During her 10-day visit to Myanmar, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy met with the Union Electoral Commission, representatives of the main political parties in Parliament and Rohingya and Rakhine political [parties] and activists, as well as local officials, community leaders and returnees in northern Rakhine State.
In progress at UNHQ
Lebanon
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a pilot programme to prequalify human insulin to increase treatment for diabetes in low- and middle-income countries — part of WHO’s efforts to address the growing diabetes burden. Some 65 million people with type 2 diabetes need insulin, but only half of them can access it, largely due to high prices.
Pneumonia is preventable but this forgotten epidemic remains the leading killer of children under the age of five, claiming more than 800,000 lives last year, or one child every 39 seconds, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today, which is World Pneumonia Day.
Food prices rose in October for the first time in five months as international sugar and cereal quotations climbed significantly, FAO reports. Wheat and maize export prices increased sharply due to reduced crop prospects as rice prices slipped, owing to subdued demand and prospects of an abundant basmati harvest, FAO said.
The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria launched the Syrian-led, Syrian-owned inclusive Constitutional Committee in Geneva today, bringing together for the first time Government and opposition nominees, with women making up 30 per cent of the 150 participants, following a nearly nine-year-long conflict.
In Central America, subsistence farmers and some larger-scale farming operations in “the Dry Corridor” have lost 50 to 75 per cent of their crops due to irregular weather conditions, including high temperatures, below average rain and long dry spells. The 2018 drought affected more than 2 million people in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and “Education Cannot Wait”, the first global, multilateral fund for education in emergencies started a strategic partnership to ensure children and youth in emergencies have access to education opportunities.
In north‑east Syria, despite very difficult challenges, the United Nations and humanitarian partners continue to deliver aid and provide basic services to 1.8 million people in need where access allows. This includes emergency food rations for 83,000 newly displaced people, hygiene kits and drinking water.
The United Nations Network on Migration reiterated today its call to end the detention of children for immigration purposes in every region of the world. They said detaining children in such a context – whether they are travelling alone or with their families – has been recognized as a violation of children’s rights.
The United Nations recorded fewer human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the first half of 2019, a High Commissioner for Human Rights report found, describing the 3,039 violations as an improvement. However, the number of violations committed until June remains higher than two years ago.