In progress at UNHQ

Noon Briefings


Special projects funded by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan are improving the lives of communities countrywide by providing access to clean water, education and health care as well as safe houses for vulnerable women, and by strengthening the justice system to hold perpetrators of sexual violence to account.

With Yazidi activist and gender-based violence survivor Nadia Murad having officially received the Nobel Peace Prize today, UNICEF is shining a spotlight on the plight of hundreds of thousands of uprooted children in Iraq whose lives are threatened by freezing temperatures and floods across much of the country.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says nearly 1,500 civilian casualties in Yemen were reported in the period between August and October 2018.  This means an average of 123 civilian deaths and injuries every week during this period.  UNHCR urges parties to the conflict in Yemen to improve the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

UNESCO today launched its Atlas on the retreat of Andean glaciers and reduction of glacial waters.  The atlas shows that if trends continue, some of the lower-altitude glaciers of the tropical Andes could lose 78 to 97 per cent of their volume by the end of the century, reducing the region’s freshwater resources.

A peacekeeper from Malawi was found alive in the Beni area of North Kivu Province on Friday, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reports.  He went missing on 14 November after the launch of the mission’s joint operation with Congolese forces to neutralize rebel fighters.

Yesterday I was asked about money and percentages.  As of yesterday, the amount received for the regular budget in 2018 represents 97.8 per cent of the amount assessed.  While credit is given publicly to those Member [States] that have paid their budget dues in full, many others pay in tranches of varying sizes.

The first-ever International Jaguar Day, 29 November, aims to boost conservation efforts to guarantee the survival of the largest feline in the Americas.  Half of the original range of the species has been lost and its population is declining due to poaching, conflict with humans and disintegration of their habitat.