Eight countries which have so far failed to ratify a Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty are holding the international community “hostage”.
That’s according to Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).
Women activists from war-torn Syria have been a “glimmer of hope” in a peace process that has been very “challenging and depressing”, the head of UN Women’s Arab States Section has said.
Hiba Qasas was speaking ahead of a meeting with members of the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board to the UN Special Envoy for the country.
While women and girls have been disproportionately affected by the 6-year civil war in the country, she noted, they are not only victims but leaders and a strong advocates for peace.
Around 1,000 South Sudanese are fleeing across the border into Uganda each day in what the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is describing as a “children’s emergency.”
Since fighting between rival factions loyal to the President and former first Vice President erupted in early July, around 100,000 civilians have sought safety in Uganda.
Eight oil-producing countries in Africa are facing a “very significant” economic shock following the collapse in oil prices over the past two years.
A barrel currently costs around US$50 on global markets, down from a high of US$125.
The countries mostly badly hit are Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria and South Sudan.
By contrast, oil importing countries are benefitting from the price collapse.
Tributes have been paid following the death of the first woman to serve as a United Nations Under-Secretary-General; the third highest rank in the global organization.
Dame Margaret Anstee, who was from the United Kingdom, joined the UN in 1952 and was appointed as a so-called USG in 1987.
She was also the first woman to head a military peacekeeping operation, in Angola, in the early 1990s.
The origin of three separate chemical weapons attacks in Syria has been clearly established following an “independent, impartial, and objective” investigation mandated by the UN Security Council.
The so-called Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), led by a three-person Leadership Panel, examined nine cases of documented chemical weapons use to establish who was responsible for using them.
In Nigeria, the terror campaign carried out by Boko Haram extremists and the government’s efforts to defeat them have left civilians malnourished to the point of starvation, a leading UN rights expert has said.
The warning comes from Chaloka Beyani, who’s the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Just back from north-east Nigeria, Mr Beyani also reports that women and girls taking shelter in camps in newly liberated areas are subject to sexual exploitation in return for food.
Time wasted collecting water is a “double whammy” for women and girls around the world.
That’s according to Sanjay Wijesekera, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programmes at the UN Children’s Fund, (UNICEF).
He said that apart from losing time that could be spent in class, girls’ health also suffers due to the hard physical labour involved.
As World Water Week gets underway in Stockholm, Sweden, UNICEF said that 200 million hours are spent each day collecting water.
The ‘horrendous’ practice of enforced disappearances can affect entire communities by creating an atmosphere of fear and chaos.
That’s according to Santiago Corcuera, a member of the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED).
A forced disappearance is an act committed by the state in the form of abduction, arrest, detainment or any other violation of one’s rights, which is then denied or concealed.
Israeli authorities should “cease and reverse” illegal settlement-building on occupied Palestinian land as prospects “dwindle” for a two-state solution to the conflict.
That's according to Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, who briefed the Security Council on Monday.
Matthew Wells reports.
Duration: 2'38"
