The city of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt had been home to well over a million forcibly displaced by nearly eight months of daily bombardment by the Israeli military, in response to Hamas-led terror attack in southern Israel on 7 October. “Thousands of families now shelter in damaged and destroyed facilities in Khan…
The development came amid reports of ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip including Gaza City in the north, Rafah in southern Gaza and central Gaza, where more than dozen people were believed to have died in an apparent missile attack on a refugee camp on Tuesday. Video images reportedly from Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir…
The UN Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report 2024 highlights that latest data from 2022 shows 1.05 billion tonnes of food went to waste. Some 19 per cent of food available to consumers was lost overall at retail, food service, and household levels. That is in addition to around 13 per cent of food lost in the…
Experts and UN leaders exchanged views about the best ways forward, centred on this year’s theme, A Decade of Recognition, Justice, and Development: Implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent. While the decade ends in 2024, much work remains to be done, General Assembly President Dennis Francis told the world body. To galvanize…
That’s one billion people who lived with the disease in 2022, a number that has doubled among adults and quadrupled among five to 19-year-olds since 1990, according to data from the study, published in The Lancet, a renowned United Kingdom-based medical journal. “This new study highlights the importance of preventing and managing obesity from early…
Catriona Laing, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), briefed ambassadors on developments across eight areas, including politics, security, women’s political participation, and humanitarian affairs. She expressed the UN’s “unwavering support towards the state-building agenda” in Somalia, underscoring that the Council’s support is central to the country’s success. “Through our collective support,…
Despite the “horrifying” allegations that 12 UNWRA staff were involved in the Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel on 7 October, “we must not prevent an entire organization from delivering on its mandate to serve people in desperate need”, said the UN-led group of aid agencies, known collectively as the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). Regional collapse “Withdrawing…
Abdoulaye Bathily, UN Special Representative for Libya, told ambassadors on the Security Council that the mood in the country “is ripe for a new political deal, a new dispensation for a brighter future”. “One group of unwilling officials clinging to their seats must not be allowed to fail the people of Libya and put the…
Eleanor Roosevelt played a key role as a member of the US delegation to the United Nations in the two-year-long process that led to the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She famously said that the “real change which must give to people throughout the world their human rights must come about…
With negotiations on curbing global warming and the future of fossil fuels generating the most buzz as the latest UN climate conference heads towards the finish line – COP28 is scheduled to wrap up next Tuesday – young people and children grabbed the spotlight today. In the lead-up to the conference, the UN released a…
