NEWS

Speaking to reporters in New York today, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said the conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, continues to lead to more people needing humanitarian relief and affects aid workers’ ability to respond. UNIFEED

Taking stock of Estonia’s two-year term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, Ambassador Sven Jürgenson said, “there’s no difference whether you are big or small. You are a member of the Council,” noting that there were “very few occasions when the permanent members were doing their own thing.” UNIFEED

UN chief António Guterres said, “the Group of 77 and China is a vital part of our work. Your engagement and promotion of developing country priorities — and your support to our Organization — will be needed now, more than ever.” UNIFEED

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said it is alarmed by recent incidents which took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as in Serbia fuelled by the continued inflammatory, nationalistic rhetoric and hate speech by individuals and, in some cases, by politicians. UNTV CH

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) hailed the “historic” conviction by a German court of a senior Syrian intelligence officer, for crimes against humanity. OHCHR

Launching the World Economic and Social Prospects 20122 (WESP 2022) the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Liu Zhenmin, said full global recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic “is still a long way off.” UNIFEED

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said a nightmare was unfolding in Afghanistan and stressed that “freezing temperatures and frozen assets are a lethal combination” for the Afghan people. UNIFEED

"Yes, the recovery is likely to continue, but against stronger winds," announced IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in an event hosted by the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC. IMF

Addressing the Security Council via teleconference, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg stressed “there is no sustainable long-term solution to be found on the battlefield,” and “warring parties can, should, and indeed must talk even if they are not ready to put down their arms.” UNIFEED

WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, despite its best efforts, his Organization has been “blocked from sending medicine” into Ethiopia’s Tigray region adding that it is “so dreadful and unimaginable during this time of the 21st century, when a government is denying its own people, for more than a year, food and medicine and the rest to survive." WHO