The United Nations Office at Geneva
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Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service, chaired the virtual briefing, attended by the spokespersons of the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Labour Organization, and the World Health Organization.
World Breastfeeding Week
Laurence M. Grummer-Strawn, Head of Food and Nutrition Action in Health Systems Unit at the World Health Organization (WHO), said the theme for this year’s World Breastfeeding Week was “Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet”.
The Director-General of the WHO and the Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had released a join letter calling on governments to protect and promote women’s access to skilled breastfeeding counselling, a critical component of breastfeeding support.
This issue was timely in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had led to tremendous interruption of healthcare services around the world, including to breastfeeding mothers. The letter also called for increased investments, as analysis indicated that the lack of breastfeeding led to the death of 820,000 children every year, including in developed countries, and generated over US $302 billion in economic losses every year.
During World Breastfeeding Week, the WHO would be launching three new sets of documents and tools to help with capacity-building of health care providers in being able to support breastfeeding: a Competency Verification Toolkit: Ensuring Competency of Direct Care Providers to Implement the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative; a manual on Care of Feeding for Small, Sick, and Preterm Newborns; and a Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative Training Curriculum. These materials would be launched during a webinar advocacy event, to be held at 3 p.m. CET on 5 August. There was also a frequently asked questions page on the code for health workers.
Responding to questions, M. Grummer-Strawn said there were no changes to WHO’s standard recommendations on breastfeeding even if mothers had COVID-19. The risk of transmission from a COVID-19 positive mother to her baby seemed extremely low. Breastmilk had been tested around the world, and infective virus had not been found in it, except for a few odd cases. He recalled that breastfeeding had positive effects for both the child and the mother. Turning to formula milk, he expressed concerns about the practices of formula industries trying to get mothers to use their products and weaken healthcare providers’ support for breastfeeding. Problematic marketing practices, such as issuing videos featuring doctors speaking negatively of breastfeeding while referring to COVID-19, had negative consequences beyond dissuading mothers from breastfeeding. They could lead, for instance, parliamentarians and employers to perceive breastfeeding as a less important issue.
COVID-19
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said that, according to the Secretary-General’slatest policy brief on the impact of COVID-19 on education, the pandemic had created the largest disruption of education systems in history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in all countries and all continents. It had also exacerbated education disparities. Learning losses due to prolonged school closures threatened to erase progress made in recent decades, not least for girls and young women. The Secretary-General had issued a video message on the launch of this policy brief.
Responding to questions on the licensing of a vaccine in Russia, Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization(WHO), said there were clear guidelines and regulations to get this moving in an effective way. He noted that there had not been any official announcements yet on this matter. It was important that guidelines and regulations be followed.
Replying to questions about WHO’s mission to China, he explained that a two-person advance team had gone to China to meet Chinese experts, lay the groundwork to join efforts to identify the origin of the virus, prepare for future missions, and start drafting terms of reference. The Director-General had addressed this topic during a press briefing yesterday. The timeline, composition of the team and other information would be shared later.
He added that the WHO held two briefings per week on COVID-19, one on Mondays and the other on Thursdays.
First Universal Ratification of an International Labour Organization Convention
Roselind Yard, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), said the Organization was to announce the first universal ratification of an International Labour Standard in its more than 100-year history. Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour had now been ratified by all 187 Member States, becoming the most rapidly ratified Convention in the history of the Organization. The Convention called for the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including slavery, forced labour and trafficking. Universal ratification meant all children now have legal protection against the worst forms of child labour.
An embargoed virtual press briefing would take place this afternoon at 2 p.m. Geneva time. ILO Director-General Guy Ryder would announce the universal ratification at the press briefing. Also speaking would be Corinne Vargha, Director of the ILO’s International Labour Standards Department, and Vera Paquete-Perdigao, Director of the ILO’s Governance Department. The press release and all associated materials would be under strict embargo until Tuesday 4 August at 1 p.m. GMT (3 p.m. CET). Audio and video of the briefing would be available after the press conference.
Attack on Internally Displaced Camp in Cameroon
Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said the UNHCR strongly condemned an unprovoked and brutal attack on a site hosting 800 internally displaced people near the village of Nguetchewe, in Cameroon’s Far North region. At least 18 people had been killed and 11 injured in the incident during the early hours of Sunday 2 August when assailants had thrown an explosive device, thought to be a grenade, into the makeshift camp while people were sleeping. Some of the wounded had been evacuated to Mokolo district hospital, an hour’s drive from Nguetchewe. Some 1,500 people, including terrified residents of the hosting village, had fled to the nearby town of Mozogo for safety. UNHCR was deploying an emergency mission to assess the situation and evaluate the protection and health needs of those affected. Local communities in this impoverished area were often the first responders to those fleeing growing insecurity and violence in the area, which covered Lake Chad and north-east Nigeria. They were sometimes related, and they shared with them the few resources they have. Against the background of growing insecurity, UNHCR anticipated enhanced community protection, shelter, water and sanitation would be needed as the country responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A briefing note is available here.
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service, said the Secretary-General had strongly condemned the heinous attacks against civilians, and called for those responsible for these atrocities to be held accountable. International human rights law and international humanitarian law must be fully respected and all civilians in Cameroon and Chad must be protected. The United Nations remained steadfast in its support to the countries of the Lake Chad Basin in their efforts to overcome the scourge of terrorism, and address the security, political, humanitarian and socio-economic challenges in the region.
Responding to questions, Mr. Baloch said access was an important issue for humanitarians in this region. He noted that the Far North region, tucked between Nigeria’s Borno and Adamawa states and Lake Chad, currently hosted over 300,000 internally displaced persons.
Geneva announcements
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service, reminded that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development would be holding a virtual press briefing on the fact that Barbados was set to sign an agreement to host UNCTAD15 on Wednesday, 5 August at 1:30 p.m. GMT (9:30 a.m. in Barbados; 3:30 p.m. in Geneva). The speakers would include Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, and Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, UNCTAD Secretary-General. Journalists must register prior to the event at unctadpress@unctad.org. The link to the event would be shared upon registration.
The 101st session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) would open today at 3 p.m. This online session would last until Friday, 7 August. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the examination of State parties' reports that had been scheduled at the present session (Bahrain, Belgium, Bolivia, Denmark, France, Niger, Singapore and Thailand) had been postponed to future sessions. At the opening meeting this afternoon, the Committee would elect its new Bureau, including its new Chairperson. It would also hear a statement from a non-governmental organization. The Committee would then meet in private until Friday afternoon.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
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Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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