UN News Centre

During his trip to Vienna, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today visited a restaurant where refugees work together with locals to serve Austrian-Arab fusion cuisine, using this opportunity to showcase the UN system-wide initiative to counter xenophobia launched in September.

The Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, said today that the UN is “seriously concerned” by the developing situation in Northern Rakhine state and has called on the security forces to act in accordance with the “rule of law and accepted international norms,” and to exercise caution in avoiding disproportionate responses that could cause violence to civilians.

The United Nations refugee agency has updated its ‘toolkit’ for protecting vulnerable people on the move, in response to a sharp increase in global flows of both refugees and migrants in the decade since it was published.

Discussions on how to assist civilians caught in the crossfire inside war-ravaged Aleppo continue to be difficult “because the Member States that are supposed to help us get access [are] poles apart on what is happening in Syria,” United Nations Senior Adviser Jan Egeland said today in Geneva.

Highlighting the challenges confronting the protection of millions of children, many of whom are separated from their families as they flee wars and persecution, the top United Nations refugee official today called for prompt action to stave off the risk of losing an entire generation.

With millions of Colombian farmers affected by the violent conflict that plagued the Latin American country for more than 50 years, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will support a comprehensive rural reform strategy, aimed at strengthening food security and peace, including measures which address issues of land access and restitution.

A new United Nations report out today has confirmed that Ukrainians living close to the “contact line” – the area between Government-controlled and armed group-controlled territory in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – not only suffer due to fighting near their homes but also face the threat of landmines and unexploded ordinance as well as have to contend with severe restrictions on movement.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has joined other United Nations and international agencies in a new agreement that will lead to more environmentally and socially sustainable procurement of health commodities.

This year, the world suffered many weather-related shocks and civil conflicts which pressured food security for many countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said today in a new report, which said that while the global agricultural situation is posited to improve in 2017, some 39 countries currently need food assistance.

Expressing deep concern over the serious political polarization resulting in a deterioration of the security, economic and humanitarian situation in Libya, the Security Council today reiterated its support for the United Nations envoy for Libya, who leads efforts in facilitating implementation of the political agreement signed about a year ago.

Despite a peaceful and successful transition in the Central African Republic (CAR) earlier in 2016, the recent outbreak of violence there had demonstrated the extremely fragile situation in the country, the Secretary-General&#39s Acting Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), told the Security Council today.

Kicking off what is likely to be his final overseas trip before leaving office at the end of the month, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Austria today, meeting the President-elect, foreign ministry officials, and press in Vienna.

In a message on the International Civil Aviation Day, celebrated annually on 7 December, the head of the United Nations civil aviation agency underlined the socio-economic importance and contribution of air travel and aviation.

The UN Biodiversity Conference today opened in Cancun, Mexico, with a call to governments and businesses to integrate biodiversity into their practices if countries are to halt further environmental degradation and ensure the well-being and prosperity of future generations.

Briefing the Security Council on the situation in Liberia, the United Nations peacekeeping chief today underlined that the country remained stable and that since the security transition in June this year, there had been no incident serious enough to warrant an armed response from the UN mission in the country, known as UNMIL.

As the security situation has stabilized in villages near war-torn Mosul, where Iraqi military operations are under way to wrest the city from terrorists, the United Nations refugee agency and its partners are racing against time to distributing winter kits to those who remained or returned home and those newly-displaced as plunging temperatures hit the area.

Of the world’s 7.4 billion people, some 15 per cent – or one billion – are said to have some form of disability.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today highlighted the challenges people with disabilities face despite progress made since the adoption of a global treaty to promote their rights a decade ago.

Faced with record displacement due to conflict, the United Nations has moved to reinforce the global refugee protection regime by issuing new guidelines on dealing with people fleeing their country because of war, who are not recognized as refugees by some States.

Last month, Iraq suffered thousands of deaths and injuries – including by a significant number of civilians – in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict, according to recently released figures by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).