30 March 2018
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has
called for an independent and transparent investigation into clashes at the
Gaza fence on Friday between Palestinians participating in the ‘Great Return March’
and Israeli security forces which resulted in at least 15 deaths and a large
number of injured.
30 March 2018
Secretary-General António Guterres has
welcomed the successful conclusion of the mandate of the United Nations Mission
in Liberia (UNMIL),
which officially closed its doors on Friday, and congratulated the West African
country’s people and Government for turning the page on crisis and conflict.
29 March 2018
After nearly six years as the United Nations
political chief, Jeffrey Feltman on Thursday spoke to the press for the last
time as the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, spotlighting the
importance of multilateralism and the support of UN Member countries for the
Organization’s vital work.
29 March 2018
Climate change “is still moving much faster
than we are,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned on
Thursday, calling for the political will, innovation and financing to cut global
emissions by at least 25 per cent over the next two years.
29 March 2018
With relief agencies in Bangladesh struggling
to assist more than a million vulnerable Rohingya refugees crowded into
makeshift camps along the country’s south-east coast, the World Health
Organization (WHO) on Thursday appealed for international support to help the
cash strapped health sector scale up its response.
29 March 2018
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in
Liberia will formally cease operations on Friday after aiding the West African
nation’s transition from ravaging civil war to a hopeful era of peace.
29 March 2018
Reiterating the need for warring parties in
Yemen to resume dialogue, the Security Council has condemned the latest
missile attacks by the Houthi rebels targeting several cities of Saudi Arabia,
including its capital, Riyadh.
28 March 2018
Internet user growth is booming and with more
people than ever purchasing goods and services online, protecting their
privacy must be a top priority, the United Nations has said.
28 March 2018
The United Nations has reset its action plan
to address the root causes of the complex crisis in Africa’s Sahel, a region
now home to one out of five people worldwide requiring humanitarian assistance,
the UN deputy chief said Wednesday.
28 March 2018
Children are suffering significant trauma and
stress one month after a series of major earthquakes hit Papua New Guinea, the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday, warning about the possible
long-term negative consequences.
28 March 2018
As the United Nations continues to send
peacekeepers to difficult or war-torn environments like Mali and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, those ‘blue helmets’ will need more and better
coordinated support among the actors who authorize and deploy them,
Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday.
28 March 2018
To help the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) tackle bullying in Indonesia – where one in five children have been
physically attacked in school – David Beckham has visited the country to meet
youth who have faced peer violence.
28 March 2018
Ahead of the upcoming international
fundraising conference for Yemen, the United Nations has received nearly $1
billion contributions from Saudi Araba and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and
urged other donors to follow suit and help tackle the world’s worst
humanitarian crisis there.
27 March 2018
Some 60,000 people displaced by ongoing
hostilities in Nigeria’s crisis-torn Borno state will receive life-saving aid
thanks to an allocation from the United Nations-managed country-based
humanitarian assistance fund.
27 March 2018
The Security Council on Tuesday extended for
one year the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC), making it a priority for the operation to protect civilians
and provide support for implementation of a 31 December 2016 agreement on
holding elections.
27 March 2018
More than 1,700 people have reportedly been
killed in military operations and airstrikes on Eastern Ghouta since late
February, the United Nations aid chief said on Tuesday, describing the
past few months of relentless bloodshed as “some of the worst yet” for
civilians inside war-torn Syria.
27 March 2018
Yemen’s education system has been devastated
by the country’s brutal conflict, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
said on Tuesday, reporting that at least half a million children have dropped
out of school since the 2015 escalation of the war.
26 March 2018
A united Nations spokesman said Monday
that Secretary-General António
Guterres is shocked at reports of remarks attributed to Myanmar Senior General
U Min Aung Hlaing.
26 March 2018
A United Nations spokesman confirmed on Monday
that the world body was aware of the announcement by the United States
Government of its decision to take action against certain Russian diplomats in
the US.
26 March 2018
Commemorating the International Day of
Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the United
Nations Secretary-General on Monday said that while the abhorrent
practice was abolished in the 1800s, it continues to have profound social,
cultural and political impacts today.
26 March 2018
There needs to be a “massive global coalition
of conscience” to enshrine the values of racial equality and human rights for
all, declared civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking at the United
Nations.
26 March 2018
Partnerships at local, national, regional and
international levels are crucial to ensuring global migration is better
managed, the United Nations migration agency chief said Monday in New York.
26 March 2018
Reporting that over the past three months,
Israel has advanced 22 plans for some 1,200 housing units for one area of the
West Bank, a United Nations envoy warned Monday that such ongoing settlement
expansion is eroding the prospect of a two-state solution to the long-standing
Middle East conflict.
26 March 2018
Three years after a Saudi-led coalition
intervened in the Yemen war, and hours after reports that Houthi rebels fired
missiles at cities in Saudi Arabia, United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres on Monday said military escalation is not the solution and urged
restraint on all sides.
26 March 2018
One month after a powerful earthquake hit
Papua New Guinea, the United Nations warns that “children’s lives are in
danger” as access to the affected remote and isolated villages across vast and
rugged terrain remains a huge challenge.
25 March 2018
Drawing attention to the dangers United
Nations personnel face while serving the world’s most vulnerable,
Secretary-General António Guterres has called for greater protection for the Organization’s
staff to allow them to carry out their mission safely.
25 March 2018
Honouring those who suffered the brutalities
of the Transatlantic slave trade, United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres said the International Day set aside to remember this “epically
shameful” chapter of human history is an opportunity raise awareness about the
dangers of racism and prejudice today.
24 March 2018
The United Nations this evening turned off the
lights at its iconic Headquarters in New York as well as at other facilities
around the world in observance of “Earth Hour” – a global event highlighting
the need for climate action and sustainable energy consumption.
24 March 2018
Strongly condemning the terrorist attack in
France, the United Nations Secretary-General has reiterated his support to the
Government in its fight against violent extremism.
24 March 2018
The United Nations’ largest annual gathering
on gender equality and women’s rights wrapped up Friday in New York with the
strong commitment by its Member States to achieving gender equality and the
empowerment of rural women and girls.
23 March 2018
Hunger is on the rise worldwide mainly because
“people won’t stop shooting at each other,” the head of the United Nations food
relief agency said Friday, telling the Security Council that if it did more to
break the link between conflict and hunger, countless lives could be saved.
23 March 2018
Claiming more than 4,500 lives daily,
tuberculosis (TB) continues to be the top infectious killer worldwide as well
as the leading cause of death among people living with HIV, the United Nations
said Friday, ahead of World Tuberculosis Day.
23 March 2018
A United Nations forum showcasing the latest
innovations, tools and approaches that will make sustainable development a
reality wrapped up in Bonn, Germany, on Friday.
23 March 2018
As the United Nations peacekeeping mission
wraps up in Liberia and the West African country looks to secure a stable
future, the UN deputy chief on Friday cautioned the Government that while it
has made great strides, the road ahead will be challenging.
23 March 2018
Over the past 15 years there has been “a
marked increase” in cyber harassment, making the safety of women journalists a
major issue for reportage in today’s digital era, participants highlighted
Thursday at a United Nations event.
22 March 2018
Alarmed at persistent reports of chemical
weapons use in Syria, the United Nations Secretary-General has called on the
Security Council to demonstrate unity and resolve in response to bringing to
justice those who use.
22 March 2018
As part of her visit to Liberia Amina
Mohammed, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, celebrated the successful
closure of the UN mission there, which she said set the stage for sustained
peace in the months and years ahead.
22 March 2018
It is critical to shore up areas of
Africa’s Lake Chad Basin freed from the grip of Boko Haram, the
United Nations Deputy Secretary-General told the Security Council on Thursday, as she also called
for efforts to rebuild the lives of women and girls that have suffered at the
hands of the terrorist group.
22 March 2018
The United Nations on Thursday launched a
10-year water action plan that seeks to forge new partnerships, improve
cooperation and strengthen capacity to implement the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development.
22 March 2018
Hurricanes, monsoon floods and continuing
severe drought made 2017 the costliest year ever for severe weather and climate
events, according to a new report by the United Nations weather agency launched
on the eve of World Meteorological Day.
22 March 2018
Driven largely by climate disasters and
conflict, levels of acute hunger surged in 2017, leaving some 124 million
people across 51 countries facing hunger crises –11 million more than the
previous year, according to a new United Nations report.
22 March 2018
United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres has welcomed the signing of a continental free trade agreement in
Africa that has created one of the world’s largest trading blocs with over 50
countries.
21 March 2018
The world needs the spirit of Nowruz to bring
all populations together in the most noble values of peace, justice and
understanding, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said
commemorating International Nowruz Day.
21 March 2018
People with Down syndrome, their advocates and
supporters gathered at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday to rally
employers and make sure they saw the benefits of enabling people with Down
syndrome and disabilities to make meaningful contributions in the
workplace.
21 March 2018
The security services and defence forces of
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) killed at least 47 people during
anti-government protests over a 13-month period through 31 January 2018, a
United Nations human rights report has found.
21 March 2018
The United Nations strongly condemned the
deadly attack earlier Wednesday in the Afghan capital, Kabul, near a major
religious shrine where people had gathered to celebrate Nowruz – the
traditional New Year and the arrival of spring.
21 March 2018
With two-thirds of the world’s population
expected to live in urban areas by 2050, forests are critical part of the
solution to the unprecedented demand for water, food and energy that these
cities will face, senior United Nations officials said Wednesday, on the
International Day of Forests.
21 March 2018
Libya’s shaky financial position, looming
humanitarian crisis and the inability of State authorities to provide services
have created a “vicious cycle” where groups with vested interests are trying to
step in and undermine the Government, the United Nations envoy to the north
African warned on Wednesday.
21 March 2018
Not merely limited to beautiful and poignant
words and phrases, poetry holds the extraordinary power to open new horizons,
bridge differences and illuminate a path to peace and dialogue, the head of the
United Nations cultural agency said on World Poetry Day.
21 March 2018
As heavy rains and potential cyclones threaten
more than one hundred thousand Rohingya refugees living in congested
settlements in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, United Nations refugee agency envoy
Cate Blanchett is urging increased international support to protect them from
the worst impacts of the upcoming monsoon season.
21 March 2018
Below-average rains forecast for Somalia could
lead to devastating cattle losses and intensify malnutrition in the Horn of
Africa nation, the United Nations food security agency has warned.
20 March 2018
Despite a massive humanitarian effort over the
past six months in the Eastern Caribbean, Cuba and Haiti, there is still much
work to be done to rehabilitate water and sanitation and other infrastructure damaged
by powerful hurricanes Irma and Maria, the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) reported on Tuesday.
20 March 2018
People worldwide are being encouraged by
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to think about how they can
better promote tolerance, inclusion and respect for diversity.
20 March 2018
Although rural women make up one-fifth of the
global population and around 43 per cent of all agricultural workers,
inequality restricts their access to land, markets or even the training and
technology that could improve their lives and livelihoods, according to the
United Nations agency fighting to stamp out hunger and poverty.
20 March 2018
The United Nations on Tuesday called on Turkey
to end its 18-month-old state of emergency, saying that the routine extension
of emergency powers has resulted in “profound” human rights violations against
hundreds of thousands of people and may have lasting impact on the country’s
socio-economic fabric.
20 March 2018
The humanitarian crisis in Syria is reaching
new peaks as hundreds of thousands of people flee the escalating fighting in
Eastern Ghouta and Afrin, the latest flashpoints in the long-running conflict,
United Nations relief agencies said Tuesday.
20 March 2018
As more and more Anglophone Cameroonians flee
a violent crackdown in the region and seek asylum in Nigeria, the United
Nations refugee agency warned on Tuesday without more funding and assistance,
their situation and that of the Nigerian communities hosting them, will become
even more desperate.
20 March 2018
Water scarcity and poor access to safe water
sources pose major challenges for two-thirds of the world’s population, the
United Nations food security agency said Tuesday, warning that worsening
shortages could soon force people to leave their communities.
19 March 2018
The United Nations in Syria is appealing
urgently for help to ease the catastrophic situation for tens for thousands of
people impacted by fighting in Eastern Ghouta, outside Damascus, and the
northern town of Afrin.
19 March 2018
With five billion people at risk of having
difficulty accessing adequate water by 2050, finding nature-based solutions,
such as China’s rainwater recycling, India’s forest regeneration and Ukraine’s
artificial wetlands, is becoming increasingly important, according to a
United Nations report released Monday at the world’s largest water-related
event in Brazil.
19 March 2018
The humanitarian crisis and the resulting
suffering will only worsen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) if
persistent violence is not brought under control and there is no political
transition, the top United Nations relief official warned on Monday.
19 March 2018
Making information and communication
technology (ICT) readily available for vulnerable countries and harnessing it’s
potential to help tackle a raft of ills – from disaster risk reduction to
reaching ‘zero hunger’ – will be among the issues on the agenda at an annual
United Nations information forum that kicked off Monday in Geneva.
19 March 2018
At a time when resources for refugees from
Syria is declining, the top United Nations humanitarian official in Lebanon,
the country host to some 1.5 million Syrian and several thousand Palestinian
refugees, has launched a funding allocation to ensure that critical relief
programmes can be sustained.
18 March 2018
With the entire country of Liberia secure, it
is a good moment to move the focus from security to economic development, a
senior United Nations official said ahead of the upcoming closure of the UN
Mission there.
16 March 2018
Thousands of refugees who have fled violence
in the Central African Republic (CAR) to Chad are facing food and shelter
shortages, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday, warning that this is
the largest influx in four years into the small landlocked country.
16 March 2018
The United Nations mediator for the Syrian
conflict told the Security Council on Friday that its three-week old demand for
a ceasefire across the war-ravaged country was still not being implemented, and
while progress had been made in Douma in Eastern Ghouta, “the bottom line is,
too many civilians are still suffering.”
16 March 2018
The lack of a political process to end the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to be the single largest impediment to
Palestinian development, and an escalation in hostilities could completely
break down service delivery in Gaza, a United Nations report said Friday.
16 March 2018
To meet the urgent needs of nearly 900,000
Rohingya refugees and more than 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis in the
communities hosting them, United Nations agencies and their humanitarian
partners appealed jointly on Friday for $951 million.
UN refugee
agency scaling up support as ‘horrific’ violence in DR Congo drives thousands
into Uganda
16 March 2018
In the span of just three days – between 10
and 13 March – more than 4,000 people, mostly terrified women and children,
have crossed into Uganda from crisis-gripped eastern provinces in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations refugee agency said
Friday.
16 March 2018
Dozens of children have been killed since
fighting began in the north-western Syrian town of Afrin, where people are
under bombardment, hospitals have been shut down and water supplies cut off,
the United Nations has reported.
15 March 2018
United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres has condemned yesterday’s attack at a police checkpoint near a mosque
in the outskirts of Lahore.
15 March 2018
Following recent shelling of water treatment
workers in eastern Ukraine, a senior United Nations official has called on all
parties to the conflict to protect those civilians who maintain critical
infrastructure.
15 March 2018
The Security Council has urged warring parties
in Yemen to allow humanitarian convoys to safely reach all conflict-affected
governorates without hindrance, while also asking that all Yemen’s ports remain
fully open to commercial and relief supply imports.
In Rome, UN
chief urges international community to remain strongly committed to stability
in Lebanon
15 March 2018
Calling Lebanon “a fundamental pillar of
stability” in the Middle East, United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres on Thursday told a high-level meeting in Rome that it is
absolutely essential for the international community to show strong solidarity
with the country.
15 March 2018
With our planet’s flora and fauna facing
unprecedented threats, science and policy experts are set to gather next week
in Medellin, Colombia, for a United Nations-backed meeting to consider five
landmark reports aiming to inform better decisions by Governments, businesses
and even individuals on biodiversity, and issues of land degradation and
restoration.
UN Photo/Pascual
Gorriz
15 March 2018
From air transport in the Congo to truce
observation in the Golan and assistance in the transition to independence in
Namibia, the Netherlands has a long history with United Nations peacekeeping.
15 March 2018
Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday
called on the international community to generously support the activities of
the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East (UNRWA), which is facing “the worst financial crisis in its history.”
15 March 2018
Four countries could soon “graduate” from the
ranks of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable nations, a United Nations
expert committee announced on Thursday
15 March 2018
The United Nations Security Council on
Thursday renewed the mandate of UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan for
another year and demanded that all parties immediately end the fighting
countrywide.
15 March 2018
The United Nations human rights wing said
Thursday that it has strong grounds to believe that the investigation into the
disappearance of 43 students from a rural Mexican college in 2014 was marred by
torture and cover-ups.
15 March 2018
A crowded field of threats that includes
drought, floods, animal disease outbreaks and chemical spills are among the
disasters costing farmers in the developing world billions of dollars each
year, according to a new report from the United Nations agriculture agency.
14 March 2018
During a heated debate in
the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, the United Kingdom said that
it was “highly likely” that Russia was behind an attack using a deadly
nerve-agent, which has left Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia,
hospitalized in critical condition.
14 March 2018
While the security situation in Sudan’s Darfur
region remained stable, the causes of the conflict – and their related
consequences – have been largely unaddressed, the head of the African
Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission said Wednesday, calling on hold-out
armed groups to sign the foundational 2011 peace agreement without delay.
14 March 2018
With 700 million people worldwide at risk of
being displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030, water infrastructure
investment must be at least doubled over the next five years, a panel set up by
the United Nations and the World Bank recommended on Wednesday.
14 March 2018
As fighting in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC) has forced 4.5 million people to flee their homes over the past
year and left more than 13 million in need of humanitarian assistance, the
United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator has called on the international
community to urgently address the crisis.
14 March 2018
Two United Nations relief
agencies on Wednesday joined a chorus of international organizations
and partners in the quest to end seven years of conflict in Syria, urging
warring parties to allow humanitarian access for the delivery of life-saving
assistance to those desperately in need.
13 March 2018
The United Nations has embarked on an
initiative to address the male-dominated power structure within its own ranks
and now has more women than men in the senior management team,
Secretary-General António Guterres told civil society activists on Tuesday.
13 March 2018
The number of allegations of sexual
exploitation and abuse committed by personnel serving with the United Nations
dropped from 165 in 2016 to 138 last year, according to the latest report by the UN Secretary-General on implementing a
zero-tolerance policy for these crimes.
13 March 2018
International crimes were committed against
the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and those who fled the country could face
further persecution if they return now, a senior United Nations official
said Tuesday.
13 March 2018
As deepening economic woes force thousands of
Venezuelans to flee the crisis-gripped country, the United Nations on Tuesday
issued guidance on treating the population as “refugees,” while the head of the
UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that the outflow into neighboring
countries such as Colombia constitutes a “humanitarian disaster.”
13 March 2018
More than 900 children in Syria were killed
last year, making 2017 the deadliest year for children in the country’s
ongoing conflict, a senior United Nations official told the Geneva-based Human
Rights Council on Tuesday, warning that the grim statistics may only be the tip
of the iceberg.
13 March 2018
Since last November, 10,171 migrants have
safely returned from Libya, the United Nations migration agency announced
Tuesday, crediting the achievement to a scale up of its Voluntary Humanitarian
Return (VHR) programme.
13 March 2018
As Iraq rebuilds after defeating a terrorist
group, the country must draw on its religious diversity and protect minorities,
including Yezidi and Christians, a senior United Nations official has said.
12 March 2018
As #MeToo activists continue to push for
political, economic and social equality between the sexes, a key question is
being asked: Are marginalized women and girls – ones who are part of indigenous
communities, disabled, or part of the lesbian and transgender community – being
heard?
12 March 2018
Despite a United Nations Security Council
demand to institute a 30-day ceasefire across Syria, airstrikes, shelling and
ground offensives have intensified in Eastern Ghouta, Secretary-General António
Guterres reported Monday, warning that the conflict is entering its eighth year
with the “grimmest” reality on the ground.
12 March 2018
Taking place at “a pivotal moment for the
rights of women and girls,” the United Nations body dedicated to gender
equality and women’s empowerment opened its annual session on Monday hearing
calls to help women, especially those in rural communities, secure an end to
the male-dominated power dynamic that has long marginalized their participation
and muted their voices.
12 March 2018
Inclusive partnerships are essential to
addressing drug challenges and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
according to the top United Nations panel dealing with all aspects of narcotic
drugs.
12 March 2018
With the rainy season approaching in South
Sudan, where one in three people has been displaced by more than four
years of conflict, a senior United Nations humanitarian official has called for
urgent financial support to distribute and preposition life-saving aid
supplies.
9 March 2018
The United Nations World Health Organization
(WHO) on Friday launched new guidelines on the role that tobacco product
regulations can play in saving lives by reducing the demand for tobacco and
tobacco products – estimated to kill over seven million people annually.
9 March 2018
Three Nigerian women will spotlight themes
such as human trafficking, suicide bombing, and sexism and sexual harassment at
the United Nations, showing the strength of women as agents of change in
African societies often dominated by men.
9 March 2018
A senior United Nations official has stressed
the need to ensure survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Iraq are
fully protected and that perpetrators are brought to justice.
9 March 2018
The United Nations and partners on Friday
reached the Syrian city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta to complete distribution of
food aid after intense shelling cut short deliveries to the war-torn enclave
earlier this week.
9 March 2018
Flinging terrorism charges at a United Nations
human rights expert is just one act in a litany of profane and inflammatory
comments made by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte against the rapporteur,
prompting the UN rights chief to questions the leader’s mental stability.
9 March 2018
More than 4,700 veterinary health
professionals who have just completed a United Nations training to tackle
disease outbreaks are the new front line of defence protecting farm animals
against deadly illnesses in 25 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle
East.
9 March 2018
United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres on Friday said he is “encouraged” by the announcement of an agreement
between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)
to hold a summit meeting by May.
9 March 2018
After seven years of brutal conflict in Syria,
there are no clear winners, “but the losers are plain to see,” the United
Nations refugee agency chief said Friday, describing the “colossal human
tragedy” that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, driven 6.1 million
people from their homes and forced 5.6 million others to seek safety in
neighbouring countries.
9 March 2018
Mongolia first joined United Nations
peacekeeping in 2002 with the deployment of two unarmed military observers to
the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. Soon after that, it
sent two more officers to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. Since then, Mongolia has continued to expand its contributions to
UN peace operations in hot spots around the world.
9 March 2018
The United Nations migration agency is hoping
that the upcoming donor pledging conference for the humanitarian crisis in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will generate more financial
support to cope with a spike in the number of people displaced by violence.
8 March 2018
The conflict in eastern Ukraine is testing the
core shared values, and the only way to rebuild trust between warring parties
is “more dialogue, more political will and more concrete action on the ground,”
the chairperson of an European intergovernmental security organization told the
United Nations Security Council on Thursday.
8 March 2018
Continuing fighting forced the postponement on
Thursday of a United Nations inter-agency relief convoy to Douma, a
neighborhood in Syria’s war-ravaged Eastern Ghouta, a UN spokesman reported.
8 March 2018
The drumbeat for women’s rights and
empowerment reached a crescendo on Thursday as the United Nations celebrated
International Women’s Day with a number of powerful events, where global
activists joined top UN officials calling for the recent momentum generated by
grassroots movements against discrimination and harassment to tip the scales
towards lasting change.
8 March 2018
Highlighting political tensions and the
disintegrating security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC), Leila Zerrougui, briefing the Security Council for the first time as
head of the UN stabilization mission in the contry, said significant progress
is being made on preparations for upcoming polls.
8 March 2018
The Security Council on Thursday renewed the
mandate of the United Nations political mission in Afghanistan for another year
to continue providing assistance to the Government and the people of the
conflict-plagued country.
8 March 2018
To mark International
Women’s Day, the three United Nations Rome-based agencies are
spotlighting the role new innovations in information and communications
technologies (ICTs) can play in expanding opportunities for rural women, who
often find themselves “on the wrong side of the digital divide.”
8 March 2018
Two United Nations humanitarian agencies are
jointly seeking $80 million to provide food assistance to
refugees in Ethiopia, which hosts the second largest number of those in Africa.
8 March 2018
This year, International Women’s Day comes at
a pivotal moment, and with a wave women’s activism – from the #MeToo movement
to #TimesUp and beyond – exposing the structures that have allowed women's
oppression to flourish, the United Nations is urging the world to stand with
rural and urban women activists to topple the remaining barriers to gender
equality and empowerment.
7 March 2018
Despite notable progress on closing gender
gaps over the past 20 years, women have less access to jobs, are more likely to
take low-quality employment, and face barriers to management positions, a
United Nations labor report has found.
7 March 2018
In a scathing address to the Human Rights
Council, the top United Nations rights official on Wednesday warned political
leaders who stoke fear and intolerance among their followers for the sake of
their own ambitions are merely copying the behaviour of previous generations of
once strong, but ultimately catastrophic, leaders and politicians.
7 March 2018
A “radical transformation” of food systems and
food habits is critical to combat the growing scourge of overweight and obesity
in Latin America and the Caribbean, the United Nations food security agency
said on Wednesday.
7 March 2018
By secondary-level education, refugee girls
are only half as likely as their male peers to enrol in school – even though
they make up half of the school-age refugee population, according to a new
study released Wednesday by the United Nations refugee agency.
7 March 2018
United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres has called on parties to the conflict in Syria to allow a humanitarian
convoy to complete the delivery of supplies to Douma in eastern Ghouta planned
for Thursday.
6 March 2018
Australia and Timor-Leste on Tuesday signed a
bilateral maritime boundaries treaty, which United Nations Secretary-General
António Guterres hailed as a ground-breaking event that could inspire other
countries to peacefully settle disputes through mediation.
6 March 2018
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday
denounced an attack against education workers that killed six, including one UN
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) consultant, who were traveling in the north-western
prefecture of the Central African Republic (CAR).
6 March 2018
Welcoming the progress in the latest talks
between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea,
the United Nations Secretary-General has highlighted the need to utilize the
opportunities it offers to find a peaceful path forward.
6 March 2018
The brutal conflict in Syria has not only
claimed civilians as unintentional victims but has seen all warring parties
deliberately target them with complete impunity employing unlawful methods of
warfare, a new report by a United Nations-mandated inquiry on the war-ravaged
country has said.
6 March 2018
Latest data on development progress for
children reveals that more than half a billion live in countries where the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
are “quickly falling out of reach,” the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on
Wednesday.
6 March 2018
Taking a stand against ongoing threats,
harassment and murder of environmental defenders, the United Nations on Tuesday
launched an initiative enlisting business communities to champion a clean and
healthy environment.
6 March 2018
The “frenzied” scale of unspeakable violence
against the minority Muslim Rohingya community in Myanmar has shifted to a
“lower intensity campaign of terror and forced starvation,” seemingly intended
to drive the remaining Rohingyas from their homeland, a senior United Nations
human rights official has warned.
6 March 2018
Millions of children around the world are
married off before they are ready, often against their will.
6 March 2018
Although the prevalence of child marriage is
decreasing worldwide, action will need to be stepped up to achieve the global
target of ending the practice by 2030, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said
on Tuesday.
6 March 2018
The United Nations refugee agency warned
Tuesday that ongoing instability in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC) poses a grave risk to civilian safety, including for several
hundred refugees recently returned there from Angola.
5 March 2018
The imbalance between spending on conflict,
and spending on peace, must be tackled head-on, Secretary-General António
Guterres said Monday, urging the United Nations to rally all international
actors “for our efforts across the peace continuum – from prevention, conflict
resolution and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and sustainable long-term
development.”
5 March 2018
United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres on Monday appointed Michael R. Bloomberg, the former Mayor of New York
City, as his Special Envoy for Climate Action.
5 March 2018
More than 100,000 United Nations peacekeepers
are serving in the cause of peace around the world today. They do so at great
personal risk and in harsh conditions. In places such as the Central African
Republic and South Sudan, peacekeepers save thousands of lives, protect
civilians against violent attacks and support the delivery of crucial
humanitarian assistance.
5 March 2018
Children in crisis situations face a raft of
challenges – from family separation and forced recruitment to sexual
exploitation and abject poverty – the deputy United Nations human rights chief
said Monday, urging immediate action to protect children from the consequences
of “all too adult failings.”
5 March 2018
Iran is implementing a series of commitments
under the nuclear agreement reached with key countries in 2015, the head of the
United Nations nuclear energy agency said Monday.
5 March 2018
A United Nations-Syrian Arab Red Crescent
(SARC) humanitarian convoy arrived in the besieged Syrian enclave of Eastern
Ghouta on Monday bringing life-saving aid to thousands of desperate people, the
UN World Food Programme (WFP)
has reported.
5 March 2018
Increased hunger and food insecurity, fuelled
by conflict and climatic challenges, continues to inflict suffering on
populations in different parts of the world, forcing them to remain dependent
on humanitarian assistance, a new United Nations report has warned.
4 March 2018
The United Nations and its partners plan to
deliver much-needed relief assistance to the besieged Syrian enclave of eastern
Ghouta this week, the global organization’s humanitarian wing said on Sunday.
3 March 2018
The two deadly terrorist attacks in Burkina
Faso’s capital, Ougadougou, on Friday have been strongly condemned by the
United Nations.
2 March 2018
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the
killing of three aid workers Thursday night in Rann town in Borno state,
Nigeria, following an attack by suspected Boko Haram insurgents.
2 March 2018
The international community should continue to
assist the Central African Republic (CAR) to restore stability, the Special
Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga,
has said, stressing that it is too early for the UN to withdraw its peacekeeping
operation from the crisis-gripped country.
2 March 2018
Big cats, the planet’s most majestic
predators, are under increasing threat – mostly caused by human activities –
and this year’s World Wildlife Day, the United Nations is joining the world in
raising awareness to their plight and galvanizing support for the many actions
already under way to save these iconic species.
2 March 2018
War crimes, potentially crimes against
humanity, are likely being committed in east Ghouta and elsewhere in Syria, and
the United Nations human rights chief warned on Friday that
the perpetrators of these acts must know they are being identified and
will be held accountable.
2 March 2018
Updated data reveals that some 263 million –
one-in-five – children, adolescents and youth worldwide are out school, a
figure that has barely changed over the past five years, according to a new
United Nations cultural agency report.
2 March 2018
The United Nations food relief agency has
urged Governments in West Africa to spend more money on school meal programmes
as these investments not only contribute to children’s better future but also
create local jobs around agriculture.
1 March 2018
The United Nations mediator for the Syrian
conflict on Thursday said the world body has not given up on the implementation
of a recent Security Council resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire across the
war-ravaged country.
