A rising trend towards government-enforced internet shutdowns – with at least 300 incidents in more than 54 countries over the last two years – is prompting renewed warnings from the UN about the threat these digital blackouts pose to freedom of expression, access to information and human rights.
United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed urged countries to protect the UN Charter in a powerful speech to the Danish Parliament on Thursday, urging countries to “stand up for a rules-based order” – or pay the price.
A tense standoff between the Syrian Government and Kurdish-led forces in the country’s northeast risks igniting wider instability just as Syria struggles to emerge from years of conflict and authoritarian rule, senior UN officials told the Security Council on Thursday.
Russian forces launched a fresh wave of strikes across Ukraine this week which have left hundreds of thousands of families without electricity and heating amid freezing temperatures.
The world spends billions to protect nature, but trillions are being invested in business activities that harm the environment.
As President Trump launched the international Board of Peace plan for Gaza on Thursday, top independent rights experts tasked by the UN Human Rights Council with investigating grave abuses linked to the Hamas-Israel war pledged to continue their work seeking justice and accountability for all.
Haiti’s deepening crisis has reached a critical phase, senior UN officials warned the Security Council on Wednesday, as powerful gangs continue to expand their control across the country.
Another child in the Gaza Strip has died from hypothermia as winter weather continues to whip the enclave, the UN said on Wednesday, citing information from the health authorities.
From Davos, the President of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday warned that the world has entered a “make‑or‑break” moment for multilateralism, saying the rules‑based order can survive only if states speak the truth and act when it’s hard. She called for a cross‑regional alliance to push back against growing lawlessness, disinformation, and power‑based politics.
Haiti is entering 2026 facing one of the most complex crises in its recent history. On Wednesday, the Caribbean island nation will be high on the international agenda as the UN Security Council holds its first meeting of the year to update ambassadors.
The land flattens on the approach to Birao, a cut-off town ringed by savannah in the far north of the Central African Republic, where roads dissolve into dust and motorcycles vastly outnumber cars. Less than two hours’ drive from the Sudanese border, this is the edge of a fractured country still piecing itself back together, while absorbing the shockwaves of a neighbouring conflict.
The world has moved beyond a water crisis and into a state of global water bankruptcy, says a new flagship report released on Tuesday by UN researchers.
The United Nations continues to monitor developments in northeast Syria following clashes between government troops and the Kurdish-led SDF militia during which scores of detained ISIL militants reportedly escaped from prison.
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have cut heat, electricity and water to hundreds of thousands of civilians in freezing winter conditions, prompting the UN human rights chief to denounce the strikes as “cruel” and a clear violation of international law.
In 2011, a trafficker in Chile was convicted for recruiting economically vulnerable Peruvian citizens and arranging for them to be brought into the country – destined to become victims of sexual exploitation.
Catastrophic flooding across Mozambique is devastating lives and livelihoods, sharply increasing the risk of disease outbreaks and malnutrition, while also forcing dangerous wildlife – including crocodiles – into flooded urban areas, the UN warned on Tuesday.
The reported demolition underway early Tuesday of the headquarters of UN agency UNRWA by Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem - reportedly “under the watch of lawmakers and a member of the Government” - has prompted swift condemnation from the global body.
As global leaders gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, UN agencies are warning that rising hunger and displacement are not only humanitarian emergencies but growing threats to global economic stability.
Despite a downward trend in the use of the death penalty globally, 2025 saw an ‘alarming’ increase in the number of executions in a small number of retentionist countries, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) warned on Monday.
Atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region are spreading from town to town in an organized campaign of violence that includes mass executions, rape and ethnic targeting, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the UN Security Council on Monday.
