Update
New York, June 10 – With the coronavirus pandemic inflicting daily infections and deaths in many countries, the United Nations for the first time ever has informed national leaders of 193 countries that are UN members to stay home and take part in the organization’s most important annual meetings in September only through video conferences.
The decision to hold only virtual meetings has disrupted the elaborate programming of a series of celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the UN.
Since March this year UN meetings were either cancelled or held through a digital platform in order to meet strict health regulations by the US government designed to blunt the spread of coronavirus.
Heads of state and government, or ministers representing them, are asked to send pre-recorded video statements that will be played up during the UN General Assembly session starting on September 22.
Each country can send only two representatives to the assembly meetings and are reminded that they must be physically free of symptoms consistent with Covid-19, maintain physical distancing and wear a face covering while inside the UN premises.
The assembly session each year has been attended by thousands of delegates from the 193 countries.
A commemoration to mark the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the United Nations on June 26 was to be held via a virtual platform.
The United Kingdom on May 28 postponed a climate change conference known as COP26 until November 2021, a decision that surprised no one considering that the Covid-19 pandemic’s lockdown and social distancing around the world has already upended the meticulous setup of the program of UN-related meetings this year.
Cop26 was scheduled to take place in November 2020 in Glasgow so an extra 18-month delay would give London and its Italian partners plenty of time to prepare for the annual conference designed to take action on the Paris climate change agreement. Past COP meetings attracted thousands of participants and organizers fear such a vast attendance would cause health risks.
‘With the new dates for COP26 now agreed we are working with our international partners on an ambitious roadmap for global climate action between now and November 2021,” said Alok Sharma, who is CPO26 president. “The steps we take to rebuild our economies will have a profound impact on our societies’ future sustainability, resilience and wellbeing and COP26 can be a moment where the worldunites behind a clean resilient recovery.”
“Everyone will need to raise their ambitions to tackle climate change and the
expertise of the Friends of COP will be important in helping boost climate action
across the globe,” Sharma said.
France, Barbados, Chad, Australia, India and Peru, the Friends of COP, will advise the UK government and provide expertise on matters related to climate change.
By springtime 2020 when Coronavirus spreaded to many countries around the UN and its agencies started holding meetings through various digital ways. Previously planned meetings were either cancelled or postponed to the later part of 2020. In March it cancelled the Commission on the Status of Women which annually is attended by hundreds of women organizations from all countries.
The Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, which was to take place this summer, was postponed until July-August 2021.
Other cancelled or delayed events included a conference in Beijing on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in May, the UN conference on the Oceans in June in Portugal and discussions in the UN General Assembly on desertification and drought, and on counter-terrorist programs.