Only 15 countries have three essential national policies supporting families with young children, according to a new UNICEF report, “Early Moments Matter for Every Child”. They offer two years of [free] pre-primary education; breastfeeding breaks for new mothers in the first six months; and adequate parental leave.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The Secretary-General spoke at a high-level meeting on reform of the United Nations. He stressed that the true test will be measured through tangible results in the lives of the people the Organization serves — and the trust of those who support its work through their hard-earned resources.
The United Nations Environment Programme is launching a campaign to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Montreal Protocol and its success in protecting Earth against ozone depletion. The “Ozone Heroes” campaign seeks to raise awareness of collective efforts to tackle climate change and the depletion of the ozone layer.
An upsurge of violence in the Central African Republic has caused a 50 per cent increase in the number of internally displaced people this year to a total of nearly 600,000. Fighting has engulfed territories that had been relatively stable, including Basse-Kotto, Mbomou and Haut-Mbomou, with almost 70 per cent of the country now in the hands of armed groups.
An estimated 370,000 Rohingya refugees have fled into Bangladesh since 25 August. A flight chartered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees carrying emergency aid has landed in that country. A second flight, donated by the United Arab Emirates, was carrying 2,000 tents. The supplies will help 25,000 refugees.
The number of migrant deaths and disappearances over the past three years is likely to be much higher than the 23,000 that the International Organization for Migration has reported globally since 2014, since many deaths are not recorded, according to a report released by the agency today.
Mark Lowcock, the new head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), will travel to Niger and Nigeria from 9 to 12 September to raise the profile of the Lake Chad Basin crisis impacting some 17 million people. He will seek additional humanitarian support to avert the risk of famine.
Irina Bokova, Director-General of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), condemned the killing of Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh, shot outside her home on Tuesday. Ms. Lankesh, editor and publisher of a Kannada-language weekly, was an outspoken critic of right-wing extremism.
OCHA says a cholera outbreak has been reported in Borno State, north-eastern Nigeria, the first case of which was recorded on 16 August. More than 530 suspected cases had been registered as of yesterday, including 23 deaths, mainly in Muna Garage, a camp hosting about 20,000 internally displaced persons on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the state capital.
The United Nations Human Rights Office confirmed that 33 civilians in Yemen were killed and 25 injured in the 23 August air strike by coalition forces that hit a hotel in Sana’a Governorate, one of several coalition air strikes that day, which resulted in deaths. Witnesses said there had been no warnings of an attack.