Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed to leaders of the European Union (EU) the need to wrap up the bloc’s energy and climate package by the end of the year.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will publish the first-ever world map of underground aquifers, which account for some 96 per cent of global freshwater resources, the agency announced in a press release today.
Shattering previous records, nearly 117 million people in 131 countries stood up last weekend as part of a United Nations-led campaign to demand that world leaders keep their promises to halve extreme poverty and achieve the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their target date of 2015.
The General Assembly today elected 18 countries to serve on the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the principal organs of the United Nations, for three-year terms starting 1 January next year.
The senior United Nations political official expressed his hope today that talks between Israel and Palestine will both continue and intensify – in spite of the transition under way in the former country – in line with the peace process launched last year in the United States city of Annapolis.
Ugandan rebel forces operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) killed six civilians in a deadly attack in the north-eastern village of Bangadi, the United Nations peacekeeping mission to the DRC reported today.
The United States’ system of military commissions planned for suspects currently detained at Guantánamo Bay is not likely to reach international standards about the right to a fair trial, an independent United Nations human rights expert warned today.
The security conditions in Darfur remain so poor that the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping operation cannot operate effectively, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in his latest report on the mission, urging the parties to the conflict in western Sudan to stop fighting immediately and start working towards a peaceful settlement.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today issued a call to action to address the challenges of climate change, global health, terrorism, financial instability and disarmament, all of which are key to securing the common good in a time of global crises.
The world is currently at a critical juncture in global development, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro warned today, noting that the financial turmoil, combined with the food crisis and climate change, threatens efforts to halve poverty and other social and economic ills by the target date of 2015.