Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, observed on 6 February:
The Security Council today decided to extend its sanctions regime on the Central African Republic — including an arms embargo, travel ban and assets freeze — until 31 January 2020, while also extending the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the Central African Republic Sanctions Committee until 29 February 2020.
The General Assembly and Economic and Social Council must find synergies in their response to common issues — human rights, peace and security, and development — and weed out overlap, the organs’ presidents emphasized today in the first-ever joint discussion on alignment of work.
At least 34 United Nations and associated personnel were killed in malicious attacks while on duty in 2018, according to the annual report of the UN Staff Union’s Standing Committee for the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service. It is among the lowest casualty rates of the last five years.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Lieutenant General Michael Anker Lollesgaard of Denmark as Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) and Head of the United Nations Mission in support of the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA), as established in Security Council resolution 2452 (2019).
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President José Singer Weisinger (Dominican Republic):
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, following consultations with the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), announced today the appointment of Ibrahim Thiaw of Mauritania as the next Executive Secretary of the UNCCD.
Harsh winter conditions and ongoing hostilities in some parts of Syria have resulted in the forced displacement of tens of thousands more civilians across the war-ravaged country, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator warned during his briefing to the Security Council today.
On 30 January 2019, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1988 (2011) enacted the amendments specified with underline and strikethrough in the entries below on the 1988 List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2255 (2015) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
The United Nations Department of Global Communications will hold a multimedia briefing for civil society at the United Nations on Albania’s response to the plight of Jewish people during the Holocaust.
