Source: United Nations (video statements)
On this World Humanitarian Day, aid workers and their supporters commemorate those killed and stand in solidarity with those serving people in need, demanding urgent protection for civilians and aid operations.
Attacks on humanitarian workers, assets and operations violate international humanitarian law and undermine the lifelines that sustain millions of people trapped in war and disaster zones.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Video message by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, on World Humanitarian Day 2025.
"Humanitarian workers are the last lifeline for over 300 million people caught in conflict or disaster.
Yet, funding for that lifeline is drying up.
And those who provide humanitarian aid are increasingly under attack.
Last year, at least 390 aid workers – a record high – were killed across the world.
From Gaza to Sudan to Myanmar and beyond.
International law is clear: humanitarians must be respected and protected. They can never be targeted.
This rule is non-negotiable and is binding on all parties to conflict, always and everywhere.
Yet red lines are crossed with impunity.
Governments have pledged action – and the Security Council has laid out a path to protect
humanitarians and their lifesaving work.
The rules and tools exist. What is missing is political will – and moral courage.
On this World Humanitarian Day, let’s honour the fallen with action:
To protect every aid worker – and invest in their safety.
To stop the lies that cost lives.
To strengthen accountability and bring perpetrators to justice.
To end arms flows to parties that violate international law.
Together, let us say in one voice: An attack on humanitarians is an attack on humanity.
And let’s #ActForHumanity".
More info: https://www.un.org/en/observances/humanitarian-day
Source: United Nations (video statements)
The Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee today (18 Aug) told the Security Council that there has been “a continued erosion of the gains previously made in the peace process” in South Sudan, including “an escalation of political and subnational violence and stagnation in the implementation of the Peace Agreement.”
Pobee said the international community has “repeatedly called for a cessation of hostilities, de-escalation and return to dialogue. However, she added, they “have not yielded any concrete response” and instead, “a pattern of violations and unilateral actions persists, which continues to undermine the ability of the Government of national unity to implement the Agreement.”
If this trend continues, she said, “it will likely lead to a shift in conflict dynamics, from subnational and community-based violence to a more complex landscape shaped by ethnic divisions involving signatory parties and other actors, including those from neighbouring countries.”
Pobee called on the parties “to unblock the current political deadlock by fully recommitting to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, releasing the political detainees, engaging in direct high-level dialogue, and recommit implementing an inclusive peace process, particularly on key issues such as transitional security arrangements, transitional justice, constitution-making, and elections.”
The Interim Chairperson of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) George Aggrey Owinow, briefing remotely from Juba, said, “the current situation and trajectory of the country, if not urgently addressed, risks to reverse all that has been gained and may lead to a collapse” of the peace agreement, “which could return the country back to an armed conflict.”
The RJMEC and its partners, Aggrey Owinow said, “have repeatedly called for constructive dialog, de-escalation of tensions, addressed the issues of detainees and returned to full and implementation” of the agreement.
For his part, South Sudan’s Ambassador Sabino Edward Nyawella Amaikweytold the Council that “South Sudan remains committed to ensuring that any obstacles – real or perceived – to and UNMISS operations are addressed in good faith and without delay.”
Nyawella Amaikweytold confirmed that “any such situations could either be attributed to our efforts to ensuring safety of the mission’s assets and or personnel, or they are merely due to lack of information sharing, or the capacity of the individuals involved. It is never a policy of the government of the Republic of South Sudan to hinder UNMISS mandate.”
The Agreement on the Roadmap to a Peaceful and Democratic End of the Transitional Period of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) was concluded and signed on 12 September 2018 and was scheduled to end after a period of 44 months.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Informal comments to the media by Dmitry Polyanskiy, the First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, on the situation in Georgia.
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Responding, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, pointed to economic and people-to-people ties.
“Our trade turnover with Georgia is $2.5 billion – we’re the second trade partner of Georgia. We also had 1.5 million Russian tourists who visited Georgia last year,” he said, calling it evidence of a “clear desire of both our nations to re-establish mutual ties and to normalize our relations.”
Polyanskiy said some states sought to make Georgia “a pawn of their geopolitical interests,” and added that Moscow supported “the creation of a favorable security climate in the South Caucasus,” including treaties on non-aggression among Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Joint press encounter by the E5 with statement read by Ms. Ondina Blokar Drobič, Deputy Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations, on the situation in Georgia – Security Council Media Stakeout.
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“The Russian invasion of Georgia in August of 2008 demonstrated the start of Russia’s more aggressive stance towards its neighbors. Russia has continued down this path with its unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine,” Slovenia’s Deputy Permanent Representative, Ondina Blokar Drobič, said Monday on behalf of European members of the Security Council.
Marking 17 years since the conflict, she told reporters in New York that Russia maintains an “illegal military presence” in Georgia’s Abkhazia and Tskhinvali/South Ossetia regions.
Drobič added that Moscow had taken steps “towards annexation of the two Georgian regions, including signing of the so-called integration treaties, transferring strategically important parts of Georgian territory and infrastructure to Russia and conducting illegal so-called elections.”
The ambassador also condemned the killings of Georgian citizens Davit Basharuli, Giga Otkhozoria, Archil Tatunashvili, Tamaz Ginturi, Temur (Vitali) Karbaia, and Irakli Kvaratskhelia, saying perpetrators must be brought to justice. She recalled judgments of the European Court of Human Rights that she said confirmed Russia’s responsibility for “grave human rights violations, including killing of civilians, torture, inhumane and degrading treatment.”
Responding, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, pointed to economic and people-to-people ties.
“Our trade turnover with Georgia is $2.5 billion – we’re the second trade partner of Georgia. We also had 1.5 million Russian tourists who visited Georgia last year,” he said, calling it evidence of a “clear desire of both our nations to re-establish mutual ties and to normalize our relations.”
Polyanskiy said some states sought to make Georgia “a pawn of their geopolitical interests,” and added that Moscow supported “the creation of a favorable security climate in the South Caucasus,” including treaties on non-aggression among Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Informal comments to the media by Dmitry Polyanskiy, the First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, on the situation in Georgia.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
Secretary-General/Travels
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Lebanon
Ukraine
Sudan
South Sudan
Secretary-General/Flooding in India and Pakistan
United Nations Support Office In Somalia (UNSOS)
Resident Coordinator
SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRAVELS
Today, the Secretary-General will leave New York for Japan to attend the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9) in Yokohama and the UN Special Day at Expo 2025 in Osaka.
Mr. Guterres is scheduled to hold a meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan, Shigeru Ishiba, as well as other officials including the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, Iwaya Takeshi,
This will be the Secretary-General’s seventh visit to Japan. It will highlight the cooperative relationship between the UN and Japan. TICAD is also a very important platform to discuss ways to support Africa.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that the situation is beyond catastrophic in the Gaza Strip. Amid ongoing hostilities and extreme hunger, more deaths are recorded every day. Hunger-related deaths continue to be reported, including among children.
Partners say that, last week, in the north and the south of Gaza, more than 80 community kitchens were able to produce some 380,000 meals each day. Back in April, the daily tally of community kitchens was more than a million meals each day. Communities rely on hot meals once a day from these kitchens – but the amount they’re able to cook remains insufficient to meet the needs of the population in Gaza.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said that its teams are doing everything they can to deliver food to people. But the supplies remain far below standards – less than half of WFP daily target.
The agency said that organized distributions, WFP-supported hot meals, and bakeries, depend on far more aid that is actually getting into Gaza.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that five people, including two children, died over the past 24 hours due to malnutrition and starvation.
To prevent such deaths, and as we’ve been saying repeatedly humanitarians must be able to deliver food at scale, and consistently, through all available crossings and routes to reach the population of 2.1 million people, half of whom are children.
Yesterday, eight out of the 12 missions requiring coordination with Israeli authorities were facilitated without impediments. They included the transfer of nutritional supplies and fuel to the north.
One mission was to replace a water pipeline in Deir al Balah, and that mission was denied. Three others were impeded but eventually fully accomplished, including the collection of food aid from the Zikim crossing and the Kerem Shalom/ Karem Abu Salem crossing.
Movement restrictions also included holding points and long waiting lines inside the Strip, hinder the delivery of aid and supplies to people who are in desperate need.
We have seen the Israeli authorities’ announcement that they will lift the ban on shelter supplies, which have not been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip in five months. This is a welcome development, as the need for shelter and household items has increased. UN partners estimate that at least 1.35 million people need emergency shelter and some 1.4 million need essential household items. This represents an increase of about 4 and 8 per cent, respectively, compared with just June, a few months ago.
However, we are also concerned that the announcement by the Israeli authorities comes in connection with the looming announced expansion of the military activities in the Gaza city. This would displace thousands of people, once again, into an overcrowded area in the south of the Strip, which is almost devoid of the most basic infrastructure and services, including water, food and medical services.
Since early March, when the Israeli shelter ban came into force, more than 780,000 displacements have taken place. Existing shelters have deteriorated or been left behind amid repeated displacement orders.
Yet again, we repeat that it will not participate in any forced displacement of people. The UN and its partners reiterate our commitment to serve people wherever they are.
All civilians must be protected, whether they choose to stay or whether they choose to move. Those who decide to move must have their essential needs met, and they must be able to voluntarily return when the situation allows.
We also need unimpeded humanitarian access across all of Gaza, including community-based distributions and supplies entering at scale through all possible crossings, as we have been saying. All available supplies must be let into Gaza, including through the northern crossings.
Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=18%20August%202025
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Joint press encounter by the E5 with statement read by Ms. Ondina Blokar Drobič, Deputy Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations, on the situation in Georgia – Security Council Media Stakeout.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Joint press encounter by Security Council members who are pledges of CPS of Shared Commitments on Climate, Peace and Security (CPS) in South Sudan, led by Ambassador Eloy Alfaro de Alba, Permanent Representative of Panama to the United Nations, and President of the Security Council President for the month of August, at the Security Council Stakeout.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
UNIFIL is in south Lebanon to support Lebanon and Israel in the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006), and to monitor and report violations of the resolution.
