UN News Centre

Although Afghanistan is coming to the end of a monumental year, authorities will still require international support as they assume greater responsibility for national security while battling COVID-19 and other challenges, UN Special Representative Deborah Lyons told a virtual meeting of the Security Council on Thursday. 

Throughout a challenging year, Germany has been a reliable, generous and “exemplary” friend to multilateralism, the UN chief told journalists on Thursday, speaking at the national parliament building in Berlin. 

The UN has released $36.6 million for civilians caught up in the conflict that has roiled Ethiopia’s Tigray region since early last month, in order to secure water, sanitation and lifesaving medical supplies.

The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) reached “a significant milestone” on Thursday after registering its 1,000th urgent request for governments to take action to locate victims. 

Amidst a “critical shortage” of resources, hundreds of thousands of refugees in Kenya will lack food unless new funds are swiftly received, the UN’s food relief agency warned on Thursday. 

Equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines will represent an “acid test” for the international community, the President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) told journalists on Wednesday, highlighting the importance of global cooperation and solidarity in beating back the disease. 

The ceasefire that halted Libya’s civil war in October has begun to pay economic dividends that should improve living standards for ordinary Libyans, with a first central bank board meeting in five years and a full resumption of oil production helping to build momentum for political change.

As the end of another year of war looms, “families in Syria remain without respite after almost a decade of conflict”, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council on Wednesday.

China has mounted a "shocking" five-year assault on lawyers who stand up for human rights, putting them in prison and even torturing them, an expert mandated by the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement on Wednesday.

An ailing Bangladeshi cartoonist who has been detained for allegedly spreading fake news about the country’s response to COVID-19, should be released immediately, UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Wednesday. 

New Desert Locust swarms are forming in the Horn of Africa, threatening agricultural livelihoods and the food security of millions of people, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned on Wednesday. 

The head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), has appealed for the international community to remain focused on the country as it continues to make gains on the political and peacebuilding fronts.   

Providing aid to millions of children uprooted by the ongoing crisis in the Tigray region of Ethiopia must be a priority, the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday. 

An international coalition aiming to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic needs $28 billion, a bargain price for stopping the damage done by a virus that has run rampant for the past year, a senior UN World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Tuesday.

Independent UN human rights experts expressed serious concern on Friday over the arrest and charges brought against an indigenous leader, for peacefully protesting a political rally held last July at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, located on treaty lands of the Great Sioux Nation. 

The United Nations has recorded the deaths of 255 people in 66 massacres in Colombia this year, as well as the killing of 120 human rights defenders, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Tuesday.  

An Indian engineer has been recognized by the United Nations for developing innovative technology which not only produces energy, but which helps to keep the air cleaner and reduce climate change.

Insecurity continues to plague Central Africa, the UN envoy for the region told the Security Council on Wednesday, highlighting concern for cross-border violence.  

The number of people forcibly displaced around the world has doubled in the past decade and is estimated to have passed 80 million in mid-2020, as few could go home and more were uprooted, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a report published on Wednesday.

Some political leadership during the pandemic has been “reprehensible”, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday, while holding out hope of a better 2021 as US President-elect Joe Biden takes office.