United Nations Children’s Fund Representative (UNICEF) in Nigeria Peter Hawkins calls on those responsible for the mass abduction of girls from a State-run school in Zamfara to release them immediately and for the Government to take steps to ensure their safe release and the safety of other schoolchildren in the country.
The United Nations team in Indonesia is supporting efforts to vaccinate 80 per cent of the population, over 216 million people, against COVID-19. Work has begun to bring the country into the COVAX facility, and the World Health Organization helped finalize a vaccine introduction road map and guidelines.
United Nations personnel in the Central African Republic say they have stepped up security patrols following the arrest of former Séléka commander Mahamat Said Abdel Kani. Mr. Kani, who is suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity, was surrendered to the International Criminal Court on 24 January.
The Acting Special Representative for Libya reported a breakthrough in the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum taking place in Tunisia, with participants reaching a preliminary agreement on a road map for ending the transitional period and organizing free, inclusive and credible parliamentary and presidential elections.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are helping the Government of Cambodia with distance learning programmes for the more than 3 million students who are out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Bangladesh, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed today that a 71-year-old Rohingya man is the first refugee in the Cox’s Bazar camp to die from COVID-19 and some 30 other people have tested positive so far, yet the numbers are likely higher as testing is ramping up.
Following is a transcript of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ press conference, held in New York today:
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
More than 1 in 5 people living in conflict zones suffer from mental health disorders, a higher percentage than previously thought, according to a study released today by the World Health Organization and published by the Lancet.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet today strongly condemned the beheading of 37 men in Saudi Arabia, most of them Shi’a Muslims, despite the repeated appeals by the United Nations about the lack of due process and fair trial guarantees. She appealed to the authorities to halt pending executions.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday morning, 16 September.
A new report released today says that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) mobilized $25 million to increase resilience and restore more than 800 buildings for the most vulnerable people in Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda, which were hit by two powerful back-to-back hurricanes a year ago.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over continuing arrests and apparently arbitrary detentions of human rights defenders and activists in Saudi Arabia. Since 15 May, at least 15 Government critics have been detained, their whereabouts unknown, in some cases, amid a serious lack of transparency.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, initially scheduled to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, 14 April, to attend the Arab League Summit on Sunday, 15 April, stayed back in New York to address the Security Council on Syria. Instead, he left New York on 15 April, arriving in Riyadh on Monday, 16 April, at 12 p.m.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced today that Chile had just acceded to the international conventions on statelessness. The Office commended the country’s commitment to promote the fundamental right to nationality.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today condemned the killing of three Ecuadorian newspaper staff workers: Javier Ortega, Paul Rivas and Efrain Segarra. The three workers, employed by the newspaper El Comercio, were kidnapped on 26 March, near the border between Ecuador and Colombia.
Donors in Geneva today pledged $528 million to support the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid to millions of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The announcements were made at a humanitarian conference in co‑chaired by the United Nations, the European Union and the Netherlands.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ján Kubiš, congratulated Iraqi political parties and blocs for signing the Electoral Charter of Honour on Wednesday in Baghdad, and pledged the United Nations Assistance Mission’s support for conducting upcoming elections freely, fairly and transparently.
The Secretary-General was shocked at reports of remarks attributed to Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. He urges all leaders in Myanmar to take a unified stance against incitement to hatred and to promote communal harmony.
