United Nations

The top UN envoy for Afghanistan on Monday underscored the need for realistic engagement with the country as humanitarian and human rights crises deepen amid growing international isolation.

A “new black market” for synthetics and drug trafficking through war zones are fuelling instability around the world, the chief of the UN drugs and crime office said on Monday.

Severe water shortages in Gaza have reached critical levels, with only one in 10 people currently able to access safe drinking water, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Monday. 

Gender equality is a critical goal at a time when the demand for rights faces a global backlash, top UN officials told thousands of diplomats, business and civil society delegates gathered at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday for the world’s largest annual conference focused on women’s issues.

Children are feared to be among more than 1,000 people reportedly killed in fierce fighting over the weekend in Syria’s coastal northwest, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said.

Ever since former US First Lady and human rights champion Eleanor Roosevelt inspired the first UN sub-commission on the status of women in the 1940s, thousands of women around the world meet at UN Headquarters in New York every March to take the pulse of the planet and make their voices heard.

Attacks across Ukraine on Friday reportedly left 21 civilians dead and scores injured, making it one of the deadliest days this year, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country said in a statement issued on Saturday night. 

The killing of civilians in coastal areas in northwest Syria must cease immediately, the UN rights chief said on Sunday following a series of coordinated attacks reportedly launched by elements of the former government and other local armed men.

Humanitarian agencies warned on Friday that ongoing Israeli military operations in the northern West Bank are exacerbating an already dire situation for displaced Palestinians.

A UN helicopter attempting to evacuate wounded South Sudanese soldiers in the north of the country was attacked on Friday, killing a crew member and injuring two others.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday that potentially life-saving food and nutrition assistance in Central Sahel and Nigeria will have to end next month, unless emergency funds can be secured.

The fall of the Assad regime has created a historic opportunity to rid Syria of chemical weapons and ensure long-term compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the UN’s top disarmament official told the Security Council on Friday.

Up to one million desperate Syrians living in camps and displacement sites across the country’s northwest intend to return home within the next year – sparking deep concerns of a new humanitarian crisis.

The aid response in Burundi to the crisis in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “is literally buckling”, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, warned on Friday, as it relayed dramatic testimonies from people forced to flee the unchecked advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

A decline in democracy and harmful content spread on social media platforms are helping to drive a backlash against feminism, and the growth of misogynistic and retrograde ideas about the roles of men and women and society.

International Women’s Day, observed on 8 March, is about challenges, backlashes against gender equality and cause for celebrations around the world. UN News app users can follow our coverage here.

The basic rights of women and girls are facing unprecedented growing threats worldwide, from higher levels of discrimination to weaker legal protections -and less funding for programmes and institutions which support and protect women.

Amid deep cuts to global humanitarian funding, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund, CERF, on Thursday allocated $110 million to neglected crises across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Global efforts to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic continue to remain insufficient, with deadly consequences, the UN Human Rights Council heard on Thursday.

After several years of fragile truce, there is a “palpable” fear of a return to all-out war in Yemen, said Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen Hans Grundberg on Thursday, briefing the Security Council.