Speaking at the ‘Dealing with Drugs II’ conference in Warsaw on Thursday, High Commissioner Volker Türk highlighted the urgent need for a human rights-based approach to drug regulation, pointing to record numbers of drug-related deaths and increasing drug use disorders. The conference, which builds on January’s ‘Dealing with Drugs I’...
Speaking in Geneva, Matthias Schmale described the anguish felt by Ukrainians as the war grinds on: “As we are not only approaching winter but also the sad 1,000-day mark since the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion in 2022, we are of course thinking of the more than 12,000 people who have...
An update from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said that in the last two days alone, “six attempts to deliver lifesaving assistance to besieged areas in North Gaza governorate were blocked”. The missions on Tuesday and Wednesday had aimed to bring food and water to Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and...
As well as bringing emergency aid to those living in Occupied Palestinian Territory, UNRWA, the agency for Palestine refugees, also provides a range of crucial services. In Gaza, the year-long war has severely threatened the delivery of these crucial services....
A new Israel airstrike hit the border post of Joussieh, where many Lebanese and Syrian people are crossing to escape the violence. “Humanitarian structures are also struck,” said Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in a social media post early Saturday. “Even fleeing (and taking care of...
The UN Security Council met in emergency session on Ukraine on Wednesday amid unconfirmed reports that troops from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) – more commonly known as North Korea – are deploying to fight alongside Russia. We followed the meeting as well as developments at UN Headquarters...
“The situation in Sudan is catastrophic. There is simply no other way to put it. Hunger disease and sexual violence are rampant. For the people of Sudan, this is a living nightmare,” warned Amy Pope, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The conflict, which erupted in April...
The findings come in the Secretary-General’s latest annual report on women, peace, and security. The rise in death and violence is “taking place against a backdrop of increasing blatant disregard of international law designed to protect women and children during war,” according to UN Women, the lead agency on the...
“Without lifting economic restrictions, enabling recovery, and investing in development, the Palestinian economy may not be able to restore pre-war levels and advance forward by relying on humanitarian aid alone,” Gaza war: Expected socioeconomic impacts on the State of Palestine, concludes, produced by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the...
The alleged attack occurred on 14 to 15 October in the Kala Gan border area of Iran’s Sistan Province near the Iran-Pakistan border. The organisation Haalvsh, which focuses on Baloch rights in Iran, has claimed that up to 260 civilians may have been killed or wounded. However, these figures remain...
“Rarely have we seen – and this is what bothers me – extensive patterns of unlawful, discriminatory and disproportionate restriction by States and private actors on freedom of expression,” said Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur mandated to promote and protect this right globally. Ms. Khan briefed journalists at UN...
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that a response plan had been activated to strengthen surveillance, contact tracing and water sampling. The case was confirmed in Akkar, the country’s northernmost governorate. Speaking in Geneva late Wednesday, Tedros noted that the Lebanese health authorities had launched an oral...