The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, arrived there a week after President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by rebel forces led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTC). Responding to questions from the press upon his arrival, Mr. Pedersen noted the “immense” change since the fall of the...
António Guterres is in Antarctica this week, where he saw first-hand how climate change is impacting the world’s southernmost continent, which is mostly covered in ice. The heat is on “Fossil fuel pollution is heating our planet, unleashing climate anarchy in Antarctica,” said Mr. Guterres, adding that the Southern Ocean...
Together with her grandson, Ike Howard, the 109-year-old Ms. Fletcher came to UN Headquarters this week to commemorate the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Standing in front of the Ark of Return monument, Ms. Fletcher and Mr. Howard spoke...
Climate change crisis Speaking at the end of his four-day visit on Wednesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk provided a first-hand account of the impact of climate change in Basra, in the country’s south. “In 50-degree-Celsius heat, in the midst of drought-ridden and barren fields, local community...
During the visit, Ms. Triggs mentioned that one of the worst shipwrecks in the Mediterranean happened just over a month ago. Protecting refugee rights “The Pylos tragedy and the other devastating tragedies in the Mediterranean underscore the primacy of saving lives and protecting the rights of people forced to flee....
The two-day military operation was the fiercest in over 20 years, according to the UN agency that supports Palestine refugees, UNRWA. At least 12 people were killed, including four children, and another 140 were injured. Around 900 houses were damaged, with many now uninhabitable. “We went to Jenin Camp...
“I am here in a visit of solidarity to underscore the commitment of the United Nations to support Iraq in the consolidation of its democratic institutions and advancing peace, sustainable development and human rights for all Iraqis,” Mr. Guterres told journalists in Baghdad, after touching down late on Tuesday. After “decades of oppression, war, terrorism,...
Ambassadors were briefed by Khalid Khiari, a UN Assistant Secretary-General, who expressed concern over the developments and the broader ongoing tensions and violence in the occupied West Bank. On Monday, Israel’s new National Security Minister, far-right party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the hilltop compound in Jerusalem’s old city that is...
Speaking in Kyiv, at the end of a four-day official visit, Martin Griffiths described the deadly threat from daily artillery attacks on the southern port city of Kherson. Today, more than 18 million people in Ukraine need humanitarian aid, according to UN humanitarians. Some 7.83 million have fled the country...
Mr. Guterres was speaking at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, memorial site of the infamous S-21 interrogation and detention centre under the bloody regime, which lasted from 1975 to 1979. ‘An essential reminder’ It is estimated that up to 18,000 people from across Cambodia were brought to the facility, located...