The world’s plant protection body met on Tuesday, aiming to set new plant health standards to both safeguard human wellbeing and preserve food security, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The world’s plant protection body met on Tuesday, aiming to set new plant health standards to both safeguard human wellbeing and preserve food security, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Madam President,
Since I last briefed this Council on 17 March, the security situation in Ukraine has seriously deteriorated. The number of Ukrainian civilians killed has more than doubled. Ukrainian cities continue to be mercilessly pounded, often indiscriminately, by heavy artillery and aerial bombardments.
And hundreds of thousands of people, including children, the elderly and the disabled, remain trapped in encircled areas under nightmarish conditions. The devastation wrought on Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities is one of the shameful hallmarks of this senseless war.
The horror deepened this past weekend, as shocking images emerged of dead civilians, some with hands bound, lying in the streets of Bucha, the town near Kyiv formerly held by Russian forces. Many bodies were also found in a mass grave in the same locality.
Reports by non-governmental organizations and media also allege summary executions of civilians, rape and looting in the Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.
Madam President,
Away from the fighting, diplomatic efforts to end this war, including direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian representatives, have continued. We commend the Government of Turkey for hosting these discussions, as well as the efforts of many others engaging with Russia and Ukraine to help bring about peace.
We welcome the willingness of the sides to continue engaging to reach a mutual understanding. This requires good faith and earnest efforts. Any progress in the negotiations should be translated quickly into action on the ground.
While there has been a reported reduction of Russian troops and attacks around Kyiv and Chernihiv, such moves should not be merely tactical, repositioning forces for renewed attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns elsewhere. The General Assembly has twice called for Russian forces to withdraw entirely from Ukrainian territory and cease all military operations.
We also take note of the reported withdrawal of Russian forces from around the Chernobyl nuclear site. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that this development will hopefully allow it to conduct an assistance and support mission to provide technical advice and to deliver equipment, where necessary, as soon as possible.
All nuclear sites in Ukraine must be fully protected and secured. Military operations in or around these locations must be avoided.
Madam President,
The numbers tell a tragic, if yet incomplete, story. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 1,480 civilians have been killed and at least 2,195 injured between 24 February and 4 April 2022. OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher.
We are gravely concerned by the persistent use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area in or near populated areas. Such weapons are causing most civilian casualties as well as massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings, hospitals, schools, water stations and electricity systems.
OHCHR has received credible allegations that Russian forces have used cluster munitions in populated areas at least 24 times. Allegations that Ukrainian forces have used such weapons are also being investigated.
As noted by the High Commissioner, indiscriminate attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes. The massive destruction of civilian objects and the high number of civilian casualties strongly indicate that the fundamental principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution have not been sufficiently adhered to.
In besieged cities, a significant increase in mortality rates among civilians can also be attributed to the disruption of medical care and basic services. People with disabilities and the elderly are particularly vulnerable. As of 4 April 2022, the World Health Organization has reported a total of 85 attacks on health care facilities resulting in at least 72 fatalities and 43 injuries.
Madam President,
We are seriously concerned about reports of cases of arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances of persons who have been vocal against the Russian invasion.
As of 30 March, OHCHR has documented the arbitrary detention and possible enforced disappearance of 22 journalists and civil society members in Kyiv, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions. 24 local officials have also been detained in regions under Russian control, 13 of whom have been subsequently released.
We call for the immediate release of all individuals who have been arbitrarily detained, including journalists, local officials, civil society activists and others.
Also as of 30 March, OHCHR has recorded seven journalists and media workers killed since hostilities began. Another 15 have come under armed attack, nine of whom were injured.
Allegations of conflict-related sexual violence perpetrated by Russian forces have also emerged. These include gang rape and rapes in front of children.
There are also claims of sexual violence by Ukrainian forces and civil defense militias. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine continues to seek to verify all these allegations.
We are also concerned about disturbing videos depicting abuse of prisoners of war on both sides. All prisoners of war must be treated with dignity and full respect for their rights in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Madam President,
The many credible allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, from areas recently retaken from Russian forces, must not go unanswered.
We support efforts to examine these allegations and to gather evidence. Ensuring accountability and justice for acts committed during the war will not be easy, but it is essential.
Madam President,
We are heartened by the generosity of neighboring countries who have accepted millions of refugees and the solidarity of Ukrainian people, who are hosting their displaced compatriots.
With more than 10 million people displaced either within Ukraine or abroad as refugees—or roughly one-quarter of the population -- the United Nations is gravely concerned about the heightened risk of human trafficking.
Indeed, suspected and verified cases of human trafficking are surfacing in the surrounding countries, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Madam President,
This war is devastating Ukraine now, but it also threatens its future. Early assessment projections by UNDP suggest that if the war continues through 2022, Ukraine faces the prospect of seeing 18 years of socio-economic progress lost.
This would set the country – and the region – back decades and leave deep long-term social and economic fissures.
UN agencies, including UNDP, are working to help preserve Ukraine’s hard-won development gains. This involves supporting the Government to sustain essential governance structures and basic services, including emergency measures to sustain livelihoods, such as cash-based assistance.
Madam President,
The war in Ukraine has damaged Europe’s security architecture. Its economic repercussions are already evident far from the battlefield. The longer the war continues, the greater the risk that it will further weaken the global institutions and mechanisms dedicated to preserve peace and security.
The war was started by choice. There is no inevitability to it or to the suffering it is causing. The United Nations is ready to do everything within its means to help bring an end to it.
Thank you, Madam President.
UN chief António Guterres on Tuesday added his voice to the growing international calls for a war crimes investigation into the killing of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
An astonishing 99 per cent of the world’s population breathes polluted air that exceeds internationally approved limits, with negative health impacts kicking in at much lower levels than previously thought, UN medical scientists said on Monday.
Senior UN officials have echoed the Secretary-General’s call for an independent investigation into the killing of scores of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, following the emergence this past weekend of graphic images from the suburb of the capital, Kyiv.
Although more than 160 States have signed a landmark convention on banning landmines, more action is still needed to protect people from these “abhorrent weapons", UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said.
Many of the millions of refugees forced to leave Ukraine because of the Russian invasion are traumatized and need mental health support. In one Polish transit site, volunteers like Aurang Zeb Khan, have been trained by the UN migration agency (IOM) to administer psychological first aid.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the killing of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, a suburb of the capital, Kyiv.
New York, 4 April 2022
The International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action reminds us how far we have come in clearing the world of explosive remnants of war – and how far we still have to go.
Exactly thirty years ago, civil society activists came together to launch the...
New York, 4 April 2022
The jury has reached a verdict.
And it is damning.
This report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a litany of broken climate promises.
It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that...
Commitment will be critical to the success of the two-month truce in Yemen that began on Saturday, the UN Special Envoy for the country, Hans Grundberg, has said.
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A two-month truce in Yemen which goes into effect on Saturday must be a first step in ending the county’s devastating war, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on the eve of the ceasefire.
New York, 2 April 2022
The United Nations supports the rights of persons with autism to fully participate in society, in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In its pledge to leave no one behind, the 2030 Agenda represents a commitment to reducing inequality through social, economic and political...
Recent violent clashes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have forced thousands to escape to neighbouring Uganda, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Friday.
Highlighting it as a period of compassion and empathy, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday that the holy month of Ramadan is a “time for reflection and learning, an opportunity to come together and uplift each other”.
Efforts to help thousands of desperate residents flee the embattled Ukrainian city of Mariupol continued on Friday, as humanitarians warned that there is “no Plan B”, after weeks of constant shelling since the Russian invasion on 24 February.
Efforts to help thousands of desperate residents flee the embattled Ukrainian city of Mariupol continued on Friday, as humanitarians warned that there is “no Plan B”, after weeks of constant shelling since the Russian invasion on 24 February.
Read here the latest UNSOM Quarterly Newsletter.
Nataliia Vladimirova fled her home in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on the first day of the Russian invasion, on 24 February, with her four-year-old daughter Oleksandra and mother-in-law. They are amongst the thousands of Ukrainian refugees with temporary protection status in Portugal. She shares her heart-wrenching story of family separation and loss, with UN News.
UN humanitarian agencies and partners on the ground in Ukraine, were able to reach the town of Sumy, in the country’s northeast on Thursday, but access to the besieged and stricken city of Mariupol, where thousands of civilians are believed to have died amidst the brutal Russian bombardment, has yet to be given.
“Arboviruses” might not be something most of us are familiar with, but for almost four billion people, they’re a deadly threat – which is why the UN health agency on Thursday, launched a plan to prevent them from causing a new pandemic.
The peace process in Yemen has been “stalled for too long,” the top UN envoy for the country told a summit meeting on Wednesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, aiming to build on the Saudi-led coalition’s unilateral declaration of a ceasefire, ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.
A third of the world’s population has yet to receive a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, including a shocking 83 per cent of all Africans, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday.
New York, 31 March 2022
I send my warmest wishes as millions of Muslims around the world begin the holy month of Ramadan.
This is a period of compassion and empathy… a time for reflection and learning… an opportunity to come together and uplift each other.
As High Commissioner for Refugees, I began a practice that I proudly pursued as Secretary-General.
Every Ramadan, I had the honor of visiting Muslim countries, fasting in...
Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more than 4 million people have fled the country - two million of them, are children. As the UN agency mandated to coordinate and lead on global education, UNESCO is carefully mapping exactly how host countries are supporting and providing education, to help keep young Ukrainian refugees on track - their lives totally upended in a matter of weeks.
The UN chief has called for $100 million each year in assessed contributions from Member States, to fund the world body’s peacebuilding activities, describing such an investment as “a bargain” compared with the punitive costs of war.
Credible reports indicate that Russian armed forces have used cluster munitions in populated areas of Ukraine, at least two dozen times since they invaded on 24 February, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday.
Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday night condemned recent terrorist attacks in Israel that have claimed the lives of at least 11 Israeli citizens.
