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Virtual Press Briefing by Spokesperson for Secretary-General
This morning, the Secretary-General took part in the virtual General Assembly Commemoration of the Signing of the UN Charter. In his remarks, he recalled that the delegates in San Francisco in 1945 also lived through a global pandemic, depression and war, and they seized their opportunity to plant the seeds of something better and new.
The Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed opened the virtual Recover Better Together Action Forum. In her remarks, she stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic has made the promises of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals more relevant and vital than ever.
The fourth Brussels conference on Supporting Syria and the Region – which is the main high-level pledging event for the Syrian crisis - will take place virtually on Tuesday, June 30th. The event is hosted by the European Union and co-chaired by the UN.
The UN Children’s Fund warned in a new report that millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation due to huge shortfalls in humanitarian aid funding amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, entitled “Yemen five years on: Children, conflict and COVID-19,” warns that as the country’s devastated health system and infrastructure struggle to cope with coronavirus, the already dire situation for children is likely to deteriorate considerably.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said today that 580 civilians have been killed so far this year in central Mali in violent clashes between the Peulh and Dogon.
Yesterday, the Ebola outbreak in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was declared over.
In Brazil, the UN Migration Agency and UNICEF are providing migrant children with educational materials so they can learn remotely during the pandemic.
The UN team, led by Resident Coordinator Roberto Valent, has released a report on the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of COVID-19.
In South Sudan, the peacekeeping Mission, together with UN-trained internally displaced people in Bentiu, in Unity state, has produced masks which are being distributed in the local community.
In Darfur, the joint UN – African Union Mission is implementing a project in several rural communities to help more than 6,000 people in Central Darfur state.
UNICEF said today that despite unprecedented transport and logistical constraints caused by COVID-19, it continues to deliver life-saving supplies to support countries’ responses to the pandemic.
Mark Lowcock, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, will allocate up to $140 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund to put programmes in place to help people ahead of anticipated humanitarian disasters.
In a message to mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Secretary-General stressed that torture diminishes everyone and everything that it touches, including torturers and the systems and States where it occurs.
The spokesman says that we are shocked and deeply disturbed by what is seen on the video circulating on the web. The behavior seen in it is abhorrent and goes against everything that we stand for and having been working to achieve in terms of fighting misconduct by UN staff.
For further details please see SOURCE below.
Office of the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General