Bosnia and Herzegovina

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide is in Bosnia and Herzegovina on an official visit to participate in events to commemorate the twenty-seventh anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide

The United Nations Children’s Fund is providing emergency relief in Bangladesh to people stranded by recent floods — including 1.6 million children — and is dispatching, among other things, 400,000 water purification tablets for 80,000 households and emergency medical supplies for district health facilities.

The international community must stand firm behind a peaceful, unified Bosnia and Herzegovina, the High Representative for that country told the Security Council today, citing rising tensions, a months-long political stalemate and increasing speculation about the possibility of yet another conflict in Europe.

Humanitarian needs across the Sahel region are at unprecedented levels due to escalating conflict, climate change, rising food insecurity and record-high food prices, United Nations officials report, saying that more than 30 million men, women and children in the Sahel will need assistance and protection in 2022.

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.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it is deeply concerned by recent incidents in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia that saw individuals glorify atrocity crimes and convicted war criminals target certain communities with hate speech, warning of a potential uptick in such acts in 2022, an election year.

The global level of undernourishment increased sharply last year, under the shadow of the COVID‑19 pandemic, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s annual Statistical Yearbook, released today.  Nearly 10 per cent of the world’s population suffered from hunger in 2020, up from 8.4 per cent in 2019.

Meeting today amid heightened political tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Security Council extended the mandate of the European Union-led stabilization force in the Balkan country for another year, as members reviewed progress on implementation of the 26-year-old Dayton Peace Agreement.

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.

Global foreign direct investment flows in the first half of 2021 reached approximately $852 billion, showing stronger than expected rebound momentum, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said today (UNCTAD).  Developed economies saw the biggest rise at an estimated $424 billion, UNCTAD noted.