Right now, the UN observes 218 international days (and counting)! The tradition started long before the UN’s inception in 1945, but it didn’t take long for the Organization and its growing membership to embrace designated days as a powerful advocacy tool. Check out this classic video from 2017 on the occasion of the International Day of Happiness,…
According to the UN human rights office, OHCHR, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, held separate phone calls on Tuesday with Lt-General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the rival Rapid Support Forces. Diplomatic approach Mr. Türk urged them both to act immediately…
The crisis began when Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal Company in July 1956, and France and the United Kingdom protested. By October of that year, Israeli forces launched an attack on Egypt and occupied Sinai, with British and French troops landing soon after in the Suez Canal Zone. The UN was unable to resolve the…
In a tradition that started when he served as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to shine a light on Muslim communities in distress, Mr. Guterres is slated to arrive in Cairo on Saturday, where he will reiterate his urgent calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and the cessation of violence, notably in Gaza and Sudan….
“As the war in Gaza encroaches further into Rafah, I am extremely concerned about the safety and well-being of families which have endured the unthinkable in search of safety,” Mr. Griffiths said on X, formerly Twitter. The veteran humanitarian official’s comments came as media reports indicated that Israeli airstrikes overnight into Thursday in Rafah left…
Addressing the General Assembly with a list of priority areas for action, António Guterres underscored that the UN was founded on the pursuit of peace. “Peace is our raison d’être. Yet, as I scan the landscape of today’s world, the one thing missing most dramatically is peace,” he said. From the conflict in Gaza to the…
Briefing the Security Council, Political and Peacebuilding Affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told ambassadors: “We are no closer to the end of this illegal and unjustified war”. “With each passing day, the damage the conflict has done – and is doing – to Ukraine, but also to global peace and security and international law, becomes increasingly…
Agreement in Brussels on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum reportedly followed three years of intense negotiations, and it should start taking effect in 2024. The deal will attempt to distribute migrants more evenly across the bloc, providing enhanced support and coordination for processing claims away from frontier states such as Italy and Greece,…
Reacting to the adoption of the outcome document, UN chief Antonio Guterres said mention of the world’s leading contributor to climate change comes after many years in which the discussion of this issue was blocked. The Secretary-General stressed that the era of fossil fuels must end with justice and equity. “To those who opposed a…
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has identified 10 priority areas – such as livestock, soil and water, crops, diets and fisheries – where following the roadmap can help push the world closer to achieving ‘Zero Hunger’, the second of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) The aim: to transform agrifood systems – which…
