Haiti

Although hand-washing with soap is critical to anti-coronavirus efforts, millions of people around the world lack ready access to a place to wash their hands, UNICEF) warned today, reporting that, according to the latest estimates, only three out of five people worldwide have basic hand-washing facilities.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs today said that they remain deeply concerned about the ongoing hostilities along the line of contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, calling on all sides to immediately end the fighting and respect international human rights and humanitarian law.

Haiti’s political and socioeconomic future hinges on the ability of that country’s political and economic classes to resolve their differences without resorting to violence, the head of the United Nations special political mission there told the Security Council during a 5 October video teleconference meeting.

The new Permanent Representative of Haiti to the United Nations, Antonio Rodrigue, presented his credentials to the Secretariat today.

A group of regional United Nations entities launched a $2.5 million recovery fund to support Mauritius as it responds to the oil spill caused by a shipwreck off its coast in July, with efforts focused on the livelihoods impacted.  United Nations regional directors for eastern and southern Africa have pooled $250,000 to kick-start the fund.

Thérèse Gastaut, a former Spokeswoman for the United Nations in Geneva, passed away last night.  She ably served the Organization for 37 years and held positions in the Department of Public Information in New York, Geneva and Brussels.  Thérèse had the United Nations in her blood and in her heart.

In June, 921,000 people were forced to leave Burkina Faso, making it the site of one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement crises.  Increased insecurity has also made humanitarian access more difficult, with the number of people in need of assistance jumping to 2.9 million people, from 2.2 million in January.

Amid protracted political, economic and institutional crises in Haiti, a strong response to COVID-19 is urgently needed to prevent an erosion of national stability, a top legal expert in the country told the Security Council in a 19 June videoconference meeting.

COVID-19 is has pushed nearly 4 million Haitians – about 1 in 3 people – into acute food insecurity, with 1 million people now in a situation of severe hunger, a Government study found.  In the first four months of 2020, the World Food Programme reached 200,000 people, and restarted emergency food and cash distributions.

Political deadlock in Haiti, entering its second year, has paralysed national institutions, hobbled the economy and fuelled chronic insecurity amid spotty progress and ever-worsening living conditions for more than 4 million citizens, the Security Council heard today.