Global

Migrants boarding a bus headed towards a processing center in Amman, the capital of Jordan.
IOM/Muse Mohammed (file)

Migrants: ‘A powerful driver’ of economic growth, ‘dynamism and understanding’

18 December 2018
Migrants and Refugees

Human migration is “a powerful driver of economic growth, dynamism and understanding,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said, in his message  commemorating International Migrants Day, marked on 18 December.

A group of Rohingya refugee children cross a makeshift bamboo bridge in Kutupalong refugee settlement in southern Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of refugees are sheltering after being forced to flee their homes in Myanmar.
UNICEF/Nybo

UN affirms ‘historic’ global compact to support world’s refugees

17 December 2018
Migrants and Refugees

The United Nations General Assembly affirmed a non-legally binding Global Compact on Refugees on Monday, marking the latest move by Member States to support the rights of  over 68.5 million people have been forced to flee worldwide, including more than 25.4 million people who have crossed borders to become refugees.

Italy. Restaurant run by refugees and local entrepreneurs opens in Catania
© UNHCR/Alessio Mamo

Global Compact on Refugees: How is this different from the migrants’ pact and how will it help?

17 December 2018
Migrants and Refugees

The terms ‘refugee’ and ‘migrant’ have been used interchangeably to describe the millions of people worldwide that are either fleeing conflict or seeking better living conditions. As the United Nations sets out to secure global compacts to better protect them, it’s critical to understand the differences between the two.

COP24 closing plenary meeting in Katowice, Poland, 16 December 2018.
UNFCCC/James Dowson

At COP24, countries agree concrete way forward to bring the Paris climate deal to life

15 December 2018
Climate and Environment

After two weeks of crunch negotiations – with overtime – the almost 200 parties gathered in Katowice, Poland, for the United Nations COP24 two-week climate change conference, adopted on Saturday a “robust” set of implementing guidelines for the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, aimed at keeping global warming well below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) says in November 2018 two in three children in the Central African Republic need humanitarian assistance.
UNICEF/Ashley Gilbertson

‘Fire-fighting approach’ to humanitarian aid ‘not sustainable’: Deputy UN chief

12 December 2018
Humanitarian Aid

With around one in every 60 people across the world caught up in a crisis that requires urgent humanitarian assistance, the UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told a top panel on the issue on Wednesday that maintaining a “fire-fighting approach is not sustainable” in the long term.

A NASA satellite image shows a vast alluvial fan blossoming across the landscape between the Kunlun and Altun mountain ranges that form the southern border of the Taklamakan Desert in China.
USGS/NASA

UN space-based tool opens new horizons to track land-use on Earth’s surface

12 December 2018
Economic Development

Satellite-based tracking to chart how land is being used on the earth’s surface is about to get much easier and more accessible, the UN food agency has announced, launching a new online portal developed in collaboration with the United States Space Agency, NASA.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the COP24 climate change conference in Katowice, Poland. 12 December 2018.
UNFCCC Secretariat/James Dowson

Failing to agree on climate action would ‘not only be immoral’ but ‘suicidal’, UN chief tells COP24

12 December 2018
Climate and Environment

With roadblocks continuing at the COP24 climate change conference over how to implement the  historic 2015 Paris Agreement, United Nations chief António Guterres returned to Poland on Wednesday, to challenge the more than 100 Government leaders gathered in Katowice to find consensus and “finish the job.”

An elderly patient receives rehabilitation care in Japan (file)
WHO/Yoshi Shimizu

UN pushes for universal health care on International Day

12 December 2018
Health

Universal health care for all, leaving no one behind, by 2030: that’s the call going out on International Universal Health Coverage Day, which this year falls on Wednesday. Why 2030? Because that’s the target date for completion of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which (SDG3), calls for the promotion of healthy lives and well-being for all.

Prince Albert II of Monaco, chair of the IOC Sustainability and Legacy Commission, speaking at the launch of the Sports Climate Action Framework at the COP24 climate action conference in Katowice, Poland. 11 December 2018.
UNFCCC Secretariat

COP24: World sports join team UN in race against climate change

12 December 2018
Climate and Environment

Major organizations from the world of sport are joining an increasing number of private sector businesses in the race to beat global warming. At the United Nations’ COP24 conference in Poland on Wednesday, 17 major players representing sporting bodies, athletes and fans, added their names to the collective scoreboard, with the launch of the Sports Climate Action Framework.

Judge Theodor Meron, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, briefs the Security Council.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías

UN should be ‘exemplary’ in defending judicial independence, top Judge tells Security Council

11 December 2018
Law and Crime Prevention

The United Nations should be a role model when it comes to repelling attempts to weaken the rule of law and undermine independent judiciaries around the world, a senior UN judge told the Security Council on Tuesday.