Features

Manizha Sangin arrived in Russia as young refugee, when her family fled the violence of the civil war in Tajikistan. Today, she is a high-profile singer, representing Russia in the final of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, with the song “Russian Woman”. Ms. Sangin is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), and a domestic abuse activist.

On a recent visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Dr. Natalie Kanem, the head of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, bore witness to the horrific legacy of sexual violence in the country, which is undergoing one of the world’s longest-running humanitarian crises.

For Diarmuid Gavin, a renowned Irish gardener and TV personality, horticulture has a role to play in all contemporary affairs, from the Black Lives Matter Movement to the ongoing pandemic, because “everything is connected, and everything is political”.

Child marriage continues to affect many young girls across Tanzania, in East Africa, but now a series of interventions supported by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) are allowing children to get the support they need to avoid unwanted and potentially damaging relationships.

Is this the year we overcome the global economic crisis caused by the pandemic? Are our jobs in danger? Who has lost the most in the crisis and what can be done to recover? As the UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs (DESA) prepares to launch the mid-year update of the 2021 World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report, here are five things you need to know about the state of the global economy.

Misrah, an undocumented migrant worker, and her family, left their home in Ethiopia hoping for a better life. Instead, her three children are now dead, drowned during a perilous sea crossing across the Gulf of Aden, when the overloaded boat smuggling them into the country capsized.

The Second World War had a profound impact on the international community, and established the conditions for the creation of the United Nations. This weekend marks the official remembrance of the tens of millions of civilians and soldiers who died during the conflict.

The UN is at the forefront of efforts to help India extricate itself from the almost unimaginable scale of suffering its citizens are undergoing, as a result of a devastating wave of COVID-19 infections. Earlier this week, UN News spoke to the country chiefs based in India, for the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund, to get their take on the crisis. Here are some key excerpts from the interviews.

A sure sign of spring in northern Europe is the arrival of the Arctic tern bird, but ahead of the UN’s World Migratory Bird Day  experts fear the warming of the oceans in its nesting grounds in the northern Atlantic is threatening its very existence. 

The roll-out of vaccinations to prevent COVID-19 infections rising in the Maldives is a good example of “vaccine equity in action” according to Catherine Haswell, the UN Resident Coordinator for the Indian Ocean island nation.