Having taken office with a call for peace to be the watchword of 2017, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday said the world instead had ‘gone in reverse,” and that there are critical areas that need action in the New Year, including climate change, the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, the Middle East conflict, and the Rohingya crisis. “I took office last year calling for us to make 2017 a year for peace. One year later, we must recognize that peace remains elusive,” the Secretary-General said in his informal briefing to the UN Member States on his top concerns for 2018.
As the Bay of Bengal region gears up for cyclone and monsoon seasons, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is warning that more than half-a-millon Rohingya children already living in “horrific” conditions in makeshift settlements in Bangladesh may face compounded risks of disease and displacement.
In his message on the New Year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is calling for unity among the global community to tackle overwhelming challenges and defend values shared by all.
He was one of the very first UN staff members, and 72 years on, Robert Kaminker is still advocating for peace and the power of the Organization to ultimately “save the world.”
A little more than a week into the New Year, close to 200 migrants or refugees have reportedly died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea – with up to 100 unaccounted for since Saturday, the United Nations migration agency said Wednesday.
The head of the new United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti, known as MINUJUSTH, has said the operation will carry out its work in an innovative in the island nation – complete with an unusually tight timeframe and a bench-marking exit strategy.
Despite progress over the past month in opening Yemen’s Red Sea ports to commercial and aid shipments, the United Nations relief chief on Friday approved the largest-ever emergency relief allocation – $50 million – amid concerns that the humanitarian catastrophe in the war-raved country is being made worse by the recent increase in fighting and airstrikes.
After seven years of bloody conflict, the Syrian war has wreaked a “colossal toll” on the country and its people, the United Nations relief chief said on Thursday from the capital, Damascus, where he outlined ways to sustain and improve humanitarian assistance and protection for everyone affected by the crisis this year.
Political brinkmanship and a refusal to compromise will only result in further delays in preparations for elections and deepening of the political crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has been gripped by a recent spate of violent protests, the United Nations peacekeeping chief told the Security Council Tuesday.
The United Nations is taking the global combat against human trafficking into the skies as the Organization's human rights office and its Montreal-based civil aviation agency begin putting the final touches on training guidelines that could help airline cabin crew spot possible victims.
Photo: Héctor Latorre/UN Verification Mission in Colombia
In an official visit to Colombia, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday met with the country's President in the capital, Bogotá, where the UN chief said it is the duty of all the citizens of the world to support the peace process there.
The dramatic deterioration in the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic over the past year has been further complicated by recent floods and health crises, the United Nations migration agency said Wednesday, appealing for urgent funding to ensure continued assistance and protection for millions in need.
Somali refugee ZamZam Yusuf has a message for any neighbours who think she doesn’t have the right to call Leicester, in the English Midlands, home. “I would like to offer you a cup of tea” at my house, says the 30-year-old mother-of-four, who came to United Nations Headquarters in New York in January, as world leaders prepare to debate the first-ever Global Compact for Migration.
Conflict is not always linear, with a clear beginning, middle and end, the President of the United Nations General Assembly said Thursday, urging a new approach to peace that requires action at all stages of the conflict cycle.
The upward trend in global temperatures marked by record-shattering warmth in 2015 and 2016 kept pace last year, with the United Nations weather agency warning Thursday that the continued pressure on the Arctic in 2017 will have “profound and long-lasting repercussions on sea levels, and on weather patterns in other parts of the world.”
Worldwide concerns over nuclear weapons are the highest they have been since the Cold War, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday, calling for comprehensive political solutions that include dialogue and negotiation to prevent, mitigate and resolve conflicts.
Intensification in hostilities across Syria is having a “devastating” impact on civilians, United Nations agencies in the war-ravaged country said Wednesday, warning that the fighting is also severely limiting life-saving humanitarian operations.
