Drugs

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today released its newest survey on opium cultivation. The agency estimates that poppy cultivation in Myanmar has increased by 33 per cent in the first season since the military takeover.

The United Nations Environment Programme today announced its 2022 Champions of the Earth, honouring a conservationist, an enterprise, an economist, a women’s rights activist and a wildlife biologist for their transformative action to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation.

The United Nations Secretariat at the Joint Coordination Centre reports that the Ukrainian, Turkish and United Nations delegations agreed not to plan any movement of vessels in the Black Sea Grain Initiative for 2 November.

In Tunisia, the third of nine commercial vessels from Ukraine arrived over the weekend, through the Black Sea Grain Initiative, bringing more than 78,000 tons of soft wheat to the country. A fourth vessel is scheduled to land today in Tunis, with 30,000 tons of corn.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations today addressed the 2022 Ocean Conference opening ceremony, along with the leaders of the two co-hosting nations, Portugal and Kenya, warning that the world’s failure to care for the ocean will have ripple effects across the entire 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, observed on 26 June:

Jayathma Wickramanayake, the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, and The Body Shop, launched a campaign today that seeks to get young voices into the halls of power.  The campaign, “Be Seen, Be Heard”, seeks to create long-term structural changes that will make decision-making more inclusive of young people and ensure their participation in political life.

On 22 October 2021, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia held informal consultations to hear a briefing by the Deputy Head of the Global Maritime Crime Programme, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), on the Programme’s support to the implementation of resolution 2551 (2020).

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, observed on 26 June:

In Myanmar, the United Nations team remains very concerned about the humanitarian situation.  Some 230,000 people have been forced to flee their home due to clashes between the military and ethnic armed groups, or among ethnic armed groups, since the military takeover of the Government on 1 February.