Saudi Arabia

A new report released today says that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) mobilized $25 million to increase resilience and restore more than 800 buildings for the most vulnerable people in Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda, which were hit by two powerful back-to-back hurricanes a year ago.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over continuing arrests and apparently arbitrary detentions of human rights defenders and activists in Saudi Arabia.  Since 15 May, at least 15 Government critics have been detained, their whereabouts unknown, in some cases, amid a serious lack of transparency.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, initially scheduled to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, 14 April, to attend the Arab League Summit on Sunday, 15 April, stayed back in New York to address the Security Council on Syria.  Instead, he left New York on 15 April, arriving in Riyadh on Monday, 16 April, at 12 p.m.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced today that Chile had just acceded to the international conventions on statelessness.  The Office commended the country’s commitment to promote the fundamental right to nationality.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today condemned the killing of three Ecuadorian newspaper staff workers:  Javier Ortega, Paul Rivas and Efrain Segarra.  The three workers, employed by the newspaper El Comercio, were kidnapped on 26 March, near the border between Ecuador and Colombia.

Donors in Geneva today pledged $528 million to support the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid to millions of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The announcements were made at a humanitarian conference in co‑chaired by the United Nations, the European Union and the Netherlands.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ján Kubiš, congratulated Iraqi political parties and blocs for signing the Electoral Charter of Honour on Wednesday in Baghdad, and pledged the United Nations Assistance Mission’s support for conducting upcoming elections freely, fairly and transparently.

The Secretary-General was shocked at reports of remarks attributed to Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.  He urges all leaders in Myanmar to take a unified stance against incitement to hatred and to promote communal harmony.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Koro Bessho (Japan):