Interviews

Because impairment is widely seen as a natural part of the ageing process, many older people with disabilities are shut out from receiving the support they need, according to a UN human rights expert.

Catalina Devandas Aguilar is encouraging governments to ensure older persons with disabilities have a voice in any policies to make cities more inclusive, particularly as the global population ages.

As the first  woman to command a UN peacekeeping operation, and until very recently the Organization’s highest-ranking female commander, Major General Kristin Lund knows better than most, the importance of engaging women in the field.

Some countries are defining “whomever they like” as terrorists and exhibiting “deep and problematic” inconsistencies over how they treat family members of suspected extremists in places like northeast Syria and Iraq.

That’s according to Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the UN independent human rights expert dealing with counter-terrorism.

She says that many of the women and children associated with former ISIL terrorist fighters are themselves victims, and it’s a big mistake to curb their rights or define them simply by association.

The growth of antisemitism worldwide is a sign that other forms of hatred and xenophobia are becoming more destructive and widespread, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Ahmed Shaheed, warned on Friday.

Speaking to Conor Lennon from UN News, Mr. Shaheed, a former foreign minister for the Maldives, also explained what his role as a Special Rapporteur entails, what drives him to speak out about human rights abuses, and the recent elections to the Human Rights Council.

Providing academic enrichment programmes, as well as health and wellness services which empower students and address community needs, is the goal of a New York City school that is working to break the cycle of poverty.

Fifth-grade students from the Gregory “Jocko” Jackson School of Sports, Arts and Technology in Brownsville, Brooklyn, were at the UN on Thursday to take part in a ceremony commemorating the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Low-cost initiatives such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets and child de-worming programmes are proof that the world can take effective action to reduce poverty, a Nobel Prize-winning economist has said, as the world marks the International Day dedicated to its eradication.

Michael Kremer, alongside fellow professors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, is the recipient of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics, for their research in fighting poverty.

On Tuesday the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) revealed that a stark proportion of the world’s children are not receiving adequate nutrition, with half of all children under-five lacking essential vitamins and nutrients in their diets for proper development.  

Although United Nations peacekeeping operations are over in Haiti, the Caribbean country will not “be alone” as a new political mission focused on sustainable development begins its work there on Wednesday.

That’s the message from Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, who has been reflecting on achievements during that 15-year period.

Every year, around one-third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted.

Food loss and waste has all kinds of consequences for economies, food security and the environment.

A new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, explains where exactly these losses are occurring along the food chain, from farm to fork, and how countries are stepping up to tackle the problem.

Andrea Cattaneo, a senior economist at FAO, outlines the report.

Fifty years since the first moonwalk, space technology has made a huge difference to life on earth – just think about all those weather and telecommunications satellites orbiting way above us.

Now, with the help of high-precision satellite imagery and a nifty mobile phone app, UN satellite experts are aiming to give small island States threatened by natural disasters and climate change, the best chance of survival.