Diplomacy

United Nations could run out of money in a few weeks

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned the international organisation is running a deficit of $230 million and may run out of money by the end of October. The United…

Read More Here

Nobel Prize for Medicine awarded for discovery of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen

Scientists William Kaelin, Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza have won this year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to the availability…

Read More Here

Nobel season opens today with Medicine Prize

The announcement of the Nobel Medicine Prize on Monday opens an unusual 2019 Nobel season in which two literature laureates will be crowned after a scandal postponed last year's award,…

Read More Here

FIFA and UN kick off healthy living campaign, to harness global game’s ‘huge potential’

At a ceremony held in Geneva on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) and football’s world governing body, FIFA, announced that they are teaming up to raise awareness of the…

Read More Here

UN Security Council extends Operation Sophia for another year

The UN Security Council unanimously decided to extend the task of the Operation Sophia, off the Libyan coast, for another year. The resolution adopted under Chapter VII has condemned all…

Read More Here

UN’s Guterres says that a broad climate ‘movement’ has begun, but there’s a long way to go

When it comes to the climate emergency, “we have a long way to go. But the movement has begun,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared in a widely distributed opinion piece, reaffirming his concern over the threats…

Read More Here

UN refugee chief calls on EU to restore search-and-rescue operations.

On the sixth anniversary of a shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa that claimed at least 368 lives, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called on EU States to…

Read More Here

Efforts redoubled to protect banana crops from disease threat

In a renewed effort to help protect banana crops in Latin America and the Caribbean, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched an emergency project to curb major plant losses threatened…

Read More Here

74th U.N. General Debate saw only 16 women deliver national statements

Having concluded the High-level segment of the General Assembly, where heads of State or senior officials from 192 of the UN’s 193 Member States discussed the world’s pressing issues, President…

Read More Here

Winner of UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award 2019 announced

Kyrgyzstan's Azizibek Ashurov, winner of UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award 2019, at the announcing and introducing the winner of UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award 2019, during a press conference, at the European…

Read More Here

U.N. appeals so that countries make ‘digital world’ safer for children

Rising Internet connectivity has the potential to transform children’s lives for the better, but also makes them vulnerable to sexual abuse, online harassment and bullying, recruitment by extremist groups, and…

Read More Here

For sixth consecutive year, migrant, refugee death toll in Mediterranean tops 1,000 victims

More than 1,000 migrants and refugees have died in the Mediterranean Sea this year, the sixth year in a row that this “bleak milestone” has been reached, the United Nations…

Read More Here

U.N. expresses ‘serious concerns’ overdue process in Egypt, following mass-arrests

The UN human rights chief has expressed “serious concerns” over reports of a lack of due process, after authorities in Egypt made widespread arrests during protests last week. In a…

Read More Here

At UN, Modi says India gave world ‘Buddha, not war’

In his address to the UN General Assembly’s general debate on Friday, the Prime Minister of India outlined how the world’s largest democracy has embodied the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)…

Read More Here

Pakistan’s Khan warns of all-out conflict amid rising tensions over Kashmir

In a fiery address on Friday to the UN General Assembly, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, warned of an all-out conflict with neighbouring India, saying that there will be a…

Read More Here

At UN Assembly, China says ‘it will not ever be cowered by threats’

In his address to the UN General Assembly on Friday, the State Councillor and Foreign Minister of China declared that his country will not ever be cowered by threats or…

Read More Here

Unable to accept its decline, West subverts international law to suit its needs, Russia’s Lavrov tells UN

While crediting the United Nations for preventing ‘World War III’, the Foreign Minister of Russia lamented to the General Assembly on Friday that the number of conflicts on the planet…

Read More Here

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat addresses the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly

Here under is the speech by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly: We can describe today's world in many ways:…

Read More Here

Critical WHO supplies arrive in Sudan to manage cholera outbreak

A shipment of 36 tons of cholera treatment medicines and supplies have arrived in Khartoum and are being prepared for distribution as part of the World Health Organization’s response activities…

Read More Here

‘Childhood is changing, and so must we’, UNICEF declares, as world marks historic convention

Since its adoption 30 years ago, the milestone Convention of the Rights of the Child and its near universal membership has created “unprecedented international solidarity around children’s rights,'' the Secretary-General…

Read More Here

‘Moral imperative’ to stop threat to media freedom

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, UK Minister for Human Rights, has said that the current crackdown on journalists across the world is a deep-rooted problem, and a rebuke to the rule…

Read More Here

World leaders adopt landmark declaration on universal health coverage

This week, world leaders adopted a United Nations Political Declaration on universal health coverage, the most comprehensive set of health commitments ever adopted at this level. “This declaration represents…

Read More Here

At UN, Iran proposes ‘coalition for hope’ to pull Gulf region from ‘edge of collapse’

The Gulf region is “on the edge of collapse”, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told world leaders on Wednesday at the annual high-level segment of the United Nations General Assembly, saying…

Read More Here

International postal rates overhauled after emergency talks in Geneva

The UN's postal agency has voted unanimously to reform its fees, potentially averting a US withdrawal. The compromise deal was agreed after two days of emergency talks by the Universal…

Read More Here

Emergency talks to save Universal Postal Union

Emergency talks are being held at the UN this week over threats from the US to withdraw from a 145-year-old postal treaty. The agreement sets rates for sending packages between…

Read More Here

US President Trump says countries have ‘absolute right’ to protect their borders

The path to peace and a better world “begins at home,” United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, urging countries to look after their own interests on issues like…

Read More Here

IOM, UNICEF Strengthen Partnership to Respond to Needs of Migrant Children

Children as young as 10 are among Ethiopians leaving for better prospects outside the country, many with their parents’ consent. Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country after Nigeria, accounts…

Read More Here

Actions not words: what was promised at the UN’s landmark climate summit?

UN Secretary-General warned leaders not to come to his landmark Climate Action Summit with beautiful speeches, but to present concrete plans for cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and strategies for…

Read More Here

UN Human Rights Council informed that China is killing religious and ethnic minorities and harvesting their organs

The Chinese government is harvesting and selling organs from persecuted religious and ethnic minorities on an industrial scale, the UN Human Rights Council has been told. Speaking at the council’s headquarters in Geneva…

Read More Here

High-level EU delegation in New York for the 74th United Nations General Assembly

A high-level European Union delegation is in New York for the 74th United Nations General Assembly this week. For the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, the EU will…

Read More Here

Trump among the nominees for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Prize Committee is just weeks away from announcing its 2019 recipient, months after it surfaced that multiple people nominated President Trump for the esteemed prize. This year, 301…

Read More Here

Another warning on climate change as UN Climate Action Summit opens in NY

Ahead of Monday's United Nations Climate Action Summit, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that signs and impacts of global heating are speeding up. The data, compiled by the World…

Read More Here

WHO laments Tanzania not sharing information on Ebola

Tanzania is refusing to provide detailed information on suspected Ebola cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, a rare public rebuke as the region struggles to contain an outbreak already…

Read More Here

U.N. climate footprint larger than Malta’s

More than 1,000 United Nations employees have called for the global body to reduce its carbon footprint, including through curbs on their own diplomatic perks like business-class flights and travel…

Read More Here

Two draft resolutions, zero consensus on ceasefire in Syria’s Idlib at UN Security Council

The UN Security Council on Thursday failed to reach consensus on either of two competing resolutions on a cessation of hostilities in Idlib, Syria: the last province in the war-torn nation…

Read More Here

Number of migrants now growing faster than world population, new UN figures show

The growing number of international migrants has now reached 272 million, outpacing the growth rate of the world’s population, according to new data from the UN’s Department of Economic and…

Read More Here

UK banks sign up to U.N.-backed responsible banking code

Britain’s banks will implement U.N.-backed “responsible banking” principles being launched next week that will influence lending and company behaviour, British banking trade body UK Finance said. The principles seek to…

Read More Here

More women and children are surviving today than ever before – UN report

More women and their children are surviving today than ever before, according to new child and maternal mortality estimates released today by United Nations groups led by UNICEF and the…

Read More Here

UN summits to urge ‘ambition and action’ on climate change, sustainable development: Guterres

There are five key United Nations summits taking place next week to spur action on the climate crisis and other global concerns, which will showcase the UN as a “driver…

Read More Here

Monsoon destroys Rohingya shelters, sparking record UN emergency food agency response in Bangladesh

Unusually heavy monsoon rains have inundated shelters in refugee camps in southern Bangladesh creating “havoc”, the World Food Programme (WFP) said, as it launched its biggest emergency response of the…

Read More Here

Around 12 million children may never see a classroom, UNESCO data reveals

New data published by the United Nations cultural agency, reveals that without taking urgent measures, around 12 million young children will never set foot inside a school, with girls facing…

Read More Here

Kenya joins Ghana and Malawi to roll out landmark malaria vaccine in pilot introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO) congratulated the Government of Kenya for launching the world’s first malaria vaccine today in Homa Bay County, western Kenya. The malaria vaccine pilot programme is…

Read More Here

UN General Assembly celebrates 20 years of promoting a culture of peace

Just as the greatest global challenges cannot be solved by a single country, peace cannot be pursued in isolation, outgoing UN General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa said on Friday.…

Read More Here

Latest IOM figures show over 7,400 Deaths on Migration Routes Across Africa in Last Five Years

African migrants are perishing at a rate of about 25 persons per week – or about 1,300 annually – on the African continent, even before embarking on perilous sea journeys…

Read More Here

V4 and Western Balkan partners meeting in Prague

Leaders of the Visegrad Group (V4) and Western Balkan partners pose for photographers during the summit on Thursday in Prague, Czech Republic. (Back row, L-R) North Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran…

Read More Here

European Commission and World Health Organization join forces to promote the benefits of vaccines

Today, the European Commission and the World Health Organization (WHO) are co-hosting the world's first Global Vaccination Summit in Brussels. The aim is to accelerate global action to stop the…

Read More Here

UN report on Syria conflict highlights inhumane detention of women and children

As the people of north-west Syria face intensifying violence, tens of thousands of women and children continue to be kept in “inhumane conditions” in a remote camp on the other…

Read More Here

WHO spotlights stalled effort to close health divide across Europe in new report

Progress on equal access to a healthy life for all, is at a standstill across Europe, a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed, despite their being a clear path to…

Read More Here

WHO sends life-saving medical supplies to Libya

WHO is delivering urgently-needed medicines and medical supplies to more than 40 primary health care centers and referral hospitals across Libya. The supplies, which are enough to treat 220 000…

Read More Here

Head of UN body combating desertification appeals to restore land to save the planet, boost the economy

Investing in land restoration could not only help keep our planet healthy, but also be the starting point for resolving some of the biggest issues of our time, the head of the…

Read More Here

UN gears up emergency food aid for the Bahamas

With initial assessments indicating that some 76,000 people in the parts of the Bahamas worst-affected by Hurricane Dorian need urgent support, the World Food Programme (WFP) is arranging for eight…

Read More Here

UN health agency welcomes Facebook pledge to stop vaccine misinformation from going viral

The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed Facebook’s pledge to ensure users can separate fact from fiction when it comes to vaccines, across its platforms from Facebook Search, to Groups, Pages and forums. Following…

Read More Here

Statement by WHO Director-General on Facebook and Instagram and Vaccine Misinformation

The World Health Organization welcomes the commitment by Facebook to ensure that users find facts about vaccines across Instagram, Facebook Search, Groups, Pages and forums where people seek out…

Read More Here

North Korea tells UN to cut international aid staff

North Korea has told the United Nations to cut the number of international staff it deploys in the country because the world body’s programs have failed “due to the politicization…

Read More Here

A third of young people polled by UN, report being a victim of online bullying

Around one-in-three young people across 30 countries say they have been bullied online, while one-in-five report that they have skipped school because of it. Those are some of the key…

Read More Here

UN in renewed bid to restart Cyprus peace talks

United Nations special envoy Jane Holl Lute is in Cyprus, where she is holding separate meetings with the leaders of the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish-occupied north aimed at…

Read More Here

Russia assumes presidency in UN Security Council

Russia will hold the monthly presidency of the UN Security Council in September, which this year coincides with the opening of the 74th session of the General Assembly on September…

Read More Here