The aim is to reinvigorate international engagement around key issues, such as human rights, in particular women’s and girls’ rights, inclusive governance, countering terrorism and drug trafficking. “The meeting is intended to achieve a common understanding within the international community on how to engage with the Taliban on these issues,” the UN said in a…
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called the Public Order Bill “deeply troubling legislation”, after it completed its passage through parliament on Wednesday. “It is especially worrying that the law expands the powers of the police to stop and search individuals, including without suspicion; defines some of the new criminal offences in a…
Brazil has renewed diplomatic ties with China, its largest trading partner. Brazilian President Lula de Silva visited China along with his cabinet delegation. Today, the two countries agreed to cooperate in the fields of investment, technology and sustainable development. The Brazilian President signed several agreements with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. On this occasion, Chinese…
The 2016 peace deal between the authorities and the FARC-EP militia group ended five decades of conflict, and the report is the first to cover verification of its chapters on comprehensive rural reform and ethnic issues, in line with a Security Council resolution adopted in January. The report spans the period from late December to…
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…
“In a number of countries, key sectors are facing labour shortages, because people are increasingly reluctant to engage in work which is not properly, adequately, fairly valued by society and rewarded in terms of better pay and improved working conditions,” said Manuela Tomei, Assistant Director-General for Governance, Rights and Dialogue at the International Labour Organization (ILO). According to a new…
On the heels of recent news reports about Canada and the United States shooting down several flying objects, including an alleged Chinese ‘spy balloon’, inside their borders, WMO points out that weather balloons provide just a tiny fraction of the millions of observations gathered worldwide daily. On Thursday, US President Joe Biden made public remarks…
In Belarus, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and a local communications company launched the #InternetWithoutBullying initiative to raise awareness on safe online behaviours among children and young people and equip them with the right tools to identify, cope with and respond to bullying. UNICEF also provides guidelines for teenagers on how everyone can make the…
Right to left: French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonnade, Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, file photo The United Arab Emirates (UAE), France and India have agreed to expand cooperation in various fields. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonnade and Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar…
Dmitry Pozhidaev Many UN agencies have a very specific thematic focus: they are dealing with women, children, health care, or other important issues. However, the UNCDF can get engaged in a variety of various thematic areas, provided that there is a financial solution that can be used to address a specific challenge, anything from education…
