Peace and Security

Women displaced by fighting in Juba, South Sudan, queue to fill containers with water after UNICEF delivered 100,000 litres of safe water to the site, where many residents had resorted drinking from a nearby stream. UNICEF/UN025202/Irwin

Peacekeepers in South Sudan working to strengthen protection of civilians – UN chief

19 April 2017
Africa

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan has done “significant work” to more effectively protect civilians and respond in case of a crisis, Secretary-General António Guterres has said in a letter to the President of the UN Security Council.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous speaks to journalists in Bamako, Mali, during his visit.
UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti

INTERVIEW: Fast-response ‘vanguard brigade’ of peacekeepers now a reality

4 April 2017
Global

A “vanguard brigade” of UN Peacekeepers which can be deployed within 60 days to new trouble-spots, would have been “impossible” to envisage just two years ago.

A UN peacekeeper helps a child aboard a truck during the relocation of residents of a camp for displaced persons.
Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

INTERVIEW: Amid increased suffering, responsibility to protect all the more necessary - UN Special Adviser

24 March 2017
Global

In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the outcome of the World Summit in which it, inter alia, underscored that each individual State has the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

A Military Liaison Officer of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), looks through binoculars during a ceasefire monitoring patrol in Oum Dreyga, Western Sahara (June 2010).
UN Photo/Martine Perret

Western Sahara: UN chief urges Morocco and Polisario Front to de-escalate tensions in buffer strip

25 February 2017
Africa

Deeply concerned about increased tensions in the vicinity of Guerguerat in the buffer strip in southern Western Sahara between the Moroccan berm and the Mauritanian border, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today called on Morocco and Frente Polisario to “take all necessary steps” to avoid escalation.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura (second right) takes questions from journalists during a press conference prior to the Intra-Syrian negotiations, Geneva. 22 February 2017.
UN Photo/Violaine Martin

Syria negotiations may not yield breakthrough, but momentum needs to be maintained – UN envoy

22 February 2017
Middle East

A day before negotiations on the crisis in Syria kick off in Geneva, the United Nations Special Envoy for the war-torn country acknowledged that while he is “not expecting a breakthrough,” the proactive momentum needs to be sustained, and the top United Nations relief official told the Security Council that the country’s humanitarian needs would remain critical for a long time.

Children released from armed groups in the Central African Republic will stay in a UNICEF-supported transit centre that provides shelter, psychosocial support, education and training in vocational skills while working to reintegrate them with their families.
UNICEF/ Matas

PHOTO FEATURE: Twenty years of protecting children affected by conflict

8 February 2017
Global

Following an era in which graphic images of child soldiers had become commonplace in the media, the United Nations General Assembly created a mandate dedicated to better protect children affected by armed conflict.

On 21 November, children and families who have just fled Mosul arrive in Khazir Displacement Camp, Ninewa Governorate.
UNICEF/Anmar

PHOTO FEATURE: Mosul – 100 days on, and the UN’s humanitarian response

24 January 2017
Middle East

Armed conflict in Iraq has caused the displacement of more than three million people since June 2014 – one million of those displaced may be as a direct result of the Iraqi military's efforts to liberate Mosul and surrounding areas from the control of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh), according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Robert Serry, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the Secretary-General's Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority from 2007 to 2015, on a visit to Gaza in November 2012.
UN Photo/Shareef Sarhan

INTERVIEW: Robert Serry on the ‘Endless Quest’ for Middle East peace, reflections from no man’s land

10 January 2017
Middle East

The United Nation’s former point person for Middle East negotiations has said that Israelis and Palestinians need at least the prospects of a two-state solution, and urged the international community to create conditions for more effective discussions in the future.

António Guterres (centre) makes his first address to the Security Council as Secretary-General, on the issue of conflict prevention and sustaining peace. At right is Margot Wallström of Sweden, President of the Council for the month of January.
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

At Security Council, UN chief Guterres makes case for new efforts to build and sustain peace

10 January 2017
Global

Delivering his first formal briefing to the Security Council, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres underlined the need for new, strengthened efforts to build and sustain peace ranging from prevention, conflict resolution and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and sustainable development.