Women and girls uprooted by war or disaster are at heightened risk of rape, exploitation and abuse. Yet reaching a refugee camp or other places where humanitarian services are available does not necessarily eliminate these risks.

As United Nations Secretary-General, he stood up for the rights, health and dignity of women and girls.

Statement by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem on International Youth Day 2018 — We want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and make good on our pledge to leave no one behind. We want to build lasting peace. Therefore, young people belong at the centre of our collective efforts.

Remarks by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem at the Third Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean in Lima, Peru.

Should a disabled young woman or man be able to enjoy safe sexuality and keep well and healthy?

When I talk to young people, I tell them you are the U in UNFPA. If we want to live up to the ideals of the UN Charter, if we want to achieve the Sustainable Develoment Goals and if we want to build peace, then we have to put young people at the center. We have to embrace young people as equal partners on this journey together.

Today, on Nelson Mandela International Day, I hope that his legacy of equality and dignity will continue to inspire the world community, and will serve to guide future generations in the quest for social justice.

Fifty years ago, the world declared that “parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children,” at the United Nations International Conference on Human Rights in Tehran, on 13 May 1968.

Based on observations from our recent visits to the refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar District of Bangladesh, we call on the international community to urgently step up its efforts to help all Rohingya refugees in confronting their ordeal.

Statement of UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem to the Annual Session of the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS 2018.

UNITED NATIONS, New York—At UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, we welcome the release of our colleague, Zarmina Zafar, and her son, who were abducted in Kabul in January.