The Secretary-General of the United Nations today addressed the 2022 Ocean Conference opening ceremony, along with the leaders of the two co-hosting nations, Portugal and Kenya, warning that the world’s failure to care for the ocean will have ripple effects across the entire 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for Peacebuilding Day:
Ahead of the Group of Seven (G7) ministerial meeting on global food security, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today appealed for $1.2 billion to meet urgent needs of 8 million children at risk of death from severe wasting.
The World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called for urgent humanitarian action in 20 hunger hotspots, where food insecurity is likely to deteriorate in the next three months.
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the Peacebuilding Commission meeting on the peacebuilding challenges in the Lake Chad Basin, in New York on 20 April:
Nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide, about 121 million a year, are unintended, a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says, warning the Ukraine and other conflicts are expected to drive an increase through disruption of access to contraception and growing sexual violence.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks for the meeting of the Peacebuilding Commission on the report on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, in New York today:
The Peacebuilding Commission will promote global solidarity to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on development and peacebuilding, while continuing to focus on empowering women and youth as critical partners in paving a path to sustainable peace, its newly elected Chair said today at the opening of its sixteenth session.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Elizabeth Spehar of Canada as Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support in the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.
Briefing the Security Council today, the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the situation that now faces women human rights defenders, and prospects for women’s full participation in shaping and building peace, are vastly worse than they were before the pandemic got under way.
Amid the continued humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports that it provided food to nearly 150,000 people and cash assistance to 6,000 on 14 December. Some 100 food shops and other businesses have closed in Jalalabad city due to currency devaluation and high food and commodity prices.
The World Food Programme (WFP) today warned that the number of people teetering on the edge of famine in 43 countries has risen from 42 to 45 million people, as acute hunger spikes around the world. The agency said needs are vastly surpassing available resources at a time when traditional funding streams are overstretched.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Peacebuilding Commission on “Our Common Agenda and the New Agenda for Peace”, in New York today:
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says more children and women were abducted for ransom between January and August 2021 than during the entire 2020. UNICEF estimates based on official sources say 71 women and 30 children were abducted in the first eight months of 2021, and 59 women and 37 children in 2020.
Following are UN Secretary‑General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council’s open debate on “Peacebuilding and Sustainable Peace: Diversity, State-building and the Search for Peace”, in New York today:
United Nations officials in Mali welcomed the Government’s pledge to reintegrate 13,000 former combatants by the end of 2021 and additional 13,000 within the next three years. They also praised willingness of the Malian parties to proceed with the socioeconomic reintegration of ex-combatants that are already registered.
Warning that the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed peacebuilding gains and enabled intolerance and extremism to take hold, speakers told the Security Council in an open debate today that sustainable peace can only be ensured when the root causes of conflict, such as divides fuelled by inequity and difference, are addressed.
Heavy rains and flooding have claimed dozens of lives in Chad and Niger, impacting over 100,000 people in recent weeks. The United Nations is supporting Governments in providing health care, food, shelter, water, hygiene and sanitation, and warns that the Sahel region’s weather variability has been worsened by climate change.
The General Assembly, acting without a vote, adopted two resolutions and three decisions today after debating the annual report on the Peacebuilding Commission and Peacebuilding Fund. Meanwhile, consideration of a draft resolution to establish a Permanent Forum of People of African Descent was rolled back to a later date.
The World Health Organization today said that more than 1.2 million people urgently need health assistance in Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique, where recent armed attacks sparked further population displacement and deepened a protracted humanitarian crisis.
