UN News Centre

With only 60 per cent of the pre-conflict water supply capacities still functioning in Ukraine, some 1.3 million people are struggling to cope with a “serious water crisis” because of damaged or destroyed water lines, forcing many families to travel with buckets to working wells in neighbouring villages, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today.

Offering deep condolences to the victims’ families and a speedy recovery for those injured in the latest attack in Afghanistan targeting civilians, the top United Nations official in the country, Nicholas Haysom, condemned the attack, which targeted people gathered for Iftar at the Grand Mosque in Pul-e-Khomri, in the northern Baghlan province.

With an expected humanitarian pause failing to take hold in crisis-torn Yemen over the past weekend, the United Nations said today that four out of five people in the country rely on some type of assistance, and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that it has been able to deliver urgently needed supplies to the port city of Aden.

People suffering from mental health disorders are facing unequal access to specialized care, the United Nations health agency announced today as it urged international governments to boost financing for mental health services around the world.

The United Nations rights office today welcomed the recent release of a Palestinian prisoner who had been on a hunger strike protesting his continuing administrative detention by the Israeli authorities since 8 July 2014.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed deep concern over attacks and incitement to violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Turkey and has called on the authorities to take active measures to combat homophobic and transphobic violence and discrimination, a UN spokesperson said today.

In Addis Ababa, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today underscored the crucial financing role of the business sector in ensuring the necessary resources for people-centred sustainable development.

The world has exceeded the targets contained in the Millennium Development Goals to halt and reverse the spread of HIV and is on track to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, according to a report released today in Addis Ababa by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Negotiations on a comprehensive financing framework for sustainable development resumed today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where Member States have gathered for a United Nations conference aimed at securing the resources necessary for the well-being of all people and the health of the planet.

Decrying Burundi’s “blatant failures” to respect freedom of expression and assembly and the fact that open issues from the past are ensnaring the upcoming elections process, a United Nations rights expert today issued a strong call for greater global efforts to ensure independent monitoring and reporting and for all Burundian parties to safeguard fair elections and keep protests peaceful.

The international community must ensure the promise of universal human rights no longer rings hollow to Palestinian “living under the 48-year-long Israeli occupation,” today said a UN independent expert.

The United Nations human rights chief has voiced concern over a judgement issued by the Maldives Supreme Court in which the country’s human rights processes appear to be severely challenged.

The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has welcomed the announcement made last night by the armed groups of the so-called “Platform” to withdraw from the town of Menaka, in accordance with the arrangements for a cessation of hostilities.

In the wake of the &#39appalling&#39 attack that left nine African Americans dead at church in South Carolina, a group of UN human rights experts today called for prompt action by authorities in the United States to investigate the hate crimes and urged measures to prevent gun violence affecting the security of African-Americans, their communities and wider society as well.

In an effort to boost the global fight against the horrors faced by women and girls in zones of conflict worldwide, the United Nations General Assembly today approved by consensus a new resolution to commemorate 19 June as the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Two United Nations agencies today expressed strong concerns over Hungary’s plans to build a four-metre high fence along its border with Serbia, with the UN refugee agency saying the wall will “be a further obstacle for people who have fled from war zones like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq and who desperately need safety and protection.”

Thailand has confirmed its first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, in a male traveller from Oman, and the World Health Organization (WHO) today is urging countries in Southeast Asia to step up vigilance and review preparedness to respond to the disease.

With only 13 per cent of a United Nations emergency agricultural appeal met by donors, Nepal’s farmers trying to recover from this year’s twin earthquakes will not be able to plant rice seeds before the start of the monsoon rains expected in the coming days and replenish livestock, fertilizers, and tools lost in the disaster, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The United Nations relief arm has called for over one billion dollars in funding in order to lift Yemen from a devastating crisis that has plunged the country into severe food insecurity and left it on the brink of an all-out humanitarian disaster, the Organization today confirmed, as national stakeholders from the Gulf state wrapped up UN-backed political consultations in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Dominican Republic must ensure that people whose citizenship was thrown into question by a 2013 ruling of the Constitutional Court will not be deported, the UN refugee agency said today.