UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday commended Yemen on the occasion of the first anniversary of its historic transition agreement and he urged Yemenis to build on the progress made over the past 12 months. The historic transition agreement was signed on 23 November 2011. It provided for former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to [...]
While piracy and the armed robbery of ships mostly take place in East Africa, West Africa and the Far East, it affects the entire international community. That assessment comes from French Ambassador Gérard Arraud, speaking during a Security Council debate on piracy held on Monday. Council members have welcomed what they see as a sharp [...]
The Millennium Development Goals to sharply reduce poverty by 2015 are set to fail the poor in terms of sanitation, according to Catarina de Albuquerque, the United Nations expert on the right to clean water. Ms. de Albuquerque made her comments on the occasion of World Toilet Day, November 19th. Access to sanitation currently ranks [...]
The situation in Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the DRC, remains volatile and unpredictable, with thousands of displaced persons on the move in search of safety and security, according to Yvon Edoumou. Mr. Edoumou of OCHA, the UN humanitarian agency in the DRC, says while the displacement is caused by on-going conflict [...]
An exhibition on how developing countries are sharing solutions to address the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is taking place this week in Vienna. Among the exhibitors at the fifth Global South-South Development Expo is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which promotes the use of nuclear science and technology in solving development challenges. The agency [...]
The resumption of attacks by the rebel movement known as the M23, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has been condemned by the United Nations. The Security Council held an emergency meeting on Saturday as the rebels were reported to have advanced to within a few kilometres of Goma, [...]
Loss of soils, forests and fisheries, as well as rising resource costs, are likely to become increasingly important to a nation's economic health, says UNEP, the UN Environment Programme. A report issued by UNEP's Finance Initiative says resource degradation has the potential to make worse the debt crises that have already helped trigger, and deepen, [...]
The World Health Organization (WHO) has denied recent allegations that it is receiving funding from the food and beverage industry in relation to its work to reduce non-communicable diseases. Director-General Margaret Chan says these allegations are wrong. Dr. Chan says WHO is committed to reducing the public health impacts associated with non-communicable diseases. She says [...]
Two hundred-and-forty-five schools in Gaza have been closed as a result of the ongoing conflict. But according to Christopher Gunness, Spokesperson for UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA has found some innovative ways to help the 245,000 children who have been affected. Colleagues in Gaza have developed a distance learning TV channel so that [...]
As the conflict continues in Gaza with Israel launching air strikes into the territory and rockets being fired from Hamas into Israel, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has reiterated his call on the parties to stop their attacks. In fact, Mr. Ban has gone to the Middle East as part of his efforts to work with [...]
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed alarm at the ongoing violence in the Middle East and has urged the parties to cooperate with efforts led by Egypt to reach a ceasefire. Meanwhile, a Spokesperson for UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency, Christopher Gunness, echoes the Secretary-General's call. He reports that the civilian death toll is [...]
