What's New

Despite an agreement signed nearly a year ago on a halt to further escalation in Syria’s war-battered Idlib, “the bombing and fighting go on in plain sight, day in and day out”, the UN humanitarian chief told the Security Council on Thursday.

Access to safe drinking water is a right critical to a child’s survival, yet protracted crises have left some 420 million children without basic sanitation, and 210 million lacking access to safe drinking water, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

In the first volume of a new report, Water under Fire, the agency outlines how water, sanitation and hygiene services can be planned, financed and executed to safeguard healthy livelihoods for children in fragile and conflict-affected areas.

People all over the world are calling for a shift towards a greener, cleaner future, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, stressing that “we have the tools to address the climate emergency, but we need more political will.” 

UN chief António Guterres called for an end to the persecution of religious groups on Thursday, the first ever International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion and Belief.

Tiny plastic particles known as microplastics are “everywhere – including in our drinking-water”, but they are not necessarily a risk to human health, UN experts said on Thursday.

In its first summary of the latest research into the impact of the tiny plastic pollutants on humans, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that they have been found in marine settings, waste and fresh water, food, the air and drinking-water, both bottled and from a tap.

Briefing the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, the Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary-General, Maria Luiza Viotti, said on Tuesday that “restraint and genuine dialogue are urgently needed”, in order to avoid a major confrontation, which would have disastrous consequences, even well beyond the region. 

Deteriorating water quality worldwide is slashing the economic potential of heavily polluted areas, according to a new World Bank report, released on Tuesday. It also warns that the “invisible crisis of water quality” is threatening human and environmental well-being.

Under the auspices of Lebanese Ministries of Tourism and Environment, the UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Beirut and Believe in Lebanon NGO have organized a sports and environmental awareness event entitled, “Walk for the Love of Lebanon and Nature” to raise awareness on SDGs 3 and 13: Good Health and well-being and climate action respectively.

The work of women humanitarians makes a “huge difference” to the lives of millions of women, men and children in urgent need, the United Nations chief said in his message for World Humanitarian Day.

Marking the official day’s tenth anniversary on Monday, the UN is honouring the contribution of tens of thousands of women humanitarian aid workers who provide life-saving support to vulnerable people caught up in crises in some of the world’s most dangerous places.

The fate of 130 children on board two rescue ships in the Mediterranean Sea should not be put at risk by political point-scoring, the UN said on Thursday, amid ongoing uncertainty about whether the vessels will be allowed to dock in Italy.

The appeal by UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, to European Governments to prevent EU-bound migrants and refugees from being stranded at sea, follows the signing of a second Italian decree banning humanitarian vessels from entering the country.