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As World Health Organization officials briefed United Nations Member States in New York today on the Zika virus outbreak, the agency launched a global strategy to guide the international response to the spread of the virus and the neonatal malformations and neurological conditions associated with it.

United Nations peacekeeping is “a tool to advance political, not military solutions to conflict,” Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations today, as the General Assembly subsidiary body opened its 2016 session.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that, along with its partners, the agency has, over the past week, has been able to deliver life-saving food and nutrition support to thousands of people recently displaced by the Boko Haram violence in Chad and Cameroon.

After differences between Government and opposition delegations on the priority of humanitarian issues forced a pause in the Intra-Syrian talks earlier this month, the United Nations envoy mediating the discussions has said he intends to resume them by 25 February, and earlier if possible, a UN spokesperson announced today.

The United Nations is working to ensure that the victims involved in four new allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse involving UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR) have access to the help they need, a spokesperson for the world body said today.

With a human catastrophe unfolding in Yemen, the Security Council and the international community must urge the parties to the conflict to ensure unconditional and sustained humanitarian access to all parts of the country, and take greater measures to protect civilians, the top United Nations emergency relief official said today.

While it is evident that mega sport events such as the Olympics are hugely powerful in inspiring and uniting people across the globe, their influence can extend far beyond sports and provide a platform to promote the values and objectives of the United Nations, including peace and human rights, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.

The top United Nations human rights official announced today he has sought clarifications from the Chinese authorities about the recent arrests of lawyers, and intimidation of Government critics and workers of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), describing these incidents as “a very worrying pattern” that has serious implications for the activities of civil society there.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, veteran Egyptian diplomat and the first United Nations Secretary-General from Africa, passed away today at the age of 93. He is being praised for guiding the Organization through the tumultuous early 1990s and for helping shape the UN's response to post-Cold War realities, drafting a seminal report on preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peacekeeping.

The United Nations human rights office today expressed grave concern over airstrikes yesterday in Syria that hit at least four hospitals and a school, reportedly killing more than 45 people and injuring dozens of others.