HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE U.N. SYSTEM,
WEDNESDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2024
Security Council
The Secretary-General addressed the Security Council at its meeting convened by Slovenia on Leadership for Peace. He said that, while peace demands leadership, instead, we’re seeing deepening geo-political divisions and mistrust. Impunity is spreading, with repeated violations of international law and the UN Charter, he warned.
The Secretary-General told the Council that leadership for peace means all Member States living up to their commitments in the UN Charter, in international law and in recent agreements such as the Pact for the Future.
Beyond that, he said, leadership for peace means ensuring that the UN Security Council acts in a meaningful way to ease global tensions and help address the conflicts that are inflicting so much suffering around the world. A united Council can make a tremendous difference for peace, the Secretary-General added; a divided Council cannot.
Secretary-General/G20
This morning, in his remarks to the meeting of G20 Foreign Ministers, the Secretary-General noted that the G20, the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions and other international financial institutions deal with some of the most important challenges of our time: inequality, financing for development, the climate crisis, the impact of new technologies. In all these areas, he warned, progress is slipping out of reach as our world becomes more unsustainable, unequal and unpredictable.
The Secretary-General stressed that global institutions must work together – not on parallel or conflicting tracks, adding that they must cooperate and collaborate for the good of humanity. The Summit of the Future was an essential first step.
The Secretary-General underscored that G20 countries can act in three specific areas: finance, climate and the need for strong, inclusive, legitimate global institutions and tools to tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow.
The Secretary-General stressed that only together will we achieve the reforms in the Pact for the Future and deliver the SDGs and the Paris Agreement, to meet the expectations of the people we serve. He urged the G20 to seize every opportunity to raise ambition for global leadership and transformative action for a safer, more peaceful and sustainable world for all.
Occupied Palestinian Territory
The United Nations has released a draft strategy for scaling up early recovery interventions in Gaza, once certain conditions on the ground are met. The report will be presented to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee at the bi-annual meeting in New York on 26 September.
“While I remain resolutely focused on supporting the parties to reach a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza, further scaling up humanitarian assistance and early recovery is essential,” noted UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland. “For early recovery to work, we must have a political and security framework in place that will provide some security and hope for Palestinians. A robust early recovery strategy cannot be rolled out amidst chaos like we have now. The UN and its partners will need a more secure environment within which to work and Palestinian institutions with which to relate.”
The World Bank, the European Union, and the UN are jointly leading a Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment process and formulating a Conflict Recovery Framework, to be implemented when conditions on the ground permit.
With their partnership activated since late 2023, the World Bank, European Union, and United Nations published the Gaza Interim Damage Assessment in April 2024, estimating some $20 billion in physical infrastructure damages alone over the first four months of the war, a sum that is expected to have increased significantly since the end of January.
Gaza
Today, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Muhannad Hadi, visited the northern Gaza Strip, meeting with UN agencies, funds and programmes, as well as with local and international non-governmental organizations.
His visit focused on addressing challenges related to health, water, and sanitation. Speaking from the ruins of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city, he described Gaza as barely recognizable, with hospitals, schools, and homes reduced to battlefields and decimated.
Mr. Hadi took note of the suffering of Palestinian and Israeli civilians during the war. He also warned of the dangers posed by precarious shelters as the rainy season approaches, while humanitarian organizations face critical access and safety constraints that hinder their ability to provide meaningful aid. He reiterated the Secretary-General’s call for an immediate ceasefire.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, following an assessment of the situation in the Abasan area of Khan Younis, that approximately 2,500 people of all ages are residing there in a makeshift site located in a flood-prone valley. Using tents and plastic sheets as shelters, they are experiencing an accumulation of solid waste. The site lacks medical facilities, with the nearest hospital being several kilometers away while transportation is unaffordable for most residents.
Lebanon/Humanitarian
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that strikes continue to affect civilians and civilian infrastructure on both sides of the Blue Line on the third consecutive day of the large-scale military escalation.
According to Lebanese authorities, nearly 600 people have been killed, including 50 children and at least 90 women, including two staff from the UN Refugee Agency who have tragically lost their lives to the strikes. Some 1,700 people have been injured so far.
This latest surge in violence, which extended to regions previously not impacted by the conflict, caused widespread destructions to homes and infrastructures.
Water infrastructure in the Bekaa and Southern Governorates has been severely damaged, resulting in 30,000 people losing access to clean water there. This is in addition to the 16 water stations previously damaged, further compounding the region’s water access crisis.
The strikes have also driven tens of thousands of people from their homes in southern Lebanon. Since 23 September, the International Organization for Migration has reported more than 90,000 people as being newly displaced, including 40,000 people in more than 200 collective shelters.
The UN and our partners continue to support the Government’s response.
The World Health Organization is providing health supplies to Lebanese health facilities that were already overstretched following last week’s explosions of communications devices.
The levels of health supplies remain insufficient as the crisis worsens, and UNICEF has procured 25 tons of lifesaving medication and medical commodities that will arrive in the country in the coming days.
The UN and our partners are also mobilizing food, water and essential supplies, such as mattresses and hygiene kits.
Our partners are calling for more sites for displaced people. Nearly 300 schools across the country are being repurposed to shelter people who have fled their homes. Up to 100,000 students could be affected as a result.
Humanitarian organizations urgently need $170 million to deliver immediate assistance and address surging needs.
Lebanon
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is scaling up its support to the growing number of displaced people, as thousands of Lebanese and Syrians are fleeing Lebanon for Syria in desperation as Israeli airstrikes continue to devastate civilian lives.
Hundreds of vehicles are backed up in queues at the Syrian border. Many people are also arriving on foot, carrying what they can. Large crowds, including women, young children and babies are waiting in line after spending the night outdoors in falling temperatures. Some bear fresh injuries from the recent bombardments.
UNHCR and partners are present at the border crossings, providing food, water, blankets and mattresses to those arriving, and guiding them towards support available in Syria. UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said in a statement that the Middle East cannot afford a new displacement crisis.
UNHCR is responding to the needs of forcibly displaced people across Lebanon, coordinating closely with the authorities and other humanitarian organizations.
The humanitarian situation in Syria remains dire; the 2023 earthquake and the drawn-out conflict there have left critical infrastructure in tatters and millions in need of assistance, and Lebanon hosts an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees and over 11,000 refugees from other countries.
In response to the ongoing developments and the escalating conflict in Lebanon, UNRWA announced the opening of two of its Designated Emergency Shelters (DESs) for displaced individuals. The Agency has pre-positioned food and non-food supplies to support the displaced.
While UNRWA prioritizes Palestine refugees in these shelters, it remains committed to assisting individuals of other nationalities in need during times of escalation, depending on resource availability.
As of today, the Agency has activated its emergency response plan, which includes providing hospitalization for wounded registered Palestine refugee civilians at contracted hospitals, as per its existing hospitalization policy for each hospital.
This afternoon, at 6:00 p.m., the Security Council will hold a briefing on the Middle East. The Secretary-General is expected to deliver remarks.
Security Council/Ukraine
Yesterday afternoon, the Security Council held a high-level briefing on the Maintenance of Peace and Security of Ukraine. In his remarks, the Secretary-General noted that in the newly agreed Pact for the Future, world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to international law and to the Charter of the United Nations. Our Organization, he stressed, is based on the principle of sovereignty of all Member States – within their internationally recognized borders, adding that the Charter unequivocally stipulates that all States must refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any other State – and that international disputes must be settled by peaceful means.
The Secretary-General said that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – following the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and City of Sevastopol a decade ago – is a clear violation of these principles. And civilian populations continue to pay the price, he added.
In recent weeks, the Secretary-General pointed out, we have seen a resurgence of inflammatory rhetoric and incidents around nuclear sites – particularly at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and alarmingly, at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in the Russian Federation. He urged all parties to act responsibly and avoid any declaration or action that could further destabilize an already incendiary situation.
The Secretary-General stressed that we must stop the suffering and break the cycle of violence – for the sake of the people of Ukraine, the people of Russia, and the world.
Sudan
Joyce Msuya, the Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, today warned of a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions in Sudan – one that threatens to deteriorate into a catastrophe without urgent international action.
Her remarks were made at a High-Level Side Event at the margins of the 79th Session of the General Assembly on “The Cost of Inaction: Urgent and Collective Support to Scale Up the Humanitarian Response in Sudan and the Region” co-hosted by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), alongside other States.
She added that the humanitarian situation in Sudan is beyond appalling. The war has triggered what is now among the world’s largest displacement crises. More than half the population of Sudan – 25.6 million people – is acutely food insecure.
She also urged Member States to use all their leverage to bring the horrific violations of international humanitarian law and the abuses of human rights law to an end.
For his part, Filippo Grandi, the High Commissioner for Refugees, said that there are over 10 million Sudanese fleeing violence. He added that he visited Sudan twice this year, and conditions are apocalyptic: “If people don’t die because of bullets, they starve to death. If they manage to survive, they must face disease or floods, or the threat of sexual violence and other horrifying abuse.”
Flooding
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is scaling up its emergency operations to assist millions of people impacted by the severe flooding across West and Central Africa. IOM is working to deliver a comprehensive and integrated regional response, collaborating closely with sister UN agencies, including OCHA, UNHCR, UNICEF, and WFP.
Since the onset of the rainy season, heavy downpours have ravaged vast regions, claiming more than 1,500 lives, affecting 4 million people and displacing more than 1.2 million individuals across Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger.
Across West and Central Africa, the floods have exacerbated health concerns. Stagnant water and poor sanitation have increased the risk of waterborne diseases such as cholera, while damaged infrastructure such as roads have limited access to affected areas, further complicating humanitarian response efforts.
Despite the ongoing effort, the scale of the disaster has revealed critical gaps in the resources available to respond to the emergency. With the rainy season expected to continue until November, IOM urgently calls on the international community for increased support to meet the growing needs.
Haiti
Courtenay Rattray, the Chef de Cabinet, delivered a message on behalf of the Secretary-General during a ministerial meeting entitled Building on progress to restore security in Haiti.
The Secretary-General said the crisis in Haiti is a protracted human tragedy with a long and well-known history, adding that it is one of the most disastrous humanitarian situations in the world.
He called on the international community to step up to support the Haitian people in their efforts to restore stability.
The Secretary-General said the first deployments of the Multinational Security Support mission – the MSS – are a positive step and he commended Kenya for its leadership, as well as those countries that have pledged to contribute with personnel, equipment, and necessary logistical resources.
However, he added, funding for the mission, and for the Haitian National Police, remains totally inadequate. He urged all those who have made financial commitments to deliver on them urgently.
We must keep working to mobilize sufficient resources for the mission, and for the humanitarian response in Haiti, he said. There is an urgent need for resources to support humanitarian efforts. The Humanitarian Needs Response Plan for Haiti, totaling $674 million, is currently only 39 per cent funded.
The Secretary-General said the UN will not waver in its commitment to Haiti. We continue to support the transition process, in line with the mandate of our current mission, BINUH – the UN Integrated Office in Haiti.
Climate
The Secretary-General spoke today at the General Assembly Plenary Meeting on Addressing the Existential Threats Posed by Sea Level Rise. He said that while scientists can tell us that the global sea level is now rising faster than at any time in the last 3,000 years, they cannot tell us where this will end. That is down to world leaders today, the Secretary-General said, adding that their choices will determine the scale, pace and impact of future sea level rise.
The Secretary-General underscored that only drastic action to reduce emissions can limit sea level rise and only drastic action to adapt can keep people safe from rising waters.
We cannot leave the hopes and aspirations of billions of people dead in the water, he said.
