Source: United Nations (video statements)
The UN chief is deeply alarmed by the escalation in violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where over 200,000 people fled home since 2 December after attacks by the Alliance Fleuve Congo/Mouvement du 23 mars (AFC/M23) in several locations in South Kivu Province.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Briefing by Serge Brammertz, Chief Prosecutor of IRMCT, on the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
The E – Analytics Course is the Innovation Cell’s flagship training, supporting building UN capacities on matters like innovation methods, geospatial analysis, social media and natural language processing.
The E-Analytics Course is the Innovation Cell’s flagship training, supporting building UN capacities on matters like innovation methods, geospatial analysis, social media and natural language processing.
Organized annually, this year the E-Analytics Course 2025 brings together UN DPPA colleagues in the UN HQ in New York to learn about new methods for peace and develop innovative projects for real-life applications.
Produced by the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (UN DPPA) Innovation Cell.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
UN senior humanitarian official Joyce Msuyan highlighted that access to some front-line areas remains “extremely challenging.”
She said, “Active hostilities, damaged roads and security restrictions regularly delay or suspend humanitarian operations,” adding “humanitarian personnel face rising dangers.”
According to OCHA’s Access Monitoring and Reporting Framework, in December so far, one aid worker was injured in Kherson region, with eight cases of damage to humanitarian offices, assets and aid distribution sites.
Msuya reiterated, “While the UN does not have humanitarian operations in parts of Ukraine under occupation by the Russian Federation, our position is clear: we stand ready to deliver assistance to all civilians in need wherever they are, prioritizing solely on the basis of humanitarian need.”
The Assistant Secretary-General also highlighted that underfunding has a human cost.
“Families face freezing temperatures without heating support; women and girls lose access to safe spaces; and older people in front-line communities are left without the means to evacuate,” she said.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said, “Nearly 22 million people will continue to require humanitarian help in 2026, third only to Sudan and Yemen in scale. Our ask is $1.7 billion to target 17.5 million people. We have further hyper-prioritized our plan to target 3.9 million people in most urgent need.”
He added, “For the first time in four years the number of people facing hunger has gone up—now reaching 17.4 million people. And essential services – already insufficient and uneven across the country – are stretched to breaking point as Afghan refugees return to Afghanistan in record numbers. Over 2.6 million Afghans returned in 2025.”
He highlighted, “Increasing human rights restrictions – particularly on Afghan women staff – have made life for many Afghans ever more difficult, and created additional burdens on the implementation of our operations.”
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Briefing by Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, President of the IRMCT, on International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
“Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is the largest and longest war in Europe since the Second World War,” Elina Valtonen, Finland’s foreign minister and current OSCE Chairperson-in-Office told the UN Security Council.
She said Moscow is violating the UN Charter and “each of the ten Helsinki principles,” adding that assistance to Ukraine and work on accountability have been central to her tenure. “I call on all to support Ukraine in achieving a just and lasting peace – as soon as possible.”
Valtonen said the way the conflict concludes will shape regional and global stability, as well as expectations regarding adherence to international law by a permanent Security Council member.
She outlined steps the OSCE has taken on accountability, including support for documenting the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. “Through the OSCE Support Program for Ukraine, we have helped register missing children and support their rehabilitation,” she said.
Valtonen also underscored the importance of existing security commitments. “There is no need to re-invent the European security order,” she said.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Georgette Gagnon, UN Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, said that the de facto authorities “continue to miss or reject opportunities to engage multilaterally with the international community, risking disengagement particularly from donor countries that are frustrated with Afghanistan’s refusal to seriously address their concerns.”
Addressing the Security Council, Gagnon said, “Afghans—women and men—continue to experience systematic infringements into their daily lives through the enforcement of the de facto authorities’ law on the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice.”
She also said, “Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the presence and activities of the TTP are rising, with deadly cross-border exchanges of fire and airstrikes resulting in civilian casualties. The tensions have led to the closing of key border posts between Afghanistan and Pakistan for the past two months, with economic consequences for Afghanistan and Pakistan and people on both sides.”
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Speaking at a Council meeting on Ukraine, the UN senior political affair official Kayoko Gotoh reiterated, “attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including energy infrastructure, are prohibited under international law.”
Gotoh noted to the Council that the United Nations has repeatedly warned against any action that could further escalate or expand this devastating war, now well in its fourth year.
Following repeated alleged violations of airspace of several European countries, she said the world body is following with concern the recent reported incidents involving shipping and port infrastructure in the Black Sea.
Applying the same concern over nuclear safety, the UN political affairs official reiterated, “Any military actions endangering the safety and security of nuclear plants are unconscionable, irresponsible and must immediately cease.”
She also highlighted, “We remain deeply concerned about systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the areas of Ukraine occupied by the Russian Federation, as reported by OHCHR.”
“These violations undermine the principles of international humanitarian law set to safeguard human dignity and the protection of civilians,” Gotoh added.
She said, “We recall the international obligations with regards to treatment of prisoners of war, including related to access to information regarding their places of detention.”
Source: United Nations (video statements)
The Security Council was briefed on the widening humanitarian and human rights crisis in Afghanistan: women still denied their rights, girls barred from education for a fourth year, and millions of children at risk of severe malnutrition. Members underscored that Afghanistan cannot move forward while half its population is excluded.
