The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel releases its report, describing the targeting and killing of Palestinian children.
The Commission’s comprehensive report is unique, being the first specialized report on crimes and violations against Palestinian children in Palestine by a UN investigative body.
Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
– Secretary-General/London
-Sudan
– UNIFIL
– Lebanon/Humanitarian
– Occupied Palestinian Territory
– Strait of Hormuz
– Central African Republic
– MONUSCO
– Democratic Republic of the Congo
– Peacekeeping
– Central Emergency Response Fund
– Ukraine
– International Widows’ Day
– UN Public Service Day
– Financial Contribution
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SECRETARY-GENERAL/LONDON
This morning, in London, the Secretary-General delivered a special address at London Climate Action Week. He said that our world is facing two crises: a climate crisis pushing us deeper toward higher temperatures and closer to catastrophic tipping points; and an energy crisis exposing the folly of a world hooked on hydrocarbons.
The Secretary-General said that these crises may seem separate, but they share the same destructive origin: Fossil fuels. He underscored that they demand the same answer – a fast, fair transition to clean energy, and a surge in adaptation, resilience and climate justice for those already facing climate harm.
The good news, the Secretary-General said, is that unlike every past energy crisis, we now have a clear way out, a clean way out. He said that renewables are the cheapest, fastest and most scalable source of new electricity in most of the world. There are no embargoes on sunlight and no blockades on the wind, he added.
During his address, the Secretary-General launched a global Call to Action on Methane and also proposed an AI Environmental Transparency Initiative.
Also today, the Secretary-General addressed the Local Climate Action Summit. He underscored that the climate fight will not be won in negotiating rooms, but through the actions we take in our communities. As we enter this era of implementation, he stressed that local leaders have an even greater responsibility to ensure the transition moves faster, becomes fairer, and delivers security, resilience and prosperity for all.
Later on, the Secretary-General addressed the Global Energy Transition and Electrification Summit, where he said that the age of clean electrification is here. The question, he said, is whether we can build the grids and storage, mobilize the investment, and deliver the infrastructure at the speed and scale required.
The Secretary-General will soon meet the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Yvette Cooper.
SUDAN
Turning to Sudan. Our Human Rights colleagues issued a report today verifying 546 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence in 16 of Sudan’s 18 states from the beginning of the conflict through mid-April this year, affecting at least 838 women, men and children. The findings underscore the devastating human toll the conflict continues to exact on civilians across the country.
These figures represent only the tip of the iceberg of the true scale of the abuse, the report says, as persistent underreporting has obscured the full extent of conflict-related sexual violence. The report also documents the deaths of at least 13 victims, many of whom died after being subjected to brutal gang rapes.
Meanwhile, we and our partners continue to provide crucial assistance to people affected by conflict in El Obeid in North Kordofan state.
The World Food Programme and its partners plan to provide food assistance to more than 72,000 displaced people this month and the next one, with some 12,600 people having been reached so far.
UNICEF and its partners reached more than 95,000 children under the age of five between last Friday and Sunday as part of a nutrition campaign. Our health partners have also pre-positioned cholera supplies and essential medicines to strengthen outbreak preparedness.
Full Highlights:
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2026-06-23
Joint statement by Leonor Zalabata Torres, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of June, on behalf of the Security Council members signatories of the Shared Commitments on Women, Peace and Security (Colombia, Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, Liberia, Panama, and the United Kingdom), on the situation in the Central African Republic.
To watch the bilingual (ES/EN) full version, please visit: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1t/k1tkrr9jwd
Former Ghanian Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh knows first hand the responsibility that comes from being an elected politician. Now head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, she draws on that experience as she works to get the nation onto a peaceful and democratic footing.
“I have to be optimistic. Otherwise I’ll stop. And I think that when you’re doing this kind of job, you have to keep yourself optimistic. You always have to find openings and entry points and try to see what you can work with and where you can create some opportunity to have a conversation that results in some concrete outcome.”
Politics was always present in Hanna Tetteh’s house growing up. Inspired by a dual heritage rooted in Hungary and Ghana, she became a passionate advocate of inclusive dialogue. In this episode, she reflects on her journey into politics, on bringing women and youth on board for Libya’s future, and shares why, when it comes to peace-building, patience is the biggest virtue.
Listen to more Awake at Night episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwoDFQJEq_0b6hu1e8oxsch9W0D7vkNqt
Kicking off the first-ever Peacebuilding Week, UN senior official for peacebuilding Elizabeth Spehar said, “investing in prevention is cost effective.”
Mandated by the 2025 General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on the Peacebuilding Architecture Review (PBAR), the inaugural Peacebuilding Week provides a dedicated platform to advance dialogue, share experiences and strengthen partnerships across the peacebuilding community.
The Week also marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Peacebuilding Commission and the Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund.
Speaking to reporters, Assistant Secretary-General Elizabeth Spehar said that Peacebuilding Week provides the international community with a number of opportunities. “It provides us an opportunity to convene governments and all partners around a shared agenda for peace. It allows us to reflect on 20 years of peacebuilding and learn from good practices,” she added.
Spehar continued, “it helps us to focus and to look ahead and build on the momentum that we have created over the years and hopefully focus in areas such as innovation, inclusion and impact.”
The Assistant Secretary-General also reiterated that the annual Peacebuilding Week is an opportunity – at least once a year – to focus on the fact that “we are not investing enough in prevention. We are not investing enough in peacebuilding. There’s a lot more money going to war.”
She continued, “There’s a lot more money going to deterrence without deterrence being undergirded by a more comprehensive approach to building and sustaining peace. I think that’s the more dangerous way forward. And each and every year we can reflect on that.”
Spehar added, “during Peacebuilding Week, we can look at our strategies, we can look at the challenges, we can look at what we’ve achieved, and we can get real about matching our action to the rhetoric.”
As the Chair of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, Moroccan Ambassador Omar Hilale said, “a single thread runs through these days from risk to resilience, from fragility to stability, from fine words to firm needs. It is the conviction that peace is not merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of opportunity, of justice and of hope.”
He continued, “the commission you will see at work this week is resolved to honor the promise of the review. Greater national ownership, closer partnership with international financial institutions, financing, financing that is more predictable and above all, results that reach the women, the men and the young people still waiting for the dividend of peace.”
Egypt and Slovenia are the co-facilitators for Member States organizing side events and implementing the recent Peacebuilding Architecture Review (PBAR) resolutions.
Ambassador of Egypt Ihab Moustafa Awad Moustafa said, “our common objective, Slovenia and Egypt during this week will be to support a presentation of how nationally identified priorities can deliver impact on the ground.”
He said, “for Africa, these principles are particularly relevant. Egypt has advocated for strengthening national capacities for conflict prevention and peacebuilding, supporting African led solutions, and enhancing cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union.”
Slovenian Ambassador Samuel Žbogar highlighted that the Peacebuilding Week is making the Peacebuilding Architecture Review a process instead of a one-off event every five years,
He said, “the topics that were raised discussed is the most important for Member States are then continue to be discussed throughout the year, but then in concentrated form during the Peacebuilding Week. And I believe that this Peacebuilding week are guarantee that the next piece, PBAR in five years will have so much more elements for discussion.”
“Last month at least 274 civilians were killed and 1,763 injured in Ukraine. This is the highest monthly combined figure of killed and injured since April 2022,” ASG Khaled Khiari told the Security Council.
Briefing Council members in New York, he also said, “We are also concerned about the growing impact of the war on civilians in the Russian Federation. Just today, three people were reportedly injured in a missile strike on a manufacturing plant in the city of Voronezh.”
He added, “The increased military activity reported near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in recent weeks remains a grave concern. The IAEA maintains its presence at all of Ukraine’s nuclear sites, including ZNPP, to help ensure nuclear safety and security.”
Briefing Council members today in New York, OCHA’s Director of Crisis Response Division, Edem Wosornu, said, “Since we last briefed this Council two weeks ago, civilian harm and suffering have deepened including over this past weekend. More families have been forced to endure the all-too-familiar pattern of this war: attacks, destruction, loss, another night without safety. On June 15th, strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv damaged homes and critical infrastructure, leaving well over 100,000 households without power.”
Edem Wosornu also said, “In Kyiv, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site at the heart of Ukraine’s religious and cultural life, was struck and damaged. This site carries centuries of cultural heritage – history and identity – that must be protected.”
She also said, “In Kharkiv, rescuers responding to an earlier strike were themselves hit when a second one followed. This fits a documented pattern. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has found repeated strikes on ambulances, rescue teams and aid workers – in some cases as you heard hit twice, as they returned to help. Civilians have also been struck when simply going about daily life: in cars, on buses, in their gardens.”
Wosornu added, “The Mission records that more civilians were killed and injured by short-range drones in May than in any month since February 2022. Technological advances in warfare are expanding the zone of danger for civilians, which is no longer confined by the reach of artillery.”
Press Conference by Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) on the General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS.
The fifth meeting since the first UN General Assembly special session on a health crisis 25 years ago opened with the president of the General Assembly and the Deputy Secretary-General leading the session.
Byanyima told delegations the world made a promise 25 years ago to stop AIDS with all people in all countries getting the treatment and prevention they needed, with funds mobilized to enable every country to fight the disease, and communities on the ground leading and delivering services for their people.
That promise has been kept for 25 years, she said, but the progress should not be mistaken for success: nine million people remain off treatment, and UNAIDS data show 1.2 million people were newly infected last year. The promise to end AIDS, she said, “hasn’t been realized.”
Therefore, Byanyima said, she had urged countries to agree on “an ambitious political declaration” expected to be signed Tuesday.
She nonetheless pointed to gains, noting 32.1 million of the 40 million people living with HIV are now on treatment, calling it “tremendous progress.”
The UNAIDS chief called on member states to sustain international financing as countries mobilize their own domestic resources, noting 52 countries increased domestic financing for the HIV response last year, alongside regional efforts to achieve “health sovereignty.”
She closed by stressing the importance of universal access to medicines, saying “Innovations without access are not innovations. They are an injustice.”
Briefing by Claudio Cordone, Deputy Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, on the situation in the Middle East.
Cordone said that the scale of the challenges facing the transitional parliament in the country “cannot be overstated.” He said, “More than eight months since the main elections, the People’s Assembly has still not been constituted, awaiting the Presidential appointment of a third of its members. The delay is generating anxiety. Syria needs the People’s Assembly to begin its work. And it needs all Syrians – in particular, Syria’s women and its various components – to feel meaningfully represented in it. The scale of the challenges facing this transitional parliament cannot be overstated. New laws need to be debated and adopted, executive actions need to be reviewed, diverse voices must be heard, and progress made on the transition.”
Cordone noted, “Last week, demonstrations in Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor and Damascus saw participants calling for accountability for crimes committed during the conflict and demanding legal action against individuals associated with abuses under the former regime. In some locations, these demonstrations were accompanied by violence.”
He added, “The government announced that 5,989 persons linked to the former regime are in detention and awaiting prosecution for crimes allegedly committed after 2011. These developments highlight transitional justice challenges facing Syria, with frustration from lack of perceived sufficient progress. While the government swiftly calmed the situation, to avoid repetition of such incidents there needs to be a sense of the past being addressed swiftly yes, but also fairly.”
Cordone reported, “No progress on the implementation of the September 2025 Roadmap of confidence-building and reintegration in Sweida. The underlying issues that contributed to the violence of July 2025 remain unresolved, including accountability measures. Distrust between Damascus and actors within Sweida persists, as do strong feelings of distrust at societal level. Calls within Sweida for secession threaten to undermine the country’s unity and territorial integrity.”
He also said, “Israeli military activity in southern Syria has continued, including in violation of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement. Israeli forces have maintained presence in the area of separation and conducted near-daily incursions across parts of southern Syria, establishing temporary checkpoints and carrying out searches and detentions of civilians.”
Cordone continued, “The Syrian Government has exercised restraint while signaling openness to a security arrangement with Israel, although no tangible progress has been achieved to date. The United Nations in Syria is enhancing its efforts to address the needs of the affected population amidst continued Israeli military activity. We strongly reiterate our call on Israel to adhere to the 1974 Agreement, release those illegally detained and respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Former Ghanian Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh knows first hand the responsibility that comes from being an elected politician. Now head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, she draws on that experience as she works to get the nation onto a peaceful and democratic footing.
“I have to be optimistic. Otherwise I’ll stop. And I think that when you’re doing this kind of job, you have to keep yourself optimistic. You always have to find openings and entry points and try to see what you can work with and where you can create some opportunity to have a conversation that results in some concrete outcome.”
Politics was always present in Hanna Tetteh’s house growing up. Inspired by a dual heritage rooted in Hungary and Ghana, she became a passionate advocate of inclusive dialogue. In this episode, she reflects on her journey into politics, on bringing women and youth on board for Libya’s future, and shares why, when it comes to peace-building, patience is the biggest virtue.
[00:00] Introduction
[01:02] A mission in Libya
[07:20] Working amid extreme risk
[10:32] Leading as a woman in Libya
[12:46] Empowering Libyan women
[15:23] What keeps Hanna awake at night
[18:22] The brutal reality facing migrants in Libya
[21:06] Finding hope in small steps
[23:54] Working through the curveballs
[24:50] Climate change and conflict in the Horn of Africa
[28:16] The cost of endless war
[32:27] Lessons from Ghana’s political evolution
[36:05] A childhood of ideas and identity
[37:23] Family, culture and public service
[38:46] Two cultures, one life
[40:26] Staying committed in a world of competing interests
[42:31] Peacebuilding takes patience
[43:43] Hope for Libya’s future
[45:16] Closing remarks
Listen to more Awake at Night episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwoDFQJEq_0b6hu1e8oxsch9W0D7vkNqt
About Awake at Night
Hosted by Melissa Fleming, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, the podcast ‘Awake at Night’ is an in-depth interview series focusing on remarkable United Nations staff members who dedicate their career to helping people in parts of the world where they have the hardest lives – from war zones and displacement camps to areas hit by disasters and the devastation of climate change.
