Reports of Israeli troops storming one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza are deeply concerning, while ongoing hostilities are hampering polio vaccination in the area, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
Top UN officials in Lebanon expressed alarm on Friday over an Israeli strike that hit an apartment building in southern Lebanon, killing three journalists and wounding three others.
24 October, New York — Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed launched today in the Security Council, the Secretary-General’s Common Pledge on Women’s Participation in Peace Processes, a new initiative to strengthen the role of women in making and building peace worldwide.
Speaking during the Council’s annual debate on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), the Deputy Secretary-General said, “Progress [on women’s participation] remains dishearteningly slow.”
“Peace and security decision-making remains overwhelmingly dominated by men,” she added, despite evidence that more inclusive peace processes lead to more sustainable and lasting peace agreements.
While women’s participation in peace processes is one of the tenets of the WPS Agenda, established by Security Council resolution 1325 in 2000, women remain starkly under-represented in — and often excluded from — peace negotiations and conflict resolution efforts. According to UN Women data for 2023, women, on average, made up less than 10 per cent of peace negotiators and 13.5 per cent of mediators.
This year’s Council debate on WPS took place under Switzerland’s Presidency with a focus on women building peace in a changing environment. It followed the release of the latest Secretary-General report on Women, Peace and Security.
The 2024 report notes that “All mediation actors can make a substantial impact by advocating for and supporting women’s equal right to participation and elevating the women, peace and security agenda in their peacemaking efforts and thus raise the prospects of peace efforts to both succeed and hold.”
A Common Pledge for Mediation Actors
As the current mediation landscape includes a variety of actors beyond the UN, the Common Pledge asks all mediating entities leading or co-leading peace processes, from Member States to regional organizations and other mediation actors, to commit to concrete steps to ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of women.
In particular, by adopting the Common Pledge, informed by the work of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), mediating entities commit to appointing more women as lead mediators and ensuring women are an integral part of their mediation teams. They also agree to advocate with conflict parties for concrete targets and supporting measures to advance women’s direct and meaningful participation in peace processes, including as members of their negotiating delegations.
In addition, signatories to the Common Pledge undertake to consult a broad range of women leaders and women-led civil society in all stages of peace processes and to deploy gender experts in mediation teams to secure gender-responsive peace processes and agreements.
“By endorsing this Common Pledge Member States, regional organizations and other mediation actors commit to join the United Nations in taking concrete steps on women’s participation in all peace processes they are involved in,” said the Deputy Secretary-General, adding that “Together we can have an impact that is greater than the sum of our individual efforts.”
Member States, regional organizations and other mediation actors actively involved in mediation are invited to sign the Common Pledge. The next Security Council annual debate in October 2025 will provide an opportunity to take stock of progress made against the Common Pledge globally.
Ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Haiti, Sudan and Ukraine and beyond reveal that females are disproportionately affected – from gender-based violence to rape used as a tool of war – but the UN chief’s newly released report suggests eight ways for policymakers and interested parties to advance women’s role in peace and security.
An immediate ceasefire is needed in Gaza as the enclave faces the additional threat of polio spreading, if the final phase of a vaccination campaign continues to face delays in reaching the besieged north, where the “nightmare is intensifying”, top UN officials stressed on Thursday.
The BRICS intergovernmental organization can play a greater role in strengthening multilateralism for global development and security, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday, in remarks to the group’s summit hosted by Russia in the city of Kazan.
The UN Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon on Thursday urged the international community to push harder for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah warning that the country is on the brink of a humanitarian collapse.
The UN on Thursday launched the “Common Pledge” initiative, designed to bring together mediators, governments, and civil society to ensure the full, equal and meaningful engagement of women in peace processes.
Countries facing conflict, natural disasters and humanitarian crises are struggling to provide routine childhood immunisations leaving many children vulnerable to the resurgence of polio, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in new report.
The proportion of women killed in armed conflicts doubled last year compared to 2022, accounting for 40 per cent of all deaths in war, while UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence increased by 50 per cent.
A displacement crisis in unfolding in Lebanon, as Israel’s escalating military offensive in the south and the bombing of Beirut continues to drive both Lebanese civilians as well as third country refugees from their homes and shelters, UN agencies warned on Wednesday.
The United Nations marked 15 years of its mandate on sexual violence and conflict with a commemoration ceremony held in New York on Wednesday.
Countries facing conflict, natural disasters and humanitarian crises are struggling to provide routine childhood immunisations leaving many children vulnerable to the resurgence of polio, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in new report.
A strike in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip has led to death of at least one staff member of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, on Wednesday.
The conflict in Gaza and Lebanon is spilling over into Syria, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation, the UN Special Envoy for the country warned on Wednesday.
A deepening demographic crisis is roiling Ukraine, exacerbated by Russia’s full-scale invasion, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, said on Tuesday, underscoring an urgent need for comprehensive recovery strategies focused on human capital and socioeconomic reform.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday heard briefings from top officials on the Haiti crisis and although gangs continue spreading terror and fear there is a "glimmer of hope" that stability can return to the Caribbean island nation in the months ahead, said the UN Special Representative, following years of turmoil, extreme weather disasters and economic meltdown. UN News app users can follow our live coverage as it happened, here.
Madam President,
Since the last time we briefed this Council in September, Russia’s relentless, systematic attacks have continued to bring immense suffering to the people of Ukraine.
Civilian casualties and extensive damage to critical civilian infrastructure are reported daily, with Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Sumy regions of Ukraine bearing the brunt.
Attacks over the weekend and this morning resulted in several casualties in Zaporizhzhia and Kryviy Rih.
On 15 and 16 October, attacks in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions of Ukraine resulted in civilian casualties and damage to residential building and a school, according to local authorities.
The ongoing hostilities have also led authorities in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region to further expand mandatory evacuations to some 7,000 people.
While the worst impact of the war continues to be felt in the front-line communities of eastern and southern Ukraine, death and destruction is also a daily occurrence away from the areas of active fighting. This includes residential areas of the capital, Kyiv, which was again targeted with drones this morning and over the weekend. On 16 October, Kyiv was reportedly attacked by over 130 drones. Lviv in the west of Ukraine and Odesa in the south have also been repeatedly hit, with multiple civilian casualties.
We are also concerned about the impact of continuing fighting across the Russian-Ukrainian border, particularly in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, following Ukraine’s August incursion.
In September, at least 208 Ukrainian civilians were killed and 1,220 injured, making it the month with the highest number of civilian casualties this year in Ukraine.
According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, launched in violation of the UN Charter and international law, 11,973 civilians, including 622 children, have been killed. 25,943 people, including 1,686 children, have been injured.
We reiterate that all attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited under international law, wherever they occur. They are unacceptable and must end immediately.
Civilian vessels and port infrastructure are equally protected under international humanitarian law.
Distressingly, we have witnessed the resumption of Russian attacks on Ukrainian Black Sea ports in recent weeks.
Since 1 September, these attacks damaged six civilian vessels as well as grain infrastructure in the ports, according to local officials.
As a result, wheat prices have increased more than 6 percent between 1 September and 14 October.
Prices of risk insurance for Ukrainian exporters have surged, affecting the Ukrainian agricultural sector.
The safety and sustainability of agricultural exports passing through the Black Sea remain critical for global food security.
The UN therefore continues engagement with Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Türkiye, as well as other stakeholders, in support of freedom and safety of navigation in the Black Sea.
Madam President,
Systematic Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have become one of the defining, abhorrent hallmarks of this war.
The large-scale destruction and interruption of power and water supplies throughout the country will likely worsen the living conditions for millions of Ukrainians through the third winter of this war.
Vulnerable groups - including older persons, people with disabilities, and the internally displaced - are likely to be disproportionately affected. Many may soon find themselves trapped in their homes without heating and other essential utilities.
These conditions are expected to magnify the already dire humanitarian situation.
In the first eight months of 2024, some 7.2 million people have received humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.
However, we remain deeply concerned about the 1.5 million people who we have been unable to properly reach in parts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, currently occupied by the Russian Federation.
We renew our call for the safe, rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief to all civilians in need, in accordance with International Humanitarian Law.
We also renew our call for donors to increase and accelerate flexible funding for the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan. Only just over half of it has been funded.
Madam President,
Widespread and systematic reports of torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war remains a grave concern. Ninety-seven percent of Ukrainian prisoners interviewed by OHCHR since March 2023 provided consistent and detailed accounts of torture or ill-treatment during captivity. Sixty-eight percent reported sexual violence.
Half of the Russian prisoners of war interviewed by OHCHR reported experiencing torture or ill-treatment, primarily during the initial stage of internment.
We urge the authorities of the Russian Federation, as well as of Ukraine, to end this practice and hold perpetrators accountable.
On a positive note, we welcome the exchange last Friday of 95 prisoners of war on each side and encourage continued exchanges. We also welcome the exchange of hundreds of bodies on the same day.
In the territory of Ukraine occupied by the Russian Federation, arbitrary detention, torture and restriction of civic space add to an already oppressive climate of fear.
We call for accountability for all human rights violations, in line with international norms and standards.
Madam President,
As long as the war continues, the safety and security of Ukraine’s nuclear sites remain in jeopardy.
The situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is particularly precarious. Reported regular explosions, drone attacks, gunfire, and repeated interruptions of external power supply increase the risk of a nuclear accident.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has also been monitoring the impact of reported military activities in the vicinity of Russia’s Kursk Nuclear Power Plant.
Preventing a nuclear accident during the war is vital. Attacking a nuclear power plant is unimaginable and unacceptable.
We continue to appeal for maximum restraint by all involved.
Madam President,
The Security Council’s Open Debate on women, peace and security later this week will highlight the crucial contributions of women to peace and security. We urge the full and equal participation of Ukrainian women in all efforts towards a better future of their country.
Next month will mark 1,000 days of this devastating war. A war that continues to cause deep human suffering, threatens regional stability, and worsens global divisions.
The Pact for the Future commits all of us to work towards a future of hope, cooperation and peace.
This commitment to work for peace also requires more efforts for peace in Ukraine.
The United Nations stands ready to support all meaningful efforts towards a just, comprehensive, and sustainable peace in Ukraine, in line with the UN Charter, international law and resolutions of the General Assembly.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday condemned the “continued and widespread” loss of life across Gaza, including Israeli strikes on a residential block in Beit Lahiya on Saturday which killed dozens, according to the Gazan health ministry.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially certified Egypt as malaria-free. The achievement marks the culmination of a century-long effort to eradicate a disease that has plagued the nation since ancient times.
Speaking in the Ethiopian capital on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated his call for global institutional reform, highlighting the need for two permanent seats on the Security Council for Africa and stronger financial support to address the continent’s challenges.
The UN Security Council on Monday explored the dual-edged nature of rapid technological advancements – ranging from artificial intelligence to neurotechnology – highlighting both groundbreaking solutions and emerging risks to global peace and security.
Ongoing airstrikes across Lebanon “continue to kill and injure civilians and displace a growing number of families,” according to the latest update from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Russia’s relentless systematic attacks in Ukraine have continued to bring immense suffering to the people e and put global food security at risk, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Monday.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has said that an Israeli army bulldozer demolished an observation tower and the perimeter fence of a UN position earlier on Sunday in Marwahin, in the southern part of the country.
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A young Gazan footballer who says he feels like he is “dying every day,” is trying to keep his dream alive of one day playing the game professionally, despite living “under constant fire.’
The UN Security Council on Friday renewed for one year the sanctions regime on Haiti – including a targeted assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo measures – aimed at curbing the illicit flow of weapons to criminal gangs which have sown chaos across the Caribbean island nation.
The UN Secretary-General has said the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar should lead to a swift end to the year-long war in Gaza, the release of all hostages and unimpeded delivery of aid, his Deputy Spokesperson told reporters on Friday.
Despite ongoing heavy shelling every day across the UN-patrolled Blue Line separating southern Lebanon and Israel, the UN peacekeeping force that's stationed there reiterated its determination on Friday to fulfil its mandate from the Security Council and assist civilians wherever possible.
