Iraq

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today released a regional refugee and resilience plan, which is seeking $5.7 billion to reach 6.8 million Syrian refugees and 6.1 million people in host communities with assistance in 2023.

Marking peacekeeping’s seventy-fifth anniversary, the Peacekeeping Department is launching a campaign, Peace Begins with Me, which promotes understanding of challenges faced by communities in conflict, demonstrates peacekeeping’s impact and calls for a global movement for peace.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Ruchira Kamboj (India):

Highlighting notable investigative progress into international crimes committed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as Da’esh, and cooperation of Iraqi authorities, the head of the United Nations team probing those transgressions called for the adoption of adequate domestic legislation to ensure accountability and enable prosecution of core international crimes, during his semi-annual briefing to the Security Council today.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

In Chad, the United Nations and partners have assisted some 250,000 people affected by flooding; however, only one quarter of the $70 million needed to help 8000,000 people has been received. The water rise has stabilized in the capital but is forecasted to move upstream to the already crisis-impacted Lac region.

One year after elections were held, and three years after Iraqis took to the streets to protest a lack of political, economic and social prospects, the continuing absence of a functioning government is hard to justify, the senior United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today, while stressing the need for Iraq’s leaders — “all of them” — to engage in dialogue and “pull the country back from the ledge”.

Angela Merkel, the former Chancellor of Germany, was announced today as the recipient of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) 2022 Nansen Refugee Award. The award is given to an individual, group or organization that has worked to protect refugees, internally displaced or stateless people.

Today is International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction and this year’s theme is “Stop Food Loss and waste, for the people, for the planet”. Food loss and waste account for 8 to 10 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres: