The United Nations Environment Programme today announced its 2022 Champions of the Earth, honouring a conservationist, an enterprise, an economist, a women’s rights activist and a wildlife biologist for their transformative action to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation.
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In Argentina, the United Nations joined many in the country and across the region to mourn the passing of Hebe de Bonafini, a human rights activist who co-founded the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo movement to search for missing people, including children, during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983.
In a report published ahead of World Children’s Day, marked on 20 November, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) noted that racism and discrimination against children based on their ethnicity, language and religion are rife in countries across the world.
The Secretary-General, welcoming the agreement by all parties to continue the Black Sea Grain Initiative to facilitate grain, foodstuffs and fertilizers export from Ukraine, said the United Nations is also fully committed to removing the remaining obstacles to exporting food and fertilizers from the Russian Federation.
Today is International Day for Tolerance. The resolution proclaiming the Day was adopted by the General Assembly in 1996, and among other things, the Day aims to foster mutual understanding among cultures and peoples.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic facilitated a school’s reopening in the Haute-Kotto Prefecture. Deployed there to deter armed groups and help restore socioeconomic activities, peacekeepers also provided school supplies and have launched a community violence reduction project.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) today released a report showing that economic losses from drought, floods and landslides have rocketed in Asia. According to WMO, in 2021 alone, weather and water-related hazards caused total damage of $35.6 billion, affecting nearly 50 million people.
In Mozambique, the World Food Programme (WFP) warns it will be forced to suspend life-saving assistance, particularly in Cabo Delgado province, to 1 million people — at the peak of the hunger season in February — unless it urgently receives $51 million more in funding.
In Ukraine, the United Nations, NGOs and the entire humanitarian community continue to work to sustain aid operations and reach those impacted by the war with the life-saving support they need. Since February, aid workers have provided critical assistance to some 13.5 million people across all regions of Ukraine.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reports that it is continuing to support the national authorities in preventing and reducing violence at the community level.