Secretary-General Travel, Deputy Secretary-General Travel, Peacekeeping & other topics - Daily Press Briefing

All right.
In a short while, I will be joined by our good friend, Jean Martin Bauer, Director of the World Foo Programs Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Service, and Ryan Polson, Director of Food and Agriculture Organizations Office of Emergency and Resilience.
They both be connected from Rome to brief you on the FAOWFP Hunger Hotspot Report.
Then tomorrow at 11:00 A.M.
I There will be a briefing on the record briefing here by Vanessa Frazier, the special representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and she will be briefing you on the Secretary-General annual report on that topic.
Speaking of the Secretary-General, he is in the Dominican Republic for a few more hours.
He's about to leave Santro Domingo and head back here to New York.
Earlier this morning, he met with the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinado.
The president, the Secretary-General discussed the international and regional developments, including the situation in Haiti.
The Secretary-General also met with our UN colleagues in Santo Domingo.
Yesterday, as you saw, he concluded his visit to Haiti in the afternoon with a press conference Telling journalists that for the first time in many years, Haiti had a chance to turn a corner, but only if the international community assumes its responsibilities.
He appealed to the world to step up to fund the humanitarian response and progressive recovery and support for the Haitian institutions as well as the gang suppression force.
The transition is moving, he added.
Everyone in the international community and Haiti's leaders alike must do their part to turn this momentum into concrete results.
We shared a whole bunch of transcript with you yesterday.
Our Deputy Secretary-General is currently en route to London to participate in the London School of Economics and Political Sciences Global School of Sustainability Forum.
At the forum, she will engage with global leaders, policymakers, researchers, and representatives from the public and private sectors to discuss pathways to advancing sustainable development in a rapidly changing global context.
She's also expected to underscore the importance of accelerating climate action, strengthening international cooperation and advancing solutions that deliver tangible results for people and planet.
The forum will bring together other international leaders and stakeholders to explore challenges and opportunities for building a more sustainable future.
While there, she will also convene a meeting on maternal health and child survival, together with Goals House, bringing together partners and stakeholders to advance renewed action and investment to improve health outcomes for women, children, and communities.
The Deputy Secretary-General should be back in New York on the 21st of June on Sunday.
Also in the UK is the Under Secretary-General for Peace Operation Jean-Pierre Lacroix, where he's participating in events marking the first edition of the Oxford UN Peace and Security Fellowship.
This joint initiative between Oxford and the Department of Peace Operation brought together ten UN practitioners to the university to undertake policy relevant research on peacekeeping, conflict prevention, and political missions.
On Thursday, he will deliver a lecture on the difficultt journey of peace, challenges and opportunities for peace operations in a fragmented world.
And on Friday, he will also speak at the Oxford Union to speak with students.
Turning to various situations on the ground, and I'll start with Lebanon.
Despite a reduction in the intensity of hostilities in the area of operations, our UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon continue to observe extensive IDF military activity.
This includes high density armored movements, large scale engineering and demolition works, and sustained logistical traffic across the area.
Today, 26 violations of Lebanese airspace by the IDF were recorded between midnight and 4:00 P.M.
Local time, along with one air attack.
In addition, peacekeepers reported a violation of Lebanon's maritime space by two IDF vessels conducting patrol roughly 600 meters off the shores of Neora in southern Lebanon, which is also the home base for our peacekeepers.
Kinetic activity has been gradually um increasing since Monday with 312 trajectories recorded between midnight and 4:00 P.M.
Today, local time, 291 attributed to the IDF and 21 attributed to Hezbollah.
By comparison, 174 and 189 were reported for 24 hour periods on Monday and Tuesday respectively.
Yesterday, UNIFIL personnel recorded 185 firing incidents originating from IDF positions south of the blue line and within the area of operations.
Four projectiles were also detected traveling from north to south reportedly launched by Hezbollah.
Outside of Unifils area of operations, we're also aware of reports of Israeli artillery shelling and airstrikes targeting multiple locations, including Naptih, Sida, and Jasen, as well as repeated drone overflights over Beirut and its southern suburbs.
At least one strike in a vehicle in Sukhin reportedly resulted in four fatalities and several injuries.
Separately, yesterday, following coordination through the UNIFIL OCHA civil military coordination cell and in the deconfliction using the UNIFIL liaison branch, two humanitarian organizations carried out eight missions to Tyre and its surrounding areas in sector west of UNIFIL.
Meanwhile, our humanitarian colleagues on the ground tell us that more people are reportedly returning to the south of the country.
Many are going back with the hope of staying in their communities, even as they face ongoing insecurity, widespread destruction, and limited access to basic services.
In Nabata governorate, more than 4,000 families reportedly returned between June 12th and yesterday, and in the municipality of Srifa in the South governor, two collective shelters open this week to support people who've returned south.
However, many families remain unable to go back to their homes because of ongoing fighting and the ever present danger of unexploded ordinance.
OCHA warns that humanitarian needs remain high.
According to UNICEF, more than 770,000 children are experiencing heightened distress after repeated exposures to violence, loss, and displacement.
We continue to call for the protection of civilians and for return to be safe, to be voluntary, and to be informed.
All of this was sustained humanitarian access and assistance for all those who need it.
In the occupied Palestinian territory, the International Organization for Migration says it has been providing shelter repairs since May, its partners, also replacing some of the wood shelters with aluminum to improve durability, safety, and living conditions.
They also supported the manufacture and installation of 150 large emergency family shelters and provided shelter assistance to hundreds of families combining cash and in kind support.
We and our humanitarian partners are repurposing used wood pallets for furniture and other household uses.
However, IOM warns that progress continues to be constrained by lengthy Israeli approval processes, including custom clearance.
Delays have led to winter items only receiving approval during the summer.
Last month, several shipments, including kitchen sets and solar lanterns already cleared by Israeli authorities were nevertheless denied entry.
Meanwhile, as families experience electricity blackouts, overcrowding, and lack of safe cooking fuel, they often prefer meals over open fire inside or near their tents.
So far in June, we and our partners have responded to multiple fire incidents caused by cooking.
To mitigate further risks, our teams are providing safe guidance to people who are at risk.
And turning to the West Bank, settler related incidents continue.
In the town of Halu, Israeli settlers reportedly attacked Palestinian farmers using sticks and stones.
A newly established settlement near the town of Dora prevented Palestinians from accessing thousands of acres of agricultural land, affecting the safety and livelihoods of more than a dozen families, restricting movements and access for thousands of Palestinians.
OCHA once again calls for the protection of civilians, which includes enforcing law against anyone who carries out such attacks.
And going to the DRC, our colleagues in the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tell us that escalating violence and threats against aid workers continue to hamstring lifesaving operations in the country's eastern provinces.
In South Kivu, access remains heavily restricted in several areas as fighting is continuing to force civilians to flee for safety.
Um Nearly 20,000 people were forced from their homes on June 15th following clashes in Hwang and Sbunda territories.
These displaced families need food, they need shelter, healthcare, and other basic services and protection.
Meanwhile, Fizi territory, humanitarian access also remains under pressure as repeated interference by armed groups continues to threaten the delivery of lifesaving assistance and humanitarian workers.
Um In Eturi province, five Ebola response workers were briefly detained by armed groups yesterday.
As we mentioned, Eturi remains the epicenter of the outbreak, accounting for more than 90% of all confirmed cases.
According to health authorities, as of June 15th, 29 new confirmed cases were reported, bringing the total number of cases to 837 across the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu.
Despite these immense challenges, we, along with our humanitarian partners continue to support national authorities in containing the outbreak to deliver assistance.
However, humanitarian personnel cannot operate safely without security guarantees.
Once again, all parties must do whatever they can to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and allow humanitarians to do their lifesaving work.
Um, Speaking of humanitarians, today marks the start of the EcoSx Humanitarian Affairs segment.
The three day annual event brings together member states, UN system, humanitarian partners, and development partners, as well as private sectors to discuss challenges and opportunities strengthening the humanitarian coordination and the coordination effectiveness of the UN humanitarian system.
Speaking of the opening, Tom Fletcher, our emergency relief coordinator and head of OCHA warned that in a changing world with humanitarian mission often contested, aid organizations not only face a gap between growing needs and shrinking funding as we tell you almost every day here, but also between needs and our ability to deliver.
He stressed that respect for international humanitarian law and the protection of aid workers are indispensable to humanitarian action.
The future of humanitarian action will not be decided by humanitarians alone.
Mr.
Fletcher said he called on member states, parties to the conflict, donors, development partners, and private sector to all play their part.
Back here in the Security Council, they met in an open debate on women Peace and Security entitled Peace is Decid with Women emerging from Conflict by Enhancing their Participation.
UN women's Executive Director Sima Bahu said that gender equality and women's empowerment are essential to building sustained peace at a time when we're facing the highest number of conflict since the UN was founded, from Afghanistan to Haiti, to Myanmar, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, and Ukraine, women bear a disproportionate share of the consequence of the conflict.
They neither choose nor lead while often remaining excluded from efforts to solve them.
She noted that women's participation in UN led processes reached 16-23% the past five years, still too low, but roughly double the average.
Our colleagues from the Human Rights Office issued a report today warning that attacks against human rights defenders have reached record levels in the past year.
Preliminary data indicates that some 950 human rights defenders, journalists, as well as trade unionists were killed or forcibly disappeared worldwide last year.
That's more than double a decade ago.
These and other alarming trends are highlighted in Human Rights Count 2026, the UN Human Rights Office latest global dataset documenting attacks on human rights defenders, civilian deaths in conflicts, patterns of discrimination worldwide in the state of institutions tasked with protecting human rights.
Very interesting report, very good data.
And eight years into the implementation of the uniform gender parity strategy in peacekeeping, steady progress has been made with the share of deployed uniform women doubling from less than 5% in 2018 to over 10% last year.
That information was shared yesterday by our colleagues in the Department of Peace operations in partnership with Canada, Uruguay, Germany, and Zambia at a high level event titled from Commitment to Impact advancing uniform women's participation and leadership in UN peacekeeping.
At the same time, our UN Peace operations department said the Challenges remain and gains are fragile, particularly in the context of liquidity constraints and reduction in overall peacekeeping personnel.
The event also marked the rollout of the network for uniform women peacekeepers across all missions.
To date, the network has up to 1,800 members from 90 countries.
Today is the International Day to combat desertification and drought.
In a message for the day, the Secretary-General notes that range lands are vast open spaces found in every climate, on every continent.
And they cover half the Earth's land surface sustaining over 2 billion human beings.
Yet, he said up to 50% of the world's rangelands are now degraded or at risk.
The Secretary-General notes we are today issuing an urgent call to recognize and respect the world's range lands to protect our future, he stressed, we must protect the land.
Today is International Desertification Day, it is also Hump Day, but it is also the last day of one of our colleagues.
Well, your colleagues that he's leaving us RTE's permanent representative to the United Nations, Yvonne Murray is heading home to Ireland.
We wish you all the best to you and your family on your trek home.
The room will be slightly quieter without you.
And, you know, people often ask me, what is the biggest mistake I've ever made from the podium? And I've made quite a bit.
High on that list is what I said on April 19th, 2023, when I said you were an Anglo Saxon.
So, I once again apologize for that remark, but it will rank it will tie us together for a long time.
So, Yvonne, good luck, and we wish you all the best.
All right.
ED letter.
First, um, the UN Correspondent Association also would like to say farewell to one of our stalwart colleagues who's been a great addition to the UN Press Corps and to wish her well in what I know will be a very successful future wherever she lands.
Secondly, and more seriously, you were talking That was serious.
Yes, that was no joke.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah.
You were talking about rebuilding tents and other structures in Gaza, is Israel still blocking the import of more durable shelter material? We're not we're not currently able to bring in the kind of material we need to build more let me put it this way to build even more permanent temporary shelter.
Secondly, there are reports of threats to the arrangements at the holy sites in Jerusalem by Israeli right wing leaders.
Does the Secretary-General have any comment on this? We've seen the repeated incendiary remarks from various Israeli government affiliated voices.
For our part, it is clear the status quo in terms of the holy places in Jerusalem needs to stay in place.
Gabriel.
Thank you, Steph.
On Lebanon, the last few days, it's been my understanding the interpretation from the UN has been that kinetic activity has been going down.
However, that was my understanding from the last Today? I said today that we saw a rise today, but previously it had been going down.
That's what I wanted to clarify.
Clearly today.
There was an uptick.
It was an uptick.
That's what I want to clarify.
Thank you.
Then the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, clearly, from Tehran's perspective, Israel has to stop its violations of Lebanese airspace.
Clearly, from the podium, we're hearing from you, that is not happening.
The opposite is happening.
Worried is the Secretary-General that what is taking place in Lebanon could derail the Iran US deal? We've always wanted to see Lebanon's sovereignty respected.
We've always wanted to see the Lebanese government be able to assert its authority throughout its territory and calm return along the blue line, both north of it and south of it.
It is also incumbent on all the parties involved in this conflict to ensure that nothing is done to derail what appears to be a deal to end to end this conflict, to start serious negotiations, and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to free navigation.
I will add that we've read the press reports like you, certain number of your other organizations have printed what they say is the deal.
We still haven't seen the official agreement as it stands.
Linda, Danivnne Ngo, Thank you.
Thank you, Steph.
Apropos of Gaza, I was just wondering what the latest was in terms of Hamas' role in the provision of humanitarian aid? I mean, is there any sense that looting is going on or Hamas is interrupting in any way we have reported no incident of serious looting or disruption of the aid distribution has been reported to me, at least and to our colleagues here in New York.
The bottleneck in terms of bringing the volume that we want still continues to stand.
Yvonne.
Thanks, Debra.
I do have a question.
But before I get to my question, I just wanted to say thank you so much for taking my questions over the past few years and occasionally answering them.
I try not to.
Come on.
Don't break my record.
Yeah.
Thank you to your team as well as some of the loveliest people you could possibly come across in the UN system.
Very grateful to all of them.
To my colleagues, thank you to the UN press Corp.
It's been a wonderful place to work and I will miss it very, very much.
Come and see us on the aisle of saints and scholars and sinners, as you said.
I will always be there and hopefully I'll come back at some point for the UN General Assembly.
My question, Steph though, you mentioned that figure from the Human Rights Office today about all of the human rights defenders who've been killed this year.
Can you give us the data because I haven't seen it yet, where have most of them been killed, which parts of the world? Top three countries.
Uh, Just to make sure that you leave on the right note, no, because I haven't seen I just got the note of this report a short while ago.
I haven't had a chance to read it.
You actually have to do some work yourself.
It'll be good for your plane ride home.
Abdel Hamid.
Thank you, Stefan.
In about 25 minutes, the game between Portugal and Congo will start.
How could the SG miss that game of his country? Please ask the Secretary-General into football.
It is he'll be on a plane, I'm sure.
So he will be kept kept up to date and we'll see if the Lumumba statue works.
Okay.
Now I'll go to serious discussions.
Okay.
Israeli Cabinet has approved building 500, I think, 76 new units in the occupied West Bank, that making it almost, you know, impossible to continue with talking about the two state solution.
And yet, I mean, the the G seven also condemned the settlement and settlers activity, but Israel is not paying attention to the whole world.
What else could be done? Look, I mean, I can only speak for ourselves.
It is something we continue to speak out against.
Secretary-General and his position and his predecessors position has always been clear that settlements are against international law.
They're an impediment to the peace process.
It's an issue we continue to raise, but it's also important that member states and others continue to raise it directly with the Israeli authorities.
Remember incident that on Sunday in the town of Dre de Bon, the settlers attacked the village, burned seven cars, a couple of houses, and they poured gasoline on a hu a man and they tried to set him on fire.
However, the village people attacked the settlers and saved him.
I didn't see that some incidents.
There are repeated horrific incidents of settler violence.
We're able to report on the ones that we know about, but obviously it's clear that there are many others that we're just not informed about.
Silva, Islam.
Thank you, Stephan.
Given the recent discussion about the senior role, Yeah.
About the Syrian role addressing the situation in Lebanon, how concerned is the Secretary-General about it? Does he believe that there is a risk of reverting the status quo ante? Look, to my knowledge, I've only seen one comment.
I don't know if it's a serious discussion.
I think what Lebanon needs is for the Lebanese government, the Lebanese people to be master of their own country, right? And I think that's the most important thing.
But that's the idea of the solution proposed by President Trump.
I've answered your question to the best of my ability.
Maybe not to von standards, but I've answered.
Stefano.
Thank you, Stefan.
The Secretary-General has welcomed the US Iran memorandum.
However, the agreement includes a commitment not to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.
Does he worry that this could be seen as reducing international pressure regarding human rights violation? And the repression of dissent inside Iran? We have welcomed a deal which would and we're starting to see it a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and move us back to diplomacy.
The fact is that the Secretary-General has repeatedly spoken out against human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
He has done so publicly and he has raised it privately, and he will continue to do so.
And does he believe the agreement leads the international community in a stronger position on nuclear nonproliferation and weapons of mass destruction than before the conflict began.
First of all, I think we all have to read what was actually agreed to.
There are the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries have obligations towards the IAEA, and we continue to call on everyone to uphold and observe those and to continue continue to work towards nuclear nonproliferation.
Islam.
Thank you, Stephanie.
A couple of questions, quick question.
First of all, is there any change of UN involvement on US and Iran sign after any position? Yeah, let's all get the actual MOU, and then we can start talking about it based on fact.
Second question about the special envoy to the Middle East.
With this agreement, would there be any shift on his mission? Listen his work will continue.
I mean, we're still in a very challenging situation.
Yes, sir.
Excuse me.
Thank you, Steph.
I was wondering whether the Secretary-General has any specific views on who bears responsibility for financing Iran's reconstruction following the extensive damage caused by the war.
Again, let's look at the let's wait for the actual agreement to come through.
Absfan then we'll go to our guests who've been very patient.
Thank you, Steph on Bangladesh and India border again.
The international forces on international focuses on US Iran negotiation, Lebanon, South Sudan, and Haiti, but hundreds of children and women's lives in danger between Bangladesh and India border.
Children are crying due to hunger.
Women are sleeping under the under Abu Sufyan is what is your question? I My question is how the Secretary-General looking at this method and I have a follow up.
Look, I think it is incumbent on the two countries to work out this issue through dialogue in full respect for people's human rights and human dignity.
Yes.
My second question is, as you know, that New President elect of PGA was in role of high representative on Rohingya during interim government of Bangladesh.
Just after a few months, he will continue to work for his new role, I president of UN General Assembly.
On the other hand, Secretary-General previously served as High Commissioner for refugee.
So can we now be hopeful about Rohingya repatriation? Look, I think the role of the president of General Assembly is to preside over the General Assembly.
So the interaction between the Secretary-General and the President of General Assembly will be focused on General Assembly matters, and the work on the Rohingya file will continue.