Against the backdrop of a tenuous calm, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process today warned the Security Council that the Gaza Strip remains on the brink of an armed conflict that holds catastrophic consequences for some two million impoverished Palestinians living there.
The World Health Organization’s World Malaria Report reveals that in 2017, there were about 219 million cases, compared with 217 million in 2016. About 70 per cent of all cases occurred in 10 African countries and India. To boost prevention and treatment, WHO and partners launched a new country-led response.
The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People recommended four draft resolutions for action by General Assembly today, with its Vice-Chair saying they will be presented on 29 November, during its general debate on the question of Palestine, and on 30 November, when voting is expected.
The United Nations refugee agency today called upon countries to take faster and more resolute action to help end statelessness. High Commissioner Filippo Grandi urged politicians, Governments and legislators around the world to take and support decisive action to eliminate statelessness globally by 2024.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary‑General António Guterres:
Gravely concerned over escalation of violence on the Gaza border and settlement activity in the West Bank, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council today that the international community could no longer allow prospects for a two‑State solution to slip away.
A new United Nations report has documented the immense suffering of civilians in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria region, where 900 people were abducted and 24,000 forced to flee their homes during a surge in violence between April and August of this year.
Marking International Day of Rural Women, the Secretary-General said rural women and girls are crucial in building a prosperous, equitable and peaceful future. He called on countries to take action to ensure that women and girls fully enjoy their human rights, including the rights of land and security of land tenure.
The UN refugee agency today drew attention to a collapsing health situation among refugees and asylum-seekers at off-shore facilities in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, calling on the Government of Australia to urgently act to prevent a further tragedy to people forcibly transferred under its off-shore processing policy.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reports that it has managed, for the first time since civil war broke out in South Sudan almost five years ago, to send a food-assistance boat convoy up the Sobat River, a tributary of the White Nile in the Upper Nile region, with enough food to sustain 40,000 people for one month.
