Public information

At least 11 United Nations personnel — seven military and four civilians — were killed in deliberate attacks in 2023, the UN Staff Union Standing Committee on the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service said today.

Amid multiplying disinformation, rising tensions and armed conflicts — including in Gaza and Ukraine — the Department of Global Communications serves as a vital bridge between the United Nations and the global community, delegates told the Committee on Information today, as it concluded the general debate of its forty-sixth session today.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Press Freedom Day, observed on 3 May:

The Department of Global Communications engages global audiences not just on the state of a world troubled by spreading pollution, inequality, hate and violence, but also on “the solutions that are out there”, its top official told the Committee on Information during the opening of its forty-sixth session today, as delegates highlighted the need to combat disinformation through facts communicated by the United Nations across and beyond its six official languages.

Following the official installation of the Transitional Presidential Council in Port-au-Prince today, the Secretary-General reiterated his call for the swift deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti to assist the Haitian National Police in addressing the dire security situation in the country.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugeess (UNHCR) today launched its Climate Resilience Fund, seeking to raise $100 million by 2025 to boost the protection of refugees and displaced communities who are most threatened by climate change.

One year from tomorrow, 13 April 2025, the United Nations Pavilion in Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai, Japan, will open its doors to visitors under the theme of “United for a Better Future” that will feature exhibits and programming that incorporate the sub-theme “Saving, Empowering and Connecting Lives Together”.

The United Nations will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda with events under the theme of “Remember. Unite. Renew.” The events remember the victims and honour the survivors and those who tried to stop the genocide, while also focusing on young people who have grown up in the shadow of 1994, and warning against the dangers of hate speech and disinformation.

Coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda (7 April), the United Nations Headquarters in New York opens a new exhibit about the power of post-genocide reconciliation, the potentially deadly impact of hate speech and what visitors can do to say #NoToHate. The exhibit “Remember. Unite. Renew.” will be publicly accessible in the Visitors’ Lobby from 27 March to late April, Mondays through Fridays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding holidays.

The Secretary-General has designated Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division in the Department of Global Communications, as Commissioner-General for the Organization’s participation in Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai, Japan.