What's New

Despite serious military setbacks, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) may still have around 20,000 fighters and is continuing its dangerous transformation into a covert global network, while focusing on the activities of its regional offshoots, the United Nations Security Council was told.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was remembered on Wednesday as the embodiment of the global Organization that works to improve the lives of men and women worldwide.

During a wreath-laying ceremony in New York, the current UN chief António Guterres led staff members in paying respects to the mild-mannered diplomat from Ghana who rose through the UN system to become its seventh leader in January 1997, serving two consecutive five-year terms.

Recognizing the impact of terrorism on the lives of ordinary people worldwide is the focus of the first observance of an international day that honours victims and survivors.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated, their courage in the face of adversity is a lesson to us all.

“Supporting victims and their families is a moral imperative, based on promoting, protecting and respecting their human rights,” the UN chief said.

For four years, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has been taking governments across the world to task, publicly naming and shaming States which have fallen short of their human rights obligations.

His appointment by the Secretary-General back in 2014 was a landmark: he became the first Asian, Muslim and Arab ever to hold the post.

Attacks against children caught in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen must stop, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, appealed on Monday.

In a tightly worded statement, UNICEF pointed out that since Sunday, 28 children were reported killed in Idlib and western Aleppo, located in northern Syria.

The death toll included an entire family of seven.

The UN Strategic Framework (UNSF) Report of 2017 is now out.

This annual joint UN report summarises progress made in the first year of implementation of the United Nations Strategic Framework for Lebanon 2017–2020 (UNSF), which was endorsed and signed by the Government of Lebanon on the 4th of October 2016. The report contains a wide range of results achieved by 20 UN entities, as well as a number of identified development trends and challenges.
 

She has twice been President of Chile, and on Wednesday, ground-breaking politician and women’s rights champion, Michelle Bachelet was nominated by the United Nations chief António Guterres for the key post of High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UN Statistics Division and the World Bank launched  a new guide on Wednesday to help nations worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries, better manage data that contains geographical information – known officially as geospatial data.

Delivering life-saving assistance to millions of women, children and men in Syria, local aid workers need to be safer and better protected, said the top United Nations humanitarian official in the country on Monday.

Ahead of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on Monday, the UN human rights expert on the issue has emphasized that both victims and potential victims’ rights must be upheld – especially women and children – and appealed for all States to prevent and combat the global scourge.