Latest News

A senior United Nations official today warned that the re-opening of offshore detention centres for migrants and asylum-seekers arriving in Australia by sea could result in violations of human rights, and called on its Government to rethink the country’s asylum and migration policy.

The United Nations top envoy in Iraq today strongly condemned a wave of deadly attacks which left dozens dead and hundreds more wounded across the Gulf country.

Veteran diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi will be the new Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and League of Arab States for the crisis in Syria, taking over the peace-facilitation role played over the past several months by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a spokesperson for the world organization said today.

A former Serb military official was transferred to Portugal to serve a 20-year sentence for crimes committed against non-Serb prisoners of war, the United Nations war crimes tribunal set up in the wake of the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s announced today.

Reaffirming that terrorists and armed groups still pose a threat to Afghanistan, the Security Council today condemned, in the strongest terms, coordinated terrorist attacks across the Central Asian country on 14 and 15 August, which caused numerous deaths and injuries, mostly to civilians.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomes today’s establishment, by President Thein Sein of Myanmar, of a 27-member Commission to investigate the recent violence in the country’s state of Rakhine, according to his spokesperson.

Some 2.5 million people face destitution in Syria as fighting grows ever more intense in populated areas, the United Nations top relief official said today, calling on the Government and donors to facilitate more aid through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the ground.

Education is a crucial component of efforts to advance development in Timor-Leste, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as he continued his visit to the Southeast Asian nation today, stressing that it is essential to step up initiatives to give access to quality schooling to all children.

More than 435,000 people have been displaced in Mali, as the country faces a complex humanitarian emergency due to conflict and food insecurity, according to a new report released by the United Nations relief agency.

As fighting rages on in Syria, conditions have not been met to continue the mission of the United Nations observer force there, but Security Council members, meeting on the situation this morning, have agreed to the creation of a liaison office to support efforts for a political solution to the conflict and respect for human rights, a top official of the world body said today.