Philemon Yang is president of the UN General Assembly
June 25, 2025
Eighty years ago this month, the UN Charter was signed in San Francisco, turning the page on decades of war and offering hope for a better future. For 80 years, the UN has stood as the highest expression of our hopes for international co-operation, and as the fullest embodiment of our aspiration to end the “scourge of war”. Even in a world steeped in cynicism, this is a milestone worth acknowledging.
The UN remains the only organisation of its kind, and the only one to have endured for so long. That longevity is remarkable when we consider the context of its founding: assembled from the rubble of not one, but two global cataclysms. Its predecessor, the League of Nations, had collapsed in disgrace.
No organisation is flawless. But to paraphrase the second secretary general, Dag Hammarskjold: the UN was created not to take humanity to heaven but to save us from hell. In that mission, it has not failed.
We continue to witness heart-rending scenes of war – in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere. The recent escalation between Israel and Iran is a stark reminder of the fragility of peace, particularly in the tension-prone Middle East.
Yet amid the violence, we have managed to avert a third global war. In a nuclear age, that is an achievement we can never take for granted. It is one we must preserve with the full force of our efforts.
Over the past eight decades, much of human development also bears the direct imprint of the UN. Consider the success of the Millennium Development Goals, adopted in 2000 by 189 member states and more than 20 international organisations, which gave the world a shared roadmap for action.
By 2015, compared to 1990, extreme poverty was more than halved. Child mortality had fallen by nearly 50 per cent. And millions of children – especially girls who had long been denied the right – had entered school for the first time.
Now, as we strive to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we must build on that legacy of progress. We must continue efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger, achieve universal health coverage and produce and consume sustainably.
There is another story of progress, often overlooked: the dismantling of empire. Eighty years ago, colonialism cast its shadow over much of the world. Today, more than 80 former colonies across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific have gained independence and joined the UN. That transition, supported and legitimised by this organisation, reshaped the global order. It was a triumph of self-determination, a profound affirmation of the charter’s most fundamental principle: the sovereign equality of all states.
The world has changed dramatically since 1945. Today, the UN faces a deepening liquidity crisis. Despite the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, progress has been uneven. Gender equality continues to elude us. Our pledge to limit global temperature rise and protect our planet is slipping beyond reach.
These setbacks do not warrant diminished ambition but greater resolve. The UN has always shown its worth in times of crisis. Its founders had witnessed humanity at its most destructive and responded not with despair, but with boldness. We must draw on these achievements.
The spirit of San Francisco was not utopian. It was grounded in a sober understanding of what was at stake. It held that, even amid deep division, nations could still choose co-operation over conflict and action over apathy.
We saw that spirit last September, when world leaders gathered in New York for the Summit of the Future. After difficult negotiations, they adopted the Pact for the Future and its annexes – the Declaration on Future Generations and the Global Digital Compact – by consensus. In doing so, they pledged to renew multilateralism for a world more complex, connected and fragile than the one imagined in 1945.
That spirit endures today. It lives in the resolve of 193 member states, in the integrity of international civil servants, and in the quiet determination of those who believe firmly in the promise of the charter. It is carried forward by Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s UN80 initiative, which calls on us to deliver better for humanity; and to look to the future with adaptability and hope.
As we mark this anniversary, we must rekindle the call for unity and solidarity that rang out from San Francisco 80 years ago.
We built a world order once, in the ruins of war. We did so with vision and urgency. Now, again, we find ourselves at a moment of consequence. The risks are high. So too is our capacity to act.
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany - At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people - Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed - Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest - He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally • Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered • Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity • Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
if you go
The flights
Fly to Rome with Etihad (www.etihad.ae) or Emirates (www.emirates.com) from Dh2,480 return including taxes. The flight takes six hours. Fly from Rome to Trapani with Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) from Dh420 return including taxes. The flight takes one hour 10 minutes.
The hotels
The author recommends the following hotels for this itinerary. In Trapani, Ai Lumi (www.ailumi.it); in Marsala, Viacolvento (www.viacolventomarsala.it); and in Marsala Del Vallo, the Meliaresort Dimore Storiche (www.meliaresort.it).
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
