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“The struggle to beat AIDS is inseparable from the struggle for women’s rights and from the struggle against all forms of discrimination”. This is the message from Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, on Zero Discrimination Day, which falls on Sunday March 1. The theme of this year’s Day is the fight against discrimination faced by women and girls, and the organization aims to raise awareness, mobilize action, and promote equality.

With the Security Council meeting in emergency session on Syria following the death on the battlefield of dozens of Turkish troops, the UN strongly urged Russia and Turkey on Friday “to build on previous agreements to secure a fresh ceasefire” across the war-torn northwest.

The 21st century must be the century of women’s equality, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday, in a call to transform the world by ensuring equal participation for all. 

With division and distrust rife among countries that possess nuclear arsenals, the UN disarmament chief is hopeful that the issue will be addressed during an upcoming conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

Many women running small businesses in emerging markets in developing countries have to juggle their business objectives with family obligations and personal savings goals. By supporting a women-focused bond providing loans to microfinance institutions and impact enterprises, the UN is helping women entrepreneurs facing similar challenges, to succeed in their professional and private lives.

For an Organization that is seen as all too ready to give advice, the United Nations welcomed a major role reversal on Tuesday: young people from all over the world were gathered in Switzerland to voice their concerns, outline their vision for a better future, and give Secretary-General António Guterres their advice on steering the world body through todays’ turbulent waters.

Lack of political consensus on national priorities could threaten further progress in Somalia which is preparing to hold its first “one-person, one-vote” election in 50 years, UN Special Representative James Swan told the Security Council on Monday. 

While a sudden increase in new cases of COVID-19 is of concern, the spread of coronavirus is not yet a pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. 

It is no longer enough to reaffirm past agreements on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a senior UN envoy, who said on Monday that it is time to “find our way back to a mutually agreed mediation framework” to resume meaningful negotiations towards a two-State solution. 

People’s basic human rights – their birth-right – are “under assault”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, as he launched a Call to Action aimed at boosting equality and reducing suffering everywhere.