Security Council

Armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) must lay down their arms and engage in political dialogue, a UN expert said Friday, urging the international community to strengthen efforts to restore State authority and end impunity in the country.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has condemned the widespread human rights violations and abuses committed on a massive scale and with impunity against migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya. Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, Türk also accused Libya's leaders of crushing political dissent in order to cling to power, leaving the country divided, and its people mired in crisis, poverty and misery.

More than 11,600 children crossed the Central Mediterranean Sea to Italy without their parents or legal guardians between January and mid-September 2023, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports. This is an increase of 60 percent compared to the same period last year, where around 7,200 unaccompanied or separated children made the perilous crossing, UNICEF said in a statement on Friday.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is appealing for US$1.21 billion to address the unprecedented humanitarian emergency in the Gaza Strip and to respond to the growing needs in the West Bank as violence there intensifies. Meanwhile, Israeli bombardment from the air, land and sea continues across much of Gaza, resulting in further civilian deaths, displacement and destruction of the civilian infrastructure on which Palestinians depend.

Children from displaced families are dying of starvation in parts of Yemen, according to the United Nations, as extreme hunger and malnutrition take hold. Over 17 million people in Yemen are acutely food insecure, a figure expected to surpass 18 million by February 2026 amid a critical crisis in humanitarian funding.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced Friday that it is facing a deeper funding crisis for its Yemen operations from the end of September onward. This will force WFP to make difficult decisions about further cuts to its food assistance programs across the country in the coming months. The UN agency has already reduced live-saving programs. 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is warning that the humanitarian crisis in Haiti continues to worsen, largely due to ongoing violence. According to an OCHA update on Friday, more than 700,000 people are displaced in the country, more than half of whom are children, with the latest violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince, displacing an additional 12,000 people in recent weeks.

A local "humanitarian pause" allowed the launch of the emergency polio immunization campaign, with nearly 87,000 children vaccinated in central Gaza on the first day of the campaign on Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of young Palestinian children are on track to be vaccinated. Despite this, Israeli air and land bombardment continues throughout the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian deaths, injuries, maiming, displacement and destruction of civilian infrastructure.

Nearly two years after war broke out in Sudan, the heads of five international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have called on world leaders to take immediate, concrete action to end the conflict, protect civilians, and ensure aid reaches those who need it. In a joint statement on Thursday, the humanitarian leaders said "slow, too timid and dangerously inadequate" action has claimed countless lives already.

Acute malnutrition is surging in areas controlled by the Government of Yemen (GoY), with the West Coast reaching "extremely critical" levels for the first time, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in Yemen said on Monday. After nine years of war, Yemen remains one of the world's most severe and protracted humanitarian crises, with an estimated 18.2 million people - more than half the population - in need of assistance and protection.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called on Wednesday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to ease the “epic human suffering” in the Gaza Strip. The call comes a day after hundreds of civilians were reported killed in an airstrike on a hospital in Gaza. The Gaza de facto authorities blamed Israel for the attack, while the Israeli military claimed a rocket misfired by a Palestinian armed group was responsible.

The United Nations says Israel continues to block aid from reaching northern Gaza, where famine is imminent and people, mostly children, are already dying of malnutrition and starvation. A senior UN official is warning of a catastrophic outcome for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in precarious conditions in the war-torn Gaza Strip unless humanitarian aid deliveries into the territory are massively expanded in the coming days.

A new report by the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) reveals that most people in Myanmar are united in defying military authoritarianism and violence. The report calls for renewed international resolve to end the military’s stranglehold on power. Driven by relentless violence, systemic impunity, and economic collapse, a spiraling human rights crisis has left civilians caught in the crossfire of an increasingly brutal conflict resulting in a dire humanitarian crisis.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warns the potential spillover of dozens of conflicts around the world is threatening global peace and causing human rights violations to surge in all regions. He says that widespread violations of international humanitarian and human rights law are generating devastating impact on millions of civilians, while displacement and humanitarian crises have already reached an unprecedented scale.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk has strongly criticized politicians and some media outlets for scapegoating migrants, refugees, and minorities during election campaigns in countries such as Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Speaking at the opening of the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, Türk urged all voters to be vigilant and warned against "strongman" politicians.

The United Nations and humanitarian aid agencies launched the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for Yemen on Wednesday, appealing for US$2.47 billion to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to 10.5 million people in need. More than half of the country's population - 19.5 million people - are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection this year, with Yemen's most vulnerable and marginalized groups, including women and girls, at greatest risk.

Nearly 3 million children – the highest number on record – need humanitarian support in Haiti, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned Thursday. Children face staggering levels of violence that have exacerbated hunger and malnutrition in a country already mired in poverty and a resurgence of cholera. Meanwhile, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) held a special meeting Friday on food insecurity in Haiti amid the rapidly deteriorating situation in the country.

Israeli government and military authorities are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during military operations and attacks in Gaza since October 7, 2023, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said in a report released Wednesday. The Commission also found that Palestinian non-state armed groups are responsible for war crimes committed in Israel.

The 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan for Mali was launched this week in Bamako, the capital of the country. The United Nations, along with humanitarian partner organizations, will need over US$700 million to assist more than 4.1 million people across the Sahel country in 2024, UN officials announced on Thursday. An estimated 7.1 million people in Mali require humanitarian assistance this year, among them are some 3.8 million children.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that acute hunger in Afghanistan is no longer seasonal but a grueling daily reality for millions of people. WFP said today that two-thirds of the country’s population - or 28.3 million - will require humanitarian assistance next year, up from 24.4 million men, women and children in 2022. According to the UN agency, malnutrition in Afghanistan has reached the highest levels since records have been kept.