This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine: Over 1,500 children killed or injured, concern rises over forced transfers

As Ukraine’s Children’s Day celebrations on Thursday were marred by the death of a girl alongside other civilians in a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, the UN’s top humanitarian official in the country, Denise Brown, said that she was “shocked and saddened” by the incident.

She expressed her sympathy to the families of “over 1,500 children killed and injured in Ukraine” since Russia’s full-scale invasion began 15 months ago.

She added that the UN continued to follow closely reports of Ukrainian children being forcibly sent to Russia.

The UN-appointed independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said in March that cases of transfer and deportation which it had examined, amounted to war crimes.

That same month, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine released a report documenting cases of children subjected to forced transfers, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment.

Ms. Brown also highlighted the “devastating impact” of the war on the mental health and well-being of children, “including millions who have had to flee for their lives”.

She pledged the humanitarian community’s support to Ukraine’s children “for as long as it is necessary.”

Celeste Saulo becomes first woman to lead UN climate agency

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UN’s agency for weather, water and the climate, chose Celeste Saulo of Argentina as its new leader on Thursday.

Currently WMO’s first vice-president and director of the Argentinian National Meteorological Service, she will be the first woman to head the 150-year-old agency when she takes office in January.

Ms. Saulo won the required two-thirds of the vote at the World Meteorological Congress, the general assembly of WMO’s 193 member states and territories, which concludes this week.

Ms. Saulo will be taking over from current WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas at a time of unprecedented climate change challenges.

WMO’s Congress has also just approved a new global greenhouse gas tracking network and strengthened the agency’s focus on research and investment around ice sheet and glacier melt.

WHO launches database on drug dependence and risks

The first ever UN-backed database of information from a single, trusted source, on psychoactive drugs and their public health risks, is now freely available online, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday.

The repository, from WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence, is a key resource for health professionals, drug policy experts and policymakers, with reports covering over 450 substances, WHO said.

Psychoactive drugs kill half a million people every year, and according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, over 280 million people worldwide used drugs in 2020 – a 26 per cent increase over the previous decade.

WHO said that sharing scientific and medical expertise through the new database can inform effective public health responses relating to drugs and help improve substance detection and the clinical treatment of overdoses.

The database will also help professionals source information on the therapeutic uses of psychoactive drugs.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.

Source of original article: United Nations (news.un.org). Photo credit: UN. The content of this article does not necessarily reflect the views or opinion of Global Diaspora News (www.globaldiasporanews.com).

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