UN News Centre

Amid the risks of the situation in Syria “spiraling out of control,” the United Nations chief has appealed to the five permanent members of the Security Council to break the current deadlock on reported use of chemical weapons in the war-torn country.

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday said that it has received reports that an estimated 500 patients at Syrian health facilities have exhibited signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals, after the shelling of a Damascus suburb over the weekend.

While Malians must ensure the successful holding of elections this year, their priority should be the implementation of the 2015 peace agreement, a senior United Nations official said Wednesday.

During an official visit, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday met in Beijing with Xi Jinping, President of China, where he congratulated the President on his recent re-election. 

Following a period of relative calm in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday expressed deep concern over renewed violence in Douma, particularly the alarming allegations that chemical weapons may have been used against civilians.

Late Friday night the United Nations Security Council condemned “in the strongest terms” an attack earlier in the day on a vehicle of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) that killed a Nigerien peacekeeper in Gao.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday marked World Health Day, and the agency’s 70th anniversary, with a strong call for universal health coverage, to ensure that all people can get quality health services, where and when they need them, without suffering financial hardship.

As the world officially remembers the genocidal murder of 800,000 Rwandans in 1994, United Nations leaders warn that ethnic cleansing and mass atrocities continue to blight humanity and call for sharper action to prevent such wholesale violations.   

The United Nations refugee agency is scaling up its assistance to the rapidly growing number of Venezuelans arriving in Brazil, with daily arrivals averaging 800 in recent days amid the worsening political and socio-economic situation in their country.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the Security Council have strongly condemned an attack on UN peacekeepers in Mali and underscored that such attacks may amount to war crimes under international law.

During a heated debate in the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, Russia again rejected allegations levelled by the United Kingdom that Moscow was behind a deadly nerve-agent attack in the English city of Salisbury on 4 March.

Expressing deep concern over the slow pace of the inter-Burundian dialogue and the lack of engagement by the Government, the United Nations Security Council called on all stakeholders, in particular the authorities to commit to the dialogue and reach an agreement ahead of the 2020 elections.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres took note of the announcement by the National Electoral Commission on 4 April of the final results of the presidential run-off election in Sierra Leone, the UN Spokesman said Thursday.

Activists, ambassadors and actors gathered at the United Nations on Thursday to underline their commitment to empowering women and girls with autism, a lifelong neurological condition that begins in childhood and is characterized by some degree of impaired social behaviour, communication and language.

Ahead of the International Day of Sport, world renowned Japanese athletes are joining a United Nations-backed campaign to promote global development goals through the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games their country will host in 2020.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called for an independent and transparent investigation into clashes at the Gaza fence on Friday between Palestinians participating in the ‘Great Return March’ and Israeli security forces which resulted in at least 15 deaths and a large number of injured.

Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the successful conclusion of the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), which officially closed its doors on Friday, and congratulated the West African country’s people and Government for turning the page on crisis and conflict.

After nearly six years as the United Nations political chief, Jeffrey Feltman on Thursday spoke to the press for the last time as the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, spotlighting the importance of multilateralism and the support of UN Member countries for the Organization’s vital work.

Climate change “is still moving much faster than we are,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Thursday, calling for the political will, innovation and financing to cut global emissions by at least 25 per cent over the next two years.

With relief agencies in Bangladesh struggling to assist more than a million vulnerable Rohingya refugees crowded into makeshift camps along the country’s south-east coast, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday appealed for international support to help the cash strapped health sector scale up its response.