NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- The world is facing an important shift in global history which is "no less transformative" than the "epochal" year of 1989, when numerous governments fell across Eastern Europe, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday.

Ban was speaking at the UN General Assembly where he noted that the world is witnessing a period of revolution. He recently returned from a visit to Egypt and Tunisia, where long-standing regimes were toppled by a wave of pro-democracy protests that have engulfed much of North Africa and the Middle East, and have led to fierce fighting in Libya.

"Revolutionary change is sweeping the Arab world, with repercussions that will be felt everywhere and by all," Ban said. "We face no less epochal change in other spheres - from climate change to fighting global poverty to advancing human rights."

The year 1989 is known as the fall of communism and led to a peaceful transfer of power to non-Communist governments in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Albania. East Germany is now part of Germany while Czechoslovakia is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

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