What's New

The head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) is in China to discuss the novel coronavirus outbreak with senior Government officials. 

Against the backdrop of a constant stream of attacks targeting Jews, their institutions and property, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Saturday of a global crisis of antisemitic hatred. 

As we see a deeply worrying resurgence in antisemitic attacks around the world, “solidarity in the face of hatred is needed today more than ever”, the UN chief told an annual Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony at New York City’s historic Park East Synagogue.  

 Governments must put an end to the informal segregation and institutionalized neglect of hundreds of thousands of women and children affected by leprosy, an independent UN human rights expert said on Sunday, World Leprosy Day.

Continued displacement from conflict-affected areas in northeast Syria leaves women and girls in urgent need of safe spaces, shelter and reproductive health services, according to a Flash Update this week from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

The world is “doomed” in the face of climate change unless major industrial nations reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. 

The UN chief observed that while many smaller developing countries and the European Union have committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, “the big emitters” have yet to act. 

The start of the New Year finds the world facing four looming threats to human progress: surging geopolitical tensions, the climate crisis, global mistrust and the downsides of technology, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday. 

“Fish has a lot of benefits for kids, but we children are eating fish full of microplastics. What are you doing to us? Why aren’t you protecting us,” said Belicia, a seven-year-old Lebanese girl to the Minister of Environment in Lebanon.

What had been largely peaceful demonstrations against Lebanon’s Government in the capital Beirut grew increasingly violent over the weekend, sparking the concern of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Recent heightened tensions in the Middle East underscore the critical need for dialogue and diplomacy in the region, the UN’s Political Affairs chief told the Security Council on Tuesday. 

Rosemary DiCarlo was briefing ambassadors on developments related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as recent protests in Lebanon, against the backdrop of the crisis sparked by the killing of a top Iranian general by the United States earlier this month. 

Inequality is growing for more than 70 per cent of the global population, exacerbating the risks of divisions and hampering economic and social development. But the rise is far from inevitable and can be tackled at a national and international level, says a flagship study released by the UN on Tuesday.