"Sexual violence accounted for just over half of the cases (around 3,700) and almost two-thirds of them involved gang rape (around 2,500)," he added.
Alarming levels of GBV persist in Haiti, but survivors and those at risk face very limited access to essential support due to insecurity, logistical challenges and funding gaps, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) has warned.OCHA).
Due to budget cuts, the UN and its partners were only able to reach seven percent of the 833,000 people they aimed to help, Dujarric reported.
The response remains seriously underfunded, with an overall shortfall of $13.5 million, or 70 percent of the more than $19 million needed for this year.
Despite these constraints, between January and February, the UN and its partners scaled up vital services, reaching those most affected, through more than 32,000 awareness sessions. Around 560 frontline workers also received training.
Many girls and women who survive gender-based violence around the world are disappointed when they seek medical help - often because systems are not in place to provide them with what they need - the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.
In a new report from the European office of the United Nations agency, it is indicated that almost three in ten women and girls over the age of 15 will be victims of physical and/or sexual abuse in the region.
Health services "are often the first - and only - point of contact for survivors", and yet essential support is not provided, particularly post-rape services and access to safe abortion, which are urgently needed, maintains WHO.
According to data from 53 European countries, only seven offer safe abortion services, the agency found.
WHO's Melanie Hyde said that when looking at the different needs of sexual assault survivors, only 40 percent of member states in the European region have these provisions at the policy level: "What we're seeing is that if it's not in the policy, then it's not going to be at the front line. "
The WHO describes this as a public health crisis that has a significant negative impact on individuals in terms of mental and physical health, but also on families and society.
Finally, some welcome the good news from Thursday's youth summit in Geneva, where activists shared their positive stories of change, which have helped tens of thousands of people around the world.
Among the inspiring figures at this year's Youth Activist Summit was Marina El Khawand, who created a global platform for surplus medicines from scratch.
She made the decision following the deadly Beirut port explosion in 2020, when she struggled to find prescription medication for an elderly survivor who needed it to breathe properly.
Marina's lightbulb moment came after she searched several pharmacies without success, before asking for help on her social media account.
Within hours, a stranger donated 12 boxes and it didn't take long for her online platform - Medonations - to spring up, she said. UN News:
"The moment I took the first box of the 12 boxes that I hold in my hand, she cries because she saw her basic right to health, which is her medicine. It is the only thing that can keep her alive and make her breathe like it is the happiest and saddest moment."
Marina shared her story at the summit with four other young activists from Brazil, Ivory Coast, India and Japan, each with their own solutions for driving global change.
Representing the UN, communications chief Melissa Fleming urged the young audience and everyone online to turn the noise and negativity of social media into action, creativity and hope.
"Movements don't start with institutions, they start with individuals," she said, before encouraging everyone to register their actions on the UN Act Now campaign app, as 28 million people around the world have already done.