They survived the Srebrenica genocide. Today, they keep its memory – working as curators and archivists at the memorial built on the site of the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War.
In July 1995, over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces at Srebrenica, in a town the UN Security Council had declared a safe area. International courts have ruled it a genocide.
Three decades on, "The Memory Keepers of Srebrenica" follows three survivors who returned to work at the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center, built on the grounds of the former UN base where thousands once sought refuge.
Their work of remembrance now confronts a rising tide of denial – described as the final stage of genocide itself. Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, President of the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, reflects on why justice is a precondition for reconciliation, and why the facts, once proven, must be kept.
The film was produced with the The Srebrenica Genocide and the United Nations Outreach Programme, which works to preserve the judicially established facts of the genocide, counter denial, and support remembrance and education for new generations.
Released for the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, 11 July:
00:00 Surviving the genocide
01:00 Working at the Memorial
02:51 The checkpoint at Potočari
03:12 Coming back to stay close to the dead
04:07 Judge Gatti Santana on justice and truth
05:12 The belongings from the mass graves
05:56 Denial — and what comes after it
06:54 Teaching the warning signs
They survived the Srebrenica genocide. Today, they keep its memory – working as curators and archivists at the memorial built on the site of the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War.
In July 1995, over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces at Srebrenica, in an town the UN Security Council had declared a safe area. International courts have ruled it a genocide.
Three decades on, "The Memory Keepers of Srebrenica" follows three survivors who returned to work at the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center, built on the grounds of the former UN base where thousands once sought refuge.
Their work of remembrance now confronts a rising tide of denial – described as the final stage of genocide itself. Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, President of the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, reflects on why justice is a precondition for reconciliation, and why the facts, once proven, must be kept.
The film was produced with the The Srebrenica Genocide and the United Nations Outreach Programme, which works to preserve the judicially established facts of the genocide, counter denial, and support remembrance and education for new generations.
Released for the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, 11 July:
00:00 Surviving the genocide
01:00 Working at the Memorial
02:51 The checkpoint at Potočari
03:12 Coming back to stay close to the dead
04:07 Judge Gatti Santana on justice and truth
05:12 The belongings from the mass graves
05:56 Denial — and what comes after it
06:54 Teaching the warning signs
“Instead of defending lifesaving progress, we are defunding lifesaving programmes. Instead of punishing these crimes, we see increased persecution of those who dare to denounce them,” the UN’s envoy on sexual violence in conflict told the Security Council.
Briefing the Council today, Pramila Patten, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, said the annual report before the Council “holds a mirror up to the changing face of war.”
“The promise of international law has never been more relevant – or more severely tested,” she said.
Patten’s remarks drew on the Secretary-General’s latest annual report on conflict-related sexual violence (S/2026/321), which was made public on 29 May.
According to the report, the UN verified 9,788 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2025, “more than double the number recorded last year,” Patten said, adding that the true toll is far higher, with humanitarians in the field estimating that for every case reaching a clinic, 10 to 20 go unreported.
“The highest number of UN-verified cases were recorded in the DRC, Haiti and Sudan,” she noted. The report also names the Central African Republic among the worst-affected situations, out of 21 contexts covered overall.
Patten pointed to two new state listings in the annex to the report. “New listings this cycle include non-State actors in the DRC and Haiti, and two State actors in Israel and the Russian Federation. At this time last year, both State parties were put on notice due to protection concerns, including patterns of sexual violence and systematic denials of access to independent UN monitors,” she said.
The Secretary-General formally communicated required measures to both parties on 11 August 2025, she added, but “neither the violations nor the conflicts have ceased.”
“We do not compile these reports simply to count the victims; we compile them because the victims are counting on us. They are counting on this Council to turn documentation into accountability, rights into protection, and atrocities into assistance – to chart a path to peace out of the wreckage of war,” Patten said.
She warned against a broader erosion of the international system. “Eighty years ago, this Organization was founded to replace the law of force with the force of law. We cannot afford to allow an inversion of these hard-won values, whereby human rights, equality, and respect for diversity are disparaged, and institutions built over decades are dismantled overnight,” she said.
Kenyan content creator and story teller, Tonee Ndungu joins world experts on artificial intelligence at the AI for Good Global Summit in #Geneva, to discuss "how we can make AI
work for people’s good."
He says, sharing "that AI Dialogue is going to help
to add folks’ value in my country, in my continent: that’s important."
Remarks by Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet, on behalf of António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General at the United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit (UNCOPS 2026).
This SDG Media Zone conversation explores using sport’s universal appeal to accelerate SDG 6 action ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final and HLPF. The #PassTheWater campaign urges leaders to prioritize universal water and sanitation access, building momentum for the 2026 UN Water Conference in Abu Dhabi this December. Speakers will discuss scaling proven solutions, investing in water, and utilizing cross-sector teamwork. Additionally, the SDG6 Synthesis Report 2026 will highlight how collaboration can turn commitments into winning goals.
Speakers:
– Retno L. P. Marsudi, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Water
– Dr. Mohamed C.B.C. Diatta, Sherpa of the 2026 UN Water Conference, Republic of Senegal
– Agnes Fritz, Viva con Agua ARTS gGmbH
Moderator: Stephanie Rambler, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, UNDESA
Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
– Middle East
– Occupied Palestinian Territory
– Venezuela
– Ukraine
– Sudan
– South Sudan
– Central African Republic
– Democratic Republic of the Congo
– Afghanistan
– Security Council
– UNCOPS
– Cancer/Report
– Commemoration of Genocide in Srebrenica
MIDDLE EAST
The Secretary-General is alarmed by the renewed military confrontations in the Gulf. These incidents that we have seen in the last 24 hours risk derailing the diplomatic progress achieved between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States.
A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences for the peoples of the region, for international peace and security, and for the global economy as a whole. The Secretary-General calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint, avoid further escalatory action and take immediate steps to de-escalate. He further recalls the obligation of all parties to fully comply with international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and respect for navigational rights and freedoms.
The Secretary-General urges Iran and the United States to urgently resume negotiations and to address outstanding issues through diplomacy.
We remain committed to supporting all efforts to prevent a return to conflict, to restore stability and advance a comprehensive and durable resolution to this conflict.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Turning to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, earlier today, Tom Fletcher, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, who is in Venezuela, did also have a virtual meeting from Venezuela with the Prime Minister of Palestine, Mohammad Mustafa. They underscored the importance of close collaboration and accelerated efforts to improve living conditions in Gaza, particularly around safe water and waste management. Both agreed that the urgency of needs in Gaza is too great to wait for progress on broader political and security tracks. They both welcomed the encouraging milestone of 41,000 students in Gaza were able to sit for their high school exams this year. They also discussed the deteriorating situation in the West Bank, including increased settler violence, as well as, Palestinian displacement.
Also today, Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov, who is also the Deputy Special Coordinator, started a two-day visit to the Gaza strip.
In Gaza City, he visited a UN Mine Action Service team, whose teams have been assessing and mitigating the risks of explosive hazards, which as you know, continue to be very big in this area.
Accompanied by the representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Dr. Alakbarov visited the Firas market dumping site, also in Gaza city, to review solid waste management efforts.
Since 2023, that market had been used as an improvised dumping site, after municipal crews lost access to Gaza’s two landfills near the Strip’s eastern land perimeter.
Since April, thanks to a project supported by the Occupied Palestinian Territory Humanitarian Fund and implemented by UNDP, teams have transferred about 300,000 metric tonnes of solid waste from that improvised site to another location, farther away from where people are seeking shelter. But access to sanitary landfills, which are east of the so-called “Yellow Line,” remains banned.
Dr. Alakbarov then met with colleagues from UNICEF to discuss ongoing efforts to reduce infestations associated with rodents and parasites, something we have been telling you about regularly. And he also met with WHO and they discussed ongoing medical evacuations.
You might recall that the medical referral route to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, remains closed. That is of course undermining efforts to expand medical evacuations from Gaza. According to data from the WHO, a little more than 2,100 patients were able to be evacuated since the declaration of a ceasefire in October of last year. However, thousands more need medical services that are just not available today in the Gaza Strip.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2026-07-08
Interviews with different UN agencies on how they are using AI to carry out their tasks during the Global Dialogues on AI Governance in Geneva on 6-7 July 2026.
“The High-Level Political Forum is the United Nations central platform for follow up and the review of the 2030 agenda,” said Lok Bahadur Thapa, President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), opening the 2026 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York.
The forum runs under the theme “Transformative, equitable, innovative and coordinated actions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals for a sustainable future for all.”
“The world does not need another catalog of challenges. We know the challenges. What we need is greater coherence, stronger partnerships, more effective, and international cooperations, faster implementations, and most of all, better delivery and the impact on the ground,” Thapa said.
“Over the coming days we will review progress on SDG6, 7, 9, 11 and 17 and hear from 36 countries presenting voluntary national reviews,” Thapa said.
“The 2030 agenda remains our shared promise to people, to planet and to future generations, who in the years ahead will not ask whether the challenges were difficult,” he continued. “They will ask whether we were equal to them. Let this forum show that when we connect ideas with actions, when we connect finance with innovations, and when we connect national leadership with international solidarity, progress is still possible.”
Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, noted that the Forum’s opening coincided with the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026. “Building on updates to previous HLPFs, the Secretary General’s Progress Report is a both a testament to what is possible and an urgent call to do far more,” he said. “With less than five years to achieve the SDGs the report offers a clear-eyed measure of our collective progress.”
Briefing reporters on the report’s findings, Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed cautioned that global averages conceal wide disparities. “The report is revealing the global picture, but we must not forget what it does mask and that is outstanding progress on SDGs in some countries, but also serious gaps across regions and countries,” she said.
“Today, thanks to these findings, we can say two things with confidence: that the Sustainable Development Agenda, its 17 Goals work; they are delivering for people just not fast enough, not evenly and more inclusively,” Mohammed stated. “And there is a huge risk of reversals.”
She pointed to gains in human development since 2020, including a global unemployment rate that fell to a record low of 4.9 per cent in 2025, nearly one billion more people gaining access to drinking water over the past decade, and women’s representation in parliaments and local government nearing 27 per cent. Nine in ten people now have access to electricity, Mohammed added, while 34 countries have met the target of under-five mortality and AIDS-related deaths have dropped by a third.
At the same time, Mohammed warned that conflict in the Middle East has disrupted maritime traffic, energy, fertilizer and food corridors, driving up inflation, and that war has erased 77 years of human development gains in Gaza.
Recent summers have ranked among the hottest on record, she said, with the world fast approaching a temporary overshoot of the 1.5-degree limit.
Military spending reached 2.9 trillion dollars in the same year that development assistance suffered its steepest fall on record, she noted, leaving an annual SDG financing gap of four trillion dollars.
“The overall picture is very clear,” Mohammed said. “We yield a real progress already in a number of areas, in a number of fronts, and also in a number of the regions and the countries. But at the same time, those progress does not achieve it at the hour expected the space and the scale. So the way forward is clear, as highlighted by the Under-Secretary-General. We need a political determination, political goodwill and also global partnership.”
Shantanu Mukherjee, Acting Director of the Statistics Division at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), said, “Cities are finally being built more efficiently, but slums continue to grow with 1.16 billion living in them,” he said. “Public services are improving but not keeping pace. As cities bring several SDGs together in practice offering a chance to improving billions of lives, we should capitalize on this opportunity.”
The Forum, convened under the auspices of ECOSOC, runs from 7 to 15 July and brings together governments, business leaders, civil society representatives, mayors, scientists, policymakers and international organizations to assess progress and accelerate action on the SDGs. This year’s session will review in depth Goals 6, 7, 9, 11 and 17, covering water and sanitation, energy, industry and infrastructure, sustainable cities, and partnerships for the Goals.
Despite a reduction in violence, the situation in southern Lebanon remains fragile as displaced families return to damaged homes lacking even basic services. UNIFIL peacekeepers continue monitoring the situation despite ongoing challenges, spokesperson Kandice Ardiel says.
