Unifeed

King Letsie III of Lesotho, Salvador Antonio Valdés Mesa, First Vice-President of Cuba and Iván Duque Márquez, the President of Colombia addressed the 108th International Labour Conference today in Geneva, Switzerland. ILO

Briefing the Security Council on the situation in Idlib, Syria, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said, “counter-terrorism cannot overtake obligations under international law to protect civilians and the obligation to strictly observe the principles of distinction and proportionality.” UNIFEED

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called on students and youth to fight the “narrative of impossibility” that dangerously leads to policies of exclusion. In a speech at Berlin’s Free University today, he argued the world was not facing a refugee crisis, but a “crisis in solidarity.” UNHCR

Coinciding with the 17th annual Head of Military Component Conference, the Security Council heard from peacekeeping officials and Force Commanders on issues including the protection of civilians, women in peacekeeping, conduct, discipline and performance. UNIFEED

Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his deep concern about the escalation of the fighting in Idlib, Syria, adding that “the situation is especially dangerous given the involvement of an increased number of actors. Yet again, civilians are paying a horrific price.” UNIFEED

At the launch of the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action to combat hate speech today, UN chief António Guterres said, “Hate speech may have gained a foothold. But it is now on notice. We will never stop confronting it.” UNIFEED

Fifty women representing various parts of South Sudan’s uniformed security sectors have met at a two-day workshop in South Sudan’s capital Juba, to chart a way forward for various ways of how they can uplift their careers while helping combat various forms of gender-based violence in the community. UNMISS

Syrian refugee Ehab and Jordanian programmer Amani founded Drag IOT (Internet of things), a tech start-up selling high-tech programming kits. UNHCR

Recruited in 2019 with the support of UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), 150 new prison officers and assistants are receiving training at the National School of Magistracy (ENAM) in Bangui. MINUSCA

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said more than 300,000 people have been forced to flee resurgent inter-ethnic violence in north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) just this month. UNTV CH