A new United Nations report has documented the immense suffering of civilians in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria region, where 900 people were abducted and 24,000 forced to flee their homes during a surge in violence between April and August of this year.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The United Nations Population Fund’s annual State of World Population report “The Power of Choice: Reproductive Rights and the Demographic Transition” shows that the global trend towards smaller families and the power to choose the number, timing and spacing of children can bolster economic and social development.
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.
Marking International Day of Rural Women, the Secretary-General said rural women and girls are crucial in building a prosperous, equitable and peaceful future. He called on countries to take action to ensure that women and girls fully enjoy their human rights, including the rights of land and security of land tenure.
The UN refugee agency today drew attention to a collapsing health situation among refugees and asylum-seekers at off-shore facilities in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, calling on the Government of Australia to urgently act to prevent a further tragedy to people forcibly transferred under its off-shore processing policy.
Today marks the International Day of the Girl Child. Under the 2018 theme “With Her: A Skilled Girl Force”, it celebrates today’s generation of girls preparing to enter a world of work being transformed by innovation and automation. In his message, the Secretary-General noted that his Youth2030 strategy aims to work with girls.
Civilians continue to suffer high casualties, with the combined use of suicide and non-suicide improvised explosive devices by non-government fighters remaining the leading cause, according to the latest report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reports that it has managed, for the first time since civil war broke out in South Sudan almost five years ago, to send a food-assistance boat convoy up the Sobat River, a tributary of the White Nile in the Upper Nile region, with enough food to sustain 40,000 people for one month.
The Secretary-General extended his condolences on Sunday to the Government of Haiti and the families of the victims of the earthquake that struck north of Port-de-Paix. The United Nations and its partners are helping the Government assess the needs of the population impacted by the quake.
One week after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Central Sulawesi in Indonesia, the humanitarian country team has launched a $50 million response plan. The United Nations resident coordinator there said the plan will provide immediate relief items, and the logistical support needed to provide aid to those in need.