A United Nations staff member, who was also a victim of a terrorist attack, was one of 8,000 people from all over the world selected to carry the Olympic Flame. Bianca Kopp works for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna. She was chosen by her managers because of her dedication to [...]
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon chatted live with Sina Weibo followers while on a visit to China in July. Weibo is a China-based micro-blogging service similar to a cross between Twitter and Facebook. During his 45-minute conversation, Mr. Ban answered about 20 questions from Weibo users. According to preliminary statistics, the event attracted the attention [...]
The UN independent human rights expert has condemned Israel's use of solitary confinement against Palestinian children. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk is urging the Israeli Government to treat such detainees in accordance with international human rights laws. He says "Israel's use of solitary confinement [...]
The United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled Friday that Senegal must either prosecute former Chadian President Hissène Habré for war crimes or extradite him "without further delay." The ICJ judgement (which is final and binding upon the Parties), is in response to a request by Belgium to prosecute Mr. Habré, who has [...]
Slovenia has much to offer to Europe, the world and the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday as he addressed its Parliament. Mr. Ban highlighted the contributions of the country including hosting refugees and sending troops and equipment to multilateral operations. The Secretary-General also said he's confident that Slovenia is a natural partner of [...]
Exactly a year ago on 20 July, the United Nations announced a state of famine in southern Somalia. Today the country is on the path to recovery according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), but the situation still remains critical and continued aid is vital. Charles Appel reports. The six-month famine in Somalia caused [...]
Dramatic numbers of people have been displaced by the ongoing violence in Syria, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR. It's been estimated that already one million people have been forced to flee inside the country since the conflict began in March of 2011. On Thursday, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend by [...]
The UN Supervision Mission in Syria, UNSMIS, has been extended for another 30 days by the Security Council. All 15 members voted in favour of the draft resolution proposed by France, Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Colombian Ambassador Nestor Osorio is Council president for the month. "The council calls upon the parties to insure [...]
At least 220,000 people in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been displaced by fighting that began in April, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (OCHA). OCHA Spokesman, Jens Laerke, says that fighting between the national armed forces, FARDC and M-23 rebels, which is [...]
The XIX International AIDS Conference is taking place from 22-27 July in Washington DC. Ahead of that meeting, UNAIDS released its 2012 report "Together we will end AIDS". The new UNAIDS report shows gaps and gains made in the fight to get to zero. At the end of last year there were 34.2 million people [...]
With fighting now taking place in many parts of Syria, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay is strongly urging all sides to make a huge effort to ensure civilians are not killed or injured. Her spokesman, Rupert Colville, says the conflict in urban areas is obviously especially dangerous to civilians. "Far too many [...]
Within the past 48 hours, it's estimated that tens of thousands of Syrians have fled the violence in their country and crossed into Lebanon, according to the UN refugee agency. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has expressed growing concern for the exodus and has a team in the field verifying the numbers [...]
Rwandans have been working tirelessly to rebuild their country since the 1994 genocide. Since then, the country has become one of the fastest growing economies on the African continent. Furthermore, women have now come to the forefront of national politics, making Rwanda the world's leader in the number of women parliamentarians. The advancement of women [...]
