UN News Centre

UN-appointed independent human rights experts called on Thursday for Singapore to immediately impose a moratorium on the death penalty, saying the continued use of capital punishment for drug-related crimes runs contrary to international law.

The top UN official in the Middle East has urged Israel to halt all settlement activity following the latest approval given to new construction in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, announced on Thursday. 

The United Nations continues to explore all options to reach civilians affected by Russia’s brutal assault on Ukraine, deputy humanitarian affairs chief Joyce Msuya said in an update to the Security Council on Thursday.

On the very first International Day of Plant Health, marked on Thursday, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called for more investment in innovation to boost food security, especially for the billions worldwide living close to the bread line.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that it is committed to helping the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), respond to COVID-19, after its first declared infection was reported in the media there.

The UN Human Rights Council met in special session on Thursday in Geneva, prompted by increasing concern over atrocities committed against civilians, linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

Amidst rising tensions, a months-long political stalemate and increasing speculation about yet another conflict in Europe, the international community must stand firm behind a peaceful, unified Bosnia and Herzegovina, the country’s UN envoy told the Security Council on Wednesday.

Donors on Wednesday pledged $33 million towards a UN-coordinated plan to prevent an ageing oil tanker moored off the west Coast of Yemen from sparking a potential ecological and humanitarian disaster. 

The world is facing “multiple and interlinked global crises,” the UN chief told journalists in Austria on Wednesday during a joint press conference with Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.

Senior officials from across the United Nations are calling for an investigation into the killing on Wednesday of well-known Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh. 

In full costume and make-up, drag queen Madame Bonjour JohnJ, is teaching children that it’s ok to be different, during storytelling sessions in their native Tokyo.

Secretary-General António Guterres has announced that the UN will launch an appeal to fund its humanitarian operations in Ukraine, amid reports on Saturday of casualties and people fleeing their homes to seek safety as Russian military operations in the country intensify.

Even before the recent events that “convulsed the world” last week, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator reminded that an eight-year-long conflict in Eastern Ukraine had already level three million people in need of humanitarian assistance “on both sides of the contact line”.

A UN project, in association with one of India’s leading clean energy companies, is training women salt farmers in the Indian state of Gujarat to work in the solar power industry, and build a better life.

Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Friday that would have demanded that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops, a move several Council members said was deplorable, but inevitable.

Perpetrators responsible for recent escalating violence in Unity state, South Sudan, must be held accountable, the UN Mission in the country, UNMISS, said in a statement on Friday. 

Sri Lanka has taken steps towards legal, institutional and security sector reforms, but more action is still needed, according to a report issued on Friday by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, which examines developments over the past year. 

As the Syrian war has driven poverty and hunger to levels higher than at any previous point, UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen told the Security Council on Friday that he would continue to focus on engaging the parties to bring an end to the protracted conflict. 

The President of the UN General Assembly appealed on Friday for greater global solidarity to vaccinate the entire world against COVID-19.  

The impact of extreme weather on Madagascar is an example of the “runaway humanitarian needs” the world will face, unless it takes action to tackle the climate crisis, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.