With the Middle East undergoing “a period of profound transformation”, the international community must support efforts towards more justice, dignity, human rights and peace in the region, the UN Secretary-General told the Security Council on Monday.
United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert today began a visit to Israel, where she is set to meet with senior Israeli officials. Her discussions will focus on steps being taken towards the implementation of the cessation of hostilities understanding, which came into force on 27 November 2024, as well as on remaining challenges. The need to catalyse the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolution 1701 (...
Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the start on Sunday of the ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, as UN humanitarian convoys brought in urgently needed food aid to begin pulling the war-ravaged territory back from starvation.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday expressed optimism for Lebanon's future as he wrapped up a two-day solidarity visit with a call on the new government, the Lebanese people, and international community to “make the most of this atmosphere of opportunity”.
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Amid reports that Israel’s security cabinet has given the green light to a ceasefire deal with Hamas, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) expressed cautious optimism on Friday over the potentially major boost to aid relief in the devastated enclave.
Continuing his high profile visit to Lebanon, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday underscored the challenges faced by UN peacekeepers and reiterated the organization’s commitment to supporting the Lebanese Armed Forces.
The UN launched a new Action Plan on Friday that will enhance monitoring and response to antisemitism.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) on Friday welcomed the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, pledging to scale up aid delivery across the stricken enclave once it comes into effect.
Two senior UN peacekeeping officials briefed the Security Council on Friday on recent developments in Lebanon and the occupied Syrian Golan, and the challenges facing “blue helmets” serving there.
Mr. President,
The people of Ukraine have endured three years of devastation caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of their country in February 2022. This invasion was launched in brazen violation of the UN Charter and international law.
The holiday and New Year season, a time meant for peace and reflection, brought no respite, but rather an escalation and even expansion of the fighting, consistent with the dangerous pattern of the past year.
Most disturbingly, in 2024 we witnessed an alarming rise in the toll of civilian casualties.
Last year, the total number of civilians killed and injured was 30 per cent higher than the year before, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The increase in casualties among children is particularly distressing. More children were killed or injured in the first three quarters of 2024 than in all of 2023.
According to OHCHR, between February 2022 and 31 December 2024, at least 12,456 civilians, including 669 children, were killed. 28,382 civilians, including 1,833 children, have been injured. The actual figures are likely considerably higher.
Verified attacks on schools and hospitals also increased in 2024, with more than 580 educational and health facilities damaged or destroyed within nine months.
On 9 January of this year, at least 13 people were reportedly killed and more than 100 injured in Zaporizhzhia by a Russian attack.
Hostilities in the last two weeks have forced new displacements, with more than 1,600 people, including children, fleeing front-line areas, primarily in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, according to local authorities.
In the beginning of the new year, there were also civilian casualties in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
On 10 January, an alleged Ukrainian strike on Donetsk city reportedly resulted in the death of two civilians and the wounding of two others at a local supermarket.
I want to repeat that we unequivocally condemn all attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. Such actions, no matter where they occur, are prohibited under international law and must cease immediately.
The daily attacks bring death and terror to the local population. But they have also made the situation increasingly dangerous for the diplomatic community and international organizations operating in Ukraine.
On 20 December, a strike on Kyiv damaged six foreign embassies.
On 10 December, a drone attack struck a vehicle of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Diplomatic and international personnel and assets must be protected at all times.
For humanitarian workers, too, this was another difficult year. Ten aid workers were killed and 41 injured in the line of duty.
Mr. President,
As fierce fighting continues in the east and south of Ukraine, deadly clashes also persist in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation.
We have heard unconfirmed reports of civilian casualties and remain concerned about the impact of the hostilities on the population on both sides of the Ukrainian-Russian border.
Furthermore, there are reports that military personnel from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) were captured in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation.
The reported involvement of the DPRK troops in fighting alongside the Russian forces continues to raise serious concerns regarding further internationalization of this already dangerous conflict.
Mr. President,
The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine remains dire. The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for Ukraine, launched today, estimates that 12.7 million people – roughly 36 per cent of the country’s population – will require assistance this year, with $2.6 billion needed to address their acute needs.
Despite the decrease in the number of people in need, from 14.6 million in 2024 to 12.7 million in 2025, thanks to improved access to services in the major urban centers of Kyiv and Lviv, humanitarian conditions near the front-line regions have deteriorated to catastrophic levels.
We must also not forget the plight of the many thousands of Ukrainian civilians living in territories of Ukraine currently occupied by the Russian Federation.
The needs in these areas are estimated to be severe and worsened by extremely limited humanitarian access. We renew our call for the safe, rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief to all civilians in need.
We are grateful to the donors who provided over $2.2 billion in 2024, thus enabling the United Nations to reach some 8.5 million people, 60 per cent of them women and girls.
We urge the international community to fully support the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan to sustain operations in an increasingly complex and dangerous environment.
It bears emphasizing that the humanitarian situation is compounded by the harsh winter and the widespread damage that Russia’s attacks have caused to Ukraine’s energy production.
Just yesterday, Ukraine suffered the latest wave of country-wide Russian attacks systematically targeting civilian energy infrastructure.
In the last months of 2024, Russia conducted at least four similar large-scale, coordinated attacks.
We condemn such reprehensible tactics, which terrorize the civilian population and deprive it of basic services. They must end.
The UN continues to work with the Government of Ukraine to restore energy generation capacity, while creating opportunities in the green energy sector.
Mr. President,
According to reports, Russia and Ukraine conducted a prisoner exchange yesterday that enabled fifty people to return to their homes.
We welcome this development as well as the reported exchange of more than 300 prisoners of war on 30 December. We commend the efforts of all involved and urge the sides to increase the scope and pace of these exchanges.
However, we remain alarmed by reports of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian forces.
In its December report, OHCHR assessed that allegations of 19 incidents since August, involving the killing of 62 individuals, were credible.
OHCHR also found that the Russian Federation has used widespread and systematic torture against Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The use of torture against Russian prisoners of war by Ukrainian forces has also been documented. We note that Ukrainian authorities have reported opening investigations into the accusations.
Mr. President,
As we approach the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, global calls for de-escalation and the beginning of a process to end the fighting are growing louder.
The Secretary-General’s good offices remain available to support all good faith efforts to find a just, lasting and comprehensive peace, in line with the UN Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions.
Thank you.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed solidarity with the people of Lebanon and Syria on Thursday, acknowledging the traumas both nations have endured over decades.
The embattled people of Ukraine and those forced abroad need $3.32 billion in lifesaving and sustained humanitarian assistance to help them cope as a fourth year of war looms after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, UN aid chiefs said on Thursday.
The recent holiday and New Year season brought no respite in Ukraine, but rather an escalation and even expansion of the fighting, consistent with developments in 2024, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs said in a briefing to the Security Council on Thursday.
The UN Security Council on Thursday passed a resolution to renew the mandate of the Panel of Experts (PoE) of the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee which also extends measures related to the illicit export of petroleum from oil-rich Libya, initially authorised in 2014.
The world continues to grapple with unprecedented challenges but there are reasons for cautious optimism in 2025 - on a long-awaited Gaza ceasefire, climate action, tackling inequaity and harnessing AI for the public good - Secretary-General António Guterres insisted on Wednesday.
The UN’s Special Envoy for Yemen and a top aid official briefed the Security Council on Wednesday warning of the grave consequences that could follow if hostilities stemming from its long running civil conflict – which have now spilled across the entire region – continue into a second decade.
The UN Secretary-General has welcomed Wednesday’s announcement of a deal to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza following 15 months of war.
Syria’s lethal legacy of landmines and other explosives left over from years of conflict has led to the deaths of over 100 children in the last month alone, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday, calling on the international community to urgently support country-wide demining projects.
Surging gang violence in Haiti has caused a threefold rise in the number of people uprooted from their homes in a year, the UN migration agency, IOM, said on Tuesday, in a call for “sustained humanitarian assistance right now to save and protect lives”.
The UN aid coordination office (OCHA) on Tuesday reported further attacks on displacement shelters in Gaza which have been ongoing since 9 January.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres will travel to Lebanon later this week for a solidarity visit with the country and its people, his Spokesperson announced on Monday during his daily briefing from New York.
The UN’s top aid official has travelled to Ukraine where he’s expressed his solidarity with the country’s people, who continue to come under attack from Russian forces.
Top independent human rights experts urged the Palestinian authorities on Monday to end its widely criticized ban on the broadcaster Al Jazeera and ensure that all journalists, local or international, can work freely and safely in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
The world is entering a new era of crisis for children; climate change, inequality and conflict are disrupting their lives and limiting their futures, an authoritative study from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned.
Syrian refugee Doaa Al Zamel’s harrowing tale of surviving a deadly shipwreck brought the horrors of fleeing war to a worldwide audience when it was told in the book “A Hope More Powerful Than The Sea” in 2017.
Syrian refugee Doaa Al Zamel’s harrowing tale of surviving a deadly shipwreck brought the horrors of fleeing war to a worldwide audience when it was told in the book “A Hope More Powerful Than The Sea” in 2017.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory called on Sunday for an end to the war in Gaza to ensure a better future for children there and the entire region.
A brief roundup of United Nations-related political and peacebuilding events and developments globally.
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Syrians have high expectations for their country, and a strong desire for people from across the social spectrum to come together and forge a new constitution, which must begin with an inclusive “national dialogue”.
Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia city in Ukraine on Wednesday caused the highest number of civilian casualties in a single incident in almost two years, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country, HRMMU, has reported.
A month since the fall of the Assad regime, more than 125,000 refugees have returned to Syria “full of hope after years of exile”, only to find themselves confronted by desperate conditions, UN humanitarians warned on Thursday.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY-GENERAL KHALED KHIARI
BRIEFING TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL ON
NON-PROLIFERATION/DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
New York, 8 January 2025
Mr. President,
Members of the Security Council,
On 6 January at 12:00 PM local time, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched what it described as a new-type of intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile (IRBM) loaded with a hypersonic glide vehicle. According to the DPRK official statement, the missile flew in line with its predetermined flight trajectory at a speed amounting to 12 times the speed of sound, and landed in the open sea. While stating that the launch had no negative impact on the security of neighboring countries, the DPRK regrettably did not issue airspace or maritime safety notifications.
The statement reported that the system can “deal a serious military strike to a rival by effectively breaking any of its dense defensive barriers”. Hypersonic glide vehicles travel at least five times the speed of sound and make evasive maneuvers, making defense measures against the weapon much more difficult.
Mr. President,
The launch of yet another ballistic missile by the DPRK is of serious concern. This was the fourth launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) since the beginning of 2024. In this same time period, the DPRK has also launched one intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and multiple short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM). It also attempted to launch a military reconnaissance satellite. In addition, the display of an undeclared enrichment facility in Kangson and the ongoing commissioning of the light water reactor at Yongbyon are clear violation of relevant Security Council resolutions, as are the continued launches of missiles using ballistic missile technology.
The DPRK has been actively working towards acquiring new military capabilities in line with its current five-year military development plan, which is entering its final year in 2025. The plan has called for the development of what the DPRK calls tactical nuclear weapons, “super-large” nuclear warheads, various intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile capabilities, military reconnaissance satellites and a nuclear submarine, among others. In late December, at its end-of-year plenary session, the DPRK Government emphasized that 2025 should see the successful completion of the five-year plan.
Mr. President,
The DPRK’s persistent pursuit of its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes continues to undermine the global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime. It also escalates tensions and contributes to the further isolation of the DPRK from the international community. We continue our calls to the DPRK to fully comply with its international obligations.
Mr. President,
As we enter 2025 amidst growing challenges to global peace and security, it is imperative to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The Secretary-General has consistently called for de-escalation and the urgent resumption of talks. Diplomatic engagement remains the only pathway to sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In this respect, we welcome offers to engage in dialogue with the DPRK without preconditions.
The Council must also remain attentive to the humanitarian situation in the DPRK. We reiterate the call on the DPRK to expedite the return of the UN Country Team and the international community to strengthen support for its people and advance the 2030 Agenda.
Thank you.
