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The active engagement of youth is central for stable societies and to avert the worst threats to sustainable development, including the impacts of climate change.
ICAN/Lucero Oyarzun

Youth need ‘seat at the table’ to lead struggle for better future: Guterres

12 August 2021
Culture and Education

Young people are on the “frontlines of the struggle to build a better future”, the UN chief said on Thursday, International Youth Day.

A person browsing through social media on their laptop computer (content blurred to protect privacy).
World Bank/Simone D. McCourtie

Spyware: Rights experts push for surveillance technology moratorium

12 August 2021
Human Rights

A group of UN-appointed experts on Thursday called for a moratorium on the sale of surveillance technology, warning against the danger of allowing the sector to operate as “a human rights-free zone.” 

A firefighter battles a wildfire. (file)
Unsplash/Fabian Jones

UN weather agency seeks to confirm 48.8°C ‘record’ heat spike in Sicily

12 August 2021
Climate and Environment

UN weather experts said on Thursday that they’re “actively looking” into a possible record temperature for Continental Europe of 48.8 Celsius (119.8 Fahrenheit) near the town of Syracuse in Sicily, amid devastating wildfires in Mediterranean countries and Russia.

Young people in Cameroon are key to promoting a peaceful culture in the West African country.
© UNICEF/Salomon Marie Joseph Beguel

First Person: From a life of violence to a culture of peace

12 August 2021
Peace and Security

A young peace campaigner from Cameroon who turned his back on the violence prevalent in his hometown and became a youth civil society activist, has been telling the United Nations about how he is helping other young people to reject conflict, and take a greater role in building peace in the country.

Asylum seekers, including children, at the Matamoros camp awaiting their US immigration hearings in Mexico.
UNICEF/César Amador

UNHCR alarmed over US 'expulsion flights' to southern Mexico

11 August 2021
Migrants and Refugees

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) raised concern on Wednesday over a new policy by the United States, using public health orders linked to COVID-19, to expel some asylum-seekers and migrants by flying them to southern Mexico.

The Palestinian Flag in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
UN News

Arrests of Palestinian rights defenders part of ‘wider crackdown’

11 August 2021
Human Rights

Israel must safeguard human rights activists in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and within its borders, a UN-appointed expert said on Wednesday. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) and others are providing technical support for a vaccination drive to inoculate Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar.
WHO/Blink Media/Chiara Luxardo

Rohingya refugees receive first COVID vaccinations in Bangladesh

11 August 2021
Migrants and Refugees

More than 4,000 Rohingyas living in Cox’s Bazar refugee camps in Bangladesh have received their first COVID-19 vaccine shots, as part of a national inoculation drive to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.
 

An Ebola outbreak in Guinea was declared over just months before the country detected its first case of Marburg disease (file photo).
WHO/Junior D. Kannah

WHO supports Guinea after detection of first-ever case of Marburg disease

11 August 2021
Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) is supporting Guinea following a confirmed death from Marburg virus disease, the first known case in the country and West Africa, the UN agency reported on Wednesday. 

The Enrico Fermi nuclear generating Station near Monroe, Michigan, US.
NOAA/OAR/Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory

Global climate objectives fall short without nuclear power in the mix: UNECE

11 August 2021
Climate and Environment

The urgent need to reduce emissions and slow global heating, should involve the roll-out of more nuclear power stations, regional UN energy experts argued in a new briefing on Wednesday.

People in sanction-targeted countries like Venezuela sink into poverty because they cannot get the essential services they need.
OCHA/Gema Cortes

Punishment of ‘innocent civilians’ through government sanctions must end: UN experts 

11 August 2021
Economic Development

Unilateral coercive measures by some governments are denying many people around the world the right to personal development, as well as holding back sustainable national development, four independent UN human rights experts said on Wednesday.