#COVID-19

COVID-19 is has pushed nearly 4 million Haitians – about 1 in 3 people – into acute food insecurity, with 1 million people now in a situation of severe hunger, a Government study found.  In the first four months of 2020, the World Food Programme reached 200,000 people, and restarted emergency food and cash distributions.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message on human rights and COVID-19 response and recovery, “We Are All in This Together”, in New York today:

The Secretary-General launched a new report highlighting the centrality of human rights to COVID-19 response and recovery alongside recommendations, saying the pandemic is fast becoming a human rights crisis exposing deep weaknesses in public service delivery that must be addressed.

While Israelis and Palestinians are cooperating in unprecedented ways to combat the expanding COVID-19 pandemic, Israel must do more to safeguard the health of all people under its control, the senior United Nations official in the region told the Security Council in a 23 April videoconference meeting.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace, observed on 24 April:

The onset of COVID-19 is hampering efforts to implement the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Great Lakes region and already taking a significant economic toll on countries still working to emerge from years of conflict, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy told the Security Council in a 22 April videoconference meeting, as he called for greater international support to consolidate gains.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for Girls in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Day, observed on 23 April:

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the beginning of Ramadan, in New York, today:

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in partnership with Ted-Ed, today launched an online “Earth School” offering free educational content for students, parents and teachers who are currently at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  Its videos, reading materials and activities will be translated into 10 languages.

Acute food insecurity — much of it resulting from conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic — is on the rise in many parts of the world and threatens to reach “biblical proportions” without immediate, swift and coherent international action to address the outbreak’s root causes, senior United Nations officials dealing with food issues told the Security Council during a 21 April videoconference meeting.