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Nearly half of the world's child brides in 2050 will be African, if current trends persist, due to the continent's rapid population growth and lagging social reforms, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned, calling for sharper focus on reaching the poorest and most marginalized girls with quality education and a host of other protective services.

A United Nations expert on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) today warned that nothing has changed in the country since the UN Commission of Inquiry on DPRK presented its landmark report to the Human Rights Council two years ago.

The head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today delivered an opening statement at the meeting of its Board of Governors by addressing issues of technical cooperation, nuclear applications, nuclear energy, safety and security, and nuclear verification.

During a visit to UN Headquarters in Nairobi, Pope Francis today called on world leaders to seal a strong agreement at the upcoming UN climate change conference (COP21), stating that transforming current development models is a "political and economic obligation."

Droughts, floods, storms and other disasters triggered by climate change have risen in frequency and severity over the last three decades, increasing the damage caused to the agricultural sectors of many developing countries and putting them at risk of growing food insecurity, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today in a new report.

Just days away from the kick-off of the 21st United Nations climate change conference — widely known as COP21 — the UN is reminding its main actors that this conference must be a turning point for climate action.

Alarmed by latest killings in violent clashes over the weekend in Nepal, bringing the death toll to at least 50 since protests against the new Constitution began in August, the United Nations human rights office today urged Nepalese authorities to follow international standards on use of force, respect dissenting voices and engage them in a “meaningful, inclusive and open dialogue.”

United Nations agencies are stepping up aid deliveries to non-Government-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine where more than 100,000 people, cut off from assistance for months, are now facing added hardship with the approach of the bitter east European winter.

Without international aid to improve education and jobs, the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa will become fertile ground for recruiting terrorists among its tens of millions of disadvantaged people, the top United Nations official for the region warned the Security Council today.

Reminding the world that the sooner action is taken to tackle climate change, the greater the benefits for all, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said that for the nearly nine years, he has been at the head of the Organization, he has travelled the world to the front-lines of climate change, and spoken repeatedly with world leaders, business people and citizens about the need for an urgent global response.