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Wrapping a historic visit to Nigeria, the United Nations rights chief today congratulated the Government for its efforts towards tackling “very difficult human rights problems”, but stressed the need to urgently resolve the conflict in the country’s northeast, end corruption, and protect its vulnerable populations, including the LGBT community, which ‘lives in fear”.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and its partners said today that they are stepping up efforts to help the growing numbers of Central African refugees arriving ill in Cameroon due to hunger and exhaustion during their arduous flight from the war-torn country.

The Security Council today extended for another year the United Nations mission assisting Libya, as preparations in the North African country turn to upcoming parliamentary elections due to be held in June.

The world community must do more, and do better, to tackle the global drug problem, senior United Nations officials stressed today in Vienna, kicking off a two-day review of efforts to address a scourge that poses a serious threat to human life and undermines development.

In an increasingly interconnected world, children are more at risk that ever of being sexually exploited or sold, a United Nations independent expert warned today, calling for decisive steps at the global level to stop crimes such as child prostitution and trafficking.

The United States and China drove international patent filings to a record level last year with applications for the first time surpassing the 200,000 mark, the United Nations intellectual property agency today reported, with record highs also reached for trademark and design applications.

The United Nations and Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria today appealed to the Security Council to assist him in pressing for a possible new round of negotiations bringing together the Syrian Government and opposition groups to end three years of bloodshed in the country.

The United Nations continued efforts on multiple fronts to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine, with a senior human rights official holding meetings today in the capital, Kiev, while in New York, the Security Council held its sixth urgent session on the crisis, hearing the UN political chief stress that the path to a peaceful resolution is still open – “let us seize it.”

Armed conflicts have intensified recently in Syria and other countries, making such places increasingly hazardous to grow up in, a top United Nations child rights official warned the Human Rights Council today as she pledged to keep reaching out to conflict parties and mobilizing the international community to better protect children.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “honoured” to meet at Headquarters with three religious leaders from the Central African Republic (CAR), whom he described as a “powerful symbol of their country’s longstanding tradition of peaceful coexistence.”