General News

“Everyone is responsible” for moving the climate change agenda forward following last month’s historic agreement in Paris.

That’s the view of Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, widely accepted to be the author of the whole “sustainable development” concept.

More than 190 countries agreed to limit global temperature rises due to emissions to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

The first female Prime Minster of Norway is now UN Foundation Board Vice Chair, and she was awarded the Zayed Future Energy Prize 2016 on Tuesday.

At least 18,800 civilians were killed in Iraq between January 2014 and October 2015, according to a new report released by the United Nations.

The Middle Eastern country continues to suffer internal conflict, largely due to the ongoing occupation by the ISIL terrorist group.

The UN has described the death toll as “obscene.”

Daniel Dickinson reports.

Duration: 2'19"

Central American governments are losing the ability to protect their own people from the effects of violence, “in particular women and children.”

That’s according to the UN Refugee Agency’s spokesperson in Washington, Brian Hansford, who said there was an urgent need for a regional solution in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The UNHCR welcomed the US plan announced this week to expand its resettlement programme, to help vulnerable refugees from those countries fleeing mainly gang violence.

A senior UN representative is calling for more “active interaction” among countries fighting the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas, head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA), said he is making the call alongside his counterpart in Central Africa, Abdoulaye Bathily.

Boko Haram operations in the Lake Chad Basin region have killed scores of people and uprooted millions in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

Funding humanitarian needs around the world amounts to a “moral obligation” according to two of the panellists who helped draft a new report on humanitarian aid.

The High-level Panel on Humanitarian Financing released its report this past weekend in Dubai.

Basma Baghal spoke with panellists Hadeel Ibrahim and Dhany Sriskandarajah and asked them to begin by highlighting some of the report’s finding.

Duration: 2’30”

The world is showing a “growing determination” to address climate change, according to one of the UN’s leading experts on the subject.

Christiana Figueres is the head of the UN climate change secretariat (UNFCCC).

In December, the international community agreed a wide-ranging package aimed at tackling climatic issues.

Basma Bitar-Baghal has been speaking with Ms Figueres at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, where experts are discussing clean energy and water, among other issues.

Duration: 3’38”

The migration of women who take up work in other countries can be empowering, according to a senior UN expert on population issues.

A report released by the UN shows that the number of migrants worldwide was 244 million in 2015, an increase of around 22 million over five years.

Half of those people are women or girls.

The “toughest job” for any human being could be turning recently agreed global sustainable development goals into reality.

That’s the assessment of the UN Special Adviser who has been tasked with ensuring that the international community works together towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

World leaders agreed the Agenda’s 17 targets in September last year at UN headquarters in New York.

Daniel Dickinson has been speaking to Special Adviser, Dr David Nabarro.

The acknowledgement by the United States authorities of police brutality against African Americans is a “first step” to addressing the problem, according to a senior UN human rights official.

A series of high-profile cases in which people have died at the hands of the police have made headlines in the US over the past year.

“Mindless policy” by governments to counter the growing scourge of terrorism around the world will only make things worse.

That’s according to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, unveiling his Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism on Friday.

He delivered his plan to the General Assembly saying that “cool heads and common sense” were needed together with a unified global approach that respected the rule of law.

Matthew Wells reports.

Duration: 2'18"