Latest News

The United Nations is calling for the traditional age-old truce during the XXI Winter Olympics which open in Vancouver, Canada, this Friday, urging warring parties to lay down their arms as the Games’ ancient Greek founders did some 2,700 years ago.

The great weight of science still supports the findings in a landmark 2007 report from a United Nations-backed panel of experts that global warming is man-made, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said today following recent attacks from climate change sceptics over a mistake in the assessment.

While there has been progress in reducing the incidence of female genital mutilation or cutting in several countries, there are still three million girls who continue to be at risk each year, United Nations officials warned today, calling for redoubled efforts to end this harmful practice.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire has deplored recent violence in the towns of Katiola and Divo and appealed for calm as the voter registration appeals process for the upcoming elections takes place.

Two United Nations agencies today warned that a lack of funding is hampering their efforts to assist the estimated 250,000 civilians uprooted by conflict in Yemen, with the UN refugee agency saying it has received less than three per cent of the needed cash.

A large number of Iraqi refugees sheltering in neighbouring countries will be able to vote in Iraq’s parliamentary elections early next month with help from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency announced today.

A new $2.4 million project between the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Finland aims to help countries develop affordable land administration systems to improve tenure security and land governance.

Nearly 200 cyber experts and other stakeholders seeking access to the Web for scores of millions of people with visual and other disabilities wrapped up a four-day United Nations workshop in Geneva today, stressing the need for universal access despite handicaps.

With hundreds of Haitian schools destroyed or damaged by last month’s devastating earthquake, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has launched a public appeal for donations to help re-establish the education system in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Any agreement between the Afghan Government and the Taliban should include a clear commitment to protect women’s human rights, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women said today.