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With more than 60 million people driven from their homes and millions more crossing borders to seek a better life, the risk of mounting human trafficking and enslavement with all its “horrific abuse” must be confronted, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Kate Gilmore of Australia, a veteran United Nations, Government and non-governmental organization (NGOs) official, as Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.

United Nations Secretary-Genera, Ban Ki-moon has condemned the two bomb attacks in Baghdad, Iraq, which yesterday killed at least 15 civilians and injured several dozen, many of whom were marking the Shi’a religious observance of Arbaeen.

A United Nations human rights expert today urged States to review their unilateral coercive measures imposed on Sudan over the past two decades, “given the developments taking place in the country since the imposition of the sanctions regimes.”

An air strike on a water treatment plant in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo last Thursday cut water supplies to some 3.5 million people, and while pumping has been partly restored, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is warning that 1.4 million still have interruptions in their supply.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has appointed Grammy award-winning recording artist P!nk as the newest UNICEF Ambassador, and announced that she will build on her current role as the agency’s Kid Power National Spokesperson to raise awareness about its lifesaving health and nutrition programmes around the world.

Nearly 500 Iraqi civilians were killed in Iraq last month in a “vicious circle of violence,” ranging from acts of terrorism to armed conflict, as the total number of Iraqi casualties rose to more than 2,100, according to the UN Assistance Mission in the crisis-gripped country.

Welcoming Thailand’s announcement that it has granted nationality to more than 18,000 stateless people in the past several years, the United Nations refugee agency today hailed the move as a further step in accelerating the global campaign to end stateless by 2024.

About a third of the refugees and migrants who have drowned in the Aegean Sea this year were children, while the number of children applying for asylum in the European Union has doubled compared to 2014, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported today, warning of the increasing perils facing youngsters as winter takes hold.

The impacts of climate change on forests and agriculture were in the spotlight today at the United Nations climate change conference (COP21), as new alliances among organizations and stakeholders were announced aiming to eliminate natural deforestation and forest degradation, and to prevent threats to sustainable farming and people’s livelihoods.