Refugees should not be turned into scapegoats following the terrorist attacks in Paris, France the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has urged.
The agency said that it is ‘disturbed’ by language that demonizes refugees as a group and is concerned that some states may backtrack on commitments they’ve already made to help refugees in light of the events in Paris.
The combined effects of climate change, poverty and terrorism are taking a heavy toll on the Sahel.
That’s according to the UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the region, Toby Lanzer, who has been traveling throughout the nine countries in west and central Africa that make up the Sahel.
Some 25 million people there are said to be food insecure, with 5 million of those severely food insecure. As a result, some 700,000 children could die each year in the Sahel due to malnutrition.
Veronica Reeves has more.
Duration: 2:14
World hunger won’t end unless “ambitious action” is taken to address the causes and effects of climate change.
That’s according to a senior expert at the World Food Programme (WFP).
The United Nations says there are 795 million hungry people in the world, 98 per cent of whom are in developing countries.
The terrorists who carried out the multiple deadly attacks in Paris last Friday were promoting a “hateful ideology” according to a United Nations independent expert.
The attacks which left 129 people dead were claimed by the ISIL terrorist group, also known in Arabic, as Daesh.
The Islamist group controls large areas of Syria and Iraq and has begun carrying out atrocities in other countries, such as France and Lebanon.
Karima Bennoune is the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights.
Cristina Silveiro asked her to characterize the attacks.
“We must stand together” against terrorism, the words of the UN cultural organization’s chief marking its 70th anniversary on Monday in Paris.
Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, was determined that the milestone event, including the organization’s world Leaders’ Forum, would go ahead, despite the terrorist attacks in the city on Friday.
The misuse of antibiotics puts people at risk for serious, even-life threatening illnesses.
That’s according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is using its first-ever World Antibiotics Week to warn people about the dangers associated with the misuse of antibiotics, including the risk of bacteria resistance.
Veronica Reeves spoke to Dr Marc Sprenger from WHO.
Tackling climate change is the only way to address poverty, according to the UN’s leading expert on climate issues.
In fact, Christiana Figueres, head of the UN climate secretariat, UNFCCC, sees these two global concerns as “one and the same.”
In just a few weeks’ time world leaders will be meeting in Paris to agree a new treaty aimed at limiting global warming to below two degrees Celsius.
Ms Figueres believes more countries now recognize that taking action on climate change is in their self-interest.
The large number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Sudanese region of Darfur means that the UN mission there (UNAMID) is likely to continue.
That’s according to the Acting UNAMID Police Commissioner, Dr Mutasem Almajali, who says the number of IDPs in the country has nearly doubled to almost 2.6 million people in the past year.
UNAMID, a hybrid mission between the UN and the African Union, was first established in 2007 following the outbreak of a civil war in Darfur.
The rule of law at sea must be reinforced to allow people not to suffer from illegal fishing; that’s according to the International Criminal Police Organization, or INTERPOL.
Experts are gathering in Singapore from Monday to discuss environmental security and law enforcement worldwide at a conference organized by INTERPOL and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Fisheries crime is one of the issues that will come under the spotlight.
David Higgins is from the Environmental Security department at Interpol.
Liberia is committed to moving ahead by assuming responsibility for security in the West African nation; that’s according to the UN’s most senior envoy in the country.
Liberia is recovering from the recent outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease as well as the longer term effects of a bloody civil war.
In June next year, the United Nations will hand over all of its security obligations to the government.
Farid Zarif was appointed head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in August.
