HIGHLIGHTS OF THE U.N. SYSTEM
FRIDAY, 5 JULY 2024
SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRAVELS
On Friday morning, the Secretary-General held a bilateral meeting with the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon. The meeting took place in Dushanbe, the capital of the country, which the Secretary-General traveled to as part of his visit to Central Asia.
The Secretary-General and the President discussed UN-Tajikistan cooperation on climate, sustainable development and counter-terrorism, as well as regional security in Central Asia.
He commended the President of Tajikistan for his leadership on the water agenda and the preservation of glaciers.
In a press encounter after the meeting, the Secretary-General said that in a splintered world, he is heartened that Central Asia is choosing a different path — a path of solidarity and coming together around common solutions. He noted that Tajikistan is a critical part of this, with a remarkable leadership.
The Secretary-General highlighted that full respect for human rights is also a solid base for peace, security and development. Throughout, he urged countries across the region to continue engaging with UN human rights mechanisms and recommendations, and to ensure that the rights of all groups are protected, and that all voices are represented.
In the afternoon, the Secretary-General visited an Adolescent Innovations Lab at a school established in 2023 by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with funding support from the European Union. He met with youths from the Young People Advisory Group and Youth for Water and Climate Network.
Soon after the visit, the Secretary-General departed to Turkmenistan, the last country in his visit to Central Asia.
On Saturday, 6 July, he will hold a meeting with Serdar Berdimuhamedov, the President of Turkmenistan, as well as other senior officials. He will also visit the premises of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) and meet with the students of the Preventive Diplomacy Academy.
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
The Deputy Secretary-General is in Brazzaville, Congo, on Friday to attend the Heads of State and Government segment of the “First Conference on Afforestation and Reforestation”.
In her remarks to the conference, she commended the leadership of the Republic of Congo to the afforestation initiative launched at COP27, in 2022, with the support of the African Union. The Conference drew attention to countering the loss of forests, while restoring livelihoods, creating jobs, and building resilience, for a green economic transition.
As part of the Summit, the Deputy Secretary-General joined a closed session with heads of state and government on the political declaration. Under-investment in local and national level activities and in taking alternative measures to tackle the root causes of deforestation were stressed, in relation to illicit timber trade impacting value chains.
Ms. Mohammed also met with government officials including the President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso; various Cabinet Ministers of the Republic of Congo, as well as other heads of state and government attending the Conference. In the evening, the DSG will meet with the UN country team, to review UN collaboration with national counterparts and identify ways to scale up support to implement the SDGs.
Before returning to New York on Saturday evening, Ms. Mohammed will observe national efforts for forest preservation and protection of wildlife, during a visit to a UNESCO-recognized National Park in the region of Kouilou.
The Deputy Secretary-General will be back in New York on Sunday, 7 July.
HURRICANE BERYL
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that assessments continue so there can be a full picture of the extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Beryl, the strongest hurricane in history in the Atlantic Ocean during the month of June.
As a category 4 hurricane, it left a trail of destruction in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Monday, 1 July, then impacting Jamaica on Wednesday, 3 July. The hurricane is currently affecting Belize and Mexico.
According to current estimates, some 40,000 people have been affected in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, more than 110,000 people in Grenada, and 920,000 people in Jamaica.
In Grenada, the International Organization for Migration says that the hurricane caused extreme damage to the islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique, where 70 per cent and 97 per cent of buildings were damaged, respectively. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 90 per cent of homes on Union Island were affected, while on the island of Canouan, nearly all buildings sustained damage, with roofs ripped off and severe shortages of water and electricity reported.
We continue to support and work closely with the authorities, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Agency and our partners to assess and respond to the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl.
We have deployed teams from OCHA's regional office, who are already supporting from Barbados. We are also deploying two UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination teams to Barbados to support the response in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, while the other will go to Jamaica. Another team could also be sent to Belize.
$4 million has been made available from the Central Emergency Response Fund to kickstart humanitarian operations in Grenada, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Our teams have been preparing for months ahead of this year’s hurricane season, but such a strong storm this early in the year is extremely rare.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that some 250,000 people in southern Gaza are estimated to live in parts of eastern Khan Younis and Rafah that were recently placed under an evacuation order by the Israeli authorities.
Those displaced have moved toward western Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah, areas that are already overcrowded and lack basic services, shelter materials, critical infrastructure and sufficient space to accommodate the influx of new arrivals. The order covers 85 square kilometres, or just under one quarter of the Gaza Strip.
Yesterday, OCHA led assessments at two sites where displaced people are sheltering, including families who fled due to the latest evacuation order. More than 9,000 households are living at a site in Khan Younis, and nearly 1,000 households at a site in Deir El Balah - with just 650 tents. OCHA reports that these families all need safe drinking water, with people – especially children – spending long hours queueing to collect water each day.
Children living there have been out of school for months, with lack of space and materials preventing partners from providing education services. At one of the displacement sites, children spend most of their time outside, near informal dumping areas. Parents have reported a surge in skin and waterborne diseases. Neither site has health points available, and the closest medical services are at least three kilometres away.
OCHA says the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis is now empty and no longer functional. There is no equipment remaining, and all patients evacuated, some of them leaving in beds with their IV drips.
In northern Gaza, OCHA is concerned about the conditions of up to 80,000 people who were displaced from Ash Shuja'iyyeh and other parts of eastern Gaza City, following an Israeli evacuation order on 27 June.
Alongside other humanitarian partners, OCHA assessed some of the sites hosting those displaced, who say they had to flee hastily, under shelling and without any of their belongings. Shelter and sanitary conditions at the displacement sites are poor, and many people are having to sleep amid solid waste and rubble, with no mattresses and lacking enough clothing. Others have found shelter in UN facilities that had been partially destroyed. Some of those displaced people report having been separated from family members.
Meanwhile, humanitarian partners report that the lack of fuel in Gaza is increasingly hampering the provision of health care. In a social media post yesterday, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned of further disruption to health services due to severe fuel shortages. He said that only 90,000 litres of fuel entered Gaza on Wednesday, when the health sector alone requires 80,000 litres each day. Dr. Tedros stressed that the UN and partners are being forced to make impossible choices, with limited fuel supplies now being directed to key hospitals to prevent services from grinding to a halt.
Fuel shortages also continue to have an acute impact on water and sanitation infrastructure and living conditions across Gaza. Humanitarian partners say they received less than 52,000 litres of fuel between 22 and 28 June to operate critical water and wastewater facilities. Though this is more than what was received the previous week, the supplies were sufficient for just 10 per cent of daily requirements. As a result, at least half of the remaining functional water wells across Gaza temporarily stopped pumping water, and more than 100 water trucks have ceased operations. Two desalination plants in central and southern Gaza also had to suspend operations on Sunday and Monday due to lack of fuel.
Ongoing hostilities and access constraints continue to severely hinder the delivery of life-saving aid to hundreds of thousands of people across Gaza. Between Monday and yesterday, just one of 13 planned humanitarian assistance missions to northern Gaza was facilitated by Israeli authorities – with the rest denied, impeded or canceled due to logistical, operational, or security reasons.
In southern Gaza, movements to and from the Kerem Shalom Crossing continue to be hampered by security risks, most recently following Monday’s evacuation order for areas in eastern Khan Younis that encompass parts of Salah Ad Din Road, a crucial artery for the passage of humanitarian goods and personnel.
BLUE LINE
The UN is deeply concerned at the increase in the intensity of exchanges of fire across the Blue Line yesterday, which heightens the risk of a full-scale war . Escalation can and must be avoided. We reiterate that the danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflagration is real. A political and diplomatic solution is the only viable way forward.
On 4 July, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lebanese Parliament visited UNIFIL to express support for UNIFIL and resolution 1701. Also yesterday, the UN Special Coordinator, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, met with Lebanese officials, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, underscoring the need for de-escalation across the Blue Line.
We echo the appeals of UNSCOL and UNIFIL urging the parties to immediately return to a cessation of hostilities and to recommit to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006).
HONDURAS
The UN Secretariat and the Government of Honduras continue discussing the text of a possible bilateral agreement to create an anti-impunity mechanism. To that effect, they extended for an additional six months the Memorandum of Understanding initiating work towards the establishment of an International, Impartial, Independent and Autonomous Mechanism against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras, which was set to expire on 15 June 2024.
The UN Secretariat shared with the Government comments on the text of the bilateral agreement. A technical working group of the UN Secretariat and Honduran authorities will continue discussing the terms of the proposed bilateral agreement to establish the mechanism.
As already agreed, the Secretariat and the Government must concur, in writing, on the existence of minimum legal guarantees and requirements for the establishment and operation of the anti-corruption mechanism before concluding the bilateral agreement.
The Secretariat remains committed to supporting the people and the Government of Honduras in the strengthening of the rule of law and the fight against corruption and impunity.
REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS REPORT
According to a new report released by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), refugees and migrants continue to face extreme forms of violence, human rights violations and exploitation not just at sea, but also on land routes across the African continent, towards its Mediterranean coastline.
With more people estimated to cross the Sahara Desert than the Mediterranean Sea – and deaths of refugees and migrants in the desert presumed to be double those happening at sea – the report casts light on the much less documented and publicized perils facing refugees and migrants on these land routes.
The report also notes that across parts of the continent, refugees and migrants are increasingly traversing areas where insurgent groups, militias and other criminal actors operate, and where human trafficking, kidnapping for ransom, forced labour and sexual exploitation are rife.
UNHCR, IOM, partners and several governments have stepped up life-saving protection services and assistance, identification and referral mechanisms along the routes – but humanitarian action is not enough.
The organizations are calling for concrete, routes-based protection responses to save lives and reduce suffering.
CENTRAL SAHEL
We have an update on the ongoing mission of UN Regional Directors to the Central Sahel, led by the UN Special Coordinator for Development in the Sahel, Under-Secretary-General Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, and the Regional Director for Africa at the UN Development Coordination Office, Yacoub El-Hillo. They have now concluded their visit to Burkina Faso. The delegation met with Prime Minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyélem de Tambèla, emphasizing the need to support national efforts, building on the existing dialogue between transitional authorities and our team on the ground. Other engagements included conversations with many ministers and the National Youth Council.
Mr. Mar Dieye emphasized the UN’s dedication to aligning with Burkina Faso’s development and crisis resolution efforts. He commended the launch of the Patriotic Support Fund, a government initiative to mobilize resources for national security and development. The discussions focused on accelerating integrated actions across humanitarian, development, and peace initiatives, strengthening food systems to achieve food sovereignty, and extending stabilization programmes in the Sahel region.
FOOD PRICE INDEX
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that the benchmark for world food commodity prices was unchanged in June, as increases in international quotations for vegetable oils, sugar and dairy products offset a decrease in those for cereals.
The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a set of globally-traded food commodities, averaged 120.6 points in June, the same as its revised figure for May. The index is now 2.1 percent lower than its year-earlier value and 24.8 percent below its March 2022 peak.
BRIEFINGS
On Monday, 8 July, we will be joined virtually by Mr. Mar Dieye, who will brief on his recent regional visit, as well as Development Coordination Office Regional Director for Africa, Yacoub El Hillo.
On 5 July, we had a press event by Dennis Zulu, the Resident Coordinator for Jamaica and Simon Springett, the Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. They briefed virtually on the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean.
