Soon after becoming a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1988, she went on a mission to Ethiopia, where years of drought and civil strife had caused terrible famine. After visiting UNICEF emergency operations, she talked about the projects to media in the United States, Canada and Europe over several weeks, giving as many as 15 interviews…
Agreement in Brussels on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum reportedly followed three years of intense negotiations, and it should start taking effect in 2024. The deal will attempt to distribute migrants more evenly across the bloc, providing enhanced support and coordination for processing claims away from frontier states such as Italy and Greece,…
Roza Otunbayeva, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), also underscored the need for greater engagement with the de facto Taliban authorities who seized power in August 2021. She told the Council that the human rights situation in Afghanistan is characterized by systemic discrimination against women and girls, repression of political dissent…
WFP described the decision taken on safety grounds as a major setback to humanitarian efforts in the country’s breadbasket, where staff had been regularly providing aid to over 800,000 people, including many who had escaped the fighting in Khartoum. The ongoing fighting makes it extremely challenging for humanitarian agencies to safely deliver assistance, especially with…
Though its current evaluation of the global public health risk is “low”, the UN health agency cautioned that with the onset of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the new variant “could increase” the burden of respiratory infections in many countries, noting other diseases such as RSV, influenza and childhood pneumonia that are already on the…
The deaths of over 10,000 civilians have been verified by the UN human rights office (OHCHR) since the invasion began in February 2022, although the actual number of fatalities could be much higher. Over 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including more than 6.3 million who have sought refuge outside Ukraine….
“Access to sufficient amounts of clean water is a matter of life and death…children in Gaza have barely a drop to drink,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Children and their families are having to use water from unsafe sources that are highly salinated or polluted. Without safe water, many more children will die from deprivation…
135 UNRWA staff members are known to have been killed in Gaza since the escalation of fighting since the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel. That’s the most ever in one incident but, despite the danger and extremely difficult working conditions, UNRWA is continuing to assist those caught up in the fighting through no fault…
A lack of food, water, shelter and sanitation continues to put children’s lives at risk as they suffer under relentless airstrikes with no safe place to go, said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who recently returned from the enclave. Ahead of a UN Security Council meeting expected to call for a pause in fighting to facilitate…
11:18 AM China: Only a ceasefire will prevent further disaster China’s ambassador and Permanent Representative ZHANG Jun, said civilians in Gaza have no access to water, electricity, and other basics of survival, while aid trucks are waiting in line with supplies stockpiled in Egypt. Ambassador Zhang Jun of China addresses the Security Council meeting on…
