UN rights chief calls for action to address Central Mediterranean Sea migrant crisis

UN rights chief calls for action to address Central Mediterranean Sea migrant crisis

Since 2014, over 26,000 people have died or gone missing crossing the Mediterranean Sea.  Most of these deaths or disappearances, over 20,000, occurred in the Central Mediterranean, considered among the deadliest migration routes in the world.  “We are seeing a steep increase in the number of desperate people putting their lives at grave risk,” said…

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Haiti crisis in spotlight, as top human rights body wraps marathon session

Haiti crisis in spotlight, as top human rights body wraps marathon session

An independent expert mandate on Haiti had been created by the Council in 1995 but then discontinued in 2017. The current resolution, calling for “coordinated and targeted international action”, was sponsored by Haiti itself. Country-specific abuses As a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly, the Council examines human rights violations in specific countries as…

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UN’s nuclear agency and food and agriculture wing announce key commitments to tackle global water crisis

UN’s nuclear agency and food and agriculture wing announce key commitments to tackle global water crisis

A worldwide network of water analysis laboratories and a tool to foster collective national level action to improve coordination on water management, were among the commitments announced on Thursday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the margins of the UN 2023 Conference, which has been…

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Flagship UN report extolls win-win water partnerships to avert global crisis

Flagship UN report extolls win-win water partnerships to avert global crisis

Launched ahead of the UN 2023 Water Conference, the new edition of the UN World Water Development Report focuses on twin themes of partnerships and cooperation. Published by the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the report highlights collaborative ways actors can work together to overcome common challenges. “There is an urgent need to…

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Afghanistan still a grave humanitarian crisis, senior aid official says

Afghanistan still a grave humanitarian crisis, senior aid official says

Ramiz Alakbarov, UN Deputy Special Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, updated journalists in New York on developments in a country where 28 million people now depend on aid to survive.  Immense humanitarian needs  “Afghanistan remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in 2023, notwithstanding, of course, the recent devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria,” he…

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INTERVIEW: Turn the tide on water crisis with game-changing commitments, urge co-hosts of UN conference

INTERVIEW: Turn the tide on water crisis with game-changing commitments, urge co-hosts of UN conference

Bringing together Governments, institutions, banks, businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), youth, women, indigenous peoples and many other stakeholders from around the world, the UN 2023 Water Conference (22 to 24 March) will seek to find game-changing solutions to the multifaceted global crisis of ‘too much water’, such as storms and floods; ‘too little water’, such as…

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Ukraine: ‘Calling it a crisis seems so insignificant compared to everyday reality on the ground’: A UN Resident Coordinator blog

Ukraine: ‘Calling it a crisis seems so insignificant compared to everyday reality on the ground’: A UN Resident Coordinator blog

Denise Brown is the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine. Based in the capital Kyiv, she works alongside around 20 UN agencies with some 2,600 staff, the majority Ukrainians. She spoke to UN News about the challenges of supporting communities in a country at war. “Conditions have been pretty difficult in Ukraine over the…

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