The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today approved nineteen draft resolutions, including five by recorded vote, as it wrapped up its general debate on decolonization.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported that 220,000 internally displaced people are sheltering in 88 UNRWA schools across the Gaza Strip, also noting that numerous personnel, teachers and students have been killed. Agency staff are working around the clock, caring for the people in the shelters.

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

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the World Engineers Convention, in Prague today:

Despite many commodity-dependent countries underperforming in development and falling further into debt, the global economy lacks an adequate response to the crisis, a Nobel Laureate told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) and the Economic and Social Council as they met today for their annual joint meeting.

Speakers underscored the importance of upholding the Organization’s reputation by ensuring United Nations officials and experts are held accountable for crimes committed when on mission, while also highlighting the need for predeployment training and victim-centred approaches, as the Sixth Committee (Legal) took up the Secretary-General’s reports on the matter.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today began its line-by-line consideration of a proposed $3.3 billion regular budget for 2024, which includes 10,334 posts and would likely swing upward after re-costing by the end of next year. Secretary-General António Guterres introduced the reports detailing the proposed 2024 figures, which make up the Organization’s fifth annual budget.

Treaties are being trampled, the tenets of the world order are being challenged, the UN's disarmament machinery is mired in chronic paralysis and boxed in by lethargy, and business as usual has brought humankind to the current dangerous stage, delegates in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) warn during the penultimate day of their general debate.

With long-overdue financial reforms and an ambitious federal budget, Iraq’s Government continues to forge progress in tackling the challenges it faces, the senior United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today, adding that more efforts are required to address its rapidly growing population’s needs.

One quarter of humanity lives in places affected by conflict, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine, and, now again, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, a United Nations human rights official told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, highlighting that the number of civilians killed in war operations worldwide rose by 50 per cent in 2022.