Peace and Security

Marta Santos Pais addresses the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the occasion of the anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
UN Photo/Amanda Voisard

FEATURE: With more than half of all children in danger, UN envoy highlights how to keep them safe

3 June 2016
Global

Marta Santos Pais grew up in a happy home in Portugal. Seeing Roma girls her own age treated as outcasts and hearing stories from her father – a child welfare judge – about countless cases of her peers trapped in poverty and abandoned by their parents, troubled her, kindling a sense of duty to help others less fortunate.

Special intervention brigade forces from Tanzania, part of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - MONUSCO, on duty in Sake, North Kivu (July 2013).
MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti

INTERVIEWS: Top UN peacekeeping, logistical officials discuss threats to 'blue helmets'

26 May 2016
Global

In extreme circumstances like deliberate targeting by jihadists and traffickers to more complicated assignments, today's United Nations peacekeepers need courage, a high degree of professionalism and resilience, the head of the so-called 'blue helmets' today said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presents the "Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal for Exceptional Courage" to Ms. Yacine Mar Diop, widow of Captain Diagne.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

FEATURE: Family of UN peacekeeper who saved hundreds of lives in Rwanda shares memories of their father, husband

19 May 2016
Africa

On 31 May 1994, as Rwanda was descending into chaos, Captain Mbaye Diagne, a military observer at the United Nations Assistance Mission in the country (UNAMIR), was in the capital, Kigali, driving back to the base when a mortar fell near his vehicle. Just 12 days from finishing up his service, he died instantly.

A view of the flag raising ceremony in March 1992 for the nine countries - Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and San Marino - admitted to the United Nations.
UN Photo/Michos Tzovaras

INTERVIEW: Ahead of Baku Forum, UN official spotlights ‘soft power’ approaches to counter violent extremism

22 April 2016
Global

As the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) prepares for an upcoming global conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, the head of the UN body has stressed the need to leverage ‘soft power’ to curb the rise of violent extremism and prevent conflict.

On 18 December 2015, Yasuaki Yamashita, an atomic bomb survivor (hibakusha) from Nagasaki who now lives in Mexico, met with UN Tour Guides and interns in New York to share his testimony of the horrors he experienced 70 years ago.
UN/Jihye Shin

INTERVIEW: goal of first-ever UN resolution resonates even now – a hibakusha’s story

22 January 2016
Asia Pacific

Yasuaki Yamashita, a 76-year-old who makes his home in Mexico, is among the dwindling number of hibakusha – people alive today who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Many, like Mr. Yamashita, have since those horrifying events, dedicated their lives to peace and continue to work for nuclear disarmament.

Ján Kubiš, Special Representative the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), addresses the Security Council on the situation in the country (July 2015).
UN Photo/Loey Felipe

INTERVIEW: “I believe that the country is at a very difficult stage of its development… But at the same time, there is hope” – UN envoy for Iraq Ján Kubiš

7 August 2015
Middle East

It has been six months since Ján Kubiš took up the post of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). Over that period, the Slovakian national and his team have had to face considerable challenges – much like the country itself.

UNRWA'S Chris Gunness holds an open-air press conference in Jerusalem after a refugee family was evicted from its home and their possessions strewn on the streets.
AFP Getty Images/Ahmad Gharabli

INTERVIEW: The toughest spokesperson's job in the world? A decade speaking out for Palestinian humanitarian needs

3 August 2015
Middle East

Chris Gunness has served as the Spokesperson and Director of Advocacy and Communications for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for almost a decade.

Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura briefs the press in Geneva in January 2015.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

INTERVIEW: "Every conflict has an end, and this conflict... has to come to an end after five years" - UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura

30 July 2015
Middle East

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has been tasked with reinvigorating an inclusive political process towards ending the crisis in the country, based on the aims set out in the 2012 Geneva Communiqué, which was adopted by the first international conference on the issue and has been endorsed by the UN security Council.