29 August 2017 – The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the latest ballistic missile launch by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which flew over Japan, as well as the series of launches that took place on 25 August.

Convening a formal meeting this evening immediately following urgent, closed-door consultations, the Security Council adopted a Presidential Statement through which it condemned the DPRK for its &#8220outrageous actions&#8221 and demanded that the North-East Asia country &#8220immediately cease all such actions.&#8221

&#8220The Security Council stresses that these DPRK actions are not just a threat to the region, but to all UN Member States,&#8221 the statement continued, expressing the 15-member body’s grave concern that the DPRK is, by conducting such a launch over Japan, &#8220as well as its recent actions and public statements,&#8221 deliberately undermining regional peace and stability and have caused grave security concerns around the world.

Moreover, the Council demanded that the DPRK abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes &#8220in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, and immediately cease all related activities&#8221 and not conduct any further tests or provocations.

Earlier today, Secretary-General António Guterres also condemned the latest ballistic missile launch, in violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

&#8220The launch undermines regional security and stability and efforts to create space for dialogue,&#8221 said a statement issued by UN spokesperson Eri Kaneko.

According to press reports, early Tuesday morning, the DPRK launched a ballistic missile that travelled some 2,700 kilometers, flying over Japan before crashing into the Pacific Ocean.

&#8220The Secretary-General calls on the Government of the DPRK to fully comply with its international obligations and to work to re-open channels of communication,&#8221 the statement said, adding that Mr. Guterres remains in close contact with all parties concerned.

29 August 2017 – Addressing how best United Nations peacekeeping operations can augment global efforts to sustain peace, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has said that the nature of today’s challenges requires seamless work across peace and security, human rights and sustainable development.

&#8220Peacekeeping operations need clear, realistic and up-to-date mandates, with well-identified priorities, adequate sequencing and flexibility to evolve over time,&#8221 Ms. Mohammed told the Security Council during an open debate on ‘peacekeeping operations and sustaining peace.’

&#8220Coherence, complementarity and collaboration between UN peace and security efforts and its development and humanitarian work are also essential for preventing conflict and mitigating risks, fostering more sustainable outcomes and ensuring that no one is left behind,&#8221 she added.

‘Sustaining peace’ is a term that emerged from the 2015 review of the UN peacebuilding architecture. In their resolutions on the review, the Security Council and the General Assembly defined sustaining peace &#8220as a goal and a process to build a common vision of a society […] which encompasses activities aimed at preventing, the outbreak, escalation, continuation and recurrence of conflict.&#8221

&#8220Implementing the Sustaining Peace Agenda requires an inclusive strategy that supports the diverse range of our missions and takes account of the entire peace continuum, from prevention, conflict resolution and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and long-term development,&#8221 Ms. Mohammed said, underscoring the vital role the Security Council plays.

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed addresses the Security Council open debate on “United Nations peacekeeping operations: their potential contribution to the overarching goal of sustaining peace”. UN Photo/Evan Schneider

In this regard, she added, the reform of the UN system has been designed to reinforce the links between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustaining Peace Agenda.

&#8220We must work together across silos and address the humanitarian-development-peace nexus as well as the root causes of violence and conflict,&#8221 she said.

The debate also explored how peacekeeping operations can adapt to changing political and operational challenges through the various stages of UN missions’ engagement and how they can be designed around support for building inclusive and effective national institutions and strengthening national capacities.

Sustaining peace can only be achieved through a broader vision of prevention, she stressed, adding that prevention measures and peace processes must be driven by national leadership and inclusive ownership that recognize the needs and contributions of all segments of society, including women and youth as agents of development and peace.

The complexity of current conflicts requires a multi-dimensional approach that prioritizes a range of initiatives, including providing crucial protection for civilians under threat and strengthening institutions, as well as the rule of law to enable respect for human rights to be strengthened at all levels.

Sustaining peace can only be achieved through a broader vision of prevention UN deputy chief Amina Mohammed

They require disarmament, demobilization and the reintegration of armed groups, and a focus on justice and reconciliation, credible elections and the extension of legitimate and accountable State authority.

In many ways, one of peacekeeping’s most important contributions to peace is the preparation for a smooth and effective peacekeeping drawdown and handover to the UN Country Team, as seen recently in successful examples of this in Cote d’Ivoire and soon in Liberia.

&#8220To ensure that we are on the right peacebuilding track, we must get the politics right,&#8221 the Deputy Secretary-General said.

Peacekeeping operations are political instruments that ideally accompany a locally-owned peace process. To this end, missions provide good offices and work closely with different parties and communities to achieve and implement peace agreements.

In considering all these areas, a broader and more sustained level of engagement by the members of a united and strong Security Council &#8211 individually or collectively &#8211 is essential to ensure that Member States, the UN system, and all our partners are aligned behind a common purpose and a common vision for action that integrates all pillars of the UN and bring all its activities together in a truly integrated fashion, Ms. Mohammed concluded.

29 August 2017 – The United Nations aid chief released today $45 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to four countries &#8220struggling in crises away from the headlines&#8221 &#8211 Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad and Sudan &#8211 where more than 21 million people need urgent humanitarian assistance.

The allocation for these neglected emergencies will sustain and scale up critical aid operations by humanitarian partners in these countries, where life-saving needs are alarmingly high but funding is critically low, according to a press statement form the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

&#8220This funding is a lifeline for millions of people who struggle in crises away from the headlines. Focusing largely on longstanding conflict-related crises, this allocation will address the most urgent needs of affected people, said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mr. Stephen O’Brien.

Thanking all donors to the CERF, he added that such funding allows their contributions to go further, &#8220reaching those who need our help the most.&#8221

&#8220The spotlight on underfunded emergencies is unique to the mandate of CERF, enabling urgent response to where the needs are greatest and not to where the noise is loudest. A bigger CERF is critical to address our common goal to leave no one behind. I urge your continuous support,&#8221 said Mr. O’Brien.

A large portion of these funds will reach people affected by displacement &#8211 one of the most pressing humanitarian challenges in today’s world, OCHA explained. The funds will enable humanitarian partners to provide critical health care, food assistance, access to clean water and sanitation and other types of humanitarian aid. However, it addresses only a small portion of the urgent humanitarian needs in the countries.

29 August 2017 – The United Nations is reacting to the devastating images from Tropical Storm Harvey, which has affected an area the size of Spain in the southern United States, and which is likely to worsen in the coming hours as the rain continues.

&#8220Shocked at the images of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation,&#8221 Secretary-General António Guterres said in a Tweet.

The Secretary-General, who is currently in the Middle East on an official visit with Israeli and Palestinian authorities, added that his thoughts are with all the victims and the first responders.

The storm is presenting a &#8220nightmare scenario,&#8221 according to the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and bringing &#8220catastrophic and life-threatening&#8221 flooding.

Clare Nullis, a WMO spokesperson told journalists in Geneva that rivers are rising and the disaster is &#8220far from over.&#8221

&#8220Harvey has caused so much rainfall that the National Weather Service has had to update the colour charts on its graphics in order to effectively map it,&#8221 Ms. Nullis said, &#8220introducing a new colour category for rainfall totals above 30 inches or 76 centimetres.&#8221

Although the storm is no longer classified as a hurricane, it is moving slowly and generating heavy rainfall.

&#8220The priority for now is to save people’s lives and get them out of harm’s way,&#8221 said Ms. Nullis.

The UN disaster risk reduction office today extended condolences to the families and friends of the people killed, and said the destruction caused by Harvey is already in the millions of dollars.

&#8220Hurricane Harvey has revealed how exposed even high-income countries are when building takes place on a grand scale along coastlines exposed to tropical storms. There is no doubt that along with failings in risk governance, climate change is intensifying the cocktail of man-made risk to an unprecedented degree,&#8221 said UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Robert Glasser.

He noted the impact of displacement caused by flooding &#8211 the most common natural hazard &#8211 and stressed the importance of building outside of flood plains.

29 August 2017 – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today reiterated his call for a political solution to the Middle East conflict that would end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and would create an independent Palestinian state, living side by side with Israel in peace and security.

&#8220It is my deep belief that it is essential to restart a serious and credible political process of negotiation aiming at that objective &#8211 the two-state solution &#8211 as it is also important to create conditions on the ground to improve the situation of Palestinian populations,&#8221 Mr. Guterres said at a press conference in Ramallah after meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.

&#8220A two-state solution that will end the occupation and, with the creation of conditions, also the suffering even to the Palestinian people, is in my opinion the only way to guarantee that peace is established and, at the same time, that two states can live together in security and in mutual recognition,&#8221 Mr. Guterres said.

He said that Israel’s settlement activity represented a major obstacle to the implementation of the two-state solution although there are other obstacles.

The UN chief also expressed a concern about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and pledged to support the effort towards creating conditions for a unified Palestinian leadership both in West Bank and Gaza.

To a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest comments on settlements in West Bank, Mr. Guterres said &#8220it is clear that there is a disagreement on that matter.&#8221

&#8220We believe that settlement activity is illegal under international law […] it is an obstacle to the two-state solution,&#8221 he added.

Visit to Yasser Arafat Museum

Also today, the Secretary-General visited Yasser Arafat Museum.

&#8220When visiting this museum, there are of course many emotions and many feelings, but the most important of them is the feeling of the suffering of the Palestinian people,&#8221 Mr. Guterres told reporters.

For many years, in different capacities as Prime Minister of Portugal and as president of an international political organization, he has closely followed the peace process, in its hopes and frustrations, he said.

&#8220I have a dream, a dream to see in the Holy Land two states: A Palestinian state and an Israeli State, living together in peace and security, in mutual recognition and allowing for this kind of suffering not to be possible anymore,&#8221 the Secretary-General stated.