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Prior to a meeting today at the United Nations on sovereign debt restructuring, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) announced that in order to deal with sovereign debt crises – which are creating a growing threat to economic stability in many developing countries – the world is in need of new ways to tackle the problem.

“Tremendous” efforts and increased investments are expected from countries and international organizations in order to improve national statistical capacities in achieving the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Zero Hunger target, José Graziano da Silva, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said today in Rome.

In a near unanimous action, the United Nations General Assembly today adopted a resolution underlining the need to end to the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba, while also welcoming progress in the relations between the two countries.

United Nations human rights expert Ikponwosa Ero called upon government representatives gathered in New York for the General Assembly to take swift action to end a growing problem of violence and severe discrimination against people with albinism.

Joined by staff and families of the women and men of the United Nations who lost their lives between 1 January 2015 and 30 June 2016, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a memorial service at UN Headquarters today that “those who destroy may think bombs and bullets are the most powerful force […] but nothing is more powerful than the human spirit.”

As newly-displaced Iraqis are starting to arrive at camps set up by the United Nations for people fleeing the ongoing military offensive to wrest Mosul from terrorists, the Organization’s health and refugee agencies have ramped up their own operations to provide assistance and to respond to what has thus far been a ‘moderate’ influx.

Following a meeting with Afghan civil society representatives today in Kabul, senior UN officials stressed that securing women’s rights is essential to strategies that combat violent extremism and encouraged the Government to develop and implement human-rights based and gender sensitive polices to address to address its drivers.

With nearly 400,000 children facing starvation in Nigeria, and citizens suffering with little to no protection, security, food or access to clean water, “Nigeria is facing the worst humanitarian crisis on the African continent,” Peter Lundberg, the acting United Nations Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator, warned today.

An alarming rise in hate speech and incitement to violence against certain ethnic groups in South Sudan has prompted the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, to issue a warning that if the community and political leaders at the highest levels do not rein it in, mass atrocities in the country could erupt.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has strongly condemned the killing of 26 civilians who were earlier taken hostage by a group of armed men in country’s central Ghor province.