76th Session of the United Nations General AssemblY

Written by: Amanda Bradley

The 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, where more than 100 heads of states gathered for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. This opening of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly was a particularly significant one, as the world faces an overabundance of unprecedented issues.

During his address to the General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres painted a vivid picture of the current state of affairs: “We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetime.” The COVID-19 crisis has supersized glaring inequalities that have already been strikingly present within communities across the globe, the climate crisis is plummeting the planet, and regions that have known relative peace are now finding themselves in conflict. Extreme surges of mistrust and misinformation have completely polarized and paralyzed entire societies and human rights are repeatedly threatened.

Guterres addressed how paramount it is for the UN to continue to build itself on its common agendas of the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. “To seek a pathway to a better world,” Guterres states, “we must first breach great divides.” Guterres continued by highlighting how, “failure to deliver creates space for some of the darkest impulses of humanity.”

The UNGA’s High-Level Week began on September 20 with the SDG Moment, an annual event held to spotlight the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moon Jae-in, president of the Republic of Korea, was this year's special guest, and he anointed and introduced BTS, the sensational K-Pop group, as the country’s special presidential envoys for future generations and culture.

As part of the UNGA76 General Debate speech, BTS applauded young people for their resiliency during the pandemic. Kim Nam-Joon, BTS leader, mentioned how people in their teens and 20s are being referred to as “COVID’s lost generation,” but BTS members Jimin and Jin suggested that it should be renamed as the “welcome generation.” The reason being that “instead of fearing change, this generation welcomes it.”

BTS’s hopeful presence and youthful energy was inevitably the highlight of UNGA76, as they served to be a bridge between the elder generation and the younger generation, which is often a challenge faced by the UN.

The importance of bridging divides, promoting peace and ending conflicts, promoting gender equality, and tackling the generational divide by giving young people a “seat at the table” were key themes of UNGA 76, with world leaders of all regions coming together to realize the undeniable fact that a sense of global cooperation is paramount in tackling any crisis.

The Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) ultimately aims to uplift and empower women as peacebuilders and leaders in the home, in their communities, nations and the world. Through first embracing our identities as daughters, sisters, wives and especially mothers, we begin to see the world and it’s challenges through these eyes and cannot stand idle when there is a member of the family who is suffering. Such women, who prioritizes the needs of her community before herself, become the natural catalyst for much needed healing, unity and harmony and are the bedrock that transforms people, communities and negotiation tables, ultimately creating a future of well-being and peace for entire generations to come.