United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Gillian Triggs of Australia as Assistant Secretary-General to serve as the Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  Ms. Triggs will succeed Volker Türk of Austria who has been appointed as Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Coordination in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General.  The Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Refugees are grateful for Mr. Türk’s 30 years of dedicated service to the refugee cause, including four years as Assistant High Commissioner for Protection.

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

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on International Youth Day, observed on 12 August:

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

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

Owing to vetoes and excuses by some of its members, the Security Council has so far “utterly failed” tens of thousands of people arbitrarily detained, abducted or disappeared in Syria, stressed civil society representatives today, as they demanded information about detainees’ whereabouts and support for grieving families.

The Security Council underlined the need for more support and adequate resources for the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) today amid increased demands from Guinea-Bissau and post-transition countries in the region.

United Nations humanitarian officials in the Philippines report that the Government declared a national dengue epidemic yesterday.  There have now been more than 146,000 reported cases of dengue fever and 622 confirmed fatalities since the beginning of 2019, mostly affecting children between 5 and 9 years old.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the signing ceremony of the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, in Singapore today:

The United Nations welcomed the decision by the Government of Colombia to grant nationality to Venezuelan refugee children born in the country to Venezuelan parents.  The measure will benefit more than 24,000 children born since August 2015 who were at risk of statelessness.