The In Case You Missed It Series highlights news articles from the United Nations that are relevant to the topics being simulated at AMUN 2017. This AMUN Accords post covers selected news from the week of 2 October 2017.

The General Assembly Plenary will be discussing the Review of the United Nations peacebuilding architecture. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) condemned an attack on a courthouse in the Libyan city of Misrata. More than 15 people were injured in an attack claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group. In other news about UN peacekeepers, Under-Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping Operation, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, detailed some of the difficulties facing Peacekeepers being rapidly deployed into conflict areas and the challenges of deploying female peacekeepers.

The General Assembly Second Committee will be discussing the International financial system and development. The UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, called on Switzerland to combat the flow of dirty money into its financial system.

The General Assembly Third Committee will be discussing The human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. More than two billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, making them particularly susceptible to cholera. In response, the United Nations  and a cohort of international partner agencies have set an ambitious goal to reduce cholera deaths by 90 percent by 2030. Meanwhile, in Yemen, the world’s worst outbreak of cholera continues to worsen with more than 750,000 people infected, and conflict in the region makes it difficult for Yemeni citizens to receive humanitarian aid.

In #Yemen, over 15 million people, half of them are children, require sustainable assistance to meet their basic water and sanitation needs. pic.twitter.com/bxcOUWk2Up

— UNICEF Yemen (@UNICEF_Yemen) October 8, 2017

The General Assembly Third Committee will also be discussing Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons. The UN Security Council unanimously re-authorized an agreement allowing Member States to inspect vessels leaving Libya to stem migrant smuggling and human trafficking out of the region.

The General Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization will be discussing Sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. FAO programs in Yemen got a huge boost as the World Bank and the FAO announced a 36 million dollar grant for a variety of FAO programs that will likely have a significant humanitarian impact as well as a big effect on agriculture.

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is discussing Towards a sustainable, inclusive and resilient urban future for Asia and the Pacific. October is the start of Urban-October, a month celebrating urban life worldwide. The Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Dr. Joan Clos, called attention to the 1.6 billion people living in inadequate housing with remarks about the housing market’s failure to provide adequate housing in urban areas.

In #UrbanOctober we will feature #UNHABITAT initiatives implementing the #NewUrbanAgenda. Today we focus on #HabitatDay & #affordablehousing pic.twitter.com/qjip8XK1pq

— UN-Habitat (@UNHABITAT) October 2, 2017

The Contemporary Security Council, in an another act of unanimous consent, expanded the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia where it monitors the ceasefire between the Colombian Government and the National Liberation Army (ELN). A sudden and quickly developing situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is likely to get the attention of the UNSC, where the largest amount of Congolese refugees are fleeing into Zambia from ethnic violence in the Congolese provinces of Haut-Katanga and Tanganyika.

Other news of note across the UN:

• Panamanian Natalia Kane, a pioneer in work on women’s health and sexuality, has been named the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
• The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and UN Women have started a joint program to create Space for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education.
• UN News sat down with Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai to talk about her program the Malala Fund and its efforts to promote education for women and girls.
• UN News also interviewed Mr. Mark Lowcock, the new head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) about the current humanitarian situations worldwide.

Check back in to the AMUN Accords in the future as we keep you up-to-date on UN News that affects the simulations at the AMUN 2017. If we missed some news of note, let us know on our Facebook page or Twitter feed and share the news with other upcoming attendees to the Conference.