Ulrika Richardson, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Haiti, who is also the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, told journalists in Geneva that 5.2 million Haitians need humanitarian assistance and over 4.3 million face acute food insecurity – that’s a staggering two out of five people in a...
Speaking at the Assembly’s annual debate assessing the UN’s premier forum for peace and security, Dennis Francis said that without structural reform, the Council’s performance and legitimacy will inevitably continue to suffer. “Violence and war continue to spread in regions across the world, while the United Nations seems paralyzed due...
Other key priorities to emerge were the state of the environment and ensuring responsible use of new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Secretary-General António Guterres added. Against this backdrop, the UN’s visionary Our Common Agenda presents proposals and ideas that can bridge the gap, “between the world as it...
Leaders from Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea painted a grim picture of a planet marred by the unforgiving impacts of climate change. They left no room for equivocation: This is an existential crisis that demands immediate, collective action. They highlighted the upcoming COP-28 climate conference in the United Arab Emirates...
Volker Türk said he had been “following developments closely” in Israel, where parliamentarians supporting the hard-line nationalist Government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu passed a bill on Monday which in effect strips the Supreme Court of its power to block Government decisions. Opposition parties boycotted the vote which came after...
“The tendency of family courts to dismiss the history of domestic violence and abuse in custody cases, especially where mothers and/or children have brought forward credible allegations of domestic abuse, including coercive control, physical or sexual abuse is unacceptable,” said Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, in...
Carlos Ruiz Massieu welcomed recent Government actions on rural reform and greater equality, in line with the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Government and the FARC EP militia group that ended five decades of civil war. “The Council’s decision today to authorize the expansion of the Mission’s mandate to include...
Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN Special Rapporteur on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, said in a statement that he was worried that stigma and prejudice against trans women could be behind efforts to postpone consideration of the Bill – which has one remaining stage to...
That’s according to the President of the General Assembly Csaba Kőrösi, who told a plenary meeting on Thursday on expanding the Security Council and making it more equitable, that “interlocking crises” this year, chiefly Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, had exposed the Council’s inability to “fully carry out its mandate.” Veto...
El-Ghassim Wane, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Mali, urged ambassadors to support the renewal of the mandate of the UN Mission there, MINUSMA, which he heads. Although the West African country continues to face political, security and humanitarian challenges, “they are far from being insurmountable,” he said. Deep aspirations ...