Fresh fears of accelerating damage to the planet’s ice sheets and sea level rise have been fuelled by confirmation from the UN’s weather agency that the Antarctic likely saw a new temperature record of more than 18C on Thursday.
On day four of UN-led talks to transform an uncertain truce in Libya into a permanent ceasefire, veteran negotiator Ghassan Salamé on Thursday welcomed the “progress” that had been made so far, before urging an end to any “provocative” military action that might dash the chance of a successful outcome.
The United Nations has sounded the alarm over a severe humanitarian crisis unfolding in Syria's northwest, where Syrian government troops and Turkish forces are fighting in Syria's north-western province of Idlib, the last area in the country under opposition control. More than 520,000 people fled their homes, most of them women and children, due to the continued fighting in the last two months.
The UN negotiator leading talks in Geneva to secure an end to fighting in Libya said on Tuesday that high-ranking officials from both sides of the conflict have agreed to begin work on a “permanent and lasting” ceasefire to replace an uncertain truce.
After the release of the US Middle East peace plan earlier this week, a lot of Palestinians are “in a state of shock at this point”, said Christian Saunders, acting Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) today at the United Nations in Geneva.
Amid the significant increase in numbers of infections of the novel coronavirus and additional countries reporting confirmed cases globally, the Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization has declared last night a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
The WHO has upped the global risk assessment that the novel coronavirus poses from moderate to high risk but have not yet declared the outbreak an international public health emergency.
The Horn of Africa has been hit by the worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 years, posing a threat to food security to the population in East Africa that is already experiencing a high degree of food insecurity, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today (Friday). In order to scale up the response to the devastating desert locust outbreak in East Africa, OCHA’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) released $10 million.
As Geneva prepares to host its first ever high-level panel on Internal Displacement, the co-chair of the panel called the issue “a major humanitarian and political crisis of our times.”
Amid rising cases of new infections of the respiratory illness novel coronavirus in China and three other countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) today informed that their emergency committee will convene tomorrow to advise if the current situation in China constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.
Children in Syria have been “robbed of their childhood” and forced to “endure numerous violations” in more than eights years of conflict, according to the latest report by the independent body set up by the UN’s Human Rights Council to investigate violations during the civil war in Syria.
Nearly 1,000 Migrants Returned to Libya in the First Two Weeks of 2020: IOM. Nearly 1,000 migrants, including more than two hundred women and children, have been returned to Libyan shores since the beginning of the year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said today. Most have disembarked in Tripoli, as armed clashes are reported to continue in the capital, and all have been taken to detention centres, according to IOM spokesperson Safa Msehli.
The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed the presence of new coronavirus in China, a respiratory illness with 41 confirmed cases and one death to date, as investigations continue and health agencies prepare for a possible outbreak.
El Salvador’s new legislation to help people internally displaced by violence will help tens of thousands of people who have been displaced by gang violence and organized crime, the UN Refugee Agency said today.
More bushfires may be in store for Australia as its summer season progresses and climate change plays its role, says WMO
At least 300,000 civilians have fled their homes in northwest Syria amid intense air and ground bombardment, with winter conditions worsening an escalating humanitarian crisis, the United Nations said today.
In a meeting at the Holy See on Friday, the UN Secretary-General paid tribute to Pope Francis for his “clear moral voice” in defence of “the most vulnerable, including refugees and migrants, confronting poverty and inequalities, appealing for disarmament, building bridges between communities and, of course, highlighting the climate emergency”.
Lesotho: tens of thousands ‘one step away from famine’ as drought impacts harvests
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNHCR High Commissioner Grandi on the Global Refugee Forum
At a three-day global forum aimed at transforming the way the world responds to refugee situations, UN Secretary General António Guterres took the stage in Geneva, Switzerland, today to underscore the importance of protecting refugees, respecting their rights, and addressing the causes of human displacement.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has seen an increase in the number of reported cases of the deadly haemorrhagic virus Ebola linked to ongoing violence by armed groups targeting remote communities, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. According to the UN agency’s latest outbreak update, 27 new cases were identified last week in the east of the country – three times the average number of infections in the past 21 days.
Efforts to help the small Pacific island of Samoa overcome a deadly measles outbreak have received a $2.6 million boost from the UN’s emergency fund, CERF. The development – announced in New York by the organisation’s emergency relief chief Mark Lowcock - comes as deaths from the preventable disease reached 70, the vast majority being children under five.
As more information gradually filters out of Iran in the wake of the recent protests, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Friday expressed alarm “at the continuing lack of transparency about casualties and the treatment” of thousands of detainees, as well as continuing arrests reported to be taking place across the country.
“The Brazilian government continues to lead the humanitarian response for the most vulnerable Venezuelans arriving in the country, while also promoting innovative, open and generous ways to support their socio-economic inclusion” for some 224,000 Venezuelans already in Brazil, UN Refugee Agency said on Friday in Geneva.
A record 166 million people worldwide will need help and protection in crises spanning more than 50 countries in 2020, the UN’s emergency relief chief said, in an appeal for nearly $29 billion in humanitarian aid from donors. Climatic shocks, large infectious disease outbreaks and intensifying, protracted conflicts have resulted in global needs increasing by some 22 million people in the past year, Mark Lowcock told journalists in Geneva.
Violence in DRC Ebola hotspot leaves people ‘caught in crossfire’, disrupts aid relief. Attacks on communities in an Ebola outbreak hotspot in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have created a humanitarian crisis and threatened aid distribution, the UN said on Friday, amid reports of serious civil unrest.
Footage of Syrian Constitutional Committee Arrivals featuring delegations representing the Government, Opposition and Civil Society at United Nations Geneva on Monday 26 November 2019, includes various cutaways.
New HIV infections are in decline worldwide and more people living with HIV gain access to treatment, according to a new report released today by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
Climate procrastination means we now need to cut emissions by more than half, urge UN climate experts. The world must more than halve greenhouse gas emissions in the next 10 years – by some 30 billion tonnes - to try to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, leading UN scientists said on Tuesday.
Footage of Syrian Constitutional Committee Arrivals featuring delegations representing the Government, Opposition and Civil Society at United Nations Geneva on Monday 25 November 2019, includes various cutaways.
Another year of record emissions, warns UN meteorological agency head. Levels of the three main heat-trapping gases emitted into the atmosphere – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) – have reached yet another high, the UN meteorological agency, WMO, said on Monday.
Potential new Ebola virus transmission chain risks reversing major gains: WHO
Missile strike kills at least 12 civilians, including children, in Syria’s Idlib province: UN humanitarians. Violence in Syria continues to kill and maim civilians with reports that missiles fired into settlements for people fleeing conflict in the country’s northwest on Wednesday night killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more, including children, UN humanitarians said on Thursday.
Live ammunition reportedly used against widespread protests in Iran – UN human rights office. Reports indicating that dozens of people have been killed in protests across Iran – some by live ammunition - are of deep concern, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said on Tuesday.
Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) launched a report recognizing that more than seven million children worldwide are suffering in various types of child-specific institutions, immigration detention centres, police custody, prisons and other places of detention.
Irradiated pests set for mass release in bid to make mosquito-borne disease a thing of the past. With more than half the world now at risk from mosquito-transmitted dengue fever, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN has taken the lead on a global effort to eradicate the disease – and many others – by measuring the impact of releasing millions of sterilized pests across several continents, it announced on Thursday.
As Australia’s “catastrophic” and deadly wildfire emergency continues, UN weather experts on Tuesday echoed Government warnings for people to remain vigilant in the face of the fast-moving threat and tinderbox conditions. In Geneva, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) noted that dozens of fires are raging in eastern New South Wales and southeast Queensland, amid reports that three people lost their lives in the fires at the weekend.
In a statement read by her spokesperson Rupert Colville today in Geneva, raised concern continuing reports of deaths and injuries resulting from the use of forces security forces against demonstrators, as well as deliberate killings by armed elements in Iraq.
Syrian Constitutional Committee agrees to continue discussions, says UN negotiator. UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen announced on Friday in Geneva that initial discussions on a new foundational document for the war-torn country by its opposing parties have been “successful” and will resume in two weeks.