attention amid the stalemate in nuclear talks. Harsh words are also expected from China and France following last week’s surprising agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom to equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines to patrol the Pacific, prompting rejection from Beijing and undermining a prior agreement with Paris. As a sign of the depth of its anger, France withdrew its ambassadors from the United States and Australia on Friday.

UN observers foresee a conflict this year over at least two seats in the General Assembly Hall: those in Myanmar and Afghanistan, where undemocratic regimes have recently risen to power, but diplomats representing previous governments they are still accredited with the UN. For now, the UN credentials committee has not indicated any intention to change the status quo.

Myanmar’s permanent representative to the UN Kyaw Moe Tun, it is a remnant of the country’s democratically elected government, which was toppled in a military coup in February. An outspoken critic of the junta’s deadly crackdown on protests, he now represents a movement to restore democratic leadership, known as the Government of National Unity. The board has already tried to replace him, without success.

Afghanistan’s permanent representative to the UN, Ghulam M. Isaczai, was stranded a month ago, after the government that appointed him collapsed and its president fled the country in the face of the Taliban. But Isaczai has continued to advocate for Afghanistan, meeting with foreign envoys and even calling on the UN Security Council pressure the Taliban to form a more democratic government. The militant Islamist organization has not requested the accreditation of an envoy to the UNGA this year, and Isaczai intends to maintain control of the Afghanistan seat for now, deputy spokesman for the UN Secretary General Farhan Haq told CNN.

The future of democracy under the Taliban regime, and in particular the rights of women and girlswill be recurring themes throughout the week of high-level meetings. On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously voted to extend its UN Assistance Mission in the country for six months.

“I look forward to many debates about Afghanistan,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Friday, adding that the United States will urge the Taliban to show respect for human rights. In general, the US delegation will emphasize countering “corrosive” autocratic influences around the world, he said.

A meeting of leaders on racism will also reflect social unrest in the West. The meeting, titled “Reparations, racial justice and equality for people of African descent“comes after a wave of racial reckoning in the United States and other Western countries, and comes in the midst of a conservative reaction against the teaching of painful historical truths.

The weather

Like political dramas, the deadly consequences of global warming are upon us, after a year of historic heat, wildfires and floods.

According to a new report published this Friday by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the planet is heading towards a warming of 2.7 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, well above the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius that, according to scientists, it is necessary to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis.

Diverting this “catastrophic” trajectory means incorporating climate action into recovery from the global pandemic, and the General Assembly is seen as the last chance to set global commitments before next month’s G20 in Rome and the COP26 climate change conference in Rome. November in Glasgow.

On Monday, UK Prime Minister Johnson, co-host of COP26, will sit down with the Secretary-General and dozens of other leaders in one of the few in-person meetings to discuss the environment, focusing on the responsibilities of the G20. That same day, the head of the UN climate section Patricia Espinosa, former US Vice President Al Gore, and COP26 President Alok Sharma will speak at a high-level event on how to meet the targets set in the 2015 Paris agreement.

A special Security Council open debate on climate and security will take place on Thursday, and the following day will be a virtual event on sustainable energy, the first high-level since 1981.

The week will also be an opportunity for some countries and companies that have not yet set ambitious targets for carbon neutrality do it finally and seize the world’s attention.

–With assistance from Richard Roth and Laura Ly from CNN in New York, and Angela Dewan from London.