HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY FARHAN HAQ,
DEPUTY SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
FRIDAY, 1 AUGUST 2025
UN80
The Secretary-General this morning provided an update to Member States on his UN80 initiative, focusing on his report, issued yesterday, on what is known as “workstream two,” which deals with the implementation of mandates received from Member States. Mandates are the sole property of Member States, he affirmed.
Mr. Guterres said that the problems with mandates are well known: Burdensome processes. Overlap. Duplicative structures. And a growing gap between mandates and resources. And he told the Member States that the review of mandates is not about questioning their decisions but about implementing them -- more effectively, more efficiently, and with greater impact. Mandates are not ends in themselves, the Secretary-General said; they are tools to deliver real results, in real lives, in the real world.
He said that today, there are more than 40,000 resolutions and decisions on the books – and counting. The risks of duplication and overlap are clear.
Meanwhile, since 2020, the average word count of General Assembly resolutions has increased by 55 per cent. ECOSOC texts have grown by 95 per cent. And Security Council resolutions are now three times longer than they were 30 years ago.
The Secretary-General added that we cannot expect far greater impact without the means to deliver. By spreading our capacities so thin, we risk becoming more focused on process than on results.
That is why, he said, the report puts for their consideration a possible shift: Toward shorter, clearer, and more focused mandates.
TRIP ANNOUNCEMENT
The Secretary-General will travel to Central Asia this weekend. On Sunday, the Secretary-General and the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kassym Jomart Tokayev, will witness the signing of the Host Country Agreement for the UN Regional Centre for the Sustainable Development Goals for Central Asia and Afghanistan, which has been formalized by the General Assembly. The signatories will be Murat Nurtleu, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, and Li Junhua, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.
From Kazakhstan, the Secretary-General will travel to Awaza in Turkmenistan, to attend the Third UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries. He will reaffirm the need to help the Landlocked Developing Countries overcome physical barriers and connect to global markets, including by leveraging Artificial Intelligence to strengthen early warning systems.
While in Turkmenistan, the Secretary-General is expected to have bilateral meetings with the host country leaders, as well as leaders and officials attending the conference.
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL/ TRAVEL
In Amman, Jordan today, the Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, is chairing the final session of the Regional Retreat with the UN Resident Coordinators in the Arab States region, focusing on progress in Sustainable Development Goals across the region and on ways to strengthen UN support to countries through the Resident Coordinator system.
She will return to New York tomorrow.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Turning to Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that large numbers of people reportedly continue to be killed and injured while searching for food. According to our human rights colleagues, more than 100 people were killed in the past two days alone, with hundreds of others injured, along food convoy routes or near Israeli-militarised distribution hubs.
OCHA reiterates that no one should ever be forced to risk their life to find food. Civilians must always be protected and community-level aid delivery at scale must be facilitated, not obstructed.
The months-long deprivation of most life-sustaining basic goods has led to a deepening of the crisis, which can only be addressed through unrestricted flow of aid into Gaza. Humanitarians must also have rapid, safe and unfettered access to deliver aid in a safe and dignified manner.
As market prices remain highly volatile and out of reach for many, our colleagues were able to distribute cash to 10,000 families over the past two weeks. OCHA has warned that humanitarians cannot address this crisis alone – commercial supplies must also be allowed to enter to help address people’s needs.
Our colleagues from the World Health Organization today reported that they were able to bring 11 trucks bearing medical supplies – including trauma, laboratory and water testing supplies – safely to its warehouse in Deir al Balah. WHO and its partners stress that access to healthcare must be facilitated. This means safe access to health facilities for the people, as well as rapid facilitation of entry permits for Emergency Medical Teams into Gaza.
Nearly a week since the Israeli announcement to allow the scale up of aid and tactical pauses to allow safe passage for our convoys, OCHA says that the aid that has entered Gaza so far remains insufficient, and our convoys continue to face impediments and danger along the routes provided to us by the Israeli authorities.
Fuel remains in short supply, though limited quantities have been entering Gaza in the recent days. Yesterday, the UN was able to collect approximately 150,000 litres of fuel from Kerem Shalom crossing and delivered it to a UN-managed fuel station last night. The UN and our partners need hundreds of thousands of litres of fuel every day to power critical facilities, including health, water and sanitation, as well as emergency telecommunication services.
Delays and impediments of humanitarian movements continue to be reported. While fewer humanitarian movements are denied outright, missions that are approved still take hours to complete due to having to wait at different points along routes. The fuel mission yesterday took 18 hours to complete because the team had to wait many hours along the way. For reference, the distance between Deir al Balah and Kerem Shalom is only about 24 kilometers. In addition, the routes that Israeli authorities instruct our teams to drive through remain insufficient and are often dangerous, congested or impassable.
HAITI
Earlier today, our colleagues in Haiti published their quarterly report on the human rights situation in the country. And as you can imagine, the situation remains extremely worrying.
Between April and June, at least 1,520 people were killed and 609 injured in armed violence, primarily in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, followed by the Artibonite and Centre departments. Our human rights colleagues also report at least 185 kidnappings and 628 victims of sexual violence, during the same period.
The report says that criminal groups have expanded and intensified their attacks outside of Port-au-Prince, particularly in the Centre department and Bas Artibonite.
Abuses by criminal groups accounted for more than 24 per cent of the people killed or injured during the reporting period. Gang members continued to resort to murders, gang rapes, and kidnappings to maintain their control over populations living in areas under their influence. Cases of sexual slavery, sexual exploitation, and child trafficking and exploitation were also documented.
A majority of the deaths and injuries documented happened during operations by security forces against criminal groups. More than a third were the result of strikes using explosive drones.
The report calls on the Haitian government, with the support of the international community, to strengthen the fight against gangs, while strictly respecting human rights and standards on the use of force.
We join our colleagues to urge the international community to support the full deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission and to intensify the fight against arms trafficking.
HAITI - HUMANITARIAN
Adding to the human rights report, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is telling us that in the Artibonite and Centre department, data from the International Organization for Migration indicates that more than 45,000 people have been displaced since June. Fifty-five per cent of them are women.
In total, nearly 240,000 people are now displaced in those two departments, as the humanitarian response remains critically underfunded.
Despite this, UNFPA and its partners continue to deliver aid, with more than 12,600 people having received sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services in the country in the past two months.
OCHA urges immediate support to sustain and expand our overall response to protect the most vulnerable.
SECURITY COUNCIL/AFTERNOON
At 3:00 p.m. today, the Security Council will hold a briefing on the Maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine. Miroslav Jenča, the Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas is expected to brief Council members.
WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK
World Breastfeeding Week begins today and it will continue until 7 August. This year’s theme is ‘Invest in breastfeeding, invest in the future’. You can find more information online.
**Briefings today
At 11:30 am, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban briefed reporters on his recent travel to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
At 12:45 p.m., Ambassador Eloy Alfaro de Alba, Permanent Representative of Panama to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of August, briefed reporters on the Council’s programme for the month of August.
