Syria

The United Nations is concerned about the safety of journalists in Myanmar. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as of this week, at least 170 journalists have been arrested since the military takeover of that country in February of 2021.

Syria must change its attitude and cooperate fully with the body charged with verifying its compliance with international law governing chemical weapons, the United Nations disarmament chief told the Security Council today, as speakers diverged over the propriety of that body’s efforts so far.

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide welcomed the opening of the trial against Félicien Kabuga before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague.  Mr. Kabuga, among other offenses, is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, committed in Rwanda in 1994.

In Cuba, the United Nations took part in the consultation process to make reforms to the country’s Family Code. Almost 75 per cent of Cubans voted on 25 September in a referendum on the diversity of families, affection and solidarity as key social values and strengthening the protection of a host of vulnerable groups.

In Sri Lanka, the United Nations continues to support the Government, and people of the country respond to the economic crisis there. The Organization has reached more than 1 million women, children and men with humanitarian aid across all 25 districts of the country.

The political process and the prevention of an economic collapse in Syria will not advance meaningfully until violence is curtailed and ultimately ends, the Deputy Special Envoy for that country told the Security Council today, detailing United Nations efforts to address the Syrian peoples’ immediate concerns for safety and security, livelihoods and humanitarian assistance.

In Syria, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator there expressed serious concern yesterday over the ongoing cholera outbreak in the country. The number of confirmed cholera cases so far is 20 in Aleppo, 4 in Lattakia and 2 in Damascus.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, where 1.3 million Palestinian children will be returning to school this week, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator there issued a statement today in which she said she is concerned that, since the beginning of the year, 20 children were killed in the West Bank.

The United Nations is stepping up its response to severe rains and flooding across Pakistan which have reportedly killed over 1,000 people, including hundreds of children. The situation is expected to worsen with more ongoing rainfall.

Outlining the deepening humanitarian crisis in Syria and the threat of escalating violence, the Special Envoy for that country told the Security Council today he regretted that, during two years of frozen front lines, the international community had not seized upon the window provided by that relative calm to build a credible political process.