Source: United Nations (video statements)
The United Nations ECOSOC Youth Forum took place from 14 to 16 April 2026 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Forum focused on transformative, equitable, innovative, and coordinated actions to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals.
UN Video interviewed four of the UN Youth Office’s Reference Group during the Forum.
For more: https://www.un.org/youthaffairs/en/youth-reference-group
Source: United Nations (video statements)
A sustainable and inclusive future depends on achieving inclusive economic growth and decent work for all. Yet young people aged 15 to 24 continue to face persistent barriers to accessing meaningful and productive employment. This session will highlight the bold, innovative ways in which young advocates are leading change to ensure that every young person can access productive employment, regardless of gender, income, or socio‑economic background.
Moderator
Bora Kamwanya, Vice-President, Pan African Youth Union
Speakers
Puneet Singh Singhal, Co-founder of Billion Strong and member of UN Youth Office Reference Group
Lindsey Huahuamullo, Founder of ImpactaYA and member of UN Youth Office Reference Group
Source: United Nations (video statements)
The Poet Laureate of Barbados, Ms. Esther Phillips, and Ms. Shahaddah Jack, the first Youth Poet Laureate of Toronto, participated in the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade on 25 March 2026 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. While there, they sat down in a UNTV studio to reflect on the power of poetry and art in confronting history, honoring memory, and demanding justice.
The conversation was organized by the United Nations Outreach Programme on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Conversation with Fabien Cousteau, Aquanaut, Ocean Conservationist, and Documentary Filmmaker.
Join ITV News Anchor Rageh Omaar in conversation with Fabien Cousteau, the renowned ocean explorer, environmentalist, and grandson of the legendary explorer Jacques Cousteau—as he takes us beneath the surface of our planet’s most critical ecosystems. Cousteau has spent a lifetime exploring the deep sea, changing our perceptions of life underwater and advocating for its protection. Cousteau will share powerful stories from the frontlines of marine conservation, from the vibrant coral reefs of the tropics to the rapidly changing waters of Antarctica. This discussion will be an eye-opening journey through Earth’s last wild frontiers—and a call to action to protect them.
Speaker:
Fabien Cousteau, Aquanaut, Ocean Conservationist, and Documentary Filmmaker
Moderator:
Rageh Omaar, News Anchor, ITV News
Join us during the UN Ocean Conference from June 9-13 and hear about the transformation and solutions needed to accelerate action on the SDGs.
The Conference aims to drive urgent action to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Ocean science, pollution, fishing, maritime transport, biodiversity, financing and cooperation are among the issues to be tackled.
Organized by the UN Department of Global Communications, the SDG Media Zone takes the conversation out of the policy sphere and into the public discourse through impactful in-depth interviews and conversations on global issues that matter to people everywhere.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Between October 2023 and December 2025, more than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza, the result of Israeli air bombardment and land military operations, UN Women said on Friday. Women from Gaza share their stories of struggling to survive.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Briefing by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), on Sudan and South Sudan – Security Council, 10139th meeting.
Briefing via VTC from Berlin, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Tom Fletcher described his recent visit to South Sudan and said, “I was told again and again of a feeling of despair and abandonment, and with good reason. The world’s youngest nation stands at a dangerous crossroads. Conflict up, displacement up, hunger up, disease up, attacks on aid workers up, funding down. Two out of every three people need humanitarian support this year. Yet the hyper-prioritised $1.46 billion plan is only 22 percent funded.”
In Jonglei, Fletcher said, he met “families uprooted again and again.”
He said, “women told me that they fled extreme violence. Their homes have been burned down. One said people had been slaughtered like goats. I met a grandmother who carried her 19-year-old granddaughter, born paralysed for days as they fled fighting.”
Fletcher said, “this is what it looks like when parties defy their obligations to protect civilians and undermine the revitalised peace agreement.”
According to OCHA, two-thirds of the population need humanitarian support this year, including over 7.5 million people will need food assistance.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Press conference by Fabrizia Falcione, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Country Representative in Sudan, on the situation in the Country.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Country Representative in Sudan, Fabrizia Falcione said women and girls across Sudan continue to experience gender-based violence in their daily live. “They feel unsafe,” she said.
Falcione briefed reporter via video link today (17 Apr) from Khartoum. She said, “women and girls have a persistent sense of danger. 76 percent of the women aged between 25 and 49 have reported feeling unsafe in the displacement camps and sites, but also outside the camps, in markets, water points, in firewood collection areas, roads and streets, particularly at night when going to the latrines in distribution areas, and equally in urban and rural areas.”
The UNFPA official noted that reporting cases of gender-based violence remains “extremely difficult,” due to stigma, the fear of retaliation, the financial constraints, as well as the distance from the service provision.
Falcione also said, “three quarters of them have indicated that economic empowerment and livelihood as being their priority. “
She said, “I can confirm from all my missions that women want to return, including to Khartoum. They want to return to their homes, to their areas of origin. They ask for three things when I spoken to many of them basic services, access to health, access to schools, particularly for their children, and livelihood opportunities. They don’t want to be fed. They want opportunities, income generation of activities, opportunities to be able to feed their families and their children.”
On funding shortage, the UNFPA official said, “today in Sudan, the protection sector is funded at 14 percent and the health sector at 11 percent. We keep hearing over and over that this is a protection crisis, particularly affecting women and girls. It is a health crisis and yet the funding are not following neither the definition nor the needs that are being identified.”
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
Secretary-General/Travel
Middle East
Lebanon
Lebanon/Humanitarian
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Lacroix/Trip Announcement
Mexico
Security Council/South Sudan
Cameroon
Haiti
Haiti/Humanitarian
Afghanistan
Exhibition/Sudan
Guest
SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRAVEL
Today, in The Hague, the Secretary-General addressed a solemn sitting to celebrate the 80th anniversary of International Court of Justice inaugural session.
The Secretary-General said that it is easy to forget the world of eighty years ago. Europe, and far beyond, lay in ruins, and The Hague itself was scarred and shaken. And yet, he said, in that dark and difficult moment, world leaders made a defining choice, a choice to reject a future ruled by coercion and violence, and to embrace a future rooted in the United Nations Charter and international law.
The Secretary-General stressed that the Court’s decisions, including provisional measures, are binding on the parties to a case, and respect for those decisions is not optional; it is a Charter obligation. Yet today, he said, violations of international law are unfolding before our eyes, warning that when the law of force replaces the force of law, instability becomes contagious.
The Secretary-General emphasized that to weaken international law is to erode the foundations of global stability, and to strengthen it is to invest in a world governed by justice, not fear. His full remarks have been shared with you.
Also today, the Secretary-General had a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister and Minister for General Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Rob Jetten.
This afternoon, the Secretary-General will meet the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Tom Berendsen, and will have meeting with Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
MIDDLE EAST
The Secretary-General welcomes the announcement today by the Islamic Republic of Iran that the Strait of Hormuz is completely open for all commercial vessels for the remainder of the ceasefire.
The Secretary-General considers this a step in the right direction. The United Nations’ position remains clear: we need the full restoration of international navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait of Hormuz to be respected by all parties.
The Secretary-General remains fully supportive of the diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful path forward out of the current conflict in the Middle East. He also hopes that, together with the ceasefire, this measure will contribute to creating confidence between the parties and strengthen the ongoing dialogue facilitated by Pakistan.
LEBANON
The Secretary-General welcomes the announcement of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, and commends the role of the United States in facilitating the ceasefire. He reaffirms the support of the United Nations to all efforts to end hostilities and alleviate the suffering of communities on both sides of the Blue Line. The Secretary-General hopes that this ceasefire will pave the way for negotiations and the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) towards a long-term solution to the conflict.
Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert continues her good offices engagement with all stakeholders to support the parties to fully implement resolution 1701 towards a permanent ceasefire and long-term solution to the conflict.
Meanwhile, the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reports that peacekeepers have not detected projectiles fired from north to south or airstrikes in the area of operations since midnight.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2026-04-17
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Remarks by Ambassador Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, on the situation in the Middle East.
Danon told reporters, “in one hour at 5 pm our time, a ten-day ceasefire will come into effect between Israel and Lebanon as Prime Minister Netanyahu confirmed. We got to this point as a result of the IDF’s heroic actions in pushing back Hezbollah in many operations, including the pager attacks and the elimination of Nasrallah.”
Speaking to reporters today (16 Apr) in New York, Ambassador Danon criticized the UN Secretary-General’s “outrageous remarks” made earlier this week.
Ambassador Danon said, “in the very day Israel and Lebanon were engaged in historic negotiations. He went so far as to claim that Israel and Hezbollah have, and I quote ‘helped each other to destabilize Lebanon.’ That is simply false.”
The Israeli Ambassador continued, “at a historic moment, when the region is taking steps toward direct dialog between Israel and Lebanon, when others are choosing progress, the Secretary-General choose to do exactly the opposite. He chose to cast doubt. He chose to blur the truth. He chose to draw a comparison between a sovereign state and a terrorist organization. That is shameful.”
Ambassador Danon asked, “on what moral ground that the Secretary-General equate a democracy defending its citizens with an Iranian backed terrorist proxy?” adding that “there is no answer to that. To put them in the same category is a complete distortion of reality.”
“Secretary-General Guterres, this is shameful. Retract your comments. Correct the record. Do your job,” the Israeli Ambassador said.
On the Strait of Hormuz, Ambassador Danon said that it “should concern every country in the General Assembly,” adding that “Iran is trying to choke one of the world’s most important waterways and turn it into weapons. They block ships, they harass them. Then they name a price – pay and you pass, refuse and you are stopped. That is not trade. That is economic terrorism.”
He continued, “after weeks of negotiations, even a stripped-down Security Council resolution was vetoed. So we have to be clear about what comes next. We need a clear resolution, strong one, one that will deal with enrich uranium, with the ballistic missiles, with the proxies. That’s what we expect from the Security Council.”
Ambassador Danon also said, “there is one thing that is very troubling is that some countries choose to go behind closed doors and sign secret deals with the Iranian regime. No transparency, no accountability. It’s also shameful.”
Asked about the ceasefire between his country and Lebanon, the Israeli Ambassador said, “it is in our view, we will have to follow very carefully what’s happening on the ground. And if we feel threatened, we will react. We are not going anywhere. We are holding our positions. we agreed for ten days holding those positions. Having a ceasefire. and we all know that, the problem is not with the Lebanese government. The problem is with Hezbollah.”
He added, “we believe in direct negotiations with Lebanon, but we are aware of the complexity that you deal with the Lebanese government, but Hezbollah, they don’t take orders from the Lebanese government. They take orders from Iran. We know it’s complex, but we are willing to give it a try.”
