News

Road traffic accidents take some 1.35 million lives every year and cost most countries three per cent of their gross domestic product, the top UN health official said on Wednesday as the Third Global Ministerial Conference On Road Safety kicked off in Stockholm, Sweden.

Malnutrition, disease, floods, droughts and displacement in Niger have put nearly three million people, more than half of them children, in need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF said on Wednesday, calling for increased attention to their plight.

With progress stalled on both the peace and political fronts in Syria, UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen urged ambassadors in the Security Council on Wednesday to “put their weight” into finding a solution to end nearly nine years of conflict. 

A recent escalation in fighting between warring parties in Yemen contradicts their stated desire to peacefully end nearly five years of conflict, UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths said in a briefing to the Security Council on Tuesday. 

The crisis in north-west Syria has reached a “horrifying new level”, the UN Humanitarian Affairs chief warned on Monday.

Education is the “great equalizer” and Parliaments have a major role to play in scaling up action to ensure that adequate financial resources are allocated to education, girls’ education and technical and vocational training throughout in national budgetary processes, the President of the UN General Assembly said on Monday.

Many animals – including birds, fish and mammals – migrate along set routes in search of food or breeding grounds. How best to protect them in a rapidly changing world is the focus of a major UN wildlife meeting which opened in Gandhinagar, India, on Monday. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday began a three-day visit to Pakistan, recognizing the country’s decades of “outstanding generosity and solidarity” as one of the world’s largest hosts of refugees, and highlighting its place in confronting climate change.  

The premier international gathering on the future of cities wrapped up on Thursday in Abu Dhabi with delegates urging action on all aspects of rapid urbanization, recognizing that an increasingly urbanized world is a ‘transformative force’ that can be harnessed and steered to boost sustainable development.

Urgently-needed aid deliveries to embattled civilians in north-west Syria have started again after a day-long break in distributions caused by escalating hostilities, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday. 

Millions of people worldwide will get to share their views on climate action through a UN campaign launched on Thursday aimed at connecting them with Governments and policy makers. 

“You can walk down to the sculpture,” said the guide, “or,” and he paused to pique interest, “you can use one of these new public bicycles and follow the bike lane.” He gestured enticingly at a row of brand new, green, semi-electric bicycles.

With more than half of all maternal deaths occuring in countries affected by humanitarian crises and fragility, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is calling for greater international support to provide life-saving reproductive health and protection services in these locations. 

Since 2012, the plight of children in Madagascar has not improved and is in many cases getting worse, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.

Comprehensive national strategies are urgently needed to prevent child sexual abuse online and other Internet issues for children, independent UN human rights experts said on Tuesday, Safer Internet Day.

Fewer than 30 per cent of the world’s scientific researchers are women: that’s just one of the statistics showing how many challenges remain for women and girls in the scientific field, as the world marks the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, on Tuesday.

With the rainy season fast approaching, countries in the Horn of Africa are in a race against time to tackle a Desert Locust invasion amidst ongoing humanitarian challenges, the United Nations warned on Monday. 

The challenges facing African nations are “complex, multi-faceted and far-reaching" but a “collective, comprehensive and coordinated” response by the global community will build on the momentum that already exists to help the continent thrive, the UN chief told the African Union Summit on Sunday. 

The Tenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF10), the largest global gathering on the future of cities, opened on Saturday with thousands taking part in lively discussion, through different assemblies representing youth, women, grassroot communities, local and regional governments and business.  

The UN chief on Saturday called on the international community to recognize the need for African counter-terrorism operations to tackle the growing threat of extremist violence across the continent, backed by the UN Security Council, and “predictable funding, guaranteed by compulsory contributions”. 

Fresh fears of accelerating damage to the planet’s ice sheets and sea level rise have been fuelled by confirmation from the UN’s weather agency that the Antarctic likely saw a new temperature record of more than 18°C on Thursday. 

Air and ground strikes in the region of Idlib, northwest Syria, are causing “massive waves of civilian displacement and major loss of civilian life”, causing unacceptable human suffering which must stop now, Geir Pedersen, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, told the Security Council on Thursday.

A military escalation in northern Syria which has trapped civilians in Idlib has “shocked and horrified” a senior UN humanitarian official. 

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is stepping up response in Africa’s Sahel region where escalating violence has forced a rising number of people to flee their homes. 

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) appealed on Wednesday for $675 million to boost international measures to counter the new coronavirus epidemic, as deaths from the outbreak neared 500.

Citizens of Chad who have spent most of their lives as refugees in neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) have been talking to the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, about the challenges they have faced returning to their home country.

Climate action will be both a priority and a driver of world affairs through the coming decade, United Nations Secretary-General chief António Guterres announced on Monday, during a speech at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday, in which he declared that the next ten years will be “crucial for achieving a fair globalization, boosting economic growth and building peaceful societies”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) raised the alarm on Monday over critical health threats facing hundreds-of thousands of Syrians forced to flee due to intensified hostilities in Syria’s northwest, where health facilities and workers have increasingly come under attack.

A minimum of $1.4 billion is needed to fund the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, known as UNRWA, the acting chief said on Friday.

Suriname has become the second nation globally to outline updated plans to fight climate change in the hope of ensuring that any future increase in the temperature of the planet does not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.