Human rights

The ceasefire in Gaza, brokered by the United Nations and Egypt, still holds. Humanitarian partners are responding to the needs of affected families and the United Nation Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees is providing services, as usual. Meanwhile, Israel has reopened the crossings with Gaza yesterday.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, observed on 9 August:

The Secretary-General expressed his concern about legal actions being carried out against justice officials in Guatemala.  He is also following recent developments regarding the arrest of José Rubén Zamora, a journalist and founder of a newspaper that has played an important role in exposing corruption.

In Sudan, according to preliminary reports from local authorities and United Nations partners, over 31,000 people have been displaced following intercommunal violence in Ganis town in Blue Nile State. Humanitarian organizations continue to provide the displaced and other affected people with assistance.

Senior humanitarian directors of United Nations agencies and partners wrapped up a visit yesterday to Somalia where the threat of famine looms, with more than seven million people already acutely food insecure. Assistance has reached over four million drought-affected people, but aid workers face severe funding shortfalls.

In Ukraine, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners delivered 50 tons of relief supplies for 5,000 people to Stepnohirsk, which is close to the front lines in south-eastern Zaporizka oblast. The convoy contained life-saving supplies, including medicine, food, blankets and other essentials.

In Haiti, United Nations humanitarian colleagues have started delivering humanitarian assistance to help people in the commune of Cité Soleil, as well as in other Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods. Enough food to feed 7,000 people for a week has been distributed, along with drinking water and kits of basic relief items.

The Kingdom of Morocco, represented by the Interministerial Delegation for Human Rights and the Rabita of Ulemas, jointly with the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention of the Responsibility to Protect concluded a two-day high-level symposium in Fez, Kingdom of Morocco, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Plan of Action for Religious Leaders and Actors to Prevent Incitement to Violence that Could Lead to Atrocity Crimes, also called the Fez Plan of Action.

In Burundi, the United Nations has allocated $1 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to help 340,000 people in areas affected by Rift Valley fever. The viral disease primarily affects livestock, a large component of the economy which accounts for 14 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) today released a report on the human rights situation there over the 10 months since the Taliban takeover, citing 2,106 civilian casualties between mid-August 2021 and mid-June 2022 despite an overall notable reduction in armed violence.