Fragility, tensions and violence in Myanmar — including, but not limited to, the recent crisis in Rakhine State — risk jeopardizing important strides made in that country’s peace process, the top United Nations official in Myanmar warned the Security Council today, urging the 15-member organ to continue to lend support.
To assist 2.3 million people in Mali, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners today launched the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan requesting $296 million. The situation there has deteriorated in recent years due to increased conflict and intercommunal clashes, as well as a high level of food insecurity.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has scaled up efforts to support five western African countries as they respond to outbreaks of Lassa fever. The largest outbreak thus far has affected 16 states in Nigeria, with 213 confirmed cases to date.
In Bangladesh, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Oxfam have installed the largest human waste treatment facility ever built in a refugee settlement, in Cox’s Bazar, which is home to nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights calls on Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Nabeel Rajab and ensure that all Bahrainis are able to exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and expression without fear of arbitrary detention. She urges Bahrain to stop criminalizing dissenting voices.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
At the launch of the United Nations System Workplace Mental Health and Well-being Strategy, the Secretary-General highlighted the importance of ensuring the well-being of staff, many of whom work in increasingly dangerous environments, and the need to fight the stigma of talking about mental health issues in the workplace.
One year after the start of the Rohingya refugee crisis, the Security Council considered today the report issued by the independent fact-finding mission dispatched to that country, which alleges that national security forces committed gross human rights violations and abuses that “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law”.
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, arrived in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from New York in the early hours of Sunday, 1 July. He was taking part in a joint visit to the country with the President of the World Bank Group, Dr. Jim Yong Kim.
The latest report issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization warns today that time is running out for the world’s forests, whose total area is shrinking every day. Forests provide around 20 per cent of income for rural households in developing countries and fuel for cooking and heating for 1 in every 3 people around the world.
