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The United Nations human rights chief today welcomed United States President Barack Obama’s plan to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, expressing hope that “no further obstacles are placed in the way of its implementation.”

Refugees and migrants crossing the seas of Southeast Asia died at a rate three times higher than those in the Mediterranean last year, a new United Nations report has found, highlighting the urgency of greater life-saving cooperation among the affected States.

The United Nations has begun its work of providing international assistance to the Pacific islands of Fiji, hit by a powerful tropical cyclone that left at least 28 people dead and some 14,000 people sheltering in evacuation centres.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the decision today by the President of Burundi to withdraw some media bans, cancel arrest warrants and release detainees as goodwill gestures to try to end months of violence in the crisis-torn country.

The Nigerian authorities should heed the concerns of internally displaced people (IDP) in the north-east of the country, the United Nations refugee agency’s top protection official said following his visit to Borno, the north-eastern state hardest hit by the Boko Haram insurgency.

Following two incidents in the past week that put access to health care in Afghanistan under attack, the United Nations mission in the country has urged all parties to refrain from targeting hospitals and to take all feasible precautions to prevent casualties among their patients and personnel.

The United Nations refugee agency said today it is concerned by recent restrictive practices adopted in a number of European countries that are placing additional undue hardships on refugees and asylum-seekers across Europe, creating chaos at several border points, and putting particular pressure on Greece as it struggles to deal with larger numbers of people in need of accommodation and services.

As the Syrian conflict is entering its sixth year, civilians are bearing the brunt of intensifying hostilities conducted by an ever-increasing number of warring parties, with aerial bombardments by pro-Government forces leaving “few safe places,” a new United Nations-mandated report has found.

The head of a United Nations-mandated body tasked with identifying those behind chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian civil war said today that preliminary work on seven potential cases has been nearly concluded and that in-depth investigations will begin in March.

The United Nations should stay engaged in facilitating a political dialogue between the Government of Maldives and the opposition parties, said a senior UN political official on the heels of a two-day visit to the island nation.