A landmark gathering of more than 57,000 participants – the largest in the history of the World Urban Forum – closed on Friday in Baku with an urgent call to rethink how the world houses its people, as a new roadmap urges governments, cities and communities to act collectively on a crisis affecting billions. UN Deputy Secretary‑General Amina Mohammed warned that the Forum was taking place at a difficult moment for global cooperation. The housing crisis sits at the crossroads of nearly every major global challenge – from poverty and inequality to climate change, conflict and instability.
Recently returned from a visit to Gaza, Dr. Renee Van de Weerdt, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, briefs reporters in Geneva about the dire humanitarian situation marked by continuing violence. Dr. Van de Weerd highlights the work of national humanitarian colleagues who cannot leave Gaza, continuing to support communities amid collapsing health services, daily danger, and increasingly difficult living conditions.
Briefing by Ted Chaiban, Deputy Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), on threats to international peace and security.
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Also briefing the Council, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban said:
“The need for this discussion could not be more urgent. The war in Ukraine continues to rage and devastate children’s lives. According to reports, last night drone strikes hit a dormitory housing at least 86 adolescents aged 14-18, in the town of Starobilsk in the Luhansk region. The attack reportedly left six dead and dozens of others injured, including children. It is too early to know the full extent of the casualties, as we understand rescue operations are still unfolding. This is yet another example of children paying the price for a war that is not of their own making. According to verified UN data, more than 3,400 children have now been killed or injured since the escalation of the war in 2022.”
Briefing by Vanessa Frazier, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, on threats to international peace and security.
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Also briefing the Council, Vanessa Frazier, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said, “When schools are damaged or destroyed, the consequences extend far beyond the immediate loss of infrastructure, sometimes of life too.”
The toll of the war in Ukraine on civilians is “staggering – and still rising,” a top UN humanitarian official told the Security Council.
Briefing the Security Council members, Edem Wosornu, Director of Crisis Response Division at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said “The toll of this war on civilians is staggering – and still rising. The statistics bear repeating. Since February of 2022, the UN has recorded nearly 16,000 civilians killed and more than 44,000 injured. The real numbers are almost certainly much higher.”
She also reported that “a ballistic missile struck a UNHCR-contracted warehouse in Dnipro on the night of 19 to 20 May, killing two warehouse workers and destroying more than one million dollars worth of aid – including blankets and hygiene kits intended for evacuees and people sheltering in collective sites."
She said, "This is the fifth hit on humanitarian workers and assets in just nine days. Excellencies, Mr. President, this must stop.”
Nazhat Shameem Khan, Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, called the confirmation hearing in relation to Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri a “true landmark”, emphasizing that the Court remains committed to ensuring accountability.
Addressing the Security Council from the Hague via video link today (22 May), the ICC Deputy Prosecutor regretted that she is again unable to join the Council due to the non-issuance of a US visa required for her travel to deliver the briefing in accordance with Security Council resolution 1970.
Khan said, “It was my honour this Tuesday to address the Pre-Trial Chamber together with the OTP Libya Unified Team, opening the confirmation hearing in relation to Mr. Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri.”
She noted that in the first judicial proceedings stemming from this referral, El Hishri is accused of 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out principally in Mitiga Prison, including in the women’s section of the Prison over which Mr. El Hishri had direct control.
The Deputy Prosecutor said, “the actions of Mr Khaled El Hishri’s and the RADA militia are not the actions of a legitimate law-enforcement agency; and Mitiga was not a normal prison,” highlighting “it was a system designed to inflict extreme pain, deep humiliation, and, ultimately, to destroy the lives of those detained.”
“As the Court heard this week, Mr Khaled EL HISHRI was at the centre of this abuse,” she added.
Khan also said, “following submissions by Victim’s Legal Representatives and the Defence, the confirmation hearing has now concluded. In the event charges are confirmed, our Office stands ready to commence trial promptly.”
She said, “we remain focused on ensuring that this process ultimately leads to the full recognition of victims experiences through the conviction of Mr. El Hishri.”
The Deputy Prosecutor also said, “to those responsible for alleged Rome Statute crimes in Libya, to those carrying them out, to those facilitating them and ordering them, we have a simple message: Know that our Office remains committed to delivering accountability for your acts. And we are moving at speed across our lines of inquiry to ensure the rights of those you have mistreated are vindicated, in a court of law, as we saw here in the Hague this week.”
For his part, US diplomat Jeff Bartos reiterated Washington’s “ongoing, unequivocal opposition to the ICC’s attempts to assert jurisdiction over the United States or any US ally that has not consented to ICC jurisdiction.”
He said, “the core US objections to the ICC have been the same for nearly three decades. To date, however, we have seen no indication that the ICC intends to reform its behavior or that states parties will exercise appropriate oversight and management of the Court.”
“As our long-standing concerns have not been realized, our response has escalated in proportion to the threat presented by the ICC and to the degree to which our concerns remain unaddressed,” the US diplomat added.
He said, “we will continue to take action as needed to safeguard US interests. Let me repeat that we will continue to take action as needed to safeguard US interests.”
Bartos also reiterated US’s “long standing calls on Libyan authorities to ensure that former senior officials of the Gaddafi regime face justice, ending impunity for those who commit serious human rights abuses in Libya is critical for the country’s continued progress on a path to greater unity, stability and prosperity.”
For his part, Libyan Ambassador Taher M. El-Sonni stressed, “the extending cooperation until the end of 2027 strengthens the Court’s jurisdiction based on the fundamental principle, the principle of complementarity rather than substitution.”
He added, “the Libyan national judiciary is the mandate holder. Judicial complementarity can be invoked. The role of the Court remains through cooperation and the exchange of evidence when national proceedings or the prosecution of suspects are not feasible.”
After the Council’s meeting, Ambassador of Liberia Lewis G. Brown spoke on behalf of the Member States of Security Council that are state parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The countries are Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Greece, Latvia, Panama, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Liberia.
Ambassador Brown said, “We reaffirm our steadfast and unwavering support for the Court as an independent and impartial judicial institution,” reiterating the state parties’ “strong commitment to upholding and defending the principles and values enshrined in the Rome Statute. Safeguarding its integrity against any threats or actions aimed at the Court, its officials or its 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 international human rights law.”
Press Conference by Vanessa Frazier, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, on her recent mission to Haiti.
Frazier said, “children in Haiti are facing levels of violence that no children anywhere should ever endure. Armed gangs terrorise communities and children are paying the highest price.”
She said, “I witnessed profound suffering for many children,” which left her “deeply concerned, but also profoundly moved by the resilience and courage of Haiti’s youngest generation.”
She said, “growing up means a daily struggle to survive, live in constant fear and be subject to intimidation, violence, family separation, displacement, and trauma, as gangs take advantage of the vulnerability of these children.
In 2025 alone, the Special Representative said, “the recruitment and use of children nearly tripled compared to previous years” and added that “it is estimated that more than half of gang members are children.”
Frazier said that in her meetings with Haitian government officials and its partners, she was reassured “that the protection of children is at the centre of their agenda,” and welcomed the government’s efforts “in taking concrete steps to protect children, including through the implementation of the handover protocol signed with the United Nations in 2024 to facilitate the transfer of children associated with gangs to child protection services.”
She said she had stressed “that children encountered during security operations must be treated first and foremost as victims.”
The Special Representative emphasised that “there is a window of opportunity now to do the right thing” as the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) deploys, and said, “security and child protection cannot be separated. Without protecting these children and supporting all children affected by violence, lasting stability in Haiti will not be possible.”
She said the special representative of the GSF had assured her that “protocols and systems were being put in place to protect children during operations and trained contingents pre and during deployment on child protection.”
Stressing the importance of economic activity for the implementation of training and reintegration programs, Frazier said, “you’re going to give vocational training. But then they come out of the reintegration program, and they don’t have anywhere where they can use this vocational training you gave them. What’s the point? Right. So, we need to work hand-in-hand with many agencies, in order to ensure child protection, fully.”
She said, “the economic part of it is very important. We need to create jobs”.
After the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, known as the NPT, failed today (22 May) to agree on a final document, the President of the Conference, Do Hung Viet expressed concerned for the future health of the Treaty, and said he was “disappointed” it was unable to “really seize this critical opportunity to make our world a safer place.”
It was the third failure in a row at a conference reviewing the NPT, considered the cornerstone of global non-proliferation and disarmament.
Talking to reporters Friday evening, after negotiations came to an end, Do said, “a substantive outcome would have strengthened the Treaty and advanced its objectives, but in absence of such an outcome, I am concerned for the future health of the Treaty.”
The Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu, for her part said, “we all need to remember that legal commitments or legal obligations under this Treaty, remain. So, we need to make sure that all states, especially nuclear weapon states, really understand it and then maintain their commitment and then really move to implement their commitments.”
As a member of the Secretariat, Nakamitsu said, “we don’t criticise member states or states parties in their deliberations,” but going forward, she added, “they need to actually take this third time failure very seriously.”
Explaining the deliberations, Do said, “I can present a text that country A I know will block consensus. I can also present a text that is slightly tweaked but will make a country B block the adoption. And of course, there are other ways as well. So, I had to make the difficult decision not to present that document.”
He lamented that “we will need to wait at least five more years to see if we are able to, you know, reaffirm that commitment or take any further action, to strengthen the regime,” while in the meantime, “we are seeing the modernisation of nuclear arsenals. We are seeing the quantitative increase in some nuclear arsenals as well. So, and then, you know, the level of nuclear rhetorics, the tense international situation, are all extremely worrying of a risk of the use of nuclear weapons. So, I am concerned.”
Asked about the United States and Iran’s dispute over paragraph 15 of the document, Do said, “I cannot really say, that, you know, apart from one paragraph, everything else was agreed, that I don’t think is it would be accurate to say.”
He said, “I did try to produce some textual changes to the draft outcome document. You know, it ranges from changing the text to the placement of some of the paragraphs, to be more amenable to both sides. But I think at about 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m. I felt that we were not able to find that consensus.”
Nakamitsu said, “we need to utilise all other available processes. To, to make sure that we will be able to reconstruct, our efforts. And maybe we should be creating, something else.”
She noted that the General Assembly’s First Committee “is able to create mandates. So, we need to actually think about those or available means, and then we will not give up.”
Earlier in the GA, when he realized consensus was not going to be achieved, Do said, “as I said at the start of this conference, my goal was to make everyone equally unhappy. In that I think we can all agree that I had made some progress towards that goal. I have now put forward four versions of the draft outcome document, all of which have been painstakingly revised in line with States Parties wishes. Despite our best efforts, however, it is my understanding that the Conference is not in a position to achieve agreement on its substantive work. Given that this is now apparent, I do not intend to put the document forward for adoption, as the Conference is not in a position to achieve agreement. “
The NPT entered into force in 1970 and was extended indefinitely in 1995. The Treaty is regarded as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and an essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament. It was designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to further the goals of nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament, and to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Under the Treaty, the nuclear-weapon States are obliged not to transfer possession or control to any recipient nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, and not in any way to assist, encourage or induce non-nuclear-weapon States to manufacture, acquire, or control over such weapons or devices.
The Treaty guarantees the right of all States parties develop research, production, and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with their basic non-proliferation obligations.
Conferences to review the operation of the Treaty have been held at five-year intervals since the Treaty went into effect in 1970.
This World Football Day, the UN Football for the Goals initiative launches the inaugural group of FFTG Champions, a global team of players and coaches using the power of football to support the Sustainable Development Goals.
From equality and inclusion to climate action, health and human rights, FFTG Champions will use their platforms to raise awareness and inspire action on the issues shaping our shared future.
Learn more about the Champions at the Football for the Goals website.
Eni Aluko (England)
Brena Bonta (Brazil)
Deyna Castellanos (Venezuela)
Moya Dodd (Australia)
Thembi Kgatlana (South Africa)
Khalida Popal (Afghanistan)
María Sánchez (Mexico)
Daniel Amokachi (Nigeria)
Carlo Ancelotti (Italy)
Borja Iglesias (Spain)
Ji-Sung Park (South Korea)
Jason Roberts (Grenada)
Alexei Rojas (Colombia)
Mikaël Silvestre (France)
Javier Zanetti (Argentina)
Zico (Brazil)
