Press releases

GENEVA, 6Oct 2023 – “A growing number of children are being forced from their homes by extreme weather events. To date, they have largely remained invisible. And too often unprotected.

3 October 2023 – The unchecked violence in Haiti’s capital is intensifying in Artibonite, the nation’s main rice-growing region, terrorizing children and families and destroying livelihoods amid unprecedented hunger, malnutrition and a resurgent cholera epidemic.

OUAGADOUGOU/DAKAR/NEW YORK, 2 October 2023 - On the first day of the new 2023-2024 academic year in Burkina Faso, UNICEF warns that at least 1 in 4 schools – or 6,149 – remain shut due to ongoing violence and insecurity in parts of the country. As a result, an estimated one million children are out of school and exposed to many threats.

28 September 2023 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is on track to have record levels of verified grave violations against children for a third consecutive year in 2023.

ABUJA, NIGERIA, 27 September 2023 — In the midst of the most severe diphtheria outbreak in recent global history, UNICEF Nigeria is sounding the alarm about the urgent need for widespread vaccination. The outbreak has so far resulted in over 11,500 suspected cases, more than 7,000 confirmed cases, and claimed the lives of 453 people, mostly children.

Geneva, 19 Sep 2023 – “On the back of a cruel disregard for civilians and the relentless attacks on health and nutrition services, UNICEF fears many thousands of newborns will die between now and the end of the year.

The UK Comittee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) has again partnered with Accomplice London to launch phase two of its award-winning ‘The C Stands for Children’ integrated marketing campaign, to continue to raise awareness of the charity’s mission to put children at the heart of everything it does, creating a better world for every child.

At the halfway mark towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), two-thirds of child-related indicators are off-pace to meet their targets, according to a new UNICEF report released today.

NEW YORK/AMMAN/TRIPOLI, 14 September 2023 - Nearly 300,000 children are estimated to have been exposed to the powerful Storm Daniel across eastern Libya and a growing number of children and families are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, following significant damage to numerous homes, hospitals, schools, and other essential infrastructure.

UNICEF UK Ambassador Cat Deeley joins campaigners handing in a petition to the Prime Minister at Downing Street. The petition has been signed by 66,000 people and calls on the Government to commit to a national Baby and Toddler Guarantee, which sets out and guarantees the basic services that every young child in the UK is entitled to – whoever they are and wherever they are born.

NEW YORK/AMMAN, 11 September 2023 – Initial reports indicate that approximately 100,000 children have been impacted by the powerful earthquake that struck Morocco late on Friday night - the strongest seismic event to hit the Kingdom since 1960. Like all major earthquakes, aftershocks are likely to continue in the days and weeks ahead, putting children and families at further risk.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, 11 September 2023 — A hotspot of armed violence in metropolitan Port-au-Prince in recent weeks has put thousands of families at risk in the neighborhoods of Carrefour-Feuilles and Savanes Pistaches, and displaced over 19,000 people, mostly women and children, to host communities or spontaneous displacement sites.

Results of a new YouGov survey, commissioned by the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) released today, reveal that 70% of parents with babies and young children feel it is getting harder every year to be a parent in Britain, with 70% feeling that being a parent today is harder than it was for their parent’s generation. The charity conducted the survey amid escalating concerns for families and the potential impact on babies and young children’s development and builds on research from last year for its flagship campaign, Early Moments Matter.

UNICEF is following the situation and ready to support the Government of Morocco upon its request and under the coordination of the United-Nations, to help reach children who may have been impacted by this disaster.

For the first time, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has explicitly affirmed the children’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, issuing comprehensive interpretation of Member States’ obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.