What's New

The United Nations has called for collaboration at all levels, and across all sectors of  society, to protect millions of girls and women at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) every year. 

The need is even more pressing amid concerns that two million additional cases of FGM may occur over the next decade as the coronavirus pandemic shutters schools and disrupts programmes that help protect girls from the harmful practice. 

The United Nations top disarmament official, on Wednesday, stressed the urgent need to not only identify those who have used chemical weapons in Syria, but also hold them accountable for their deeds.

Key workers and other vulnerable people in 145 countries should receive COVID-19 vaccines in the first half of this year, under the joint UN-led COVAX initiative for fair access to coronavirus-beating jabs, it’s been confirmed.

Najat Rochdi, the UN Deputy Special Coordinator, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, today expressed her shock and sadness over the assassination of Lebanese activist and publicist Lokman Slim. Ms. Rochdi extended her deep condolences to Mr. Slim’s family and friends and voiced solidarity with the Lebanese people and society as a whole. “The killing of a courageous and engaged intellectual is a loss to all the Lebanese people,” the UN official said. 

The share of children among detected trafficking victims has tripled while the share of boys has increased five times in the past 15 years. Girls are mainly trafficked for sexual exploitation, while boys are used for forced labour, according to the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, launched by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a “profound” impact on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer around the world, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, before highlighting that breast cancer has become the most common type of the disease. 

Although almost 50,000 victims of human trafficking were detected and reported in 2018 by 148 countries, the “hidden nature” of the crime means that the actual number of victims could be “far higher”, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Tuesday.  

On 10 January, the former United States Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, announced the designation of the Houthis (Ansar Allah) as a foreign terrorist organization and a specially designated global terrorist entity. The designation entered into effect on 19 January.

The number of new COVID-19 cases globally has fallen for the third week in a row, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Monday, though urging countries not to let up efforts to defeat the disease. 

Helping women start and grow businesses in the world’s poorest countries is a path to lifting them and their families out of poverty, the high-profile businesswoman, and new UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Goodwill Ambassador Sonia Gardner, has told UN News, in the second of our two part series this weekend, on the role the financial sector can play in reducing inequality.