What's New

Mediation is “one of our most important tools to reduce and end conflict”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the sixth Istanbul Mediation Conference, in the Turkish capital on Thursday.

Work on drafting a new foundational text for war-torn Syria officially began at the UN in Geneva on Wednesday with representatives from the Syrian Government and opposition sitting face to face and preparing to discuss the country’s future for the first time in the nearly nine-year conflict.

Over half of the world’s population now live in cities, with numbers expected to double by 2050, but while urbanization poses serious challenges, cities can also be powerhouses for sustainable development; something the UN is spotlighting on World Cities Day, marked 31 October.

The Women Peace and Security agenda must continue to be “one of the top priorities of the United Nations”, Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Tuesday, in an open debate on how best to accelerate change.

The world’s mountain and glacier regions are facing unprecedented challenges due to climate change, imposing a crippling effect on the people and economies that rely on them, the UN’s weather agency explained on Tuesday, ahead of a summit to address the world’s rapidly-changing water systems.  

Pervasive deteriorating facts on the ground in Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “are pushing us every further” from achieving a viable two-State solution, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council on Monday.

Development is working. There has been a massive drop in global extreme poverty rates ⁠— from 36 per cent in 1990 to 8.6 per cent in 2018⁠ — vastly increasing the economic and social opportunities for so many across the world. Yet, in describing poverty, the standard still refers to income ⁠— a line that sits on US $1.90 per day. Above and below this line, people are categorized as not poor or poor.

On Sunday, marking the annual World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, the United Nations recognized the hard work of thousands of preservation experts, from librarians to archivists and caretakers, whose knowledge and devotion is helping ensure the world does not lose valuable history written on film, and in radio and television. 

Protests in cities across the world in recent days show that “people are hurting and want to be heard” by political leaders who must now address a “growing deficit of trust”, said the UN chief on Friday. 

The United Nations welcomes efforts to de-escalate the crisis in northeastern Syria in the wake of Turkey’s incursion, a senior official with responsibility for the region told the Security Council on Thursday.

UN Assistant Secretary-General, Khaled Khiari, noted that while the situation remains volatile and uncertain, there has been “an encouraging surge of diplomatic activity” in recent weeks.