Category: United Nations

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:

-AU-UN Annual Conference
-Sudan
-Occupied Palestinian Territory
-Yemen
-Cambodia / Thailand
-Iraq
-Afghanistan
-Democratic Republic of the Congo
-Hunger
-Briefing / Tomorrow

AU-UN ANNUAL CONFERENCE
The 9th African Union–UN annual conference is taking place at the UN Headquarters.
The high-level discussions started earlier this morning and are co-chaired by the Secretary-General and Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
The annual meeting is focusing on progress in the implementation of the cooperation frameworks between the two organizations, but also on the joint action and challenges linked to peace, security, development and human rights.
Discussions include topics such as financing for development, climate action, as well as the implementation of the African strategy for women, peace and security agenda.

SUDAN
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, is in Sudan, to see firsthand the immense suffering and to help identify solutions to this deepening humanitarian crisis. Mr. Fletcher is currently traveling towards Darfur, where he is expected to meet families who fled the recent violence in El Fasher, a city he described as “already the scene of catastrophic levels of human suffering” that has now “descended into an even darker hell.’ Mr. Fletcher is expected to also meet with aid workers who are trying to help all those in need despite insecurity they are facing, access constraints and, as you heard, severe funding shortages. Mr. Fletcher, as you will recall, recently allocated $20 million from the OCHA-managed Central Emergency Response Fund to scale up life-saving aid in Tawila, Darfur and Kordofan.

And as I mentioned, we hope to have Mr. Fletcher brief you after he’s visited Darfur.
Yesterday, Mr. Fletcher was in Port Sudan where he met with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, President of the Transitional Sovereign Council of Sudan. Their discussions focused on improving humanitarian access across Sudan. Mr. Fletcher conveyed out appreciation for the Government’s stated commitment to facilitate the delivery of essential aid wherever it is needed.
While in Port Sudan, he also met with the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, who was also in Sudan. They discussed urgent steps to reach people in need across Sudan, from Darfur to the Kordofan. Mr. Fletcher expressed his gratitude for their partnership and commitment to facilitate neutral and impartial humanitarian access.
Mr. Fletcher, while in Port Sudan, also met with our UN and country team staff.

Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2025-11-12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml___Oe0CZ8

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Hybrid briefing from Sudan, by Amy Pope, Director General for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), on the situation in the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbKNWwwL4x8

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Secretary-General António Guterres said, “The world must not turn its back on Africa, home to nearly one-fifth of humanity. The stakes are too high. And the potential is too great.”

The Secretary-General and Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the African Union Commission Chairperson, spoke to reporters following the annual African Union United Nations Conference.

Guterres reiterated that the cooperation between the two organizations has never been stronger — or more necessary.

The UN chief highlighted that Africa’s history is as old as humanity. Its resources are vast – and have driven the growth of many economies. However, its progress is held back by an outdated and unfair global financial system.

Guterres said, “The time has come to reform this financial architecture – so it reflects the world of today and better serves the needs of developing countries, particularly in Africa.”

The Secretary-General reiterated, “It must become more inclusive, representative, equitable and effective,” explaining that it means “giving developing countries more meaningful participation in global financial institutions. Tripling the lending capacity of multilateral development banks. And easing debt burdens with new instruments that reduce the cost of capital, lower borrowing costs, extend maturity, align debt service to the ability to pay, and speed up sovereign debt resolution for countries facing debt distress.”

The UN chief also reaffirmed his full support for the AU’s Silencing the Guns initiative.

In Sudan, Guterres is “gravely” concern by recent reports of mass atrocities and gross human rights violations in El Fasher and worsening violence in the Kordofans.

He said, “The flow of weapons and fighters from external parties must be cut off. The flow of humanitarian aid must be able to quickly reach civilians in need. The hostilities must stop.”

The Secretary-General called on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to engage with his Personal Envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, and “take swift, tangible steps toward a negotiated settlement.”

In the eastern reaches of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guterres noted that decades of conflict have created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions – with 5.7 million people displaced and 21 million in need of lifesaving aid. Services are collapsing. Cholera on the rise. Hope is on the run.

The UN chief said, “Donors must step up – with meaningful support for the vastly underfunded Humanitarian Response Plan. Combatants must stand down – so peace agreements can be implemented without delay. Parties must honour their commitments under the Washington Peace Agreement and Doha Declaration of Principles, and comply fully with Security Council resolution 2773.”

“The DRC’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected. And the root causes of the instability and violence in eastern DRC must be addressed,” Guterres added.

For his part, African Union Commission Chairperson Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, said that the AU is committed to work with all parties and stakeholders at the United Nations to “achieve a transparent, equitable, unjust reform of the UN Security Council.”

“These reforms are indeed of paramount importance and would ultimately consolidate the multilateral system,” Youssouf said.

He also highlighted that the two organizations are faced with financial strains.

“We need to adapt our actions and programs to the new realities,” the Chairperson said, adding that “it is critical to continue to support peace operations, the fight against terrorism, conflict prevention and resolution, and also focus most of our efforts on humanitarian affairs.”

Asked about the decision from the United States to not attend the upcoming G20 in South Africa, the AU chairperson said, “It is indeed unfortunate that the United States boycott this G20 summit.”

He continued, “let me reassure you. I think the African continent has decided to take its destiny on its hands. And we are definitely working to increase the self-reliance. We are working to mobilize domestic resources for our development programs and the whole rhetorics and narratives is changing.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j8lpHtDdu0

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:

-AU-UN Annual Conference
-Sudan
-Occupied Palestinian Territory
-Yemen
-Cambodia / Thailand
-Iraq
-Afghanistan
-Democratic Republic of the Congo
-Hunger
-Briefing / Tomorrow

AU-UN ANNUAL CONFERENCE
The 9th African Union–UN annual conference is taking place at the UN Headquarters.
The high-level discussions started earlier this morning and are co-chaired by the Secretary-General and Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
The annual meeting is focusing on progress in the implementation of the cooperation frameworks between the two organizations, but also on the joint action and challenges linked to peace, security, development and human rights.
Discussions include topics such as financing for development, climate action, as well as the implementation of the African strategy for women, peace and security agenda.

SUDAN
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, is in Sudan, to see firsthand the immense suffering and to help identify solutions to this deepening humanitarian crisis. Mr. Fletcher is currently traveling towards Darfur, where he is expected to meet families who fled the recent violence in El Fasher, a city he described as “already the scene of catastrophic levels of human suffering” that has now “descended into an even darker hell.’ Mr. Fletcher is expected to also meet with aid workers who are trying to help all those in need despite insecurity they are facing, access constraints and, as you heard, severe funding shortages. Mr. Fletcher, as you will recall, recently allocated $20 million from the OCHA-managed Central Emergency Response Fund to scale up life-saving aid in Tawila, Darfur and Kordofan.

And as I mentioned, we hope to have Mr. Fletcher brief you after he’s visited Darfur.
Yesterday, Mr. Fletcher was in Port Sudan where he met with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, President of the Transitional Sovereign Council of Sudan. Their discussions focused on improving humanitarian access across Sudan. Mr. Fletcher conveyed out appreciation for the Government’s stated commitment to facilitate the delivery of essential aid wherever it is needed.
While in Port Sudan, he also met with the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, who was also in Sudan. They discussed urgent steps to reach people in need across Sudan, from Darfur to the Kordofan. Mr. Fletcher expressed his gratitude for their partnership and commitment to facilitate neutral and impartial humanitarian access.
Mr. Fletcher, while in Port Sudan, also met with our UN and country team staff.

Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2025-11-12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml___Oe0CZ8

Source: United Nations (video statements)

United Nations Human rights expert on Haiti, William O’Neill has described conditions of prisons in Haiti as inhuman and degrading. Speaking to UN News, the designated expert said, ‘the conditions are subhuman, frankly. Unbelievably crowded and hot. There’s not enough food. There’s very little access to medical care.’
Mr. O’Neil added that the country’s justice system has struggled to function effectively. Cases are not being tried quickly enough and 82 per cent of prisoners are being held in detention while they await their trial.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LhkvQkjbZQM

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Acute food insecurity is likely to worsen across 16 countries and territories in the coming months, UN agencies warn in a new report calling for urgent humanitarian action in response. Five facts about this dire situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJkAx0gXsSc

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Remarks by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility.

"Presidente Lula,
Excellencies,
It is an honour to join you for the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility.

I thank President Lula and the Government and people of Brazil for their leadership – here in Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, and centre of climate action.

Tropical forests breathe life into our planet.
Yet they remain under relentless assault – treated as short-term profit, not long-term value.
Last year, the world lost the equivalent of 18 football fields of tropical primary forest – every minute.

The Tropical Forest Forever Facility is a bold mechanism to make standing forests more valuable than cleared land – aligning conservation with opportunity, and solidarity with shared prosperity.

Excellencies,
Tropical forests are vital to climate stability.
They protect water and soils, store and remove billions of tonnes of carbon, regulate rainfall, shape weather patterns across continents, and sustain millions of people.
Without tropical forests, there is no path to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
We are dangerously close to a tipping point that could push these ecosystems beyond recovery.

Crossing that line would unleash droughts, fires, and biodiversity loss on a scale humanity cannot control.
We have pledged to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030.
Now we must deliver.

That means supporting forest nations – not as a favour, but as a shared duty;
Cutting emissions from deforestation;
And preserving forests’ immense capacity to store carbon.
By rewarding countries for keeping forests standing, we boost resilience.

By supporting Indigenous Peoples and forest communities, we advance climate justice and safeguard cultures whose knowledge has stewarded nature for millennia.
And by mobilizing long-term, predictable, and affordable finance, we close one of the most persistent gaps in global climate action.
Fairness, inclusion and integrity must be front and centre.
Finance must reach the ground – those protecting forests with their hands, hearts, and heritage.

Excellencies,
Today’s launch is a statement of solidarity and hope.
It shows that developing countries – while bearing the heaviest impacts of the climate crisis – are leading with solutions for all.
From the Amazon to the Congo Basin to Southeast Asia, forest nations prove that protecting nature can drive growth, stability, and dignity.
Now the world must respond with matching ambition.

Governments, development banks, and the private sector must join forces to close the finance gap, unlock investment for sustainable forest economies and scale up monitoring and restoration.
Together, we can ensure tropical forests stand forever – as living pillars of climate stability, biodiversity, resilience, and peace.

Thank you."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgCVbP2UMMs

Source: United Nations (video statements)

“In this fragile environment, withdrawal of resources and capacity is imprudent at best, catastrophic at worst,” UN Women chief Sima Sami Bahous told the Security Council, stressing that South Sudan’s gender-based violence crisis – threatening 2.7 million people -makes continued peacekeeping support essential.

Bahous said UN Mission in South Sudan documented 260 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2024, including “rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, forced abortion and forced marriage, with the highest number recorded in Western Equatoria State.”

She described a recent incident in Warrap State in which armed youth surrounded a girls’ boarding school seeking revenge for a cattle raid. “100 schoolgirls were trapped inside. They feared abduction or worse,” she said. “Fortunately, UN peacekeepers intervened. They de-escalated the situation. They freed the girls.”

“For those 100 girls, those peacekeepers could not have been more essential, nor their courage and skill more life changing,” she added, cautioning that any reduction of mandates or resources would be “imprudent at best, catastrophic at worst.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OualQ3VRHQ

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Remarks by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the Belém Climate Summit – 10 years of the Paris Agreement NDCs and financing.

—–

Marking the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, Secretary-General António Guterres said, “we need an acceleration plan to close the gaps” in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) ambition and implementation, “and that acceleration must start here in Belém.”

Addressing the event, on the sidelines of the World Leaders Climate Action Summit in Belém, Brazil, the Secretary-General said, “since the Paris Agreement was adopted ten years ago, Nationally Determined Contributions have been a barometer of countries’ climate ambitions. The latest NDCs represent some progress. But we must be honest in the Summit of truth. The plans and policies on the table are still far from enough.”

He said, “at COP30, let’s renew the great promise the world made a decade ago in Paris – by kickstarting a new decade of implementation and acceleration.”

NDCs are commitments made by countries under the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change impacts.

The Belém Climate Summit took place 6 and 7 November, and brought together heads of state and government, ministers, and leaders of international organizations to discuss pressing climate change challenges and commitments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su2iNmfoTm0

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the security situation has deteriorated sharply. “Over the past three months, the developments in South Sudan continued to move in a negative and possibly dangerous direction. Ceasefire violations are on the increase — including widespread aerial bombardments and clashes between the signatories of the peace agreement.”

Lacroix stressed that “the Revitalized Peace Agreement remains the only viable framework for long term peace and stability in South Sudan,” but warned that preparations for the December 2026 elections lack urgency. “With time running out for credible planning, key electoral decisions must be made now, not later,” he said.

He also described a worsening humanitarian emergency. “More than 7.5 million people face acute food insecurity; 28,000 are at risk of famine,” he said. “Flooding has displaced over a million. Over 1.2 million returnees and refugees from Sudan have crossed into a country already struggling to feed its own.”

“Human suffering during this volatile situation continues to mount,” he added. “Conflict-related sexual violence, arbitrary detentions, and extrajudicial killings persist, with limited accountability. I urge all parties to immediately cease hostilities and recommit to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnio6RJ2Cg0