UN News Centre

Many global programmes aimed at countering violent extremism have negative impacts on human rights and may even ‘foster radicalization’ rather than preventing it, an independent UN human rights expert warned on Wednesday.

Difficult winter weather conditions, road congestion and military manoeuvres are restricting humanitarian aid delivery to desperate civilians in the Syrian province of Idlib, where a Government operation to weed out extremists has uprooted nearly one million people since December. 

Human rights defenders working in conflict and post-conflict situations need to be given greater recognition, protection and support, an independent UN expert said on Wednesday, in his latest report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. 

The organizing committee of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), a major UN conference scheduled to take place in March, has decided to cut the event down to a one-day meeting, citing current concerns surrounding the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Positive developments in South Sudan have “moved the country further along the road to sustainable peace”, the top UN official there told Security Council members on Wednesday.

The extent of the damage to the global economy caused by novel coronavirus COVID-19 moved further into focus on Wednesday as UN economists announced a likely $50 billion drop in worldwide manufacturing exports in February alone.

Intense clashes in Yemen’s Al Hazam City, this month have caused massive displacement with an estimated 1,800 families forced to flee their homes, according to a flash update from UN humanitarian coordination office, OCHA.  

Twenty-five years after the historic Beijing women’s conference in China – a milestone in advancing equal rights – violence against women and girls is not only common, but widely accepted, a new UN report revealed on Wednesday.

A shortage of protective equipment is endangering health workers worldwide, warned the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday, citing “severe and mounting disruption to the global supply” caused by “rising demand, panic buying, hoarding and misuse”.

Political leaders in Iraq will have to “step up to the plate” and prioritize national interests if the country is to realize a more just and prosperous future, the top UN official there said in the Security Council on Tuesday. 

After more than a year of battling an Ebola virus outbreak that killed more than 2,200 people, UN officials are “cautiously optimistic” that the epidemic in the northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will soon be history as the country gears up to face the emerging threat of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). 

UN agencies together with the Bangladesh authorities have appealed for $877 million to support hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, where conditions are still not conducive for their safe return, UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said on Tuesday.

The United Nations is “determined to stand by” civilians across Syria’s war-torn northwest, as “a grave humanitarian crisis” continues, the UN emergency relief chief said on Tuesday.

Child sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and the use of children in prostitution “are a reality in all parts of the world”, the Human Rights Council heard on Tuesday.

People everywhere need to remember that we depend on Mother Earth to survive, the UN chief said in his message for World Wildlife Day marked on Tuesday, advocating for “a more caring, thoughtful and sustainable relationship with nature”.

Many parts of the world can expect above average temperatures in the coming months even without the presence of an El Niño event to drive warming, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday. 

After serving more than two years as the UN’s Special Representative in charge of finding a way to a lasting peace in war-torn Libya, Ghassan Salamé - who also heads up the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) - handed in his resignation on Monday, citing failing health caused by the immense stress of the job.  

Authorities in Mexico are being reminded by the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, of the need to protect the rights of migrant children who enter the country.

The top UN official in Iraq is calling on the country’s newly designated Prime Minister to urgently deliver on reforms and demands for accountability, amid ongoing protests.

The UN Secretary-General has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in northwest Syria.