As hostilities escalate in southern Syria, civilian deaths continue to be reported and up to 66,000 people have now been displaced. Many who fled towards the Jordanian border remain stranded in the desert with little access to humanitarian help. Planned aid convoys will proceed as soon as the security situation allows.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The number of children affected by armed conflict and the severity of grave violations affecting them increased in the past year, according to the Secretary‑General’s annual report on the issue, which was presented today by the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.
A Bangladeshi peacekeeper from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan was killed today during an attack on a convoy delivering humanitarian aid to vulnerable civilians in Central Equatoria Province. The Nepalese peacekeepers immediately returned fire and the assailants retreated into the forest.
UNHCR today released a report that shows a widening gap between the number of refugees in need of resettlement and the places available for them around the world. It projects that some 1.4 million refugees will need a resettlement country in 2019, but the number of available resettlement places has dropped to just 75,000.
Lise Grande, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, says cholera tops the list of concerns over Hodeidah, an epicentre of the 2017 outbreak, among the worst in modern history. Meanwhile, 25 per cent of children in the city are suffering from acute malnutrition, and without nutritional support, 100,000 will be at risk.
A concert to benefit Rohingya refugees will be performed at the Baruch Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. on Monday, 25 June. Masud Bin Momen, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, and Ninette Kelley, Director of the High Commissioner for Refugees New York Office, will attend.
Today is World Refugee Day, and the Secretary-General says in a message he is deeply concerned to see more and more situations where refugees are not receiving the protection they need and to which they are entitled. Also, FAO and UNHCR launched a new handbook to help restore forests in displacement-affected areas.
The Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process briefed the Security Council this morning and said that settlement activity has continued in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. He reiterated that all settlement activity is illegal under international law.
The Chef de Cabinet to UN Secretary-General António Guterres read out a message on his behalf to the third Review Conference on the Programme of Action on Small Arms, telling the delegates that every year, over half a million people are killed violently around the world, mostly through small arms fire.
The Human Rights Office published the United Nations first-ever report on the human rights situation in Kashmir today, which states that past and ongoing human rights abuses must be urgently addressed, and details violations committed by security forces with impunity.