Scotland’s innovation, skills and natural resources are to be showcased at Expo 2025 Osaka in Japan later this year.
Three one day events at the global exhibition will highlight the country’s strengths in creative industries, life sciences and the offshore wind sector.
It follows a successful attendance at Expo 2020 in Dubai, which generated forecast sales of almost £90 million for participating Scottish businesses.
Games companies will be the focus of the creative industries day on 17 April, including eight being supported through the Scottish Government’s Techscaler business accelerator. Also attending will be KeelWorks, an established Edinburgh game development company with an existing deal with Japanese publisher KONAMI.
Business Minister Richard Lochhead visited the company to launch the Expo programme and hear about its export success.
Mr Lochhead said:
“This is an opportunity for Scotland to showcase and shine on the global stage. Our message in Osaka will be simple – Scotland is open for business and is one of the best places in the world to invest.
“We will demonstrate first hand that we have the skills, technology and opportunities in a range of emerging industries. KeelWorks is just one example of that and later in the year our buoyant life sciences businesses and the offshore wind sector will also be centre stage.
“Japanese businesses already recognise Scotland’s economic potential, including Sumitomo, which is currently building a subsea cable factory at Nigg in the Highlands. I am confident that further companies and significant investment will follow as result of our presence at the Expo.”
KeelWorks Chief Executive Meher Kalenderian said:
“This activity is about strengthening connections, driving investment and opening new doors for collaboration. So, we’re thrilled to be part of Scotland’s presence at Expo 2025 Osaka, highlighting the strong business opportunities between Scotland and Japan’s prominent gaming industries.
“This platform offers a great chance to showcase our thriving creative sector and build new collaborations. At KeelWorks, we’ve seen first-hand the value of such partnerships through our work with KONAMI on CYGNI: All Guns Blazing.
“Our presence at the Expo reflects the growing potential for Scottish and Japanese gaming sectors to engage, as both countries lead in innovation.”
Background
Expo 2025 Osaka takes place from 13 April to 13 October. It is an international event at which countries, organisations and companies showcase innovations, cultural exchanges and solutions to global challenges. It is expected to attract about 28 million visitors and more than 150 participating countries. Scotland’s three events are supported by Scottish Enterprise.
Scotland’s first Trade Envoy to Japan was appointed in October 2024. The unpaid role will last for an initial two-year period.
The record-breaking rainfall and deadly flash floods that hit Spain this week underscore why saving lives as climate change turbocharges extreme weather must be a top priority, the World Meteorological Office (WMO) said on Friday.
The UN weather agency is highlighting the importance of early warning systems for all corners of the planet and reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
“The flooding that we’re seeing in Spain is just one of many, many, many, extreme weather and water-related disasters that have been taking place around the world this year. Almost every week we’re seeing such shocking images,” spokesperson Clare Nullis told journalists in Geneva.
Lives lost as rains continue
More than 150 people have been killed in Spain, where a massive search and rescue operation is ongoing even as the rains continue.
The Valencia region was worst affected, and “some areas received more than the equivalent of a year’s amount of rainfall in the space of eight hours.”
Spain’s meteorological and hydrological service, AEMET, has been issuing constant advisories and alerts throughout the week via the common alerting protocol, she said, referring to the standardized message format for all media, all hazards, and all communication channels.
A red alert – the top level – was issued on Friday in the southwest province of Huelva, “so, unfortunately, this episode is not finished yet”.
Extreme weather increasing
Ms. Nullis recalled that other areas in Europe have been badly affected by floods this year. In mid-September, parts of Central Europe experienced very heavy rainfall, breaking local and national records.
“According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, extreme weather events causing highly impactful floods and droughts have become more likely and more severe due to anthropogenic climate change,” she said.
She pointed to WMO’s recently released report on the State of Global Water Resources. Commenting at the time, the agency’s chief, Celeste Saulo, said that the hydrological cycle has accelerated due to rising temperatures.
As a result, the world is facing growing problems of either too much or too little water. Furthermore, a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which is conducive to heavy rainfall.
Ms. Nullis said this is what is happening in Spain.
“As the air warms, it becomes more moist. So, every additional fraction of warming increases the atmospheric moisture content, and this increases the risk of extreme precipitation, flooding,” she explained.
World must act now
Asked what action can be taken to avoid the devastation caused in Spain and elsewhere, Ms. Nullis said the international community “can make a good start by reducing greenhouse gas emissions which are the driver behind this.”
Countries also “need to ensure that early warnings lead to informed early action.”
WMO will publish its latest State of the Global Climate update at the COP29 UN climate change conference in Azerbaijan later this month. The report will provide more details about extreme events around the world over the past year.
Amid a deepening humanitarian crisis in Ukraine caused by the ongoing Russian invasion, the head of the UN atomic energy agency (IAEA)saidthat safety at the country’s largest nuclear power plant “remains a deep source of concern”.
Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) – which is also Europe’s biggest nuclear energy facility – has been under Russian control since shortly after it launched a full-scale military campaign in February 2022.
In recent days, an IAEA expert team crossed the frontline to replace colleagues at the Zaporizhzhya plant who have been monitoring nuclear safety and security since September 2022. The presence of the “IAEA Support and Assistance Mission” at ZNPP and four other nuclear facilities is meant “to help prevent a radiological accident during the military conflict”, IAEA said in a statement.
“We will stay at these sites for as long as it is needed to help avert the threat of a nuclear accident that could have serious consequences for human health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi. “As the nuclear safety and security situation remains highly challenging, our experts are continuing to play a crucial stabilizing role at all these facilities.”
Media reports indicated ongoing fighting and drone attacks in the vicinity of the Zaporizhyzhya plant in southeastern Ukraine.
Conflict ever-present
“During the past week, the team has continued to hear frequent explosions, some distance away from the ZNPP. No damage to the ZNPP was reported,” IAEA said. The agency’s teams said that the safety and security at four other Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine NPPs and the Chornobyl site reported that safety and security at Ukraine’s four other nuclear plants “is being maintained despite the effects of the ongoing conflict, including air raid alarms for several days over the past week”.
At the Zaporizhzhya plant, IAEA said that it had been informed that two backup transformers had resumed operation after successful high voltage testing, while maintenance would be carried out on the four remaining backup transformers by the end of the year.
The IAEA expert team also reported discussing winter preparations for the plant and receiving confirmation that all six reactors will remain in cold shutdown.
The IAEA expert team also reported discussing winter preparations for the plant and receiving confirmation that all six reactors will remain in cold shutdown.
Humanitarian crisis worsens
Latest updates from UN aid teams have highlighted the deepening humanitarian crisis across Ukraine, particularly in frontline areas in the northeast, east and south, owing to “intensified attacks” by Russian forces. UN human rights monitors have verified more than 1,400 deaths and injuries since the full-scale Russian invasion on 24 February 2022.
“Humanitarian response efforts face growing challenges, including safety risks. “Six aid workers were killed or injured in July and August alone.” said UN aid coordination office, OCHA. It noted that in the first nine months of the year, the humanitarian community has provided at least one form of assistance to 7.2 million out of 8.5 million people targeted for support.
This is despite the 2024 Humanitarian Appeal for Ukraine receiving less than half the requested $3.11 billion.
“Civilians remaining in front-line communities in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Khersons, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya oblasts face dire living conditions, which is expected to worsen as winter approaches,” OCHA warned.
Repeated attacks on energy infrastructure “are expected to worsen the challenges civilians will face in the coming winter”, the UN agency continued, highlighting likely disruption to essential services such as water, gas and heating.
According to authorities and UN partners on the ground, attacks in the early hours of Thursday injured dozens of civilians and damaged apartment buildings and hospitals in the capital, Kyiv, and in the front-line regions of Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kherson, Donetsk, Sumy and Mykolaiv.
Aid workers swiftly mobilised to offer psychological support, provide construction materials and deliver cash assistance to vulnerable people, OCHA reported.
The UN Resident Coordinator Office in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, who witnessed the humanitarian impact of the attacks firsthand, met with local authorities and humanitarian partners to discuss ways to strengthen the humanitarian response.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Mali outlined on Saturday the steps the Government has taken to rebuild trust among the country’s diverse communities and push back against terrorism, but he warned that “opportunistic’ terrorist groups, and their foreign sponsors threatened toundo this work.
Addressing the UN General Assembly’s annual debate, Abdoulaye Maiga said that since 2012, Mali had been experiencing a multifaceted crisis that led to the loss of more than half its territory and countless civilian lives.
This was largely due to violence perpetrated by an “opportunistic and incestuous association” of terrorist groups and other armed fighters. NATO’s “haphazard” military intervention in Libya had also played a part in worsening the situation throughout the Sahel.
Indeed, terrorist activities, instigated by sponsors inside and outside the region, had a dire impact on Mali’s security and stability due to rising violence, “all kinds of trafficking, money laundering and community conflicts,” the Deputy Prime Minister explained.
Having witnessed the failure of international forces on its territory since 2013 to deal with these issues, Malian authorities decided to “take their fate in their own hands.” Since 2021 Mali had launched a vast campaign to re-equip and reorganize the Malian defense and security forces.
After a subsequent national assessment, Malian authorities and citizens had together concluded that their country, its people and its defense and security forces had been “left pillaged and polluted; battered and humiliated; high and dry and stabbed in the back,” by parties that had instigated violence, and looted the country’s raw materials for their own gain. Such was the case for much of Africa.
Considering this “ruthless reality of international relations”, especially as it pertains to Africa, Mali’s president had earlier this year launched a ‘national programme for education on values’ aiming for Malians to recommit to their origins, “without which it would be difficult to image a bright future for our country in its legitimate quest to restore its sovereignty,” Mr. Maiga explained.
As for Mali’s ongoing political transition, he recalled that the Malian people had chosen to undertake political reforms before holding elections to establish good governance, among other goals. In addition, to further foster national unity, “which is the basis for all development efforts”, the president, on 31 December 2023, the holding of the three phase inter-Malian dialogue for peace and reconciliation. The aim is to allow the nation to seek Malian solutions for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts.
“We call on all Malians to support this trend towards reconciliation, a key step towards returning to constitutional order,” Mr. Maiga said, going on to note that while the outcomes of the reconciliation process were still a guiding principle, the newly reinvigorated security forces had been successful in, among others, efforts to recover all regions form the hands of terrorist groups, particularly in Kidal.
Even though the terrorist groups had been “severely weakened” as Malian defense forces have been deployed throughout the country, those “criminals” continued “desperate attempts to undermine Mali’s territorial integrity, he said, denouncing the support of such actors by “foreign State sponsors”.
Mr. Maiga also recalled that, earlier this year, the member States of the Confederation of the States of the Sahel sent a joint letter to the Security Council to condemn Ukrainian authorities’ support for international terrorism; denounce the aggression against Mali; and demand that the Council take appropriate measures against the Ukrainian Government.
He also criticized France for its acts of aggression against Mali and its involvement in promoting terrorism in the Sahel through armed, economic and media terrorism.
Finally, the Deputy Foreign Minister expressed surprise at the “fierce hostility” from some officials of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) “who are acting on orders of imperialists and neocolonial entities”.
The President of the General Assembly on Monday reminded UN Member States that the Organization’s strength “lies in our diversity” and ability to unite around common goals, as the curtains drew on the 79th session’s high-level debate.
This year’s general debate opened with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva addressing UN’s membership.
Over six days, 190 Member States took to the iconic green marble podium, highlighting the pressing challenges confronting the international community and the need for global unity to overcome. In addition, three Observers also spoke.
Conflicts raging in Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Ukraine are unfortunately not an exhaustive list, he said.
“In the last few days, the world has seen an extremely dramatic escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. That escalation risks causing war in the entire Middle East region.”
“This must stop, and it must stop now. The world must not allow an all-out war to happen in this volatile region,” he stressed, calling on all parties – Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah – to urgently come to a ceasefire.
“And for all remaining hostages to be freed immediately and unharmed.”
Move forward together
Mr. Yang emphasized that only by working together can the international community confront and overcome the complex and discouraging challenges before it.
“Only through dialogue, listening, and collective action, can we find solutions that benefit all of us.”
He emphasized that the theme for the 79th Session – Unity in diversity, for the advancement of peace, sustainable development, and human dignity for everyone, everywhere – is not just a guiding principle, it is a call to action.
“The theme reminds us that our strength lies in our diversity, and our ability to unite stakeholders around our common goals,” he said.
“Let us all move forward together with this spirit of unity and shared responsibility. Let us continue our work, with the clear aim of building a peaceful, just, and dignified future for all.”
The United Kingdom announced on Thursday that agreement has been reached to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending decades of dispute and negotiation over Britain’s last African colony.
The agreement follows 13 rounds of talks that began in 2022 after Mauritian calls for sovereignty were recognised by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the UN General Assembly in 2019 and 2021.
The world court, as the ICJ is known, is the principle judicial organ of the UN which adjudicates disputes between nations.
Before granting independence to Mauritius in 1968, Britain was found to have unlawfully separated it to form a new colony on the Chagos archipelago named the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).
The UK had initially dismissed UN rulings and court judgements demanding it return the islands to Mauritius, arguing that the ICJ ruling was merely an advisory opinion.
Forced displacement of islanders
In splitting the islands from Mauritius, the UK expelled between 1,500 and 2,000 islanders so that it could lease Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos islands, to the United States for military use which the two allies have since operated jointly.
According to news reports, the UK falsely declared that Chagos had no permanent population so that it would not have to report its colonial rule to the UN. In reality, the Chagossian community had lived on Chagos for centuries.
The UK and US governments forcibly displaced the Chagossian population between 1967 and 1973 not only reportedly on Diego Garcia, but also Peros Banhos and Salomon.
The campaign challenging British ownership of the Chagos archipelago included the Mauritian ambassador to the UN, Jagdish Koonjul, raising his country’s flag above the atoll of Peros Banhos in a ceremony in February 2022 to mark the first time Mauritius had led an expedition to the territory since the expulsions.
The new agreement
Under Thursday’s agreement, the UK will still retain control of the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.
The UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said the UK government had secured the future of the military base “as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner”.
However, many Chagossians are still frustrated by the UK government’s lack of consultation with them before Thursday’s announcement, according to news reports.
Chagossian Voices, a community organisation for Chagossians based in the UK and several other countries where islanders have settled, deplored “the exclusion of the Chagossian community from the negotiations”, leaving them “powerless and voiceless in determining our own future and the future of our homeland”.
“The view of Chagossians, the Indigenous inhabitants of the islands, have been consistently and deliberately ignored and we demand full inclusion in the drafting of the treaty,” they added.
Every September when UN Headquarters in New York is swamped – massive motorcades, intense security, snipers on rooftops and world leaders descending along with throngs of diplomats, media and celebrities – it’s not easy to grasp what exactly is going on or what was achieved.
Let’s try to unscramble those 10 days for you. This year, some 235 events and hundreds of speakers later, the spotlight was shone on what the world was facing – how to move towards a revamp of an outdated global economic order, forging new pathways to peace, and finding solutions to the growing threat of nuclear war, global public health challenges, climate disruption and dangerous levels of impunity, inequality and uncertainty.
Kicking off the Summit of the Future (22-23 September) ahead of the General Assembly’s annual high-level week, Secretary-General António Guterres’ clarion call for change made the stakes plain: “We cannot build a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents.”
More than 140 leaders spoke in the action-packed gathering while the UN was taken over by youth and civil society. The end-goal? Torchbearers of change trying to chart a course to rejig a UN that can be fit for purpose and ready to meet 21st century challenges with modernized, upgraded institutions that do not reflect the world of 1945.
The good news is they agreed on a rescue plan to steer the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track, a groundbreaking Pact for the Future that now needs to be implemented. Despite a last-minute challenge from a group of countries opposed to the pact, UN Member States actually inked a deal – and agreed on the need for justice and reform.
Soundcloud
The big wins? Economic justice pledges included a promise to overhaul the international financial architecture so that developing countries reeling under a debt burden can begin to invest in development and not be crippled by debt repayments. Security Council reform saw a groundswell of support to expand and balance rights of membership. Strong backing was expressed for Africa to have permanent representation in the Security Council – along with other contenders like Brazil, India, and Japan. South African Prime Minister Cyril Ramaphosa called for the Security Council to be “more representative and inclusive,” noting that Africa and its 1.4 billion people remain excluded from this key decision-making structure.
A group of experts delivered findings on the critical need to embrace digital innovation and harness how artificialintelligence could transform our world; but equally to close the digital divide and ensure guardrails around a responsible advance for humanity.
A Global Digital Compact was agreed, with the aim of opening the doors to a brave, new and accountable digital world order.
On the sidelines, a dark moment was captured in a conversation on the future of women in Afghanistan – actress Meryl Streep questioned how it was possible that cats and birds had more freedom in the country where girls were banned from education. “A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face. She may chase a squirrel into the park. A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban,” Streep said. “This is a suppression of the natural law.”
In a devastating testimonial during a ministerial meeting “The Cost of Inaction in Sudan”, Sudanese activist Nisreen al-Saem lamented that the war in her country was a “war on women” and appealed: “Oh, Burhan and Hemediti, we’re tired, unite the Sudanese people and lay down your arms”.
As the General Assembly began its 79th session, 190 countries out of 193 Member States spoke in what is not a debate at all – but a chance for governments to speak their mind on the state of the world or their region or pressing global problems. Highlighting an ignominious fact, Iceland’s Foreign Minister Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir – as one of only 19 women speaking in the hallowed hall – chastised: “I thought we had come further than this.”
Another female leader, the outspoken premier of Barbados, Mia Mottley, a fierce advocate of the Bridgetown Initiative which aims to kickstart global financial restructuring exhorted global institutions to give developing countries – especially small vulnerable ones – “seats at the tables of decision-making”.
The chorus was loud on the need for institutional reform at the UN, stoked by fears of an outdated and archaic institution unable to keep pace with a world that has changed profoundly.
If the UN is to become a “central platform for finding common ground” according to the Minister for External Affairs of India, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, “it cannot, by remaining anachronistic.” In his swansong speech, US President Joe Biden reminded fellow leaders: “Never forget we are here to serve the people, not the other way around.”
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The eclipse of multilateralism and international law bubbled up repeatedly – Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vivian Balakrishnan, warned that multilateralism is not an option but an existential necessity while Amery Browne, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago wagged his finger at the selective respect for international law.
A refrain heard repeatedly on the war in Ukraine and Gaza was captured by Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Lars Rasmussen, who worried that the respect for international law is slowly being undermined and flagged that, “Wars of aggression and altering borders is — and should remain — a thing of the past.”
Many sounded the alarm on the climate-security nexus with President Ramkalawan of the Seychelles flagging this as an existential issue that would plague future generations – a sentiment widely echoed by the young activists who flocked to the UN.
As nation after nation spoke out about the unimaginable destruction and devastation in Gaza following the terror attacks launched by Hamas on 7 October 2023, and with the drumbeat of war growing in the region, Brazil’s President Luiz Ignacio Lula had warning words: “The right to defense has become the right to vengeance.” While committing to sending forces to counter the deteriorating security in Haiti, President William Ruto of Kenya regretted that the Charter’s foundations have been shaken.
The President of the General Assembly, Philemon Yang pleaded for an end to the spiralling conflict and retribution between Israel and Gaza and a return to a solution grounded in international law for the good of Israelis and Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the UN to “set the record straight” in a session that was sparsely attended because of a walkout – but his speech was watched by record numbers online illustrating how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dominated the discussions.
The entire General Assembly session was supposed to be about the future, devoted to uplifting commitments to reset the world on the path to sustainable development, to rethink how we can make the world more equitable and efficient, find ways to tackle public health threats like Anti-Microbial Resistance and to showcase how the world can leverage the potential of new technologies. Yet, the focus inevitably ended up on what the Secretary-General called “the purgatory of polarity” and the threat of an “age of impunity.”
In the spirit of the Pact for Future Generations, heartwarming moments came from youth who showed up for the Action Days and the SDG Media Zone. Sanjana Sanghi, a UN Development Programme climate activist from India, praised the positivity of the younger generation that inspired hope. She summed up the buzz felt around the UN campus: “I am deeply inspired by these young changemakers who are passionately working to address climate issues and secure a sustainable future for everyone.”
*This is not an official record. It is a snapshot of this year’s General Assembly High-Level Week.
A UN human rights expert on Fridaystrongly condemnedthe jailing of a 68-year-old paediatrician in Moscow, describing the case as another example of Russia’s “systematic suppression of dissenting voices”.
Dr. Nadezhda Buyanova was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for allegedly making anti-war remarks concerning Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, during a private medical consultation.
“It is appalling to sentence a doctor for unproven private comment in the course of her professional duties,” said Mariana Katzarova, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation.
The case originated when the widow of a Russian serviceman killed in Ukraine filed a complaint alleging that Dr. Buyanova made derogatory statements about her deceased husband during their child’s medical appointment.
Russia the aggressor
According to the complaint, the doctor allegedly described the father as a “legitimate target for the Ukrainian army” and stated that “Russia is to blame as it is the aggressor”.
The court reportedly relied on a pre-trail interview with the seven-year-old and the advanced phrasing involved suggested the testimony had likely been scripted. The child was not allowed to be cross-examined, undermining the fairness of proceedings, said the independent Human Rights Council-appointed expert.
Trial concerns
Dr. Buyanova, who was born in Lviv, Ukraine, has rejected the allegations against her. Responding to accusations of anti-Russian bias, she stated, “I am related to three ethnicities: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. I don’t want to have to choose between them”.
“This rushed trial based primarily on the testimony of a seven-year-old child, is yet another example of sham trials in Russia, targeting individuals simply for their anti-war stance,” Ms. Katzarova said.
The proceedings have raised concerns regarding unfairness for relying on the child’s testimony whose statement contained advanced phrasing, while denying the defence of any opportunity for cross-examination.
Systemic repression
The case has sparked widespread protest within Russia’s medical community, with more than 1,000 doctors signing an open letter advocating for Dr. Buyanova’s release.
Their protest emerges against a backdrop of intensifying repression, with current estimates indicating between 1,372 and 1,700 political prisoners detained in Russia, many for opposing the war in Ukraine.
“This case reflects the pattern of widespread and systemic suppression of any peaceful anti-war expression, targeting human rights defenders, political opposition and ordinary citizens for expressing views challenging state narratives,” Ms, Katzorva said.
In her September report to the UN Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur urged the Russian Government to cease using its judicial system as a political tool to silence civil society and dissenting voices.
“Buyova’s case is yet another emblematic case in Russia meant to gag war critics and instil fear among the Russian people,” Ms. Katzarova concluded.
“Buyanova must be released immediately and all charges against her dropped. Laws that stifle freedom of expression such as ‘war-censorship’ laws should be urgently repealed”.
Special Rapporteurs and other independent rights experts work on a voluntary basis, are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. The belong to no organisation or government, serving in a purely individual capacity.
A UN independent human rights expert on Tuesday called for an end to Russia’s severe crackdown on the legal profession, condemning the prison sentences handed down to three lawyers last week who defended the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Their trial, held in the Petushki district court of the Vladimir region, was criticized as a sham.
“This week, when we mark the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer, the Russian Government continues reprisals against lawyers for carrying out their professional duties,” Ms. Katzarova said.
She called for the immediate release of three lawyers, and for the verdict against them to be annulled.
Chilling effect
The sentencing of Mr. Kobzev, Mr. Liptser and Mr. Sergunin serves as a “chilling warning” to lawyers considering politically sensitive cases in Russia, Ms. Katzarova said, describing the charges as baseless under international law.
“The term ‘extremism’ has no foundation in international law and constitutes a violation of human rights when used to trigger criminal liability,” she said.
The trial took place behind closed doors, although around 50 people were allowed into the courtroom as the verdict was handed down, including journalists and lawyers, according to a news release issued by the Special Rapporteur.
Five others, four of them journalists, were arbitrarily detained, apparently to prevent them from attending the hearing. They were later released.
“The persecution of lawyers and journalists is part of an alarming pattern of targeted repression and State control that is silencing independent media and the legal profession throughout Russia,” Ms. Katzarova added.
Escalating repressions
The Special Rapporteur’s 2024 report to the UN Human Rights Council documented continuing attacks on the legal profession in Russia.
“Lawyers have been imprisoned, prosecuted, disbarred and intimidated simply for carrying out their professional duties,” Ms. Katzarova said.
She noted “widespread use” of vague legal definitions and unpredictable, often abusive, interpretations, as well as closed trials which have allowed Russian authorities to misuse and instrumentalise counter-extremism, counter-terrorism and national security legislation to stifle critics, ban anti-war speech, imprison legitimate political opponents and punish and endanger their defence lawyers.
“This practice must end,” she added.
Independent expert
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur was established by the Human Rights Council in October 2022, and subsequently extended.
Ms. Katzarova was appointed as the Special Rapporteur by the Council in April 2023 and assumed her function on 1 May 2023. She is not a UN staff member, does not draw a salary, and serves in her individual capacity, independent of the UN Secretariat.
The international community must continue to show solidarity with Ukraine, a senior UN aid official said on Tuesday, marking 1,000 days since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country.
The “grim milestone” fell as Ukraine fired long-range American-made missiles into Russia for the first time, according to media reports.
‘Not just numbers’
Conflict erupted in Ukraine over a decade ago following Russia’s occupation of Crimea in the east and escalated on 24 February 2022 with the full-scale assault on the country.
The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, detailed the death and destruction that has occurred since then.
More than 39,000 civilians have been killed or injured, and over 3,400 schools and hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, while 10 million people have fled their homes.
“These are not just numbers; each one of them represents countless stories of individual unimaginable pain for the people of Ukraine,” he said.
Stand with Ukraine
Although the UN “cannot erase the horrors of the war”, Mr. Schmale said it has worked with national and international organizations and the Government to address the acute needs of the most vulnerable, which includes people with limited mobility and older persons.
“As Ukrainians brace for another winter of war, the UN’s support and the solidarity of the international community must remain firm,” he said.
“I urge the international community to stand with Ukraine and to continue recognizing and supporting the heroic work of the many first responders, including volunteers.”
Pain, suffering and rights violations
The UN human rights office, OHCHR, provided further information on the war’s toll in a statement marking the “grim milestone”.
OHCHR has verified that at least 12,162 civilians, including 659 children, have been killed since 24 February 2022, while at least 26,919 have been injured.
“As the High Commissioner has said, it has been 1,000 days too many of senseless pain and suffering. Violations of human rights have become the order of the day, both in the conduct of hostilities and in areas under occupation,” Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told journalists in Geneva.
Strikes in Kharkiv in September left dozens of families homeless and caused multiple injuries.
Airstrikes continue
He said that over the past two days, at least 30 civilians have reportedly been killed in a series of deadly strikes in residential areas in Sumy City, Odesa and Hlukhiv.
“In the very latest attack on Hlukhiv, which occurred late last night, nine civilians, including a child, were reportedly killed, and 11, including two children, injured,” he said, noting that search and rescue operations are ongoing.
He added that the Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Danielle Bell, visited several locations in Zaporizhzhia on Monday that had recently been struck by Russian glide bombs.
The locations included an oncology centre which was hit on 7 November as cancer patients were receiving chemotherapy, and an apartment building where half the structure was destroyed by another glide bomb the same day. Ten people were killed.
Stop the violence
“We call on all parties to ensure the safety and protection of civilians. Effective measures must also be taken to fully and impartially investigate where there are credible allegations of violations,” said Mr. Laurence.
“The violence must stop – for the sake of the people of Ukraine, the people of Russia, and the world.”
Separately, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine highlighted the immense suffering caused by Russia’s violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.
Widespread, systematic torture
These include the indiscriminate use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, the targeting of civilian objectives, “massive waves of attacks” on energy infrastructure, and the forced transfer and deportation of children.
The Commission drew attention to its report issued last month which concluded that torture committed by Russian authorities against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war amounts to a crime against humanity.
“Such crimes are among the most serious under international law,” members said, adding that torture “has been widespread, systematic, and committed as a coordinated state policy.”
Warmth and dignity in winter
Meanwhile, 1,000 days of war have left more than 14.6 million Ukrainians in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including 3.5 million displaced within the country, said Amy Pope, Director General of UN migration agency, IOM.
“As winter arrives, the persistent attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure – decimating 65 per cent of the country’s generation capacity –have left communities struggling without adequate electricity, heating, or water,” she said
“This is a matter of survival for millions of people and requires the international community to stand together in solidarity.”
Ms. Pope called on governments, private sector leaders, and people worldwide to sustain their support for those in greatest need.
“Together, we can ensure that even in the darkest of winters, there is warmth, dignity, and the promise of a peaceful future,” she said.
Independent UN human rights experts have warned of an escalating risk of nuclear disaster in Ukraine following Russia’s continued attacks on the country’s electrical infrastructure, with the most recent strike occurring on 17 November.
Their warning comes amid growing international concern about the vulnerability of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities which rely on a stable power grid to maintain critical safety systems.
“The latest large-scale Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s electricity system has led to further significant damage to electric substations that are essential to the operation of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants,” the experts emphasised.
Severe damage, civilian casualties
The strikes occurred overnight and reportedly caused severe damage, power outages and civilian casualties. The timing of this attack raises additional concerns as Ukraine enters the winter months, when power demands typically surge.
This latest assault came despite earlier warnings from 13 UN Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups, who had formally communicated with Moscow on 22 October about the prohibition of such attacks under international humanitarian law.
Further, the attacks occurred despite earlier arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in June 2024 for high-ranking Russian government officials specifically related to strikes against Ukraine’s electric power infrastructure.
Adding to the nuclear safety concerns, the UN Human rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has documented extensive civilian harm from these long-range attacks on the power system.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant concerns
The experts further recalled credible allegations of Russian forces subjecting staff at Europe’s biggest nuclear energy facility, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), to intimidation, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and torture.
“Having reportedly lost two-thirds of its power generation capacity, further damage to Ukraine’s electricity system could lead to an electricity blackout which would increase the risk of operating nuclear reactors losing access to the grid for powering their safety systems,” the experts cautioned.
They warned that such a scenario could trigger a nuclear disaster potentially exceeding both the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.
While the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed to expand its mission to Ukraine to include inspection of electric substations, progress has been limited.
“Despite the urgency of the situation, full implementation of an expanded monitoring mission had yet to be announced by the IAEA,” the experts noted. Only one mission was completed in October 2024, with no subsequent missions scheduled.
Stop attacks, avert risk
“We reiterate our urgent appeal for Russian armed forces to immediately cease their attacks against Ukraine’s power generation plants, substations, transmission and distribution lines and other energy infrastructure and to avert the risk of nuclear disaster,” the experts concluded, emphasising the immediate need for action to prevent catastrophic consequences.
Independent experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and report on specific country situations or thematic issues. They work on a voluntary basis, are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.
Hostilities ongoing
Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian affairs office OCHAsaid attacks and hostilities across Ukraine continued over the weekend and on Monday
The attacks resulted in scores of casualties, including children, and significantly damaged civilian infrastructure, particularly in Kharkiv, in Odesa and Zaporizhzhia, according to local authorities and UN partners on the ground.
As a result of the damage, nearly 150,000 families, as well as hospitals, schools and businesses, are currently without heating in the Dnipro and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, where temperatures have dropped below zero degrees centigrade, OCHA said, citing local authorities.
Humanitarian organizations mobilized swiftly and provided emergency assistance in Kharkiv and Odesa, among other affected areas, delivering food, repair materials and psychosocial support.
The UN human rights chief on Mondayurged Georgian authoritiesto respect and protect rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, following four nights of protests marred by violence.
The legitimate protests were dispersed using disproportionate and, in some cases, unnecessary force by the police in the capital, Tbilisi, according to the statement from High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
Dozens of protesters and media workers were reportedly injured during the demonstrations sparked by a prime ministerial announcement postponing negotiations on joining the European Union.
Security forces reportedly used pepper spray, water cannons and chemical irritants against protesters and journalists. Some were also reportedly chased and beaten by unidentified assailants.
“The use of unnecessary or disproportionate force against protesters and media workers is extremely worrying,” said Mr. Türk. “All Georgians from across the political spectrum should be able to express their views about the future of their country freely and peacefully.”
International human rights standards stipulate that States must promote an enabling environment for the exercise of right, including peaceful assembly, without discrimination, said UN rights office OHCHR.
Any use of force by security personnel must remain “an exception and comply with the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, precaution and non-discrimination.”
Protesters must show restraint
High Commissioner Türk also called on protesters to exercise their rights peacefully. Reports indicate rocks, fireworks and bottles were thrown at security forces, in addition to causing damage to the parliament building. The Ministry of Interior said at least 113 of its staff were injured.
The Special Investigation Service of Georgia – an independent institution accountable to Parliament that investigates allegations against law enforcement officials – announced that it has launched a probe into the abuse of official authority by police officers.
“All those found responsible for violations should be held accountable, and allegations of ill-treatment of detainees should also be investigated,” the High Commissioner said.
Individual officers from riot control squads or special police units, lack individual identification numbers or nametags – making accountability more difficult.
“These incidents underscore once again the need to address this long-standing concern when it comes to establishing individual responsibility of law enforcement officers in Georgia,” said the rights chief.
According to the Guide on Less Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement, issued by OHCHR in 2020, authorities should ensure that “law enforcement officials be identifiable, for example by wearing nametags or individually assigned service numbers”.
Scores detained
Latest figures from the Ministry of Interior indicate that at least 224 people were detained during the four nights of protests. They face charges of petty hooliganism and disobeying lawful police orders. “Reports that a number of children are among those detained are particularly worrying,” Mr. Türk said. “All their rights must be fully respected.”
He added that all those detained for the legitimate exercise of their rights to freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly must be freed “immediately and unconditionally.”
“Those facing other charges should be guaranteed all their rights to due process, presumption of innocence, legal counsel, as well as the right to challenge the lawfulness of their pre-trial detention, and adequate medical care if needed.”
Tchaikovky’s ballet The Nutcracker is now a staple of the holiday season. Less well-known is the famed Russian composer’s strong connection to the United States and, in particular, New York.
In November Denis von Meck, a descendant of the great composer, came to UN Headquarters to talk about Tchaikovsky’s relationship with the United States, and his important role in ensuring the success of New York’s iconic Carnegie Hall.
Denis von Meck In the late nineteenth century New York lacked good quality venues for music performances, so a group of music lovers keen to see a new concert hall in the city turned to Andrew Carnegie, a well-known patron of the arts at the time.
Carnegie was more interested in literature and building libraries, but his wife was a music lover. Through her, they succeeded in interesting him in the idea of funding what became Carnegie Hall.
However, it was a risky venture: the Hall was far from the city centre in downtown New York, and the roads were poor. There were fears that few people would want to make the trip, so it was decided to invite Tchaikovsky, the most famous musician in the world, to attend a five-day festival, at which he would conduct.
UN News
Denis von Meck, descendant of Tchaikovsky and founder of the von Meck Foundation
UN News: How did Tchaikovsky come to be so famous in the US?
Denis von Meck: WhenTchaikovsky composed his First Piano Concerto in 1875, he dedicated it to Nikolai Rubinstein, his director at the Moscow Conservatory and an outstanding pianist. However, Rubinstein demanded changes and, when Tchaikovsky declined, refused to perform it.
Tchaikovsky turned to several musicians to perform the concerto, including Hans von Bülow, the German conductor and pianist, who agreed. The first performance took place in Boston, and the second in New York.
Walter Damrosch, one of the leading German conductors and musicians of the time, heard it in New York and asked Tchaikovsky for more music. As a result, his works became widely circulated, and he became extremely popular in the US, far more so than in Europe and, perhaps, even more than in Russia.
This success was a very pleasant surprise for Tchaikovsky, who left America with many great memories, and positive words about the country.
UN News: If you look at the Wikipedia article about Tchaikovsky in English, there is an audio recording from 1890, which is believed to contain his voice. As an expert on the composer, do you think this is authentic?
Denis von Meck: Yes, it is genuine. It was made at the end of his life, in the early days of sound recordings, and it is also available on YouTube. Researchers at Tchaikovsky Museum in Klin were able to fully decipher the words, and also identify all of the participants.
The UN’s humanitarian coordinator and refugee chief are in Ukraine this week where they will unveil the latest plans to assist millions impacted by the full-scale Russian invasion.
More than 12.7 million people inside Ukraine require aid, as do the more than 6.8 million Ukrainian refugees worldwide.
On Tuesday, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher visited the Kharkiv region, located in the east.
Support in frontline areas
He travelled to the village of Shevchenko, some 30 kilometres from the front lines, and another city, Kupiansk, which is on the front lines.
The UN is working with local partners in these areas to provide transport to people living close to the front lines so that they can access basic services. Many are older and have limited mobility.
Mr. Fletcher was later joined by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, at a press conference with the governor of Kharkiv region.
Stay and deliver
He underscored the UN’s sustained commitment to stay and deliver for people as the war rages on.
Mr. Grandi wrote on social media that it had been valuable to meet the governor face to face.
“We assured him that the UN will continue supporting the authorities’ efforts to keep their people warm, strong and safe as a third consecutive winter increases hardship in Ukraine’s war-devastated frontline areas,” he said in a post on X.
Aid plans
The top UN officials will be in the capital, Kyiv, on Thursday to launch the 2025 humanitarian and refugee response plans alongside the Government.
The plans aim to ensure the continuation of critical assistance to people affected by the crisis.
TheUN Security Councilmet in emergency session on Ukraine on Wednesday amid unconfirmed reports that troops from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) – more commonly known as North Korea – are deploying to fight alongside Russia. We followed the meeting as well as developments at UN Headquarters and on the ground. UN News app users can follow our updateshere.
As tensions mount between Pristina and Belgrade, the UN’s top official in Kosovo called for “responsible leadership” from all parties to protect human rights and foster constructive political dialogue.
Caroline Ziadeh, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), briefed ambassadors in the Security Council on recent developments, calling for greater cooperation to stabilize the region and safeguard fundamental freedoms.
She highlighted the situation in northern Kosovo, where civil society groups, political figures and residents are increasingly worried about the impact of unilateral political moves that have disrupted their daily lives.
During a visit in September, local stakeholders told her that closures of Belgrade-run Post of Serbia branches and municipal offices have limited access to essential services, especially for the Kosovo Serb community.
“These community members further voiced anxiety over indications that the Pristina authorities may attempt to assert control over the Serbia-funded education and health institutions.”
Safeguarding human rights
Ms. Ziadeh further emphasised that advancing and safeguarding human rights “is at the very core of our mission in Kosovo,” noting a recent uptick in civic activism but also raising alarm over arrests related to freedom of expression and assembly.
The Police Inspectorate of Kosovo is investigating allegations of excessive force and mistreatment in police custody, she added, as she suggested that publishing the Inspectorate’s findings could enhance transparency and help rebuild trust in public institutions.
She also welcomed recent progress made by the Working Group on Missing Persons and continued efforts to meet the expectations of families, “whose ongoing grief deeply continues to weigh heavily on the social fabric”.
Kosovo and Serbia dialogue
Ms. Ziadeh also addressed recent developments in the European Union (EU)-facilitated dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.
She welcomed the setting up of a working group to ease the entry of certain perishable goods and to advance energy connectivity, the lifting of restrictions on Serbian goods, as well as nine key trade agreements under the Central European Free Trade Agreement.
“It is imperative that the current bottlenecks will be expeditiously addressed. This recent progress underscores the potential for deeper work toward regional integration via constructive diplomatic compromises,” she said.
Upcoming elections
With Kosovo approaching a pre-election period, Ms. Ziadeh urged political leaders to create an environment that supports the right to vote and encourages peaceful participation in public affairs.
Emphasising the need for responsible leadership, she urged the Security Council and international partners to support Kosovo in fostering dialogue, protecting fundamental rights, and promoting lasting stability.
“By working together, we can propel constructive political dialogue, protect fundamental rights and promote a more lasting security and prosperity for all,” she said.
A senior UN disarmament official on Thursday called on all parties to the conflict in Ukraine to exercise restraint and avoid actions that could further escalate the war.
Adedeji Ebo, Director and Deputy to the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, delivered the appeal at a Security Council briefing on the ongoing crisis, now nearing its 1,000-day mark since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Mr. Ebo warned that the situation remains dire for civilians, with intensifying attacks resulting in a record number of casualties in recent months.
“Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure are unacceptable,” he said, emphasizing that indiscriminate violence is prohibited under international law.
He reiterated that all parties in armed conflicts are obligated to protect civilians and respect international humanitarian laws.
Arms transfer
Mr. Ebo also informed Council members of continued transfer of arms to parties to the conflict, noting reports of continued shipments of conventional weapons and remotely operated munitions to Ukraine as well as of weapons such as uncrewed aerial vehicles, ballistic missiles and ammunition to Russia.
He also referred to recent reports which have not been confirmed by the UN of the presence of third-party military personnel from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the Russian Federation to assist in military operations against Ukrainian forces.
“We urge all concerned to refrain from any steps that may lead to further spillover and intensification of the war,” he said.
He also stressed that any transfer of weapons and ammunition must take place consistently with the applicable international legal framework, including relevant Security Council resolutions, and applicable sanctions and restrictive measures on such transfers.
Humanitarian impact
Mr. Ebo further noted the impact on civilians of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
Between 24 February 2022 and 30 September 2024, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, recorded over 11,973 civilians killed and more than 25,943 civilians injured in Ukraine. September was the month with the highest number of civilian casualties in 2024, continuing a trend of higher civilian casualties that started in July.
“The use of explosive weapons in populated areas remains one of the most significant threats to civilians in armed conflict. Such use of these weapons is unacceptable, in view of the pattern of civilian harm and the likelihood of indiscriminate effects.”
Mr. Ebo renewed the UN’s support for “all meaningful efforts” to bring a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in Ukraine in line with international law, including the UN Charter and relevant General Assembly resolutions.
The mechanism to complete the work of UN war crimes tribunals continues to make progress in delivering justice for the most serious crimes in Rwanda and the States of the former Yugoslavia, top officials told the Security Council on Tuesday.
Briefing ambassadors Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IMRCT), highlighted key achievements, ongoing challenges and her commitment to concluding the mechanism’s mandate.
“We are delivering justice in line with our statutory obligations, are doing so efficiently and with a completion mindset,” she said.
Its mandate includes conducting trials, handling appeals, managing archives and supporting national jurisdictions with evidence and expertise. It also supervises the enforcement of sentences, and tracks and prosecutes remaining fugitives, while also ensuring witness and victim protection.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías
Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, briefs the Security Council.
Upholding the justice cycle
Judge Gatti Santana highlighted recent successes of the IMRCT, including the review of the final conviction in the Gérard Ntakirutimana case.
Mr. Ntakirutimana was originally convicted by Trial Chamber I of ICTR in February 2003, for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. The review was ordered after Mr. Ntakirutimana claimed he uncovered new information that a witness had recanted evidence.
The Appeals Chamber conducted an expeditious review and upheld the convictions after considering all evidence.
“This process was key to the justice cycle and ensured that no miscarriage of justice had occurred. It also exemplified the institution’s dedication to ensure that any in-court proceedings are completed quickly and cost-effectively,” Judge Gatti Santana said.
Judge Gatti Santana further highlighted that the Mechanism’s other residual functions, including supervising the enforcement of sentences and assisting national jurisdictions continue to require time, attention, and resources.
The Mechanism remains best placed to execute them in the near term, given its institutional knowledge and the need to identify viable and just solutions for transfer or completion, she said.
Call for cooperation
However, she underscored the need for greater cooperation from States to address critical, unresolved challenges, including the case of six acquitted or released persons in Niger, which remains in a state of limbo.
Similarly, the case of Jojić and Radeta remains unresolved after nearly a decade due to Serbia’s lack of cooperation in arresting and transferring the accused.
Judge Gatti Santana also urged greater support regarding the conversion of the United Nations Detention Unit into a prison facility.
Located in a Dutch prison complex in The Hague, the Detention Unit holds four individuals – three convicted persons awaiting transfer to an enforcement State; and one detainee awaiting provisional release to a State.
UN Photo/Evan Schneider
Serge Brammertz, Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals briefs the Security Council.
Safeguarding integrity of judgements
Mechanism Prosecutor Serge Brammertz also briefed Ambassadors, detailing progress on individual cases and broader efforts to support justice. He informed ambassadors the recent rejection of Gérard Ntakirutimana’s appeal and ongoing efforts to transfer Fulgence Kayishema from South Africa to the Mechanism for trial.
He highlighted the importance of safeguarding integrity of prior judgments, especially amid allegations of interference aimed at reversing convictions, stating that “review proceedings cannot be a license for convicted persons to rewrite history and erase their crimes by fabricating evidence.”
Locating missing persons
A standout initiative is the collaboration between the Office of the Prosecutor and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to locate missing persons from the Yugoslav conflicts of the 1990s.
This joint project has provided evidence and audiovisual material on over 12,000 missing persons, underscoring the humanitarian imperative of resolving these cases.
The Office also supports national authorities in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, where many fugitives and suspects remain unaccounted for. More than 400 requests for assistance were received in 2024, Mr. Brammertz said.
“It is clear that today, Member States need our help as much as ever before,” he added.
The number of victims of human trafficking detected globally is rising again after falling off during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its latest report on the issue, covering 156 countries.
The 2024 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons reveals a 25 per cent increase between 2022 and 2019, as more children are exploited and forced labour cases spike due to vulnerabilities brought on by poverty, conflict and the climate crisis.
“Criminals are increasingly trafficking people into forced labour, including to coerce them into running sophisticated online scams and cyberfraud, while women and girls face the risk of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly.
“We need to step up criminal justice responses to hold those at the top of the criminal chain accountable, work across borders to rescue victims and ensure survivors receive the support they need,” she added.
Unaccompanied children at risk
The number of victims detected for trafficking for forced labour worldwide surged by 47 per cent between 2019 and 2022, according to the report.
The number of child victims increased 31 per cent in 2022 compared to 2019, with a 38 per cent rise recorded for girls.
More boy victims have been detected in areas where increasing numbers of unaccompanied and separated children had been recorded, the report said.
Child trafficking is also on the rise in high-income countries, often involving girls trafficked for sexual exploitation.
ILO
Natalia, a mother of two children from Belarus, became a victim of human traffickers (file).
Victims mainly women
The study found that women and girls continue to account for the majority of victims detected worldwide, or 61 per cent. Most girls, 60 per cent, continue to be trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Regarding boys, some 45 per cent are trafficked for forced labour and another 47 per cent are exploited for other purposes, including forced criminality and begging.
Meanwhile, trafficking for forced criminality – which includes online scams – ranks third in the number of victims detected, jumping from one per cent of total victims detected in 2016 to eight per cent in 2022.
Special focus on Africa
The report features a special chapter on Africa, a region UNODC said has often been neglected in trafficking studies due to the difficulties in obtaining data.
The agency made extensive efforts to gather data from all regions of the continent, including through help from its field offices and joint initiatives with the UN migration agency IOM, the African Union Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and various national authorities.
The report detected that African victims account for the highest number of destinations reached. At least 162 different nationalities were trafficked to 128 different destination countries in 2022. Of the cross-border flows detected, 31 per cent involved citizens of African countries.
Most African victims are trafficked within the continent, where displacement, insecurity and climate change are making vulnerabilities worse.
UNODC warned that children are more frequently detected than adult trafficking in most parts of Africa, particularly for forced labour, sexual exploitation and forced begging.
The agency noted that a contributing factor to the global rise in child victims is the overall increase of the number of cases detected in sub-Saharan Africa.
For the second consecutive year, conflict zones have proven dangerous for journalists and media workers, with 2024 seeing at least 68 deaths in the line of duty, according to new data from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
More than 60 per cent of these killings occurred in countries experiencing conflict – the highest percentage in over a decade.
“Reliable information is vital in conflict situations to help affected populations and to enlighten the world,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.
“It is unacceptable that journalists pay with their lives for this work. I call on all States to step up and ensure the protection of media workers, in accordance with international law,” she added.
Alarming trends
The report highlights that 42 journalists were killed in conflict zones this year, including 18 in Palestine, which recorded the highest toll.
Other countries such as Ukraine, Colombia, Iraq, Lebanon, Myanmar, and Sudan also saw multiple fatalities, underscoring the heightened risks in regions marked by violence and instability.
This follows an unsettling trend seen in 2023, with more journalists losing their lives in conflicts over the past two years than in any comparable period since 2016-2017.
A glimmer of hope
While conflict zones remain a critical concern, the overall number of journalist killings decreased slightly during this year.
A notable reduction in deaths occurred in non-conflict areas, where 26 journalists were killed – the lowest figure in 16 years.
This decline was particularly evident in Latin America and the Caribbean, where journalist killings dropped from 43 in 2022 to 12 in 2024.
This suggests some progress in addressing threats against journalists in peacetime, especially in regions previously plagued by violence against media workers.
Beyond the numbers
UNESCO‘s data, sourced from leading international press freedom organizations, is rigorously verified to ensure impartiality.
Cases are excluded if deaths are deemed unrelated to the victims’ journalistic work. However, dozens of cases remain under review, and UNESCO continues to monitor developments closely.
The Organization’s mandate extends beyond tracking fatalities. It works to protect journalists through initiatives such as the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.
Emerging threats
In addition to physical threats, journalists are facing new challenges, including financial and legal pressures.
UNESCO has reported a 42 per cent increase in attacks on journalists reporting on environmental issues between 2019 and 2024, highlighting the evolving nature of risks confronting the media.
As UNESCO continues its efforts to promote press freedom and safeguard journalists, the agency calls on the international community to strengthen protections for media workers – ensuring that the quest for truth does not come at the ultimate cost.
The missile, launched on 31 October at approximately 7:11am local time, reportedly flew for 1 hour and 26 minutes, covered approximately 1,000 kilometres, reaching an altitude of over 7,000 kilometres before landing in the sea.
“The DPRK described this latest launch as a ‘very crucial test’ that ‘updated the recent records of the strategic missile capability of the DPRK’,” Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Asia at the UN Department of Political Affairs, told ambassadors.
“The Hwasong-19 sets new records in terms of flight duration and altitude and is the second solid-fuel ICBM developed by the DPRK which does not need to undergo fuelling prior to launch. It is reported to be larger than its predecessor, the Hwasong-18, and may be capable of carrying larger warheads or even multiple warheads.”
This latest test marks the 11th intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch by DPRK – more commonly known as North Korea – since announcing a new five-year military expansion plan in 2021.
Diplomatic engagement vital
Mr. Khiari noted that the launch also posed “serious risks” to international civil aviation and maritime traffic, with the potential for unintended incidents, as North Korea had issued no safety alerts.
“The DPRK’s launch of yet another ICBM is of serious concern and represents a grave threat to regional stability,” he stated, noting that despite numerous meetings of the Security Council in 2023 and 2024, the country “has not heeded calls to refrain from further launches.”
Secretary-General António Guterres also condemned the missile launch, urging the country to de-escalate and comply with international resolutions. He stressed that diplomatic engagement remains the “only pathway to sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Uphold non-proliferation regime
Mr. Khiari also expressed concern about growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, warning that DPRK’s “persistent pursuit” of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes – in violation of Security Council resolutions – continues to undermine the global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime.
“There is a crucial need for practical measures to reduce tensions and reverse this dangerous trajectory,” he said, urging Member States to foster an environment conducive to dialogue and cooperation.
Concluding his briefing, Mr. Khiari said that the UN and its partners stand ready to assist DPRK in addressing the basic needs of its people.
He urged the country to facilitate the full return of the UN Resident Coordinator and the UN Country Team which leads the humanitarian effort.
Assistant Secretary-General Khiari briefing the Security Council.
Hold DPRK accountable: United States
US Ambassador and Alternate Permanent Representative Robert Wood described the missile launches by DPRK as a “direct violation” of multiple UN Security Council resolutions, with each launch allowing Pyongyang to further advance its weapons programmes.
“These are unacceptable attempts to undermine global peace and security and make us all less safe. This Council has the responsibility to hold the DPRK accountable,” he said.
“Yet we are here again today because two members of this Council – China and Russia – have repeatedly shielded the DPRK, contributing to the normalization of these tests and emboldening the DPRK to further violate this Council’s sanctions and resolutions.”
He alleged that “Russia’s willingness to openly violate this Council’s sanctions resolutions and to jeopardize international peace and security knows no bounds – as Russia, is unlawfully training DPRK soldiers in its territory.”
He claimed that DPRK has sent “around 10,000” soldiers to Russia, adding that these troops are not yet seen to have been deployed into combat against Ukraine’s forces, “but we expect them to do so in the coming days.”
“If these troops engage in combat or combat support operations against Ukraine, they would render themselves legitimate military targets,” he noted.
Japan: Missiles ‘more threatening than ever’
Japan’s Ambassador Yamazaki Kazuyuki “strongly urged” DPRK not to conduct further launches, to immediately and fully comply with all relevant Security Council resolutions, and to engage in diplomacy and accept the repeated offers of dialogue.
The most recent ICBM landed around only 200 kilometres from the Japanese island of Hokkaido, and was “more threatening than ever” due to its trajectory and flight time, he said.
“This launch has deteriorated the not only regional but entire global security situation even further, and has brought the gravest threat yet from North Korea to all citizens of the region and beyond,” he added.
Ambassador Yamazaki said increased military cooperation between Russia and North Korea poses a great concern to the international community.
He noted the lawlessness of Russia’s “procurement of ballistic missiles from North Korea, as well as the training of North Korean soldiers, both of which constitute serious violations of relevant Security Council resolutions.”
He added that DPRK’s “involvement in Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine would constitute a grave violation of international law, including the UN Charter.”
Republic of Korea: Missiles are a distraction
Joonkook Hwang, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea, recalled the Security Council meeting last week and the ignoring by Pyongyang of the “repeated calls” for restraint.
“North Korea launched another ICBM right after our meeting last Wednesday,” he said, adding: “its intention could be to distract the world’s attention from its troops in Russia, demonstrate themselves as larger than life, or gain diplomatic leverage amid the US presidential election.”
Questioning how could an “impoverished pariah regime” continue to develop its ballistic missile programme despite “rigorous” sanctions regime imposed by the Security Council, he emphasized the presence of “large loopholes” that enable DPRK’s access to the equipment, materials and technology necessary to advance its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes.
He also warned of the challenges facing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
“Once the NPT regime begins to erode and ultimately collapses, it will be extremely difficult to restore it,” he said, adding:
“The repercussion will have a deep and lasting impact on international peace and security, and Permanent Members of the Security Council will not be immune to it either.”
China: Prioritize peace and stability
China’s Ambassador Fu Cong said that the current situation on the Korean Peninsula “remains tense” with growing antagonism that is not in the interest of any party.
“China calls on all parties to bear in mind the overall peace and stability on the Peninsula and the world at large, exercise calm and restraint, and avoid intensifying and escalating tensions,” he said.
He noted that the longstanding issue of the Korea Peninsula is in essence a security issue, with its root cases stemming from the vestiges of the Cold War and lack of mutual trust between the US and DPRK.
“It is imperative for all parties to take a rational and pragmatic approach and work to build mutual trust,” Ambassador Fu said.
He added that the US, while claiming that it seeks to uphold the international non-proliferation regime and denuclearize the Peninsula, “has continued to increase the deployment of its strategic forces…and even transferred weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium to a non-nuclear weapon state under AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation framework.”
“These moves are tantamount to pushing the threat to the doorstep of China and other countries in the region, seriously jeopardising regional security and upsetting the strategic security balance,” he said.
Russia: The west only seeks to demonize DPRK
Anna Evstigneeva, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia said that the “collective West is methodically using” the Security Council to present Pyongyang as being responsible for the deteriorating situation on the Peninsula.
“We did not expect nor did we hear anything new from the group of countries that requested today’s meeting,” she said, adding that the “aim of convening the meeting is the same every time – to make yet another step towards demonizing the DPRK.”
She said that it would be “interesting” to hear from those that requested the meeting if even one of these meetings had any impact on resolving the Peninsula’s problems, of if they have even made one constructive proposal or launching dialogue.
“The answer is obvious to everyone in this Chamber.”
She added that the “real motives” of those that requested the meeting was for creating a negative information backdrop around Pyongyang and keeping afloat ineffective sanctions measures and justifying aggressive steps by the US and their allies in the region.
Song Kim, DPRK Ambassador and Permanent Representative, said that the missile test conducted on 31 October by his country, within the area around the Korean Peninsula, did not have “the slightest” impact on security of neighbouring countries.
He said the present meeting of the Security Council, convened at the request of the US, runs contrary to the spirit of the UN Charter of state sovereignty and non-interference in domestic affairs. It also sets the example of “extreme double standards”.
“I resolutely denounce the holding of another unlawful meeting by UN Security Council infringing upon the sovereign right of the DPRK at the instigation of the US and its followers,” he said.
“Like all strategic weapons tests we have conducted so far, the test launching of the ICBM Hwasong-19 is an exercise of the just and legitimate right to self-defence to reliably safeguard the security of our State as well as peace of the region involved against escalating reckless nuclear war threats of hostile forces,” he added.
Ambassador Kim further noted that “some countries” speak of violation of Security Council resolutions at every opportunity as a “cure-all prescription,” adding however that these resolutions are “nothing but illegal documents” going totally against the principle of the sovereign equality of the UN Charter.
One of the most enduring mysteries in United Nations history – the 1961 plane crash that killed Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and all on board as he sought to broker peace in the Congo – will linger on, with a new assessment announced on Friday suggesting that “specific and crucial” information continues to be withheld by a handful of Member States.
Mr. Hammarskjöld served as Secretary-General from April 1953 until his death aged 56, when the chartered Douglas DC6 aircraft he was travelling in with others, registered as SE-BDY, crashed shortly after midnight on 17-18 September 1961, near Ndola, then in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
He was en route to negotiate a ceasefire between UN peacekeepers and separatists from the breakaway Congolese region of Katanga, and possibly even a peace agreement encompassing the whole of newly independent Congo.
Fourteen of the 15 passengers died on impact, and the sole survivor succumbed to their injuries a few days later.
An initial inquiry by Rhodesian authorities reportedly attributed the crash to pilot error but the finding was disputed.
Eyewitness accounts suggested several scenarios, that “more than one aircraft” – possibly a jet – was observed in the air, “SE-BDY was on fire before it crashed”, and/or “SE-BDY was fired upon or otherwise actively engaged” by another aircraft.
General Assembly action
Over the years, the UN General Assembly has mandated a series of inquiries into the death of Mr. Hammarskjöld and those of his party. The most recent, in December 2022, was led by Mohamed Chande Othman, former Chief Justice of Tanzania, with the formal title of “Eminent Person”.
Mr. Othman also led several previous investigations into the fateful crash and the events surrounding it.
On the first day of his second term, Secretary-General Hammarskjöld (back of car, at right) leaves UN Headquarters on the way to the luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in his honour, hosted by New York City Mayor Robert Wagner.
Significant new information
According to the UN’s Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, “significant new information” has been submitted to the inquiry for this latest update.
This included probable intercepts by Member States of communications related to the crash, the capacity of Katanga’s armed forces, or others, to mount an attack on SE-BDY and the involvement of foreign paramilitary or intelligence personnel in the area at the time.
It also included additional new information relevant to the context and surrounding events of 1961.
“At this juncture, [Mr. Othman] assesses it to remain plausible that an external attack or threat was a cause of the crash. [He] notes that the alternative hypotheses that appear to remain available are that the crash resulted from sabotage or unintentional human error,” Mr. Haq said.
Documents almost certainly withheld
However, Mr. Othman assesses so far that it is “almost certain” specific, crucial and so far undisclosed information exists in the archives of Member States, Mr. Haq said.
He noted that Mr. Othman has not received, to date, specific responses to his queries from some Member States believed to be holding useful information.
“The Secretary-General has personally followed up on [Mr. Othman’s] outstanding requests for information and calls upon Member States to release any relevant records in their possession,” Mr. Haq added.
“With significant progress having been made, the Secretary-General calls on all of us to renew our resolve and commitment to pursue the full truth of what happened on that fateful night in 1961.”
UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata
View of the field at Ndola, Zambia, where the plane carrying Mr. Hammarskjöld and his party crashed the night of 17-18 September, 1961; the site is marked by a cairn.
‘An extraordinary man’
Appointed at just 47 years old, Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden remains the youngest UN Secretary-General.
Widely regarded as a visionary diplomat and reformer, Mr. Hammarskjöld is credited with strengthening the role of the newly established UN during a period of intense global tensions, including the drive to decolonise Africa and Asia.
“Hammarskjöld was not usually a companionable man, but he was certainly an extraordinary one, and we were all prepared – indeed anxious – to serve him without question to the limit of our powers and endurance,” Sir Brian Urquhart, a former senior UN official, remarked.
His leadership was pivotal during the tumultuous events of 1956. He led a ceasefire mission to the Middle East and continued through the Suez crisis, where he helped negotiate the withdrawal of foreign forces from Egypt and oversaw the deployment of the Organization’s first emergency peacekeeping mission, the UN Emergency Force.
Mr. Hammarskjöld was known for his integrity and dedication to public service, earning the Nobel Peace Prize “for developing the UN into an effective and constructive international organization capable of giving life to the principles and aims expressed in the UN Charter”.
He is the only Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to have been awarded the distinction posthumously.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that his country’s on-going invasion of Ukraine violates the United Nations Charter and international law.
Their meeting took place on Thursday, in Kazan, Russia, the venue for the 16th BRICS Summit.
In a post on social media platform X, Mr. Guterres wrote on Friday that during the meeting, he had emphasized to President Putin the illegality of the Russian invasion.
“I reiterated the points I made in the Summit session,” Mr. Guterres said.
The BRICS group was founded by Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2006 – with South Africa joining in 2010 – and has since expanded to a bloc of nations which collectively represents nearly half of the world’s population.
Addressing the Summit on Thursday, the Secretary-General highlighted the need for peace in Ukraine, “a just peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions.”
He also emphasized the importance of upholding everywhere the values of the UN Charter, the rule of law, and the principles of sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of States.
In his meeting with Mr. Putin, Secretary-General Guterres also expressed his strong support for the establishment of an agreement for safe navigation in the Black Sea, which an essential avenue for global food security.
“The Secretary-General expressed his belief that establishing freedom of navigation in the Black Sea is of paramount importance for Ukraine, the Russian Federation and for the world’s food and energy security,” according to a readout of the meeting issued by the Mr. Guterres’ spokesperson.
“He fully supports the continuation of negotiations in this regard and expresses his deep appreciation for the work being done by Türkiye,” the readout added.
Transport of agricultural goods, in particular grain from Ukraine and other ports on the Black Sea, as well as fertilizers have been severely affected since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, jeopardizing food security and skyrocketing prices globally.
Brokered by the UN and Türkiye in July 2022, the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the subsequent parallel accord between UN and Russia were crucial in restoring trade in the vital commodities.
At a news briefing in New York on Friday, a UN spokesperson addressed questions about Secretary-General António Guterres’ meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite an active International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant against the Russian leader.
UN Deputy Spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said that any engagement between UN officials and individuals under indictment is based strictly on operational necessity.
“There are very clear operational issues that we have to deal with,” Mr. Haq explained, referring to the readout from the meeting and noted concerns about the war in Ukraine and safe navigation in the Black Sea.
“These are all reasons for having a meeting such as this, again, under strict conditions in terms of dealing with operational matters, while you have to deal with indicted personnel.”
The ICC can only investigate and prosecute if the national judicial system of the countries concerned are not, in the eyes of the Court, conducting genuine investigations or prosecutions for the same alleged crimes.
“The primary responsibility is for the national judicial systems,” Fadi El Abdallah, the ICC spokesperson, told UN News. “However, if there are no genuine investigations or prosecutions, then the court has to investigate and to prosecute where the legal conditions are met. So that means that it’s not enough to have a legal system, but there is a need to demonstrate that this legal system is active in relation to crimes or alleged crimes.”
The warrants, related to alleged war crimes stemming from the year-long Gaza conflict triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in Israel, indicate that the judges have found reasonable grounds to believe the suspects are responsible for crimes under ICC jurisdiction.
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This is just the first step
At the pre-trial stage, for the defendants to challenge the admissibility of the proceedings. “It’s possible either for the concerned state or for the concerned suspect to seek from the ICC to stop the proceedings against him or her,” says Mr. El Abdallah, “but that has to be based on evidence that there are genuine serious prosecutions, at the national level, for the same alleged conduct.”
It is also important to note that the ICC does not conduct trials in absentia: the defendants must be physically present in order for the case to begin.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt before the ICC. Each defendant is entitled to public and impartial proceedings. If and when suspects appear, they are provided with a defence team if needed, and undergo a confirmation of charges hearing before the case can proceed to trial.
Once the defendants appear before the court, a “confirmation of charges” hearing takes place, at which the judges will decide, after having listened to the defence, whether the prosecutor evidence is still solid enough for the case to move to trial.
If they decide to go ahead, the defence and prosecution will call witnesses and present evidence. Legal representative of the victims also have the rights to present their observations in person.
The court then decides if the defendants are innocent or guilty, and what their sentence should be.
Finally, the defendants have the right to appeal to the ICC Appeals Chamber, made up of five judges, different from the three judges of the pretrial and the other three trial judges.
How significant are these warrants?
The answer to this question lies in the reason the court was set up in the first place. Created in 2002, the ICC is the world’s first permanent, treaty-based international criminal court to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and the crime of aggression.
The warrants send a signal that the rule of law must be upheld, and provide a legal avenue for justice, which is crucial to breaking the cycle of violence and revenge.
Countries that recognize the Court are obliged to support the warrants
The court has no police to enforce its warrants and depends on its member States to implement its orders. This means that, if Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Gallant or Mr. Deif (whom Israel claims to have killed, although this has not been confirmed by Hamas) visit one of the 124 countries that accept the Court’s jurisdiction, the authorities of the nation in question should arrest them and deliver them to a detention centre in the Netherlands, where the Court is based.
Why issue the warrants, if the defendants are unlikely to come to trial?
“The judges have decided, based on the evidence and on the rule of law as they have interpreted them, and we need to respect that,” declares Mr. El Abdallah.
“It is important to let people believe that the law is there for them, and to believe that justice will be done, because if not, what choices are we leaving to them, other than continuing in the cycle of violence and revenge?”
About the ICC
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is not part of the United Nations but they have a cooperative and complementary relationship.
The ICC is an independent judicial body established by the Rome Statute, which was adopted in 1998 and came into force in 2002.
It was established to address serious international crimes and ensure accountability when national justice systems are unable or unwilling to act.
A record number of oral statements are expected to be presented to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as highly awaited public hearings on States’ legal obligations with respect to climate change got underway on Monday.
The hearings are part of the process towards the court issuing an advisory opinion, which will clarify States’ legal obligations under international law and the consequences for breaching them.
They are scheduled to take place from 2 December until 13 December in the Hague, Netherlands.
Here are five things you need to know about the historic proceedings:
1.What are the hearings about?
The hearings broadly concern the obligations of States with respect to climate change and the legal consequences of these obligations. They are significant because they represent the international community’s efforts to come up with a legal framework for addressing climate change.
More simply put, the court is being asked to provide clarity on international law with respect to climate change. The legal advice it provides may in turn influence any multilateral processes involving climate action.
The two central questions asked of the court are as follows:
1.What are the obligations of States under international law to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic [human caused] emissions of greenhouse gases for States and for present and future generations;
2.What are the legal consequences under these obligations for States where they, by their acts and omissions, have caused significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment, with respect to:
a. States, including, in particular, small island developing States, which due to their geographical circumstances and level of development, are injured or specifically affected by, or are particularly vulnerable to, the adverse effects of climate change?
b. Peoples and individuals of the present and future generations affected by the adverse effects of climate change?
Children in a Pacific Island stand in an area heavily affected by sea level rise and coastal erosion.
2.How did this case come to the ICJ?
In September 2021, the Pacific island of Vanuatu announced its intention to seek an advisory opinion from the ICJ on climate change. It explained that this initiative, which had been pushed for by the youth group Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change, was necessitated by its vulnerability and that of other small island developing States to climate change and the need for increased action to address the global climate crisis.
Vanuatu then lobbied other countries to support this initiative and formed the core group of UN Member States to take the initiative forward in the General Assembly.
The discussions within the core group led to the development of resolution A/RES/77/276, which was eventually adopted by the General Assembly on 29 March 2023. A total of 132 countries co-sponsored the resolution.
The request was transmitted to the court by the UN Secretary-General in a letter dated 12 April 2023.
3.Who is authorised to request advisory opinions and what happens next?
Advisory proceedings are only open to five organs of the United Nations and 16 specialised agencies of the UN. While the UN General Assembly and Security Council may request advisory opinions on “any legal question”, the other UN organs and specialised agencies can only do so with respect to “legal questions arising within the scope of their activities”. The majority of advisory opinions have been requested by the UN General Assembly.
As a rule, organizations and States authorised to participate in the proceedings submit written statements, followed by written comments on the other statements submitted if the court considers it necessary.
The court will decide whether to hold oral proceedings, after which the advisory opinion is delivered following a sitting of the court.
4.Why is this case so significant?
This case is the largest ever seen by the world court, with 91 written statements filed with the court’s registry alongside 62 written comments on these statements submitted by the court’s extended deadline of 15 August 2024.
A similar record number of 97 States and eleven international organizations are scheduled to participate in the oral proceedings. These hearings are a chance for countries and organizations to elaborate on their written statements and testify directly.
The proceedings have particular importance for the small island developing States which initially pushed for the opinion. Significantly, they are taking place just one week after developing nations criticised a deal at COP29 to provide $300 billion a year in climate finance by 2035, calling the agreement “insulting” and arguing it did not give them the vital resources they require to truly address the complexities of the climate crisis.
“We are literally sinking,” one representative said following COP29, pointing out the agreement highlighted “what a very different boat our vulnerable countries are in, compared to the developed countries”.
With small island developing States already facing some of the worst impacts of climate change, these hearings are vital to establish a stronger framework of accountability that sets clear international legal obligations for climate action.
UN Photo
The towers and gables of the Peace Palace, home of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
5.What effect can an advisory opinion have?
Unlike judgments in contentious cases, the court’s advisory opinions are not binding. They clarify legal questions. The requesting organ, agency or organization – the General Assembly in this particular case – remains free to decide, as it sees fit, what effect to give to these opinions.
However, while not binding, advisory opinions have “an authoritative value and cannot be neglected”, according to the ICJ Registrar in a recent interview with UN News. They carry great moral authority by what is considered the world’s highest court and the principal judicial body of the UN.
This opinion on climate change can help inform subsequent judicial proceedings such as domestic cases, influence the diplomatic process and will likely be cited in thousands of climate-driven lawsuits around the world, including those where small island States are seeking compensation from developed nations for historic climate damage, according to one media source.
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has stated that such an opinion will help the General Assembly, the United Nations and Member States to “take the bolder and stronger climate action that our world so desperately needs”.
“It could also guide the actions and conduct of States in their relations with each other, as well as towards their own citizens. This is essential,” he emphasised.
The current phase of fighting eruptedin late January in the mineral-rich eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between government forces and the armed M23 group.
Despite security challenges, UN agencies and peacekeepers have pledged to stay and deliver amid rising deaths and injuries alongside an alarming spread of highly contagious mpox and other endemic diseases as the rainy season intensifies.
Here’s what you need to know about how the UN, its peacekeepers and humanitarian agencies are helping on the ground in this central African country of 105 million people, many currently facing urgent multipronged crises.
Humanitarian assistance
Operating in DRC since 1960, when the country declared its independence from Belgium’s colonial rule and became a UN Member State, UN field agencies have served those in need, from education and lifesaving vaccines to food and shelter for people displaced by the current spiralling violence. The country has been caught in cycles of violence over the decades with an uptick of violence in the early 2000s and the emergence of the M23 armed group.
Even though recent deadly clashes led to the deaths of peacekeepers and the temporary relocation of non-essential UN staff from North Kivu in the eastern region last week, the UN emergency relief agency, OCHA, reports that teams are currently on the ground, where they say needs are growing.
Just a few details for context:
Food to shelter
In a deteriorating environment, food insecurity is on the rise as other health, shelter and living conditions worsen. For example:
Currently, 2.7 million people face severe food insecurity in the eastern towns of Ituri and North and South Kivu, OCHA reported. As such, the agency is currently working with such partners as the UN food agency (WFP), UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to deliver lifesaving aid, from groceries to medical supplies and services.
Meanwhile, the UN migration organization, IOM, is supporting displaced and host communities in and around Goma by providing emergency shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene services and camp coordination and management services. It is also monitoring population movements through its displacement tracking matrix, which informs humanitarian agencies of critical information for effective response efforts.
A three-week-old girl suffering from mpox in the emergency room at Kavumu Hospital in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (file)
Public health ‘nightmare’
The UN health agency reported that repeated mass displacement has created a public health “nightmare” with ideal conditions for the spread of many endemic diseases, from cholera to mpox, in camps and communities around North and South Kivu. WHO teams remain in place to deliver much-needed healthcare services as hospitals are overwhelmed by growing numbers of patients injured by the ongoing violence. Thousands of doses of mpox vaccines are stockpiled and ready to be administered.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is responding to urgent needs, including deliveries of emergency medical kits to hospitals in Goma to treat more than 50,000 people affected by the violence.
A breakdown in healthcare infrastructure has also led maternal mortality rates to soar, with three women dying every hour from pregnancy or childbirth complications, and recurrent kidnappings, rape and exploitation continue to be wielded as weapons of war against women and girls, according to the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA.
While the agency suspended staff travel to camps for displaced people due to the security crisis, UNFPA continues to provide lifesaving support, from mobile clinics to rapidly adapting to respond to the needs of the newly displaced. However, due to swiftly growing needs, these and other UN agencies are calling for urgent support to fund emergency operations.
The UN peacekeeping mission, known by its French acronym MONUSCO, was mandated by the Security Council in 2010 to assist the Congolese Government in protecting civilians and humanitarians as well as help with its peace and stabilisation efforts. Peacekeeping operations are often located in conflict areas but their responsibilities and those of the humanitarian agencies are distinct, although complementary, in terms of protecting and meeting the needs of civilians.
Read our explainer on UN peacekeeping history in DRC, dating back to 1960,here.
While the 11,500 UN Blue Helmets were meant to disengage by 2025, the Security Council renewed the mandate at the request of the government in late December.
Weeks later, MONUSCO chief Bintou Keita told the Security Council in an emergency meeting held on Sunday, 26 January that “we are trapped.”
Over the last week, M23 combatants have killed almost 20 peacekeepers serving with the UN and the South African Development Community (SADC) mission in the country, both mandated to provide combat support for the Congolese armed forces.
MONUSCO/Aubin Mukoni
UN peacekeepers patrol in Goma past discarded military uniforms.
Working closely with Congolese authorities
In line with its civilian protection mandate, the UN mission has enhanced its support to the Congolese armed forces, FARDC, and is actively participating in combat along with the SADC security mission in the country, the UN mission chief explained to the Council.
Since then, the MONUSCO chief has held discussions with top officials, including the prime minister and the leaders of the army and police. A joint government-MONUSCO group has also been established to coordinate on various issues, including in the security, human rights, humanitarian and communications spheres as well as the legal status of the territories under the control of the M23.
Residents of Bunia, DRC, protesting the capture by the M23 rebel group of Goma in 2012. (file)
Addressing the roots of the crises
The clashes in the east date back to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in neighbouring Rwanda. The sporadic fighting has been deadly and vicious, as shown in the Congolese military court’s landmark case against armed group leader Sheka, which was instrumental in recognising rape as a war crime.
Watch our award-winning documentary on bringing a war criminal to justice here.
The crisis remains partly rooted in the rare mineral deposits dotting the border areas of DRC and Rwanda. DRC’s vast deposits of precious metals, gems and rare minerals include gold and diamonds along with key components used in making mobile phones and other electronic devices.
Coltan, tin, tantalum, tungsten and others are known as conflict minerals, which are mined and sold by armed groups to finance their militias.
Find more details on this sinister trend in the December report of the Security Council’s group of experts on DRC here.
Although far away from home, Chinese tourist Ye Manning and her family could still feel the familiar Spring Festival vibes on their trip to Japan, as they came across red street banners and shopping window decorations there in tribute to the traditional Chinese holiday.
Attracted by the convenient visa application process and convenient transportation services to this neighboring country, the family traveled to Japanese cities including Tokyo and Osaka, and enjoyed local cuisine, scenic spots and pop culture during the Spring Festival holiday, which ran from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4 this year.
Noting the presence of Spring Festival elements in Japan, Ye was quoted in an article by China Youth Daily as saying: “These details not only arouse a sense of belonging for Chinese tourists away from home during the holiday, but also mirror how far the Spring Festival culture has spread around the world.”
Like Ye, post-1990 generation youth Zhang Yu also chose to spend the Spring Festival outside China, traveling to the resort island of Phuket in Thailand with his family. As a delightful surprise during this trip, another international tourist hailing from Europe greeted Zhang and wished him a “Happy Spring Festival.”
“At that time, I felt this holiday also being celebrated in a foreign country, and that really touched my heart,” said Zhang.
Against the backdrop of China’s inbound travel boom during the holiday, which saw a proliferation of “China Travel” content shared by international tourists on social media platforms, many Chinese people opted for outbound trips to overseas destinations in pursuit of diversified, cross-cultural experiences for the traditional holiday.
According to China’s National Immigration Administration (NIA), during the 2025 Spring Festival holiday, border inspection authorities across the country handled over 14 million entries and exits by domestic and international travelers, up 6.3 percent year on year. Among these, about 7.7 million entry-exit trips were made by Chinese mainland residents, up 5 percent year on year.
According to Chinese online travel platform Qunar, Chinese tourists visited more than 2,100 overseas cities during the Spring Festival holiday this year, a surge of 50 percent compared with 2024.
Data from another online travel platform, Trip.com, showed that Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore were among the most popular outbound destinations for Chinese travelers during the 2025 Spring Festival holiday.
In particular, Japan stood out among short-distance overseas travel destinations as total tourism orders for trips to Japan had doubled compared to last year’s figure during the holiday season. As for long-haul travel, the most sought-after destinations such as the United States, Spain, Italy and France saw an increase of 53 percent, 82 percent, 56 percent and 50 percent in tourism orders, respectively, according to Trip.com.
“With the recovery of the global tourism market, Chinese tourists continue to expand the radius of their trips during the Spring Festival,” said the China Youth Daily article. “From tropical Southeast Asian islands to ancient European towns and bustling North American cities, Chinese travelers can be found everywhere.”
This year’s Spring Festival, which marked the start of the Year of Snake, was the first since its inscription on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. With the Chinese New Year becoming a festival celebrated worldwide, nearly 20 countries have designated the Spring Festival as an official holiday, while Spring Festival customs are celebrated in almost 200 countries and regions across the globe.
Source: United States Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock – Georgia
Senator Reverend Warnock Introduces Legislation to Cap the Cost of Prescription Medication
The Capping Prescription Costs Act would cap annual out-of-pocket prescription drug costs per year at $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families
The legislation builds on the success of the Inflation Reduction Act and extends out-of-pocket caps to the commercial health care market
Senator Reverend Warnock successfully capped the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare recipients
Senator Reverend Warnock: “When you are sick, nothing else matters, this is a moral issue that transcends partisan politics, and I will keep fighting until we get it done”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), introduced the Capping Prescription Costs Act. The legislation would lower prescription drug costs for millions of Americans by placing annual caps on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families with private insurance.
The Senator’s bill builds on the success of the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes the Senator’s provision capping prescription drug cost-sharing for Medicare Part D beneficiaries, extending the savings to the commercial health care market.
“In my decades-long fight to lower medication costs and make health care more accessible, I’ve heard stories of people having to skip refills, ration prescriptions, and make financial decisions that risk their health just to afford the medications they need to survive,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “In a nation as rich and powerful as the United States, that should never be the case, which is why the Capping Prescription Costs Act is so important. When you are sick, nothing else matters, this is a moral issue that transcends partisan politics, and I will keep fighting until we get it done.”
“No Nevadan – and no American – should have to negotiate against themselves when choosing between the medications they need to be healthy and food they need to survive,” Rep. Horsford said. “I’m proud to partner with Senator Warnock on the Capping Prescription Costs Act, and look forward to introducing the House companion bill. Our legislation would help Americans with private insurance save on needed prescriptions each year. The choice between health and survival is impossible – it’s beyond time we stop forcing Americans to make it.”
Over 60 percent of American adults take at least one prescription drug, with 25 percent of adults taking four or more. Yet Americans often pay more for the same prescription drugs than people in other countries, and due to the cost burden, American patients often cannot afford their medications as prescribed. This results in patients skipping doses, cutting doses in half, or taking over-the-counter medications instead of their prescriptions. One study found that 31 percent of patients did not take their medications as prescribed due to cost. The new $2,000 cap on cost-sharing for individuals and $4,000 for families will apply to all of the 173 million Americans who have private health insurance.
“This bill would provide desperately needed relief for patients with chronic conditions and many others that face prescription drug bills that total thousands of dollars in a given year. Capping out-of-pocket costs for medications in Medicare is popular and provides practical help for many, but millions more who rely on private insurance should have the same benefit. Congress should continue to address the underlying price of prescription drugs, while also capping out-of-pocket costs to provide practical relief to patients and families. We appreciate leadership from Senator Warnock to continue to lower daily and monthly costs for families that desperately need help accessing and affording care,” said Anthony Wright, Executive Director of Families USA.
“By introducing the Capping Prescription Costs Act, Senator Warnock is fighting to help level the playing field for working families. As Republicans push to raise health care costs for Americans struggling to pay their bills, Democrats are fighting to lower prescription drug costs for millions of families nationwide. The contrast couldn’t be more clear: Republicans want to put profits over people and raise costs to fund tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, and Democrats want to lower costs, improve care, and ensure that every American can afford the health care they need,”said Leslie Dach, Chair of Protect Our Care Chair.
Senator Reverend Warnock has long championed efforts to expand affordable health care access, starting with his advocacy to close the health care coverage gap in Georgia. In the Inflation Reduction Act, Senator Warnock got two proposals included in the final version of the bill —provisions from his bill to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for Medicare patients, and his plan to cap the cost of prescription drugs for seniors at $2,000 a year. The Senator has been a years-long advocate for expanding Medicaid. In Washington he’s pushed for solutions to close the coverage gap. Senator Warnock is committed to preserving and protecting access to health care for the most vulnerable. Last year, Senator Warnock also introduced the Bridge to Medicaid Act, legislation to provide health care coverage to the hundreds of thousands of Georgians in the health care coverage gap. The bill would provide a temporary health care option for people in the Medicaid coverage gap to get subsidized private health care until non-expansion states like Georgia finally expand Medicaid.
In addition to Senator Warnock, the Capping Prescription Costs Act was cosponsored by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), John Fetterman (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maritn Heinrich (D-NM), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Peter Welch (D-VT).
Full bill text of the Capping Prescription Costs Act is available HERE.
A one-pager on the Capping Prescription Costs Act is available HERE.
This week, France hosted an AI Action Summit in Paris to discuss burning questions around artificial intelligence (AI), such as how people can trust AI technologies and how the world can govern them.
Sixty countries, including France, China, India, Japan, Australia and Canada, signed a declaration for “inclusive and sustainable” AI. The United Kingdom and United States notably refused to sign, with the UK saying the statement failed to address global governance and national security adequately, and US Vice President JD Vance criticising Europe’s “excessive regulation” of AI.
Last week, I attended the inaugural AI safety conference held by the International Association for Safe & Ethical AI, also in Paris, where I heard talks by AI luminaries Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Anca Dragan, Margaret Mitchell, Max Tegmark, Kate Crawford, Joseph Stiglitz and Stuart Russell.
As I listened, I realised the disregard for AI safety concerns among governments and the public rests on a handful of comforting myths about AI that are no longer true – if they ever were.
1: Artificial general intelligence isn’t just science fiction
The most severe concerns about AI – that it could pose a threat to human existence – typically involve so-called artificial general intelligence (AGI). In theory, AGI will be far more advanced than current systems.
AGI systems will be able to learn, evolve and modify their own capabilities. They will be able to undertake tasks beyond those for which they were originally designed, and eventually surpass human intelligence.
AGI does not exist yet, and it is not certain it will ever be developed. Critics often dismiss AGI as something that belongs only in science fiction movies. As a result, the most critical risks are not taken seriously by some and are seen as fanciful by others.
However, many experts believe we are close to achieving AGI. Developers have suggested that, for the first time, they know what technical tasks are required to achieve the goal.
AGI will not stay solely in sci-fi forever. It will eventually be with us, and likely sooner than we think.
2: We already need to worry about current AI technologies
However, current AI technologies are already causing significant harm to humans and society. This includes through obvious mechanisms such as fatal road and aviation crashes, warfare, cyber incidents, and even encouraging suicide.
According to MIT’s AI Incident Tracker, the harms caused by current AI technologies are on the rise. There is a critical need to manage current AI technologies as well as those that might appear in future.
3: Contemporary AI technologies are ‘smarter’ than we think
A third myth is that current AI technologies are not actually that clever and hence are easy to control. This myth is most often seen when discussing the large language models (LLMs) behind chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
There is plenty of debate about exactly how to define intelligence and whether AI technologies truly are intelligent, but for practical purposes these are distracting side issues.
It is enough that AI systems behave in unexpected ways and create unforeseen risks.
Several AI chatbots appear to display surprising behaviours, such as attempts at ‘scheming’ to ensure their own preservation. Apollo Research
For example, existing AI technologies have been found to engage in behaviours that most people would not expect from non-intelligent entities. These include deceit, collusion, hacking, and even acting to ensure their own preservation.
Whether these behaviours are evidence of intelligence is a moot point. The behaviours may cause harm to humans either way.
What matters is that we have the controls in place to prevent harmful behaviour. The idea that “AI is dumb” isn’t helping anyone.
Last year the European Union’s AI Act, representing the world’s first AI law, was widely praised. It built on already established AI safety principles to provide guidance around AI safety and risk.
While regulation is crucial, it is not all that’s required to ensure AI is safe and beneficial. Regulation is only part of a complex network of controls required to keep AI safe.
These controls will also include codes of practice, standards, research, education and training, performance measurement and evaluation, procedures, security and privacy controls, incident reporting and learning systems, and more. The EU AI act is a step in the right direction, but a huge amount of work is still required to develop the appropriate mechanisms required to ensure it works.
5: It’s not just about the AI
The fifth and perhaps most entrenched myth centres around the idea that AI technologies themselves create risk.
AI technologies form one component of a broader “sociotechnical” system. There are many other essential components: humans, other technologies, data, artefacts, organisations, procedures and so on.
Safety depends on the behaviour of all these components and their interactions. This “systems thinking” philosophy demands a different approach to AI safety.
Instead of controlling the behaviour of individual components of the system, we need to manage interactions and emergent properties.
With AI agents on the rise – AI systems with more autonomy and the ability to carry out more tasks – the interactions between different AI technologies will become increasingly important.
At present, there has been little work examining these interactions and the risks that could arise in the broader sociotechnical system in which AI technologies are deployed. AI safety controls are required for all interactions within the system, not just the AI technologies themselves.
AI safety is arguably one of the most important challenges our societies face. To get anywhere in addressing it, we will need a shared understanding of what the risks really are.
Paul Salmon receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Sakina Sani was married off when she was 12 years old amid conflict and food shortages in northern Nigeria. She became pregnant at 15 but miscarried and then had two children in rapid succession.
“I will never allow my daughter to go through what happened to me,” she told UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency.
What happens when conflict displaces tens of thousands of people in hotspots like Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Ukraine, and women die every day in childbirth or pregnancy?
UNFPA is there, equipping displacement camps and medical personnel with lifesaving supplies.
When an earthquake tumbles whole city blocks, it puts contraceptives onto emergency relief convoys alongside kits for delivering babies and medicines to stop internal bleeding.
When a cyclone slashes through remote island communities, the agency sends contraceptives just as it sends sterile medical equipment, including condoms, oral and injectable contraceptives, contraceptives implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs).
Why? Because contraceptives are part of lifesaving humanitarian care.
This may be counterintuitive to some, but it is a settled fact in the eyes of medical science, humanitarian responders and women themselves.
Even outside emergency settings, having access to modern, safe contraceptives empowers women to make their own decisions about their fertility, which in turn reduces unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions, improves health outcomes and lowers the risk of maternal and child mortality.
In short, family planning saves millions of lives. Here are some of the reasons why:
Even in the best circumstances, alarming proportions of women are unable to say no to sex, roughly one quarter of women, according to the most recent data.
In a humanitarian crisis, women experience about twice the rates of gender-based violence as well as the heightened risk of rape as a weapon of war and tool of genocide and the increased risk of intimate partner violence. All of this elevates their vulnerability to an unintended pregnancy.
While contraception is sometimes criticised – incorrectly – as a new medication, one that is unnatural or poorly understood, the truth is that they have existed for millennia. Condoms, for example, have been used for centuries.
When it comes to modern forms of contraception, they are among the most prescribed and well-studied medications in existence. Contraceptives have been investigated not just by pharmacologists and medical researchers, but also by healthcare economists, epidemiologists and policymakers, and the findings are conclusive: by preventing unintended pregnancy, contraceptives prevent women from dying.
How? Every pregnancy carries a risk, and pregnancies in crisis settings, where health systems are in tatters and medical care scarce, are particularly dangerous.
Lifesaving aid because babies don’t wait
What happens when a woman is ready to give birth after a hurricane or in a war zone?
In the crisis-addled DRC, a breakdown in healthcare infrastructure has led maternal mortality rates to soar, with three women dying every hour from pregnancy or childbirth complications.
“Many women in northwest Syria lose their lives while being transferred between hospitals in the absence of essential supplies for critical conditions,” Dr. Ikram Haboush, in Idlib, said.
Unintended pregnancies are also directly correlated with higher maternal mortality rates.
“That is why every public health programme designed to reduce the number of maternal deaths incorporates contraception as one of the pillars of action,” according to the experts who wrote UNFPA’s flagship annual publication, the State of the World’s Population Report, Seeing the unseen: The case of action in the neglected crisis of unintended pregnancy.
By preventing unintended pregnancy, contraceptives also reduce the incidence of maternal injuries and illness, stillbirth and neonatal death.
In 2023, UNFPA’s dedicated supplies partnership procured $136 million worth of contraceptives, which is estimated to have prevented nearly 10 million unintended pregnancies and over 200,000 maternal and newborn deaths. It is estimated these contraceptives also prevented nearly three million unsafe abortions.
Two community workers provide information about contraceptives in Bihar, India.
Preventing fatal illness, chronic ailments
Contraceptives like male and female condoms additionally save lives by decreasing the chances of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV.
Even a treatable STI can be life-threatening in settings with limited access to medical care, as is the case for women and girls in Haiti, for example, where widespread and relentless sexual violence has led to rising rates of unintended pregnancy as well as STIs, while the health system has all but collapsed.
Only around three per cent of survivors in Haiti report receiving post-rape treatment within 72 hours of being assaulted. This treatment includes emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy and post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV transmission.
Contraceptives also treat ailments unrelated to sexual activity that are debilitating in even stable and secure circumstances like polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, dysmenorrhea and extremely heavy bleeding.
For women like Omaira Opikuko from Venezuela, there is no question that long-term contraception after her sixth delivery was lifesaving.
She suffered both haemorrhaging and a prolapsed uterus during her last labour.
“I was on the brink of death,” she said.
UN News/Daniel Dickinson
Two Thai peer educator high school students describe a range of available condoms.
Cost-effective humanitarian interventions
Family planning is cost effective.
In 2023, more than 50 countries that received UNFPA contraceptive supplies made collective savings of over $700 million through reduced healthcare costs for pregnancy, delivery and post-abortion care.
Numerous studies have shown that family planning is a critical investment for society, not only by averting unintended pregnancy and the maternal health problems that accompany it, but also by increasing education and employment gains among women.
In humanitarian settings, contraceptives are all the more critical, helping women and families survive and stabilise and leaving them better prepared to recover.
No one knows this better than survivors of humanitarian crises themselves
“There is a lot of demand for family planning services,” one emergency responder said in the immediate aftermath of a deadly cyclone.
Amid the world’s growing precarity, rising catastrophes and increasing displacements, these services are a light in the dark for women and girls around the world.
As Ms. Opikuko in Venezuela said, “I don’t want to be scared anymore.”
