Source: European Central Bank (video statements)
ECB President Christine Lagarde explains the Governing Council’s monetary policy decisions and will answer questions from journalists at the Governing Council press conference to be held on Thursday, 24 July 2025 at 14:45 CEST in Frankfurt am Main.
Source: World Trade Organization – WTO (video statements)
On 14 July, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala received Zambia’s instrument of acceptance of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies from Zambia’s WTO Ambassador Eunice M. Tembo Luambia. Just six more acceptances are needed for the Agreement to enter into force.
Source: United Kingdom UK House of Lords (video statements)
The Sovereign’s throne in the House of Lords chamber is hard to miss. Designed after the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey @westminsterabbeylondon, it is used by the monarch during the State Opening of Parliament. Discover more about the history and significance of the throne with Parliament’s Curator of the Historic Furniture and Decorative Arts Collection, Eloise.
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Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements)
(SASSA) CEO, Mr Themba Matlou briefs media about social grants reviews on targeted beneficiaries.
Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements)
Treasury Director General Dr Duncan Pieterse addressees the 4th Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting in Zimbali, Kwa Zulu Natal
Source: United Nations (video statements)
The HLPF will be held from Monday, 14 July, to Wednesday, 23 July 2025, under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council.
Opening
Unlocking means of implementation: Mobilizing financing and STI for the SDGs (Townhall meeting)
-How can countries and stakeholders advance a coherent framework for financing the SDGs?
-What are the key outcomes from the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) which can be addressed in the short-term?
-How can promising science and technology solutions for the SDGs be scaled up?
-What innovative examples were highlighted at the 10th Multi-Stakeholder Forum on STI for the SDGs?
—
The High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) will be held from Monday, 14 July, to Wednesday, 23 July 2025, under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council. This includes the three-day ministerial segment of the forum from Monday, 21 July, to Wednesday, 23 July 2025, as part of the High-level Segment of ECOSOC.
The theme of the HLPF will be "Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals for leaving no one behind"
Five Sustainable Development Goals would be the focus of HLPF 2025
SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-Being
SDG 5 – Gender Equality
SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 14 – Life Below Water
SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals
The 2025 HLPF is expected to bring together ministerial and high-level representatives of governments, as well as a wide range of expertise and stakeholders, including heads of UN entities, academics and other experts, and representatives of major groups and other stakeholders.
37 countries will present a Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) at the 2025 HLPF: Angola, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Finland, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Malaysia, Malta, Micronesia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Thailand.
Watch in 6 UN official languages: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1f/k1fv876o81
Source: United Nations (video statements)
World Food Programme (WFP) deputy chief Carl Skau said, “one in three people in Gaza goes for days without eating.” He once again called for a ceasefire and the access for humanitarian aid, the Programme has "enough food on the borders to be delivered to the entire population for some two months," he said.
The Deputy Executive Director briefed reporters today (11 Jul) in New York on his recent visit to Gaza.
“Starvation is spreading,” Skau said, referring to the recent IPC report a few weeks ago pointing to the entire population being acutely food insecure and 500,000 people in starvation, he added, “it’s much worse now. Malnutrition is surging.”
The senior WFP official also highlighted the displacement in the Strip. He said, “I’ve met families who have moved maybe two or three times. Now it’s a situation where I meet families who have moved two or three times in the past ten days. They have moved 20 or 30 times, and obviously every time they are able to bring less and the margins to survive become slimmer
Skau also said that the Programme’s ability to response and assist as humanitarians “have never been more constrained.”
“The first issue is obviously the amount that we are able to bring in. It’s just a fraction of what’s needed,” he explained, adding that the price of a kilo of wheat flour was over $25 during his visit last week.
Skau described the operating environment for his team as “impossible.”
He said, “Some 85 percent now of the territory, there are active military operations. Our teams get stuck in waiting for clearances and at checkpoints, often spending between 15 to 20 hours straight in the armored vehicles trying to escort our convoys.”
“There’s not enough fuel. There are not enough spare parts to our vehicles. Most of the windows in our armored vehicles have been damaged, and we don’t have basic communication. Radio, antennas from our cars have been ripped off. And so, if you are more than 20 metres away from each other, we don’t have proper communication. And that, it is really an issue when you are in this kind of environment, he added.
The Deputy Executive Director also informed the reporters that WFP has been “actively engaging with Israeli authorities over the past few weeks.”
He noted that there were some agreements in terms of improving the conditions, but the implementation of the agreements is not yet enough.
Skau reiterated that WFP has enough food on the borders to deliver to the entire population for some two months, “but obviously we need that ceasefire and we need conditions within that ceasefire.”
Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements)
President Ramaphosa briefs the Nation on National Security Matters
Source: United Nations (video statements)
“Since the spring of this year, first Pakistan, then Iran and now possibly others, such as Tajikistan, are fomenting the mass return of Afghan refugees,” a UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said.
Arafat Jamal, UNHCR Representative in Afghanistan, addressed the press virtually from Kabul today (11 Jul), in New York on the country’s humanitarian situation, notably on the increase of Afghan returns in adverse circumstances
He reported, “Since the spring of this year, first Pakistan, then Iran and now possibly others, such as Tajikistan, are fomenting the mass return of Afghan refugees. Some people are moving in a voluntary fashion, but others are not.”
He said, “Of concern to us is the scale, the intensity and the manner in which returns are occurring. In terms of the scale, over 1.6 million Afghans have returned from both Pakistan and Iran this year alone, including 1.3 million from Iran.”
He also said, “At the Iran Afghanistan border, where I just was a few days ago, and to which I’m heading again tomorrow, we are seeing peaks of over 40,000 people a day. And on the fourth of July, we actually saw 50,000 people coming across that border. Many of these returnees are arriving having been abruptly uprooted and having undergone arduous, exhausting and degrading journeys.”
He highlighted, “And while they are from Afghanistan, they often appear to be not of Afghanistan. Often born abroad, with better education and different cultural norms. Their outlook is different from and often at all with present day in Afghanistan. We are particularly concerned about the fate of women and girls in a country in which their most basic human rights are at risk and not respected.”
He continued, “What we are seeing with these returns is precarity layered upon poverty, on drought, human rights abuses and an instable region. In other words, we are having a deeply impoverished people coming to a country that is itself, while welcoming wholly unprepared to receive them.”
He stressed, “Many will be left with a desperate choice: Do they flee, or do they fight? Do they do they come home find nothing to do and simply bounce back to Iran, to Turkey and on to Europe? Or if they are, particularly if they are working age men, are they going to be victims of those groups that are prowling the countryside looking for recruits for their various causes.”
He concluded, “We are calling for restraint, for resources, for dialog and for international cooperation to stem an evolving chaotic situation and to foster a more stable outcome for all of us.”
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Deputy International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan today (10 Jul) told the Security Council that the Office of the Prosecutor has “reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur.”
Khan described a series of ongoing violations, including hospitals, humanitarian convoys, and other civilian objects apparently being targeted; famine escalating and humanitarian aid not reaching those in need; people being deprived of water and food; rape and sexual violence being weaponized; and abductions for ransom or to bolster the ranks of armed groups becoming common practice.
She said, “we come together at a time when it can seem difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur. The humanitarian position has reached an intolerable state.”
The Deputy Prosecutor noted the Office’s conclusions are grounded on the activities it has been undertaking in the last six months and in earlier reporting periods, relying on documentary, testimonial, and digital evidence, collected and analysed by the Office.
She said, “drawing on the over 7,000 evidence items collected to date, the Office of the Prosecutor remains focused on delivering concrete landmarks, so as to respond to the legitimate and impassioned calls for justice heard from victims and survivors.”
Khan said, “to those on the ground in Darfur now; to those inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population; they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kushayb may have in the past. But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kushayb trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court.”
On 9 July 2021, Pre-Trial Chamber II confirmed all the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity brought by the Prosecutor against Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman – commonly known as Ali Kushayb – and committed him to trial. The trial ended on 13 December 2024
Khan said, “there is an inescapable pattern of offending, targeting gender and ethnicity through rape and sexual violence which must be translated into evidence for the Court and the world to hear,” and stressed that “these alleged crimes are being given particular priority by our Office as we proceed with focus in our investigative work.”
Sudanese Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, for his part told the Council that “militia of the Rapid Support are launching an all-out destruction war against the state without the main parameters of a regular army.”
Al-Harith Mohamed, said, “they lack unity of control and command or even knowledge of the rules of engagement. They are established based on communal bases. The recruitment is based on ethnicity. They have been designated as a terrorist group.
On the other hand, he continued, “the soldiers of the Sudanese Armed Forces are coming from all strata of the Sudanese society they have been trained on IHL (International Humanitarian Law); they follow a strict code of conduct. They also apply the principles of precaution and distinction. We’ve also, through our spokesperson, have issued a number of statements warning citizens from any potential areas that might be turned into a theatre of war. “
Outside the Council, Ambassadors Michael Imran Kanu of Sierra Leone and Sandra Jensen Landi of Denmark issued a statement joined by Representatives from France, Greece, Guyana, Panama, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.
Kanu said, “we express, position to the office for their continued dedication to their mandate under exceptional, challenging circumstances. We welcome the ongoing intensive activities with respect to the situation in Darfur, reflected in the report. Based on extensive testimonial, digital and documentary evidence collected, the office has confirmed it has reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been and continue to be committed in Darfur.’
Landi, for her part said, “we remain steadfast in upholding the principles enshrined in the Rome Statute and defending the court’s integrity against any threats or actions targeting the institution, its officials, or cooperating partners. Such actions are counterproductive to our shared goal of ensuring accountability for the most serious crimes, promoting the rule of law, and fostering lasting respect for international law, including human rights.”
