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The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has hailed today’s decision by an Indian court to overturn a 150-year-old law and decriminalize homosexuality, voicing hope that more countries that ban same-sex activity will follow suit.

Economic development in the rural areas of several nations in the Western Balkans is being hindered by challenges related to agriculture, climate change and migration, according to a new report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank.

While West Africa has witnessed some positive trends recently, including the holding of peaceful elections, progress in the region remains fragile and faces a number of threats, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a report published today.

International tourism shrunk by 8 per cent in the first four months of the year as the global economic crisis continued to restrict the budgets of travellers, but the pace of the decline is expected to ease later this year, according to the latest figures released by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the agreement reached by the Gambia and Ghana to end tensions that emerged after the deaths and disappearances of Ghanaian nationals on Gambian territory in 2005.

United Nations agencies have expressed their concerns about the health and welfare of the approximately 2 million displaced people living in north-west Pakistan, while also lauding the Pakistanis who have provided food, shelter and other resources to those in need.

An independent United Nations human rights expert today denounced what he described as “the unlawful naval seizure” by an Israeli gunboat of a ship carrying medicine and reconstruction material for the people of Gaza.

The situation in Myanmar and the global economic crisis topped the agenda today when Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held talks with Singapore’s leaders on the latest stop of his international trip.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced deep concern about Niger’s continuing political and constitutional crisis, warning that it threatens to destabilize the country and undermine recent progress towards democratic governance and the rule of law.

Four independent United Nations human rights experts today voiced serious concern over the situation in Honduras following last weekend’s coup d’état, calling for the immediate restoring of democracy in the Central American country and the lifting of curbs on fundamental freedoms.