Middle East

The unemployment rate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is now the highest in the world, peaking at 27.4 per cent in 2017, according to a report released by the International Labour Organization (ILO).  It says women and young people are particularly affected, with almost half of women being unemployed.

In Syria, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is delivering United Nations humanitarian aid for more than 92,000 people to Talbiseh in northern rural Homs and Tlul Elhomor in southern Hama.  This is the first convoy to northern rural Homs since a convoy reached Dar al‑Kabira and surrounding areas on 4 March.

Events unfolding in and around Gaza marked the most serious escalation of violence since the 2014 conflict between Hamas and Israel, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council today, as he called for intensified pressure on Israelis and Palestinians to advance a just and sustainable peace.

Calling on the Security Council to view the recent violence along the Gaza border as part of a larger picture — in which political stagnation, frustration and disillusionment were mounting across the wider Palestinian diaspora — the senior United Nations official in Jerusalem today urged all parties to the conflict to rein in provocations, address urgent humanitarian needs and support the resumption of peace talks aimed at ending the long-entrenched conflict.

Today marks International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, affecting an estimated 2 million women in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Arab region, and Latin America and the Caribbean.  Because this injury is almost entirely preventable, the Day seeks to raise awareness of the importance of obstetric care for women around the world.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over the murder of three human rights defenders working with indigenous and peasants’ rights organizations in Guatemala during the last 10 days, calling for a prompt investigation into those and other attacks against rights defenders, and accountability for the perpetrators.

Despite the increasingly dire circumstances in the territory occupied by Israel and in exile abroad, the Palestinian people would never abandon their struggle for peace, freedom and self-determination, the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine stressed in closing remarks as the United Nation Forum on the Question of Palestine concluded today.

A peacekeeper from the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) was killed and eight others injured this morning in the southern part of the country.  The contingent from Mauritania was escorting a convoy to the town of Alindao when it was attacked by presumed members of the anti-Balaka.

Following are Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the opening of the United Nations Forum on the Question of Palestine, in New York today:

Seventy years after a General Assembly resolution first sought to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish States — an anniversary that sparked both joyous commemorations and lethal violence earlier this week — Palestinian and Israeli scholars, legal experts and Government officials today opened a high-level forum aimed at harnessing the region’s difficult historical lessons and forging a new path forward towards peace.