Ten female mountain climbers are preparing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to encourage girls and women around the world that they can achieve anything with effort and education. The climbers, seven from Nepal, two from Tanzania and one from South Africa, include two women who benefited from World Food Programme school meals when they [...]
The UN agency assisting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), has strongly condemned the perpetrators of the bombing that led to the death of a 14 year-old Palestine refugee living in Syria. Basem al-Hindi sustained serious shrapnel wounds to his head when a suspected mortar round exploded on a public road within metres of UNRWA's Tantouri School, where [...]
Two great Middle Eastern tragedies persist before the eyes of the world: the bloodbath of Syria and the plight of the Palestinian people, President of the UN General Assembly Vuk Jeremic told the Fifth Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilization in Vienna on Wednesday. He said that in his view, the way in [...]
Stephane Hessel, the best-selling French author, has died aged 95. The writer who had been a member of the French Resistance, escaping from two concentration camps, helped to draw up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and later worked as a diplomat. His writing Time for Outrage, is widely credited with inspiring the [...]
The Fifth Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, a forum for inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, opened on Wednesday in Vienna, Austria. Established in 2005 on the initiative of Spain and Turkey, the Alliance of Civilizations seeks to build trust and understanding across cultures and communities around the world. Beng Poblete-Enriquez reports: Duration: [...]
As the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals or MDGs approaches, more than 1.5 billion people still live in fragile and conflict-affected countries. That's what Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, the head of the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) told the International Development for All Conference taking place in Dili, Timor [...]
An all-female team of climbers is preparing to go up Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, with the support of the United Nations and partners to inspire others and highlight the importance of education for girls. Seven of the climbers are from Nepal and three are Africans, two from Tanzania and one from South Africa. World Food [...]
The Government of Zimbabwe has been urged to respect international human rights norms and standards pertaining to freedoms of association, of peaceful assembly and of expression in the run up to the constitutional referendum on 16 March and subsequent elections which may take place next July. The call comes from three United Nations international human [...]
The ongoing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians and the conflicts in Mali and Syria are urgent situations where the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations is well placed to contribute to resolving. That's what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his opening remarks to the Fifth Global Forum of the Alliance in Vienna, Austria on Wednesday. [...]
More than 360 million people in the world have disabling hearing loss, according to new global estimates released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday. The agency says that infections of the ear are the leading cause of the disability, especially in low and middle income countries. WHO adds that infectious diseases such as, [...]
As Kenyans get ready to participate in general elections on Monday, a human rights expert is urging the Kenyan Government and the international community to scale up efforts to prevent displacement related to the polls. Special Rapporteur on the rights of internally displaced persons, Chaloka Beyani says there have been instances of localized violence in [...]
