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The outgoing United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia today noted that the country has come a long way over the past six years, but advised Government and opposition leaders “to be principled in what they do” to make a liberal democracy a reality for all its people.

Civil unrest continued for a fourth day in areas of Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, after current President Pierre Nkurunziza was nominated by the ruling National Council for the Defence of Democracy – Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party as their candidate for upcoming presidential elections, the United Nations relief arm reported today.

Education programmes in 15 industrialized countries fail to include child rights education in their schools, according to a new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, which also highlights that a fundamental step towards exercising those rights is to know and understand them.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said today that he is gravely concerned about continued ground fighting and aerial bombardment in Yemen and the impact it has on innocent civilians.

A high-level meeting on environment and health in Europe today appealed urgently to all European countries to eliminate asbestos-related diseases, as a new United Nations report showed that one third of the 900 million people living in the region are potentially exposed to asbestos at work and in the environment.

On his first visit to Gaza, the new United Nations envoy on the Middle East peace process pledged today the Organization’s ongoing support for efforts to reconstruct the war-ravaged enclave, lift Israel’s years-long blockade there and help strengthen Palestinian unity.

The top United Nations cultural official said today that artists across the globe have been drawn to the spontaneity and freedom of expression of jazz for over a century, as musicians and music lovers the world over celebrate International Jazz Day.

Some eight million dollars is urgently needed to help disaster-struck Nepalese farmers rapidly recover lost agricultural inputs and resume preparations for the imminent rice sowing season, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

The head of the United Nations body mandated to defend freedom of expression and press freedom called today for an investigation into the killing of a journalist in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 16 April.

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today said that surveillance and community engagement still require improvement in some areas of Guinea and Sierra Leone where new cases continued to surface, a day after the new Special Representative for UN Ebola Response, Peter Graff, was informed of a continued transmission epicentre on the border between those two countries.