His message marked the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement that ended the hostilities and established a demilitarized zone, about 240 kilometres long and 4 kilometres wide, as a buffer. The conflict however never officially ended because the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Republic of Korea (more commonly known as North…
Echoing that warning in New York, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that “short of a mini-Ice Age” in coming days, July 2023 would likely “shatter records across the board”. The UN chief added that the consequences were as clear as they were tragic: “children swept away by monsoon rains, families running from the flames…
A group of officers from all branches of the military made the television announcement late on Wednesday, after members of the president’s own guard detained him inside his offices in the capital Niamey. According to news reports, the attempted coup does not have the backing of the entire military, but the head of the army…
“This deterioration is taking place alongside ongoing unilateral steps that undermine a two-State solution, the absence of a peace process and the continuing economic challenges facing Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority (PA),” said Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, briefing ambassadors. “It is critical that all parties take urgent steps to stop the downward…
Cases of infectious diseases and other illness have been reported among displaced populations who have sought shelter in hard-to-reach locations, where health services are limited. “The scale of the health crisis is enormous. We are working hard to step up our response, delivering critical medical and other emergency health supplies,” said Dr. Nima Saeed Abid,…
Volker Türk said he had been “following developments closely” in Israel, where parliamentarians supporting the hard-line nationalist Government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu passed a bill on Monday which in effect strips the Supreme Court of its power to block Government decisions. Opposition parties boycotted the vote which came after seven months of protests which…
The 54-member body, which is one of the six main pillars of the UN system, elected Paula Narváez Ojeda of Chile to the top seat. It also elected as Vice-Presidents, Akan Rakhmetullin (Kazakhstan), Ivan Šimonović (Croatia) and Robert Rae (Canada), representing the Asia-Pacific, Eastern European, and Western European and other regional groups, respectively. The…
The trend indicates that climate litigation is becoming an integral part of the international push for greater climate action and justice. The Global Climate Litigation Report: 2023 Status Review, is based on a review of cases up to the end of 2022, compiled by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, which partnered…
Koketso Mukubani now works as a Community Linkage Officer for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime-supported South African Network of People who use Drugs. The UNODC staffer spoke to UN News ahead of World Hepatitis Day on 28 July about receiving his diagnosis during a needle exchange outreach programmme, in which people who use drugs…
Melting ice and glaciers and rising sea levels threaten more socio-economic disruption in future, according to the agency’s latest State of the Climate report for the region. The mean temperature over Asia for 2022 was the second or third warmest on record and was about 0.72 degrees Celsius (°C) above the 1991–2020 average, which was…
