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People’s basic human rights – their birth-right – are “under assault”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, as he launched a Call to Action aimed at boosting equality and reducing suffering everywhere. 

While a sudden increase in new cases of COVID-19 is of concern, the spread of coronavirus is not yet a pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. 

“Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely, it has. Are we there yet? From our assessment, not yet,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva.

Cheap and easily accessible small arms are increasingly becoming the “weapon of choice” for many terrorist groups, the UN counter-terrorism chief told an event on Friday aimed to raise awareness of the nexus between terrorism, organized crime and illicit small arms trafficking.

In a tersely delivered statement on Friday, the UN Secretary-General appealed for an end to the “man-made humanitarian nightmare” currently unfolding in Syria, where ongoing military operations in the north-west have displaced hundreds of thousands amid bitter winter temperatures. 

Alongside the human population, Africa’s animals are suffering greatly from the effects of climate change, which United Nations Deputy Secretary General Amina Mahommed saw first-hand on Sunday in Zimbabwe.

As global temperatures continue to rise and the world seeks solutions to stem the tide, the deputy UN chief visited Hwange National Park, which, at 14,651square kilometres, is almost half the size of Belgium.

Reduce inequality around the world, the United Nations labour agency urged on Thursday, World Social Justice Day.

The gap between the rich and the poor is larger than previously thought. Globally, the poorest 20 per cent of any given country needs an average of more than 11 years to earn what the richest earns in one, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).

As the already dire situation in north-west Syria dramatically continues to worsen in Idlib province, the head of the United Nations refugee agency called on Thursday for an end to the hostilities and appealed for urgent action to allow the people trapped there to move to places of safety.

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. 

Alarmed by the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation in north-west Syria and the tragic suffering of civilians, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing fight that has displaced more than 900.000 civilians since early December.  

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.