Press releases

London, 16 July 2024 – In its annual survey, The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) warns that mounting debt, poor mental health, and expensive and unavailable childcare is placing children’s futures at risk, with 87% of parents of babies, toddlers, and children under 5 years saying that they are worried about their children's future life chances.

BANJUL/GENEVA/NEW YORK, 15 July 2024 – “Following the vote today by the National Assembly of The Gambia, we commend the country’s decision to uphold the ban on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), reaffirming its commitments to human rights, gender equality, and protecting the health and well-being of girls and women. 

15 July 2024 | Geneva/New York – Global childhood immunization coverage stalled in 2023, leaving 2.7 million additional children un- and under-vaccinated compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to data published today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.

London, Friday 5 July 2024 – The appointment of the new UK Government and Prime Minister, Kier Starmer, provides a crucial opportunity to put children and their rights front and centre of all government decision-making. The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) is committed and looks forward to working with them on this.

London, 27 June 2024: Arlo Parks has been appointed as the youngest Ambassador to the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK), following three years of support to the charity.

PORT SUDAN, Sudan, 26 June 2024 – Children across Sudan are continuing to pay a devastating price for the conflict that has ravaged the country, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell warned, following a visit to Port Sudan. More than half of the country’s 24 million children – some 14 million - are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and almost all of Sudan’s children are not in school. 

LUSAKA, Zambia, 21 June 2024 – Almost 52,000 children under the age of five in the 84 drought-affected districts in Zambia are expected to fall into severe wasting – the deadliest form of malnutrition – within the next 12 months if urgent preventive measures are not put into place. Another 276,000 children under age five will have moderate wasting.

London, 13 May 2024 - The Stelios Foundation has donated £640,000 to the United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF’s emergency response for the children of Gaza. This donation could help UNICEF provide 15,000 malnourished children in Gaza with Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for a month.

24 April 2024 – Soccer Aid for UNICEF is once again calling on primary and secondary school pupils across the country to unleash their creativity and compassion and design their dream mascot ahead of this year’s match at Chelsea’s iconic Stamford Bridge stadium on Sunday 9th June.

Kyiv, 23 February 2024 – “UNICEF estimates that over the past two years of war, children in cities in Ukraine’s frontline areas have been forced to spend between 3,000 and 5,000 hours – equivalent to between four to seven months – sheltering underground.

21 February 2024 – In the less than five months that followed the brutal 7 October attacks and the ensuing escalation, tens of thousands of Palestinians – mostly women and children – have been killed and injured in the Gaza Strip. More than three quarters of the population have been forced from their homes, many multiple times, and face severe shortages of food, water, sanitation and healthcare – the basic necessities to survive.

19 February 2024 – A steep rise in malnutrition among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip poses grave threats to their health, according to a comprehensive new analysis released by the Global Nutrition Cluster.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, 11 February 2024 – 100 days after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Nepal on 3 November 2023, UNICEF is calling for continued support for 68,000 children and their families in the affected areas and appealing for US$14.7 million in funding to help rebuild the lives of the affected children.

Three hundred days of atrocities against the children of Sudan

GENEVA, 2 February 2023 – UNICEF estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or separated. Each one, a heartbreaking story of loss and grief.

NEW YORK, 30 January 2024 – The allegations of involvement of several UNRWA staff in the heinous attacks on Israel on 7 October are horrifying. As the Secretary-General has said, any UN employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable. However, we must not prevent an entire organization from delivering on its mandate to serve people in desperate need.

PORT-AU-PRINCE/NEW YORK, January 29, 2024 –The surge in armed violence across Haiti has triggered a profound humanitarian crisis, with the number of internally displaced children soaring to 170,000.

PANAMA CITY/NEW YORK, 12 January 2024 – At least 770 child and adolescent homicides were recorded in Ecuador in 2023, a drastic increase of 640 percent from 104 cases in 2019, according to the latest estimates by the local Ministry of Interior.

ROME, GENEVA, NEW YORK, 15 January 2024 – As the risk of famine grows, and more people are exposed to deadly disease outbreaks, a fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza is urgently needed, United Nations agencies warned today.