Amidst recent allegations of war prisoners being summarily executed in Ukraine, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed his shock on Friday over unabated human suffering as Russian missile and drone strikes against critical infrastructure continue on a broad scale.
On Thursday, the UN launched amplifyHER; a vibrant, music-filled podcast, celebrating exciting women artists from around the world.
On average, more than five women or girls were killed every hour in 2021 by someone in their own family, two UN agencies said in a report published on Wednesday.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for greater global efforts to achieve the goal of reducing traffic deaths and injuries by half by 2030.
After days of intense negotiations that stretched into early Sunday morning in Sharm el-Sheikh, countries at the latest UN Climate Change Conference, COP27, reached agreement on an outcome that established a funding mechanism to compensate vulnerable nations for ‘loss and damage’ from climate-induced disasters.
The 27th UN Climate Change Conference will close at least one day later than expected, the Egyptian Presidency announced on Friday, calling for negotiators to “shift gears” so an agreement can be reached on the remaining sticking points.
COP27 is scheduled to wrap up in 24 hours but countries remain divided on several significant issues including ‘loss and damage’, the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday, urging parties to rise to the urgency of the moment and agree on real solutions to solve the greatest challenge facing humanity.
For many years the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis have been treated as separate issues, but the reality – as highlighted on Wednesday at COP27– is that there is no viable route to limiting global warming to 1.5°C without urgently protecting and restoring nature.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday launched a new climate financing initiative designed to help countries address current and growing impacts of the climate crisis, and better cope with disasters.
The troubling expansion of oil, gas and coal projects, despite science telling us that fossil fuels must stay in the ground to avert the worst impacts of climate change, was the critical issue at the centre of ‘Energy Day’ discussions at COP27 on Tuesday, with many experts fearing that the goal of curbing global warming to 1.5 could be in danger.
