Palestinian issues

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the League of Arab States, in Baghdad today:

“We are doing this work because States are not,” civil society activists told the United Nations today at a special consultation on their initiatives to ensure accountability for Israel’s actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

In Colombia, the Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs reports that so far in 2025, more than 66,000 people were newly displaced due to fighting. The UN and its partners continue implementing a $3.8 million allocation from the Central Emergency Fund to help more than 56,000 impacted people in Catatumbo.

“Palestinians are racialized as a security threat, because they — we — refuse to disappear,” the Palestinian Rights Committee heard today from a scholar who spoke at a special event remembering the seventy-seventh anniversary of the Nakba.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN welcomes the transfer of over 1,300 disarmed Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) and National Police personnel (PNC), along with their dependents, from the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) premises in Goma to Kinshasa.

In Haiti, the UN and its partners continue to support thousands of people who fled violence in the Centre Department in the first two weeks of April. More than 50,000 people who were uprooted by clashes in the department continue to live in informal sites or with host families, with limited access to essential services.

The United Nations top humanitarian official, briefing the Security Council today on the grim reality across the Gaza Strip, asked those present to reflect on what they will tell future generations when asked what they did to stop the “twenty-first-century atrocity” unfolding daily before the eyes of the world.

A report released today by the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women on how funding reductions are impacting local women-led groups in crisis settings revealed that nearly half of the over 400 organizations in 44 countries expect to have to close their operations within six months.

The Secretary-General has appointed experts to develop recommendations for measures that complement or go beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is a way to recognize that GDP — relied upon as a gauge of prosperity — provides an incomplete picture of the different dimensions of sustainable development.

In Syria, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that more than 670,000 people have been displaced since November 2024, while over 1 million people have returned to their areas of origin. Meanwhile, the UN and its partners continue to deliver aid across the country despite reduced funding.