UN News Centre

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is marking its 75th anniversary this week and its current President has said that she is confident the institution and its highly-regarded rules and procedures “will continue to provide fertile ground for the peaceful settlement of inter-State disputes”.

The teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has donated 100,000 Euros to boost global efforts to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to anyone, anywhere, who needs them, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday. 

Following a series of powerful eruptions from La Soufrière volcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, the UN chief on Monday expressed deep solidarity with the country’s people and Government.  

The Earth’s temperature continues to rise unabated, with 2020 being one of the three warmest years on record, as extreme weather events combine with the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting millions. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on Monday for leaders in Asia to bolster efforts towards finding a peaceful solution to the bloody crisis in Myanmar, sparked by the military coup in February. 

UN independent human rights experts on Monday denounced a government-backed report into racism in the United Kingdom, saying that it further distorted and falsified historical facts, and could even fuel racism and racial discrimination.

The international community has a responsibility to protect the people of Myanmar, under attack from their own military, the UN independent human rights expert on the country argues, in the second part of our in-depth interview, calling also for refuge to be given to those who have fled for their lives to neighbouring countries.

Almost half of women in some 57 countries do not have the power to make choices over their healthcare, contraception, or sex lives, a new United Nations report launched on Wednesday, has revealed.

Recent elections in Kosovo reflected a strong desire for change, the head of the UN mission there, UNMIK, said in his virtual briefing to the Security Council on Tuesday. 

Faced with alarming and extended closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s museums are of “fundamental importance” to reviving cultural life and preserving our shared heritage “in all its diversity”, said the UN cultural agency chief on Tuesday.  

The UN together with Turkey, and Qatar, announced on Tuesday that a high-level conference aimed at ending decades of conflict in Afghanistan will go ahead beginning on 24 April, bringing together representatives of both the Afghan Government and the Taliban.

The rights of refugees and asylum seekers who have fled Burundi for Tanzania must be respected, experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said on Tuesday in an appeal to authorities in both countries. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners have called for countries to suspend sales of live wild mammals in traditional food markets, also known as “wet markets”, in efforts to prevent the emergence of new deadly diseases, such as COVID-19. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA, said on Tuesday that it will work closely with Japan which is preparing to release a million tonnes of contaminated seawater used to cool the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant.

UN-appointed independent rights experts on Tuesday condemned the killing of more than 50 people by “brutal policing methods”, linked to disputed national elections held in January.  

The ongoing repression of protests in Myanmar could spark a “full-blown conflict” on a par with Syria, the United Nations’ top human rights official warned on Tuesday, urging States with influence to take immediate and impactful action to halt the “slaughter” of civilians. 

United Nations independent human rights experts on Monday called for the review of new legal and administrative measures adopted by the Government of Cambodia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which they said appear to be “disproportionate and unwarranted”. 

Last week’s eruption of La Soufrière volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, has left the entire population of the main island without clean water and electricity, the UN Spokesperson said on Monday. 

The growing complexities of the world drug problem are hampering efforts to achieve sustainable development by the end of the decade: a situation which the COVID-19 pandemic has only compounded, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said on Monday. 

A report released on Monday by the body dedicated to freeing the world of chemical weapons, concludes that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that a Syrian military helicopter carried out a chemical attack on the town of Saraqib, in 2018.