SDGs

After days of continuous rains parts of Haiti’s north including Cap Haitian suffered serious flooding leaving more than a dozen dead and thousands homeless. (November 2014)
MINUSTAH/Logan Abassi

New UN Global Climate report ‘another strong wake-up call’ over global warming: Guterres

28 March 2019
Global

The increasing number of natural disasters and dangers linked to climate change, highlighted in a major UN report released on Thursday, represents “another strong wake-up call” to the world, which must be countered by finding sustainable solutions quickly, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed.
ESCAP/Diego Montemayor

Asia-Pacific showing ‘decisive leadership’ on road to 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, deputy UN chief tells key forum

27 March 2019
Asia Pacific

Nations across Asia and the Pacific need to take bold action to ensure empowerment, inclusiveness and equality if the region is to realize the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a major UN conference has heard.

Manhattan, New York.
UN News/Ana Carmo

Tenants ‘forced out their homes’ by global investment firms, say UN experts

26 March 2019
Global

UN human rights experts have condemned the ‘egregious’ business practices of global private equity and investment firms which, they say, have transformed the global housing landscape by raising rents and forcing some tenants out of their homes.

African Sustainable Fashion in Nairobi, Kenya.
UNEP/Cyril Villemain

UN launches drive to highlight environmental cost of staying fashionable

25 March 2019
Global

It takes around 7,500 litres of water to make a single pair of jeans,  equivalent to the amount of water the average person drinks over a period of seven years. That’s just one of the many startling facts to emerge from recent environmental research, which show that the cost of staying fashionable is a lot more than just the price tag.

Before a UN Environment-supported rainwater harvesting project was set up at Kingani secondary school in the coastal town of Bagamoyo, the drinking water used to be so salty that students would complain of headaches, stomach aches and ulcers.
UN Environment/Hannah McNeish

Safe drinking water, sanitation, are ‘basic human rights’: new UN Water Development report

19 March 2019
Global

Safe water and access to proper sanitation are essential to eradicate poverty, build peaceful societies and ensure that no one is left behind on the path towards sustainable development, according to the 2019 UN World Water Development Report, launched on Tuesday in Geneva. 

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed addresses the Fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA4) in Nairobi, Kenya.
UNEP/Cyril Villemain

Make this the year of ‘transformative solutions’ to avert disastrous climate change: UN Deputy Chief

14 March 2019
Global

It is within our power to make 2019 the “year of transformative solutions” and “avoid the disastrous effects of climate change“, which threaten ecosystems, the global economy, health and security, the UN Deputy Secretary-General told delegates gathered in Nairobi for the UN Environment Assembly, on Thursday.

Civil Society Representatives Mary Fatiya (South Sudan) and Muniba Mazari (Pakistan) address the Commission on the Status of Women held in the General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters.
UN Women/Ryan Brown

Annual UN women activists’ summit opens with focus on services, infrastructure

11 March 2019

A wheelchair-bound Pakistani mother who yearned to visit a park without worrying about ramp access, and a young South Sudanese woman who dreams of having affordable health care, were among the speakers opening the United Nation’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s rights on Monday.

Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, addressing the Human Rights Council on the state of global human rights, 6 March, 2019.
UN Photo/Violaine Martin

Without tackling ‘gross inequalities’ major issues will go unsolved, warns UN rights chief Bachelet

6 March 2019

Inequality continues to drive rights violations everywhere, but some countries have made significant progress in tackling the problem, not least in women’s rights, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

A boy waiting for his school bus in the Songinokhairkhan district of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where air pollution levels are dangerously high.
© UNICEF/Mungunkhishig Batbaatar

Air pollution, the ‘silent killer’ that claims seven million lives a year: rights council hears

4 March 2019

Shifting to renewable energy could save up to 150 million lives by the end of the century amid concerns that six billion people regularly inhale air “so polluted that it puts their life, health and well-being at risk”, a UN-appointed independent rights expert said on Monday.

Anupriya, a child with disabilities takes part in development activities at an Anaganwadi center in Cherki, Bihar, India. Around 93 million children with disabilities are at risk of being left behind.
© UNICEF/UN0280961/Vishwanathan

93 million children with disabilities ‘among the most likely to be left behind’: UN rights chief

4 March 2019

States should do more for an estimated 93 million children with disabilities who are “among the most likely to be left behind and the least likely to be heard”, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said on Monday.