Human rights

Launching its Humanitarian Action for Children 2026 appeal today, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is seeking $7.66 billion to provide life-saving support to 73 million children in 133 countries next year. This comes as severe shortfalls in 2024 and 2025 are forcing UNICEF to make impossible choices.

In Sudan, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today called for urgent action to safeguard children and essential services in the country. UNICEF estimates that 10 million people have been displaced there; half of those 10 million are children. This is the highest level of child displacement in the world.

In Mozambique, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is gravely concerned about intensifying attacks on villages and the rapid spillover into districts considered safe, with nearly 100,000 people displaced in the past fortnight alone. The violence, which began in Cabo Delgado in 2017, has displaced over 1.3 million people.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for Human Rights Day, under the theme “Human Rights: Our Everyday Essentials”, observed on 10 December:

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, as read by Guy Ryder, Under-Secretary-General for Policy, to the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, in New York today:

With human trafficking rapidly expanding and growing more technologically sophisticated, the General Assembly today adopted a sweeping Political Declaration reaffirming global resolve to end what top UN officials call “one of humanity’s gravest crimes”.

In Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that the ongoing humanitarian scale-up is still being held back by restrictions affecting visas and import approvals, too few crossing points operating and limited facilitation of humanitarian movements inside Gaza, among other challenges.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, observed on 2 December:

The Human Rights Council must serve as a “sanctuary of humanity” that not only protects but also delivers on the promise of human rights as enshrined in the United Nations Charter, the General Assembly heard today, as it considered the body’s report.

The Food and Agriculture Organization today released a report showing that deforestation has slowed in all of the world’s regions in the last decade. More than half of forests are now covered by long-term management plans, and one fifth are within legally established protected areas.