2011 has been the deadliest year for Africans crossing the Mediterranean to flee to Europe, according to the UN’s refugee agency.

Former Haitian leader Jean-Claude Duvalier could only face trial for financial corruption charges during his regime and not human rights violations, a move which concerns the UN Human Rights Office.

World food prices fell in the last three months of 2011, but they’re still 24 per cent higher than they were in 2010.

That’s according to the World Bank which released its latest Food Price Watch report on Tuesday in Washington DC.

A major diplomatic effort is due to get underway at the UN Security Council on Tuesday to try to stop an ongoing conflict in Syria.

The UN estimates up to 5,000 people have been killed in a struggle to oust incumbent president Bashar al-Assad.

A group of global policy makers examining ways to combat challenges such as climate change, water scarcity and human consumption patterns, has presented its findings to the UN Secretary-General.

It’s 2012 and still roughly 800 million people in Asia and the Pacific lack access to electricity.

A documentary film celebrating the life of the late Jewish prodigy, Petr Ginz, murdered during the Holocaust, will soon go global.

After 17 years, the United Nations flag is flying again in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

The United Nations Political Office for Somalia on Wednesday officially relocated from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi to Mogadishu. 

Increased anti-piracy measures by shipping companies and the intervention by navies have led to a drop in the number of successful pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia in 2011.

North Korea has been described as a humanitarian basket case by a senior UN official.

The isolated Asian country has recently undergone a change in leadership with the international community hoping that it will open up and address human rights issues.