Established by Security Council resolution 1757 in 2007, the Special Tribunal’s jurisdiction also extended to other attacks that were judicially determined to be connected to the Beirut attack on 14 February 2005.
The assassination of Mr. Hariri involved explosives equivalent to 2,500 to 3,000 kilograms of dynamite, detonated as his motorcade travelled across downtown Beirut and left behind an 11-metre-wide crater.
Independent tribunal
Inaugurated in 2009, the independent tribunal was based in the outskirts of The Hague in the Netherlands and comprised Lebanese and international judges. It prosecuted suspects using Lebanese law, but was not part of Lebanon’s justice system nor was it a UN tribunal.
The Special Tribunal held proceedings in absentia and convicted Salim Jamil Ayyash in connection with the 2005 attack, sentencing him to five concurrent life sentences in 2020. In 2022, the tribunal reversed its initial acquittal of Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi, finding both guilty.
All three men remain at large.
2,641-page-long judgment
The trial record comprised the evidence of 297 witnesses and 3,135 exhibits, totalling more than 171,000 pages. To promote public access to the 2,641-page-long judgment, a summary was posted on the chamber’s website in Arabic, English and French.
The UN Secretary-General’s thoughts “continue to be with the victims and their families of the attack of 14 February 2005 and the connected attacks” that resulted from it, his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said in a statement on Saturday night.
“The Secretary-General expresses his deep appreciation for the dedication and hard work of the judges and staff at the Special Tribunal throughout the years and for the support provided by the Government of Lebanon, the Government of the Netherlands as the host State, and the Member State donors,” he said.
At least 18 civilians were killed and more than 100 injured in an attack on Belgorod, said Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General in the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (UN DPPA), briefing the Council on the latest developments.
Russia had called for the emergency meeting following reported attacks on Belogorod. Located about 40 km north of the Ukrainian border, Belgorod is home to more than 300,000 residents.
The emergency session was held less than 24 hours after the Council convened a meeting on Ukraine following large scale attacks by Russia against Ukrainian towns and cities.
‘We unequivocally condemn attacks’
“We unequivocally condemn all attacks on cities, town and villages, in Ukraine and in the Russian Federation,” Mr. Khiari said. “Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international humanitarian law, are unacceptable and must end now.”
He said that even as the Council meets today, reports of new air raid alerts were also coming in from across Ukraine, including in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Cherkasy, Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Indeed, just a few hours ago, the city of Kharkiv was reportedly attacked, resulting in civilians injured and civilian infrastructure damaged, he said.
Civilian deaths in Belgorod
Mr. Khiari said attacks on locations in the Belgorod city centre reportedly resulted in damage to civilian infrastructure, including the regional government office and the medical college of Belgorod State University.
“The strikes were reported as among the deadliest cross-border attacks on the Russian Federation since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, launched in violation of the UN Charter and international law,” he said.
At the same time, he said, the Russian military authorities reported separate overnight Ukrainian drone attacks in the Bryansk, Oryol, Kursk and Moscow regions of Russia.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities reported new overnight Russian drone attacks targeting the Kherson region, he said.
“As the war continues, we will see more Ukrainian and Russian civilians killed and injured,” he said. “Protection of civilians must be the main priority. The fighting and bloodshed must cease, the war must come to an end.”
United Nations
Vassily Nebenzia (centre), Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Russia, addresses the Security Council.
Russia: EU complicit in ‘terrorist attack’
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the city centre of Belgorod was struck with missiles and attacks using prohibited cluster munitions as well as Czech-produced Vampir missiles. Targets included a sports centre, ice skating rink and a university.
“This is a deliberate act of terrorism,” he said, requesting Czechia and other Western States to account for where their assistance is going.
“There’s no use pretending,” he said. “The European Union countries are complicit in the crimes committed by the gang in Kyiv.”
Council members: Civilians should not be a target
Council members roundly condemned attacks targeting civilians.
Schools should be safe havens for children, said UAE Deputy Ambassador Mohamed Issa Abushahab.
“Civilians must be protected, and civilian objects should not be targets for attacks,” he said.
French Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière echoed a point raised by several Council members, emphasizing that if Russian troops were not on Ukrainian soil, “we wouldn’t be here this afternoon”.
Calls for Russia to end war
The United Kingdom’s representative Thomas Patrick Phipps said that Russia is trying to draw equivalence to Friday’s Council meeting on Russian strikes against Ukrainian cities and towns.
However, Russia started this war and can end it, he said.
Many speakers agreed, calling on Russia to withdraw from Ukrainian territory and end hostilities.
The United States’ representative John Kelly said Russia alone is responsible for starting this war, in violation of the UN Charter.
“As long as Russia persists, the US will support Ukraine in its right to defend itself,” he said, calling on Moscow to immediately end the war and for the protection of all civilians on all sides in every conflict.
China’s representative Geng Shuang was deeply concerned about the long, drawn out crisis in Ukraine.
“There are no winners in conflict,” he said, reiterating China’s willingness to work towards a peaceful solution.
United Nations
Serhii Dvornyk, Counsellor and Political Coordinator at Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations, addresses the Security Council meeting on threats to international peace and security.
Ukraine: Still recovering from Russia’s ‘horrendous’ strikes
Ukraine’s representative Serhii Dvornyk said his country is “still recovering from Friday’s horrendous strikes”.
“Just hours ago, Russia again terrorized Kharkiv with S-300 missiles, hitting a residential building and a hotel,” he said. “Since this morning a number of cities and villages in Ukraine have come under Russian fire.”
They include Dnipro, Nikopol and Vyshetarasivka in Dnipropetrovsk region, Kharkiv, Vovchansk, Kupyansk and Velyka Shpakivka in Kharkiv region and Antonivka and Tomina Balka in Kherson region.
“The Security Council convened yesterday and is meeting again today, and you should be ready to meet tomorrow, the day after tomorrow – every day that the Russian war against Ukraine lasts,” he said. “Because as long as this war, unleashed by the Kremlin dictator, endures, the toll of death and suffering will continue to grow.”
Once “Russia’s bloody war” is over there will be no more human suffering, no more civilian casualties in Europe and no more reason for further Security Council meetings on this issue, he said.
Watch the meeting here, and visit UN Meetings Coverage for full summaries of this and other UN meetings, in English and French.
Since then, the ambitious goals have shaped national action plans, from building resilient cities and reducing inequalities to taking climate action and forging strong public and private sector partnerships.
This two-part series looks the progress made between 2015 and 2023 in key areas. The first part examines bridging the digital divide, education for all and decent work.
Amina J. Mohammed – Empowered UN country teams implementing 2030 Agenda
2015: Dawn of the digital divide
When the SDGs were adopted in 2015, the world was already in the midst of a fast-paced digital revolution, with 3.2 billion people using the internet and more than 7 billion mobile phone subscribers, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
At the same time, the first instances of a digital divide were already taking root. While 80 per cent of households in developed countries had internet access, only 34 per cent of households in developing countries were connected. Least developed countries lagged further behind, with only 7 per cent of households having online access.
For millions of people around the world, a life without digital connectivity is unthinkable, from accessing information to paying for services to getting medical help and studying online.
2023: Digital inequalities starker than ever
With a click of a button, millions of people of all ages around the world engage every single day with digital infrastructure. Yet, digital divides and inequalities are starker than ever. More than two thirds of the planet use the internet, and as of 2022, there were 8.63 billion mobile subscribers.
On a global scale, less women use the internet than men: 63 per cent of women, compared to 69 per cent of men. Meanwhile, new technologies, turbo-charged by risks posed by the increased and unchecked use of artificial intelligence (AI), can easily drive loss of data privacy and escalate risks of online harm, spreading online violence and hate speech along with mis/disinformation.
Today, globally, some 250 million children are out of school.
2015: Education, for some
When the SDGs were adopted in 2015, primary school enrolment in developing countries stood at 91 per cent. Still, 59 million children of primary school age remained out of school; about 33 million of these were girls.
Other disparities were striking. In conflict-affected countries, nearly 36 per cent of all children were out of school. About 757 million people globally could neither read nor write, of whom two-thirds were women.
The SDGs represented world leaders’ first attempt to also focus on quality education and learning across levels. With its transformative effect and impact across all other goals, education is a steppingstone for sustainable development and enduring hope for a better future, from the remote archipelagos of the Pacific to the forests of Latin America and islands of the Caribbean, the make-shift classrooms in war-torn Ukraine and refugee camps in northern Kenya.
United Nations
SDG 4
SDG 4: EDUCATION FOR ALL
Ensure all children complete free, equitable and quality education and have access to quality early childhood development
Increase number of young adults with employment skills for
Eliminate gender disparities and ensure equal access to all levels of education
Ensure all youth and most adults achieve literacy and numeracy
Build and upgrade education facilities to be child, disability and gender sensitive
Increase number of qualified teachers
Without additional measures, 84 million children will be out of school, 300 million students will lack basic numeracy and literacy skills, and only one in six countries will achieve the target of universal secondary school completion.
2023: Half-time report card
While strides have been made, the COVID-19 global pandemic outbreak saw education across the planet take a significant hit. Nearly 1.5 billion children and youth globally were affected by school closures.
Today, globally, some 250 million children are out of school. Of this, about 64 million children of primary school age now remain out of school. Nearly half of all refugee children globally also lack access to education. Globally, 763 million adults are illiterate.
By 2030, it is estimated that nearly 84 million children and young people will still be out of school.
The UN Secretary-General convened the 2022 Transforming Education Summit, which called for more urgent and escalated measures to deliver inclusive and quality education, particularly for girls, low-income students, students with disabilities or in the midst of crisis.
Access to quality education is a growing concern. Globally, nearly 617 million globally are failing to meet minimum proficiency standards in reading and mathematics.
2015: World of work
In 2015, 6.1 per cent of the global population of people of working age were unemployed. This number was higher for women, who were overrepresented in vulnerable and informal jobs and more likely to be unpaid caregivers. In most countries, women employed in full-time jobs earned between 70 and 90 per cent of what men earned.
A total of 1.5 billion people around the world were employed in vulnerable jobs without formal work arrangements, according to the World Employment Social Outlook by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
United Nations
SDG 8
SDG 8: ENSURE DECENT WORK FOR ALL
Take immediate measures to eradicate forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking
Protect labour rights, and promote safe, secure environments for all workers
Sustain per capita economic growth and at least seven per cent gross domestic product growth per annum in least developed countries
Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technology and innovation
Improve global resource efficiency in consumption and production
Decouple economic growth with environmental degradation
Global unemployment is expected to fall below pre-pandemic levels, although not in low-income countries
2023: Working out post-pandemic progress
Wage losses, job insecurity, and a rising cost of living crisis have been a common thread in the past few years, across the world, directly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The global unemployment rate has overall fallen slightly to 5.8 per cent, but it is still impacted by the pandemic. In 2021, ILO found that an estimated 125 million full-time jobs were lost as a result of the pandemic, which disproportionately affected women and young people.
Last year, more than 2 billion workers globally were employed in the informal sector without social protection coverage, according to the agency’s latest employment outlook report.
In 2021, the UN Secretary-General launched the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions, to expand social protection to the four billion people and to create at least 400 million decent jobs. From 2020 to 2022, the Joint SDG Fund’s Portfolio on Integrated Social Protection provided critical financing to sustain and expand social protection coverage in 39 countries around the world, with UN country teams supporting governments in reaching 147 million vulnerable people with access to new or extended social protection benefits.
“A traumatized and exhausted population” is being “crammed into a smaller and smaller sliver of land,” UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths warned on social platform X on Friday.
But serious obstacles persist to bringing more aid to those in need amid relentless Israeli bombardment and intense fighting on the ground.
UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA cited reports from Gaza’s health authorities that half of all the pregnant women seeking safety in shelters in the Strip suffer from thirst, malnutritionand a lack of health care, there is a lack of vaccinations for newborns and one in every two displaced children faces dehydration, malnutrition and disease.
Some 1.9 million Gazans, or 85 per cent of the enclave’s population, have been internally displaced since the start of Israel’s retaliation following Hamas’ deadly terror attacks in southern Israel on 7 October.
Dire overcrowding
According to OCHA, the latest wave of displacement was prompted by an intensification of hostilities in the southern town of Khan Younis and central Gaza’s Deir al Balah, as well as evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military.
Some 10 days ago Rafah was already estimated to be the most densely populated area in Gaza, exceeding 12,000 people per square kilometre, OCHA said, which is more than in New York City.
Aid access compromised
Despite a UN Security Council resolution adopted last week calling for a scale-up in aid deliveries to the enclave, access to people in need has remained overwhelmingly insufficient.
Only 76 trucks entered Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Thursday, “well below the daily average of 500 truckloads (including fuel and private sector goods) that entered every working day prior to 7 October”, OCHA noted.
“You think getting aid into Gaza is easy? Think again,” the UN’s Mr. Griffiths wrote on X on Friday. He listed the impediments faced by humanitarians working to help people in the Strip, including “three layers of inspections before trucks can even enter”, insufficient entry points, “constant bombardment” and damaged roads.
“This is an impossible situation for the people of Gaza and for those trying to help them. The fighting must stop,” he insisted.
Last week UN chief António Guterres said that “an effective aid operation in Gaza requires security; staff who can work in safety; logistical capacity; and the resumption of commercial activity”.
“These four elements do not exist,” he concluded.
‘Race against time’ to bring food
Despite the challenges, humanitarians have continued doing their utmost to assist desperate Gazans. On Thursday the UN World Food Programme (WFP) distributed food parcels for 10,000 displaced families in makeshift camps in Rafah.
OCHA reported that some 200 community leaders were identified to collect assistance on behalf of surrounding families in their communities, with each parcel covering a family’s food needs for 10 days.
“Incredible to see the collab[oration] between the team and communities as we race against time to deliver life-saving food in Gaza,” WFP representative in Palestine Samer AbdelJaber wrote on social platform X.
The distribution was set to continue on Friday after time and safety constraints meant that only 45 per cent of people targeted with assistance were reached on the first day.
Last week, humanitarians warned that more than one in four households in Gaza were enduring “catastrophic” hunger. The risk of famine occurring in the Strip within the next six months was confirmed by the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, which showed that the entire population of Gaza, some 2.2 million people, is living with “crisis or worse” levels of acute food insecurity.
Middle East – West Bank, Lebanon, Israel & other regions | Security Council | United Nations
Follow this page and @UN_News_Centre on X, formerly Twitter, for updates.
11:05 AM
José Javier De La Gasca, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ecuador, which holds the Presidency of the Security Council for December, called the meeting to order.
Israel has been invited to the meeting, as has the been the Observer State of Palestine.
Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs; Marwan Muasher, Vice President for studies at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan; and a representative from the Norwegian Refugee Council will brief the meeting.
10:35 AM
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a non-permanent member called for the emergency meeting, and a senior UN official from the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) is expected to brief ambassadors.
The meeting follows a resolution adopted last week by the Security Council calling for a scale-up in aid deliveries to civilians in the Gaza Strip. The resolution passed with 13 votes in favour, and the US and Russia abstaining.
Tensions in occupied West Bank
Earlier this month, Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process, voiced “deep concerns” over escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Briefing the Security Council on 19 December, he noted “intensified armed exchanges” between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, predominantly in the context of Israeli operations, which led to exceedingly high levels of fatalities and arrests.
Mr. Wennesland also expressed alarm at lethal attacks carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and by Palestinians against Israelis in the occupied West Bank and Israel.
“All perpetrators of violence must be held accountable and swiftly brought to justice,” he stressed.
Earlier today, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited reports from Gazan health authorities that half of all the pregnant women seeking safety in shelters suffer from thirst, malnutrition and a lack of healthcare. There is a lack of vaccinations for newborns and one in every two displaced children faces dehydration, malnutrition and disease.
Some 1.9 million Gazans, or 85 per cent of the enclave’s population, have been internally displaced since the start of Israel’s retaliation following Hamas’ deadly terror attacks in southern Israel on 7 October.
In the second of a two-part series, UN News looks at how far the world has come since 2015 in tackling climate change, creating clean energy and sustainable food production and protecting the planet.
Broken record: UNEP’s #EmissionsGap Report 2023
2015: Overconsumption, under-protection
In 2015, only a small fraction of the world was officially protected: 14 per cent of land and less than nine per cent of marine ecosystems. One third of global marine fish stocks were being harvested at unsustainable levels.
All country commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions combined put the world on a trajectory of a 3°C temperature rise by 2100, compared to pre-industrial levels.
That is double the 1.5°C global temperature rise that a series of UN reports, scientists and governments agreed would help to avoid the most destructive impacts of higher temperatures and maintain a liveable climate.
United Nations
SDG 12
SDG 12: SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
Achieve sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
Halve per capita global food waste at retail and consumer levels and encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices
Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable consumption and production patterns
Implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture
Phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption
Despite calls for a global phase-out, fossil fuel subsidies doubled between 2020 and 2021, in large part due to global crises.
2023: Stopping the war on nature
At the halfway mark to the 2030 deadline, global awareness of biodiversity protection has increased, but efforts to transform human interaction with nature and resource consumption still lag behind in terms of speed and scale.
Combined with skyrocketing levels of pollution, the degradation of the natural habitat and biodiversity loss are having serious impacts on communities around the world.
Many communities are building back better, from Pakistan’s launch of the biggest climate initiative in the country’s history to the UN Secretary-General’s new global Early Warnings for All initiative.
Increasing investments in solar, wind power, hydropower and biomass will be essential to reduce global reliance on coal and oil.
2015: Fossil fuel versus clean energy
When the SDGs were adopted in 2015, 87 per cent of the world had access to some form of electricity, but nearly 1.1 billion people did not, with most living in Africa and Asia.
Oil prices plunged to an all-time low and fossil fuels dominated the market with global investments amounting to nearly $1.3 billion. Coal alone accounted for nearly 40 per cent of global electricity generated.
But, just 60 per cent of the world’s population had access to clean cooking fuels; the numbers in sub-Saharan Africa were much lower.
Women, in particular, bore a heavier health burden as a result, were vulnerable to indoor air pollution and respiratory disease.
2023: Drive towards renewables
A drive towards clean energy is making some inroads. While 91 per cent of the world now has access to electricity, progress hasn’t been fast or inclusive enough. The number of people with access to electricity has increased to 675 million since 2015.
Global investment in clean energy has hit near record highs at $ 1.7 trillion, and renewables now account for more than 28 per cent of global electricity, growing by nearly 5 per cent since 2015.
Nevertheless, 2.3 billion people still continue to rely on coal, kerosene or solid biomass as their primary cooking fuel. A lack of clean cooking is contributing to nearly 3.7 million premature deaths annually, with women and children most at risk.
About 80 per cent of the world’s population without electricity continues to live in rural areas, predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Studies now show that meeting these clean energy goals will require the world to triple its annual investments between now and 2030. Nations are already walking the talk, from Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership to a fresh approach of the Nairobi Declaration, adopted in September at the African Climate Summit.
United Nations
SDG 7
SDG 7: CLEAN ENERGY FOR ALL
Increase share of renewable energy globally
Double global rate of improvement in energy efficiency
Expand infrastructure and upgrade technology for supplying modern, sustainable energy services
Enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology
In countries enduring protracted crises, hunger rates were more than three times higher than elsewhere. Poor nutrition contributed to impaired growth and development for 159 million children under age five.
A woman shops at an indoor market in Hissar, Tajikistan. (file)
2023: New approach to food security
The question of how food is produced, traded and consumed in a sustainable manner has come to the fore, with one third of all food produced globally ending up lost or wasted and more than three billion people unable to afford healthy diets.
The prevalence of hunger has dropped only marginally since 2015, to 9.2 per cent of the global population. Progress has been frustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in climate shocks and conflict, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has driven up the costs of food, fuel and fertilizers.
In 2022, approximately 735 million people faced hunger, which is still well above the pre-pandemic level, and 148 million children still faced stunting from poor nutrition; just over a two per cent decrease since 2015.
United Nations
SDG 2
SDG 2: END FOOD INSECURITY
End hunger and malnutrition, and ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food year-round for all
Double small-scale food producers’ agricultural productivity and income
Ensure sustainable food production systems, and implement agricultural practices that increase productivity/production and strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change and disasters
Correct and prevent trade restrictions in world agricultural markets
Globally, one in three people struggles with moderate to severe food insecurity.
To transform this trend, the UN Food Systems Summit in Rome in 2021 and a subsequent stocktaking moment in 2023 have provided a platform for countries to share their experience. That led to the launch in July of the UN Secretary-General’s Call to Action for accelerated food systems transformation.
Following the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, marked annually on 27 December, we took a look at how two renowned actors helped the UN health agency in 1959.
A singing legend, Mr. Sinatra lent his golden voice to WHO for a UN Radio story, telling the tale of two victims of polio in Indonesia, and Hollywood great Mr. Robinson went in search of the “murderess” malaria in northern Lebanon and beyond.
A health worker in Kenya holds vials of malaria vaccine to be administered at a vaccination campaign.
Listen to UN Radio shows featuring Mr. Sinatra here and by Mr. Robinson here, part of our #ThrowbackThursday series showcasing epic moments across the UN’s past, cultivated from the UN Audiovisual Library’s 49,400 hours of video and 18,000 hours of audio recordings.
Catch up on our series here, and watch UN Video’s Stories from the UN Archive playlist here. Join us next Thursday for another dive into history.
UNICEF/Bagla
A worker sprays insecticide on the surfaces of a shelter to control the spread of mosquitoes and mitigate the risk of malaria.
Locations in the north and south of the enclave were hit as Israeli ground forces also reportedly pushed into central areas, along with the firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel, prompting concerns from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, about the safety of civilians uprooted time and again.
Rafah governorate in the southern Gaza Strip is now “bursting at the seams”, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza Tom White said on X – formerly Twitter – late on Tuesday, his video post showing a long line of cars crawling forwards tail to bumper, laden with mattresses strapped down and other belongings.
Roads smashed
In its latest update on the crisis, UN aid coordination office OCHA said that Israeli forces had reportedly carried out “heavy” bombardment from air, land and sea “across most of the Gaza Strip, specifically the Middle Area” from 23 to 26 December.
This included “more than 50 strikes” from 24 to 25 December on three refugee camps – Al Bureij, An Nuseirat and Al Maghazi – that reportedly killed dozens and hindered the work of aid teams confronted by destroyed roads connecting the camps.
It has been more than 80 days since Israeli Defense Forces’ bombardment of the Strip began, in response to Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel, in which roughly 1,200 people were massacred and approximately 240 others were taken hostage.
The enclave’s health authority has reported that at least 20,915 Palestinians have been killed there since 7 October – including 858 people between last Saturday and Tuesday. “About 70 per cent of those killed are said to be women and children…Many people are missing, presumably buried under the rubble, with many still waiting for rescue or recovery.”
OCHA also reported that 164 Israeli soldiers have died with another 874 injured during ground operations in Gaza.
Renewed health fears
The development followed a new evacuation order issued by the Israeli Defense Forces impacting people living in Gaza’s middle area. At the same time, UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma issued a fresh warning about the dire situation impacting people sheltering in tented camps in the south.
“You have 400 people sharing one toilet,” Ms. Touma said, echoing repeated concerns about disease spread linked to the lack of basic necessities including water, sanitation and food.
UN humanitarians have already described how hungry Gazans have stopped aid trucks en route to their destination to offload food, amid repeated warnings that it is becoming impossible to meet the needs of all those in the south, where population density is estimated at 12,000 people per square kilometre (about 7.5 miles).
The COVID-19 pandemic affected hundreds of millions of lives, caused millions of deaths and inflicted devastating impacts on humanity.
After three years of unprecedented global efforts, on 5 May the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency, stressing however, that it does not mean the disease is no longer a global threat.
“Economic damage inflicted by the pandemic endures. Many healthcare systems are struggling. Millions of children are threatened by disease after missing out on routine childhood vaccinations,” said Mr. Guterres.
Lessons to learn
The UN chief noted that three years after the first COVID-19 vaccines were developed, billions of people remain unprotected – overwhelmingly in developing countries.
“When the next pandemic arrives, we must do better. But we’re not yet ready. We must prepare and act on the lessons of COVID-19,” he urged.
“We must renounce the moral and medical disaster of rich countries hoarding and controlling pandemic healthcare supplies, and ensure everyone has access to diagnostics, treatments and vaccines,” he stressed, adding that WHO’s authority and financing must also be strengthened.
Joint efforts
He said the way forward lies through global cooperation. The world must improve surveillance of viruses, strengthen health systems, and make the promise of Universal Health Coverage a reality.
The Secretary-General said these efforts are making progress. He recalled that the High-level meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, held in September, concluded with a robust political declaration which complements negotiations underway towards a pandemic accord.
This first-ever global agreement aims to enhance collaboration, cooperation, and equity in responding to pandemics of the future, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in his end-of-year message published on Tuesday.
The pandemic accord will help to create a safer and healthier world with a universal system of response to disease eruptions, he added.
Mr. Guterres urged countries to build on this momentum by delivering a strong, comprehensive accord, focused on equity.
“Together, let’s act on the lessons of COVID-19, prepare, and build a fairer, healthier world for all,” he said.
Four people, including two girls under the age of 10, were killed in the incident, which occured in the Croix de Bouquet district.
Four other family members were kidnapped.
‘Unprecedented’ escalation in crime
Similar attacks occurred in the same neighbourhood a week ago, said Bruno Maes, UNICEF Representative in Haiti, in a statement issued on Tuesday.
“Regrettably, such killings are not isolated,” he added. “From July to September 2023 alone, Haiti has witnessed 88 grave violations of children’s rights, with 37 of these resulting in the tragic loss of lives or injuries during armed conflicts.”
Rampant gang violence, mainly affecting the capital city, continues to plague the Caribbean country, where nearly half the population, roughly five million people, needs humanitarian support.
Mr. Maes said major crimes, including homicides and kidnappings, are escalating at an unprecedented rate, particularly in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince and the Artibonite department.
Between July and September, the Haitian National Police recorded a staggering 1,239 homicides, compared to 577 in the same period in 2022. Abductions also surged to 701 victims, representing a shocking 244 per cent increase.
Furthermore, in areas controlled by armed groups, places such as schools, health facilities and protection services have also come under attack.
Protect civilians, respect humanitarian law
UNICEF and partners have repeatedly called for the protection of civilians, in particular children and women, and for the respect of international humanitarian law.
“Killing children is a grave violation of human rights,” said Mr. Maes.
He added that the repeated attacks, and access restrictions caused by the violence and insecurity, are hampering the ability to reach people in need.
He underlined UNICEF’s commitment “to take all measures to ensure the safety of children and their families and to reduce the suffering of the victims.”
World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Medical Teams coordinator Sean Casey said that “100-plus patients” had been brought into Al-Aqsa Hospital on Monday in the space of 30 minutes, following reported blasts, including near Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
All of them needed urgent treatment for serious wounds, the WHO official told UN News, while “about 100” more lifeless bodies were brought into the hospital at around the same time.
Trapped under the rubble
The UN human rights office, OHCHR, also expressed deep concern on Tuesday at the ongoing “intense” bombing of central Gaza involving more than 50 strikes by the Israeli Defense Forces.
Attacks have killed more than 100 Palestinians since 24 December, OHCHR reported, adding that this was particularly concerning given that Israeli forces had “ordered residents from the south of Wadi Gaza to move to Middle Gaza and Tal al-Sultan in Rafah”.
Three refugee camps were hit, OHCHR spokesperson Seif Magango said in a statement, naming Al Bureij, Al-Nuseirat and Al-Maghazi. “Two strikes hit seven residential buildings in Al-Maghazi camp, killing an estimated 86 Palestinians and injuring many more,” he said. “An unknown number of people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble.”
Tedros ire
In a social media post on X (formerly Twitter), WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned the “carnage” caused by Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for Hamas’s 7 October terror attacks on communities in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were slaughtered and another 240 taken hostage.
“WHO is extremely concerned about the unbearable strain that escalating hostilities are putting on the few hospitals across Gaza that remain open – with most of the health system decimated and brought to its knees,” the WHO chief said on Monday.
In a social media post, WHO’s Mr. Casey described the situation in Al-Aqsa Hospital as a “bloodbath”. He pointed to a boy of nine, Ahmed, who lay dying on the floor of the facility after sustaining terrible blast injuries as he crossed the street near Nuseirat.
‘It’s a bloodbath’
“We’ve seen children, women, young men, old men and women, people bleeding out,” he said, noting that patients could not easily be referred elsewhere for lifesaving treatment. “There’s blood everywhere in these hospitals at the moment. We’re seeing almost only trauma cases come through the door, and at a scale that’s quite difficult to believe. It’s a bloodbath as we said before, it’s carnage.”
The development follows a joint WHO and UN aid coordination office (OCHA) Christmas Day visit to Al-Aqsa Hospital to assess needs after strikes in Gaza’s central area at the weekend.
Although Al-Aqsa Hospital has medical supplies and fuel to run generators, Mr. Casey confirmed that the facility was taking in far more patients than its bed capacity and staff could handle, meaning that many injured patients would not survive the wait for treatment.
This situation was happening up and down the Gaza Strip, the WHO official continued, speaking from the UN Joint Humanitarian Operations Centre in Rafah in the south, that also doubles as a medical facility.
Fighting all night long
“There’s nowhere actually safe in Gaza,” he continued. “Right now in Rafah outside the door of this building, 50 metres from where I am sitting right now, there’s a camp of thousands of people who have been settled here…They’re in plastic shelters, plastic sheeting shelters right outside the door. And last night, we heard fighting almost all night long with reports coming in during the day today of many, many injuries presenting to the hospitals here in the south.”
Hospital capacity in Gaza is about 20 per cent of what it was before the 7 October escalation but “almost all” hospital services have stopped functioning, the WHO officer explained. “Either because the facilities themselves have been affected, because the staff have been forced to flee, because they’ve run out of power or they’ve run out of medical supplies, or staff have not been able to access them.”
Waiting to die
Providing an update about gravely ill patients in northern Gaza who he said previously were “waiting to die” in a church in the grounds of one hospital, Mr. Casey said that many were still “sleeping on pews” on Monday. The level of destruction “is so incredible, is so significant the roads are full of rubble”, he continued, highlighting the logistical difficulties of reaching the most vulnerable.
“We still need to do more to try to move these patients, but the options are becoming more and more limited as health facilities become less accessible, as health workers themselves are displaced,” he said.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, around 20,000 people are believed to have been killed in the latest escalation to date.
And in a related development, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the number of Palestinian properties demolished and related displacement in the nearby occupied West Bank have reached record levels.
Latest data from OCHA indicates that 1,094 structures have been razed so far this year with 2,127 people uprooted, a record high matched only in 2016, when more than 1,500 people were displaced.
The development follows a series of meetings with the sides held in Riyadh and Muscat, his office said in a statement on Saturday.
Special Envoy Hans Grundberg welcomed their commitment to a set of measures to implement a nation-wide ceasefire, improve living conditions, and engage in preparations for the resumption of an inclusive political process under UN auspices.
“Thirty million Yemenis are watching and waiting for this new opportunity to provide for tangible results and progress towards lasting peace,” he said.
“The parties have taken a significant step. Their commitments are, first and foremost, an obligation to the Yemeni people to progress towards a future that meets the legitimate aspirations of all Yemenis,” he added.
Roadmap and restraint
Mr. Grundberg will now engage with the parties to establish a roadmap under UN auspices that includes these commitments and supports their implementation.
The UN roadmap will include, among other elements, the parties’ commitment to implement a nationwide ceasefire, pay all public sector salaries, resume oil exports, open roads in Taiz and other parts of Yemen, and further ease restrictions on Sana’a Airport and the Hudaydah port, according to the statement.
The roadmap will also establish implementation mechanisms and prepare for a Yemeni-owned political process under UN auspices.
Mr. Grundberg expressed deep appreciation for the key roles played by Saudi Arabia and Oman in supporting the parties to reach this point.
He urged all sides to exercise maximum restraint at this critical time to allow for a conducive environment for dialogue and the successful conclusion of agreement on the roadmap.
“The parties have taken a significant step. Their commitments are, first and foremost, an obligation to the Yemeni people to progress towards a future that meets the legitimate aspirations of all Yemenis,” he said, adding that “we are ready to accompany them on every step of the way.”
Sitting in a small, windowless room in a government building in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed loops another audio tape onto the dilapidated machine and presses a few buttons.
He’s beginning a time-intensive process to digitize some seven decades of unique historical recordings belonging to the government-run Radio Mogadishu.
One down, a couple of hundred thousand to go
After a few clicks, the antiquated device starts to whir, and its wheels spin. One tape down and another couple of hundred thousand or so to go. In the adjoining room, there are shelves more than three metres high which teeter under a layer of dust and thousands of audio reels.
Given the decrepit equipment and limited staffing at hand, the project Mr. Mohamed and other colleagues are embarking on will take many decades to complete.
“I arrive here at 8am and work until 4pm, digitizing around 30 to 40 audio tracks per day with very limited equipment,” he said.
UN Photo/Mukhtar Nuur
Much of Radio Mogadishu’s analogue archive is in a poor state.
First broadcaster
At stake are the only remaining audio recordings of much of Somalia’s history, with thousands of reels of music, poetry, religious texts, political speeches and drama shows going all the way back to the station’s creation in 1951. Much of it is in a poor state.
“I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in improving the history of my country,” he said, adding that he is conscious of the task’s importance.
Radio Mogadishu was established during the period when Somalia was held under the trusteeship of the United Nations and administered by its former colonial power, Italy.
It began broadcasting news in Italian, and Somali programming followed soon afterwards.
In the 1960s, Radio Mogadishu was modernized with assistance from the Soviet Union, and began broadcasting in Amharic, Oromo, Somali and Italian.
War breaks out
The station closed soon after the start of Somalia’s civil war in 1991, and its premises fell into the hands of warring factions. Two years later, the archives sustained some damage during clashes between one of the factions and international peacekeepers deployed in the city at the time.
The violence that engulfed the country led to the destruction of much of Somalia’s cultural heritage. Museums were stripped of their collections, with items destroyed or sold on the black market, and the material in Radio Mogadishu’s vaults was targeted.
The majority of the magnetic, reel-to-reel tape recordings in the Radio Mogadishu archives – made up of Somali-language tapes, records and limited manuscripts – survived the war, although most of its foreign language collection was not so fortunate.
UN Photo/Mukhtar Nuur
Digitizing analog recordings is painstaking and time-consuming work.
Digital hopes
The introduction of digital technology has breathed new life into Radio Mogadishu, but its analogue archives have been rapidly deteriorating.
The fragile reel-to-reel tapes made from acetate, polyester or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are at risk of distortion and degradation, according to Daud Aweis, Somalia’s federal Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism.
“This is the only archive for this nation after the civil war,” he said. “As time passes, if we do not preserve it, it will only be seen in pictures.”
Radio Mogadishu’s director, Abdifatah Dahir Jeyte, echoed those concerns.
“Urgent action is imperative to safeguard the history, language, culture and literature of the Somali nation stored within these archives, considering the vastness of Radio Mogadishu’s archives, which contain around 225,000 tapes and vinyl records, the digital conversion is currently incomplete, covering less than 30 per cent of the total content,” he said.
Initial attempts at digitization began in 2013, with the support of the French government, African Union, United Nations and Somalia’s information ministry. Staff worked to preserve the collection and make the music, speeches, plays and prayers available to a generation who had never known how vibrant Somalia was prior to the war.
But, the attempt foundered, with less than a third of the items digitized.
UN Photo/Mukhtar Nuur
Radio Mogadishu is now broadcasting using digital technology.
UN mission to preserve cultural treasure
Working with the Government’s information ministry, the UN in Somalia has been exploring options for a solution to the urgent digitization needs of Radio Mogadishu’s archives.
“The open-reel tape collection of Radio Mogadishu is a cultural treasure that all Somalis would benefit from,” said Kirsten Young, Chief of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia’s (UNSOM) Human Rights and Protection Group.
“Radio continues to play an important role in access to information in Somalia,” she said, “and having access to these rich archives would bring recent history into the homes of many Somalis.”
In actions taken late evening on Friday, the 193-member General Assembly also adopted nearly $50 million in additional funding for decisions taken by the Human Rights Council, UN’s primary forum on human rights matters.
It also decided to establish the Peacebuilding Account, a dedicated multi-year special account, as a modality to finance the Peacebuilding Fund. Additionally, it approved $50 million of assessed contributions per annum to fund the Account, starting 1 January 2025.
The Peacebuilding Fund is the UN’s leading instrument to invest in prevention and peacebuilding efforts and supports joint responses to address critical peacebuilding opportunities, connecting development, humanitarian, human rights and peacebuilding pillars.
Secretary-General’s proposal
Back in October, the Secretary-General had presented a $3.3 billion budget proposal to the General Assembly, stressing to delegates at the Assembly’s main budget committee that “the role of the United Nations has never been more vital.”
In his presentation, the UN chief also voiced concern over the deteriorating liquidity situation of the Organization, urging countries to ensure timely and full payments.
Strengthening communications
The Assembly further adopted a resolution that includes provisions to expand the coverage of UN official intergovernmental meetings in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish languages.
The 20 positions, classified as general temporary assistance (GTA), includes editors, press officers and assistants working in the four languages.
As of Saturday, 142 UNRWA staff members have been killed and 123 installations damaged. Other UN agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have also lost their personnel.
On Friday, Issam Al Mughrabi, a UNDP staff member alongside his wife, children and members of his extended family, were killed in an Israeli air strike.
In an interview with UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming on the sidelines of SDG Summit 2023 held at UN Headquarters in New York in September, Ms. Portman discussed combatting violence against women and reframing masculinity to be less aggressive and more empathetic towards gender issues.
Melissa Fleming: The UN 2023 Gender Snapshot report painted a worrisome picture on how far away we are from reaching gender equality. What can we do to shift these trends?
Natalie Portman: Investing in women and girls’ education, safety and economic and social empowerment. More investment will accelerate the drive toward parity.
Melissa Fleming: Why is there under-investment in girls?
Natalie Portman: There is a deeply ingrained bias against women and girls that we really need to combat and obviously, education is a big part of that. The Spotlight Initiative that the UN launched [in partnership with the European Union and others] in 2017 is addressing a lot of the ingrained cultural biases that lead to the inequalities and injustices that we see.
It really is such a core part of women’s freedom to be free from the threat of violence. And until women and girls can feel safe walking down the street, going to school and going to work, nothing else can be achieved to the extent that we dream of.
Spotlight’s work has been really extraordinary at reaching many different countries to change laws, implement educational tools and change culture such that masculinity is reframed as empathy rather than aggression.
UNFPA/Olivier Girard
Young girls in the village of Danja in Niger hold signs in support of the Spotlight Initiative.
Melissa Fleming: We now have an online environment that has made a dangerous and threatening space for so many girls growing up in the social media age. Is that something you are concerned about?
Natalie Portman: Absolutely. The threat and danger that women and girls are subjected to in real life is just as bad, if not worse, online. I mean, it’s all different varieties of trying to silence us.
The more we can support and celebrate women and girls’ voices, the more we’re combating this horrible abuse of power.
Melissa Fleming: You were very much behind the Time’s Up movement supporting victims of sexual harassment. Why is it so important for women in Hollywood to raise their voices? Does this set an example for women in other industries?
Natalie Portman: Time’s Up was incredible because we gathered with women in other industries as well. We gathered with female farm workers, healthcare workers, journalists and women in tech and we noticed we were all facing the same sorts of challenges. Obviously in different locations or different flavours, but really the same threat.
The head of the Farm Workers Union, Monica Ramirez, said to me, “They tell us to shut up because we’re in the shadows and nobody cares about us and they tell you actresses to shut up because nobody cares.”
But, the common thread is that they’re trying to silence all our voices. That was really the power of Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement. It was breaking out of that silence and it was empowering women. We need to make their voices heard and not feel shame around these experiences. We must recognize that these were extreme injustices and that perpetrators needed to be held to account.
I think that people are very aware now and there isn’t a sense that you can just abuse as you wish without facing any consequences. People are a lot more open about it now.
We still have a far way to go, of course, but I think the #MeToo movement really cracked open a door that is not going to be shut anymore.
UNDP India
UNDP’s entrepreneurship development training programme is changing the lives of women in India.
Melissa Fleming: Is there a difference for women and girls that live in developing countries?
Natalie Portman: I think women and girls around the world can relate to each other in regard to living under the threat of violence. That, unfortunately, is everywhere.
Of course, there are different manifestations of violence toward women and girls in different places. Some girls are threatened with violence for going to school which, in the United States, we do not experience. But, in the United States, the number one cause of death for pregnant women is being murdered by their intimate partner. In Iran, we’re seeing women who are being murdered for exposing their hair.
So really the threat of women and girls being threatened and murdered exists everywhere.
Melissa Fleming: You mentioned the masculinity issue and educating men that masculinity is actually empathy. How does one do that?
Natalie Portman:I think that culture can play a big role in shaping that. I think when we see different models of masculinity on screen or in literature, we open up more possibilities for men.
I think that film and television can absolutely help shape new forms of masculinity that are much more reflective of what we know to be the human soul and not just this very narrow kind of aggressive, macho-type that we see so deeply ingrained in our culture.
And then of course education as well, showing the effects of toxic masculinity.
It opens up boys and men’s worlds too, to have more options of how you can be and not this very narrow, prescriptive definition of masculinity.
Melissa Fleming: You are a part owner of the Angel City Football Club in Los Angeles that made their debut at the Women’s Soccer League last year. Can you tell us a bit more about why you got involved?
Natalie Portman: It was very much about seeing both women and men in different ways than we traditionally have seen them. When I saw my son watching the Women’s World Cup four years ago, I realized that he looked up to the women athletes the same way he looked up to the male athletes. I realized, “Why don’t we have this on at home?”
What a different world it would be if all boys and girls could see women athletes given the value that they deserve, like the men are, so we started this women’s football club. We started playing two years ago and it’s just been an incredible thing to be a part of, to see the virtuosic athletes celebrated on a big stage.
“Starvation must never be a means or result of warfare,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Türk said, responding to an alarming food security report released on Thursday that confirmed repeated warnings of catastrophic hunger levels in the besieged enclave amid ongoing fighting.
In a tweet, Mr. Türk urged Israel to act immediately to ensure that all those not involved in the clashes between Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas fighters “to facilitate humanitarian food deliveries commensurate with needs”.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report explained that famine could happen within the next six months if the current situation of intense conflict and restricted aid access persists.
The entire population of Gaza – roughly 2.2 million people – is already living with crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity.
The IPC report stressed that although the threshold of famine has not been crossed, humanitarians are particularly concerned about malnutrition among children, pregnant and breastfeeding women and the elderly.
Ordeal for teenage girls
Highlighting the extent of the humanitarian crisis throughout the enclave, the UN agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, has warned that more than 690,000 women and teenage girls barely have any access to menstrual hygiene products.
“UNRWA distributes sanitary napkins, but like everything else we distribute, it is a drop in the bucket compared to the needs of those in Gaza,” said spokesperson Tamara Alrifai in a tweet.
Meanwhile, UN aid coordination office OCHA reported heavy Israeli bombardments on Thursday from air, land, and sea across most of the Gaza Strip, along with Hamas rocket fire into Israel.
“Intense ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups continued, in most areas of Gaza, with the exception of Rafah. The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel continued,” according to the OCHA situation report.
The discussions at the international anti-corruption conference, convened in Atlanta by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), held between 11 and 15 December, built on the ground-breaking Global Report on Corruption in Sport, produced by the UNODC in 2021, which pointed to a dramatic increase in illegal betting, fuelled by the billions of dollars flowing through professional sports, as well as globalization, and technological advances.
UNODC, which is at the forefront of international efforts to support governments and sports organizations in preventing and punishing offences in sport through its Programme to Protect Sport from Corruption and Economic Crime, estimates that up to $1.7 trillion is wagered on illicit betting markets controlled by organized crime.
Speaking at a session on sport and corruption at the conference, James Porteous, Research Head of the Asian Racing Federation Council on Anti-Illegal Betting and Related Financial Crime, said that illegal betting is now the “number one factor fuelling corruption in sports,” and pointed out that many of the regulations were drafted in the 19th century and are not fit for the internet world.
UNODC
Representatives of crime fighting organizations present at the event underscored the scale of the corruption problem.
Humaid Al Ameemi, Coordinator of the Anti-Corruption Unit of INTERPOL (the International Criminal Police Organization, an intergovernmental body), explained that manipulation of sporting competitions, colloquially known as match fixing, is a highly organized crime involving money laundering and other illegal activities, and called for improved data sharing.
Mr Al Ameemi described the manipulation of competitions as a “gateway to crime”: Joseph Gillespie, Chief of the Transnational Organized Crime Threats Unit at the FBI (the USA’s Federal Bureau of Investigation), expanded on the theme, emphasizing that the Bureau has a keen interest in addressing corruption in sport, as it provides organized crime with opportunities to make profit through extortion, illegal betting, and other unlawful activities.
INTERPOL, UNODC and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have collaborated on a guide for policymakers, to help them to address, and effectively investigate competition manipulation.
Anita DeFrantz, a member of the IOC and a medal winner at the 1976 Games in Montreal, underlined the importance of strong collaboration between sporting organizations and law enforcement agencies in ensuring integrity and credibility, and highlighted the role of the International Partnership Against Corruption in Sport (IPACS), which includes international sports organizations, governments, and inter-governmental bodies including UNODC.
UNODC
As the world’s most popular sport, awash with huge sums of money, football is particularly prone to corruption. Even the sport’s world governing body, FIFA, has faced criminal accusations and scandals, most notably in 2015, when several FIFA officials were arrested at a prominent Swiss hotel.
Following the investigation by the US Department of Justice into corruption in FIFA in 2016, the international community’s attention on corruption and crime in sport has increased significantly, along with calls to act.
The current FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, delivered a video message to the conference, in which he said that protecting football from corruption and ensuring sporting justice is the most important topic for the organization.
“Football is a multi-billion dollar global industry which makes it a potential target for corruption and other kinds of criminal activity and that is something that we should avoid and combat to ensure that the playing field is always level,” said Mr. Infantino.
A renewed Memorandum of Understanding between FIFA and UNODC has, he said, been beneficial in developing over 60 projects linked to anti-corruption, notably the Global Integrity Programme addressing match-fixing, “a platform that facilitates important information exchange between all those combating corruption in all walks of life.”
In the wake of the Programme, which involved training over 400 Football Integrity Officers and government officials and tackling competition manipulation, UNODC took part in the Qatar FIFA World Cup Integrity Task Force, to monitor 64 matches for match manipulation (no threats were flagged to the Task Force).
According to the team, Patients with trauma injuries were being sutured on the floor, limited to no pain management is available at the hospital, and the emergency department is so full that workers must take care not to step on patients on the floor.
Al-Shifa Hospital, formerly the most important and largest referral hospital in Gaza, is now barely functioning: the operating theatres and other major services are not working due to lack of fuel, oxygen, specialized medical staff, and supplies. The hospital is only able to provide basic trauma stabilization, and has no blood for transfusion.
A handful of doctors and nurses, and some 70 volunteers, are working under what WHO staff described as “unbelievably challenging circumstances” in a hospital “in need of resuscitation.”
In a statement released on Saturday, WHO said that it is committed to strengthening Al-Shifa Hospital in the coming weeks, so that it can resume at least basic functionality, provide critically needed lifesaving services, and serve “a besieged people trapped in a cycle of death, destruction, hunger, and disease”.
Substantial additional specialized medical, nursing and support staff, including emergency medical teams are urgently needed, and basic humanitarian needs are not being met: tens of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in the hospital, which is experience a severe shortage of food and safe water.
Currently, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital remains the only partially functional hospital in north Gaza along with three minimally functional hospitals – Al-Shifa, Al Awda and Al Sahaba Medical Complex – down from 24 before the conflict. WHO has grave concerns about the unfolding situation at Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza, which has reportedly been at the centre of a military operation.
The UN workers at Al-Shifa Hospital were taking part in a joint UN mission, made up of staff from the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS), and the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS). The team delivered medicines and surgical supplies, orthopedic surgery equipment, and anesthesia materials and drugs to the hospital.
As the fourth day of this year’s UN climate conference got under way, the UN chief stated: “The fossil fuel industry is finally starting to wake up, but the promises made clearly fall short of what is required.”
Reacting to the pledge announced on Saturday by several major oil and gas companies to reduce methane leaks from their pipelines by 2030, Mr. Guterres said it is a “step in the right direction”, but the promise failed to address a core issue, namely, eliminating emissions from fossil fuel consumption.
Methane (CH4) is a primary component of natural gas and is responsible for about a third of the planetary warming we see today. It is short-lived but is more powerful than carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas most responsible for climate change. Without serious action, global anthropogenic methane emissions are projected to rise by up to 13 per cent between now and 2030.
Dubbing the oil and gas companies, the “giant behind the climate crisis”, the Secretary-General also pointed out that the pledge did not provide clarity on the pathway to reaching net-zero by 2050, which is “absolutely essential to ensure integrity.”
“Science is clear: we need to phase out fossil fuels within a timeframe compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5 Celsius,” he reiterated, referring to one of the keystone targets set by the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.
“There must be no room for greenwashing,” he said, referring to the dangers involved in promoting deceptive marketing and false claims of sustainability.
Find out more here about the tactics of ‘greenwashing’.
Early Warning for All
The groundbreaking Early Warnings for All Initiative launched by the Secretary-General last year, aims to protect everyone from hazardous weather, water or climate through life-saving early warning systems by the end of 2027.
“This is an ambitious goal – but it is achievable. To make it a reality, we need all hands-on deck – collaborating and cooperating in a way that has not been done before,” he told delegates at Sunday’s main event on the issue.
Mr. Guterres also launched a new report, prepared by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) which shows that more lives are being protected from extreme weather and dangerous climate change impacts, but the pace of progress remains insufficient.
So far,101 countries reported having an early warning system, an increase of six countries compared to last year, and representing a doubling of coverage since 2015.
Yet, half of countries globally still do not have adequate multi-hazard early warning systems, the report finds.
The head of UNDRR Mami Mizutori said: “The progress is encouraging but we must not be complacent … with an 80 per cent increase in the number of people affected by disasters since 2015 and half the world still lacking access to early warnings.”
“Early warnings are the low-hanging fruit of climate adaptation. They are not a luxury but a must,” added WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
Basic tool to save lives
The UN chief said Early Warnings for All systems are “the most basic tool for saving lives and securing livelihoods” in a world defined by “escalating climate injustices”.
Worryingly, countries that are vulnerable to extreme weather, especially small island developing States and least developed countries, as well as the entire African continent, have a rate of protection is well below the global average.
“And delayed action leads to more extreme weather events. More deaths. More destruction,” stated the Secretary-General.
Progress so far
Highlighting the progress made over the past year, Mr. Guterres shared examples from several countries:
Maldives, Laos and Ethiopia now have dedicated national action plans;
Benin has strengthened communications to reach communities at greatest risk; and
Fiji’s flash flood warning has been expanded to benefit nearly one million people.
He pointed out that in a world on a fast-track to temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius, climate vulnerability is bound to escalate.
Therefore, it is critical to cut carbon pollution at an accelerated pace and invest in protecting vulnerable communities from the impact of more frequent and severe climate-related events.
The estimated cost of bringing everyone under the protection of early warning systems would be around $3 billion, “a tiny fraction of the hundreds of billions made by the fossil fuel industry last year.”
Mr. Guterres called for a windfall tax on these profits, and for the money to be used to protect those suffering the worst impacts, encouraging countries to be “bold and ambitious and to double the speed and scale of support in 2024”.
Race to net-zero
During a roundtable on the latest report from his High-Level Expert Group on Net-Zero, the Secretary-General said that COP28 is about turning things around, but national governments cannot do it alone.
“Businesses, financial institutions, civil society, cities, states and regions are all critical in the race to net-zero,” he said.
In simple terms, ‘net-zero’ means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible.
In March 2022, the UN chief established the expert group to develop stronger and clearer standards for pledges by non-State entities and speed up their implementation which outlined ten recommendations in its report, as a how-to guide for credible, accountable net-zero pledges.
Reminding the room of his ‘Acceleration Agenda,’ Mr. Guterres called on governments and non-State actors to radically speed-up efforts to cut emissions, for which he highlighted five key elements:
Genuine decarbonization effort to cover all activities, across every link of value chains;
Detailed targets for 2025, 2030 and 2035, in line 1.5 degrees target of the Paris Agreement;
Disclosure of all lobbying, policy engagements and communication campaigns;
Information on efforts to change business models and internal operations to phase out fossil fuels; and
Move towards a just, equitable and accelerated renewables transition.
Want to know more? Check out our special events page, where you can find all our coverage of the COP28 climate conference, including stories and videos, explainers and our newsletter.
“Silence the guns and return to dialogue – the suffering inflicted on civilians is too much to bear. More violence is not the answer. It will bring neither peace nor security,” Volker Türk said in a statement, voicing deep concern that negotiations towards a continuation of last week’s pause had reportedly stalled.
Fighting resumed on Friday and hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombardments, he said, citing the Gaza Ministry of Health.
No aid entered the enclave via the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Friday, and delivery on Saturday was restricted, further impacting humanitarian operations to support millions amid a scarcity of food, water, fuel and other basic essentials.
No safe place
Mr. Türk feared the renewed and intensified hostilities would lead to even more death, disease, and destruction.
“As a result of Israel’s conduct of hostilities and its orders for people to leave the north and parts of the south, hundreds of thousands are being confined into ever smaller areas in southern Gaza without proper sanitation, access to sufficient food, water and health supplies, even as bombs rain down around them,” he said, adding “there is no safe place in Gaza.”
He stressed that international law and human rights law uphold the protection of civilians and the facilitation of unimpeded humanitarian access to people in need.
Concern for north Gaza
The UN human rights chief also highlighted how hundreds of thousands of people remaining in northern Gaza are at renewed risk of bombardment and continue to be deprived of food and other essentials.
He said this appalling situation and the orders to move south means people are essentially being forced to move in what appears to be an attempt to empty northern Gaza of Palestinians.
“The world bore witness of week upon week of horror since this latest crisis began, marked by extremely grave concerns around wilful killing of civilians, firing of indiscriminate rockets, indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas, forms of collective punishment, obstruction of humanitarian aid, and hostage-taking – all forbidden under international law,” he said.
He added that extremely serious allegations of multiple and grave breaches of international law must be fully investigated and those responsible held to account. In cases where national authorities prove unwilling or unable to carry out such investigations and prosecutions, international investigation is necessary.
Change course now
He urged Member States to do everything in their power to ensure all parties comply with their obligations under international law and prevent the commission of international crimes.
“The time to change course is now. Those that choose to flout international law are on notice that accountability will be served. No-one is above the law,” he said.
WHO calls for ceasefire
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) also called for a ceasefire in Gaza in a post on social media on Saturday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the reports of ongoing hostilities and bombardment were “petrifying”.
He said a WHO team visited Nassar Medical Hospital in southern Gaza on Friday, where countless people had sought shelter and patients were receiving care on the floor.
“These conditions are beyond inadequate -unimaginable for the provision of health care,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I cannot find words strong enough to express our concern over what we’re witnessing. Ceasefire. NOW.”
