What's New

As governments try to kick-start their economies, the UN is calling for recovery plans to be built around low-carbon technologies, to avoid a return to fossil fuel-based business as usual.

Islands at the forefront

Some of the countries and regions at the forefront of this whole scale shift to renewables are islands, where the need to avoid the significant cost of importing fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, provides added motivation. 

The UN Charter “brought rules and hope to a world in ruins”, Secretary-General António Guterres told a virtual ceremony on Friday, commemorating 75 years since the Organization’s foundational text was signed.

The UN has launched an investigation into a video which surfaced on social media this week showing a clearly marked UN vehicle on a busy city street, while a woman straddles a man on the back seat engaging in a sex act, with others sitting inside.

More than 35 million people around the world now suffer from drug addiction, according to the latest annual report on the scourge, from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released on Thursday, which also analyzes the far-reaching impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global drug markets.

Amid the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN has mobilized to save lives, control transmission of the virus and ease the economic fallout, Secretary-General António Guterres told journalists on Thursday, speaking at the virtual launch of his report on the Organization’s response to the crisis

Torture is an “egregious abuse of human rights”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday, the International Day in Support of the Victims of Torture.  

Although international law “unequivocally prohibits torture in all instances”, the UN chief pointed out that it nevertheless continues in many countries, “even those where it is criminalized”.

The internet and new digital tools are being manipulated as never before to infringe on people’s right to free assembly, the UN’s top rights official said on Thursday, in a call for a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology during peaceful demonstrations.

Amid global protests against systemic racism, corruption and economic woes exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also expressed concern about the use of non-lethal weapons against demonstrators.

The coronavirus outbreak and lockdown measures have had a detrimental impact on vulnerable communities across the globe. In Lebanon, this is particularly true as the virus came at a critical period for a country trying to stay afloat during an unprecedented economic and financial crisis.

WFP works to ensure the most vulnerable have sufficient and nutritious food all year long. Through its field offices and dedicated humanitarian workers across the country, WFP runs an array of programmes that offer vital assistance to the most vulnerable.

The world is on track to reach 10 million coronavirus cases within the next week, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief executive said on Wednesday, a “sober reminder” that as research continues into therapeutics and vaccines, utmost efforts are needed now to suppress transmission and save lives.

UN Member States, Observers and others, sent a strong political message this week, with the announcement that 170 signatories have now endorsed the UN’s call to silence the guns, and stand united against the global threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative, prompted by Malaysia, shows that a large majority of nations are now standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the global ceasefire call that Secretary-General António Guterres made back in March, when the pandemic was just picking up speed.