UN News Centre

The United Nations special envoy on the Middle East has welcomed the Government of Egypt’s decision to temporarily open a critical border crossing for residents of Gaza as a result of the dialogue between Palestinian and Egyptian authorities.

The head of the International Labour Organization today opened a summit meeting devoted to tackling climate change as a unique opportunity for job creation and economic growth, saying that up to 60 million jobs can be created in a greener, low carbon economy if the right policies are adopted.

The world’s parliaments play a “fundamental” role in ensuring human rights protections for the global citizenry and, as a result, must reflect international human rights standards in their legislation, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon affirmed today as he continued on his Central Asian trip with a visit to Kyrgyzstan.

The Mediterranean region is undergoing a “nutrition transition” away from its traditional diet, long revered as a model for healthy living and sustainable food systems and known for preserving the environment and empowering local producers, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.

Around 20 to 30 per cent of children in low income countries complete their schooling and enter the labour market by the age of 15, according to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report prepared for World Day against Child Labour which is marked worldwide tomorrow.

The world has before it a unique opportunity to build a better future for all, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared today in Bonn, Germany, where he urged broad support for a trio of course-correcting United Nations events in 2015 that aim to lock down agreements on protecting the planet, ensuring sustainable development and unleashing the finances and technology to ensure these vital goals are achieved.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed with relief the release of two United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) contractors who were abducted in Zalingei, Central Darfur, Sudan, on 29 January.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the readiness of President Abd Rabou Mansour Hadi of Yemen to send a delegation to participate in United Nations-facilitated Yemeni-Yemeni consultations in Geneva, set to start on 14 June.

Incumbent Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) José Graziano da Silva was today re-elected to a second term in the agency&#39s top post with the highest number of votes ever in the history of the FAO.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new antiretroviral formulation that can be mixed with food, making it easier for children living with HIV to take their life-saving medicines, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AID (UNAIDS) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced today.

Amid surging violence in Aleppo, the United Nations Security Council today expressed “outrage” at all attacks against civilians in Syria, as well as indiscriminate attacks.

An armed group opened fire on a convoy transporting Eritrean asylum-seekers in eastern Sudan and kidnapped 14 of them, including six boys and one girl, the United Nations refugee agency reported today and urged the Sudanese Government to spare no effort in apprehending those responsible and bringing them to account.

The Government of Pakistan must halt the execution of a man convicted of a crime committed as a child and reinstate the country’s moratorium on the death penalty, three United Nations human rights experts have urged.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that in light of the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, resulting in four deaths in the Republic of Korea, it will send a team to Seoul to conduct a joint mission to look into the situation and assess public health response efforts.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has begun distributing the first batches of 700,000 teaching and learning kits to thousands of schools across Liberia, where last year’s Ebola outbreak disrupted the education of over one million children.

Volunteers are playing a vital role in making governments worldwide more accountable and responsive to their citizens, but their potential is seriously under-valued, a new report from the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme finds.

The United Nations refugee agency today announced that it is seeking $13 million to help with the needs of new boat arrivals to countries in Southeast Asia, where thousands of refugees and migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been risking their lives by crossing the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

The tremendous human cost of the Ukraine conflict must be first addressed through mutual respect of the Minsk ceasefire agreement and the fulfilment of its political, economic, social and humanitarian provisions, the top United Nations political official affirmed today as he briefed the Security Council on the situation in the conflict-torn Eastern European country.

Nothing in Piera Zuccherin’s comfortable upbringing foretold her lifelong involvement as a volunteer. But today, she is one of the more than one billion people who volunteer globally.

The arbitrary and unlawful arrest and prosecution of journalists and activists in Iran weakens the protection of human rights of all in Iran, a United Nations expert said today.