Meeting on the heels of the Taliban’s new directive prohibiting women and girls from attending public and private medical institutes in Afghanistan, the Security Council examined the impacts of the de facto authorities’ increasingly repressive policies, amounting to “gender apartheid”, as speakers urged the Taliban to reverse course.

Delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the Secretary-General’s request to appropriate $102.8 million in 2025 for the UN peacekeeping operation in Somalia as it moves through a two-year transition period that will eventually end the Organization’s peacekeeping mandate in that country in October 2026.

On 22 November 2024, in pursuance of paragraph 5 of resolution 2664 (2022), a representative of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), on behalf of the Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolution 2745 (2024) on the delivery of life-saving assistance and other activities that support essential human needs in the Central African Republic.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to Parliament of Lesotho, in Maseru today:

The General Assembly today demanded an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, reiterated its demand for the immediate release of all hostages and demanded that Israel allow the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to proceed with its aid operations without restriction in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Despite escalating tensions in the region and continued fighting in Yemen, a political solution for peace in the country is still possible but requires the Security Council’s unity and decisive action, a senior United Nations official told the 15 member organ today.

The Security Council today received a briefing on its sanctions regime for Haiti and heard a call for stronger measures from the country’s representative, who reported a surge in homicides and a tripling of kidnappings this year amid arms embargo violations.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, arrived in Lisbon from Baku on Saturday morning, 23 November.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today released its first major global assessment of salt-affected soils in 50 years. It shows that nearly 1.4 billion hectares of land — which is about 10 per cent of the total global land area — are already impacted by salinity.

Two individuals who violated peace and security in Sudan were subjected to targeted sanctions during the reporting period, the head of the subsidiary body concerning that country told the Security Council today, as Khartoum’s representative called on the 15-member organ to adopt meaningful measures that go beyond “mere meetings”, to counter external sponsorship of the Rapid Support Forces, which is causing grave civilian suffering in his country.