The “clear and profound” guidelines enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “have made it the world’s most widely translated document”, the UN Secretary-General told the General Assembly on Tuesday at an event to commemorate the Declaration’s 70th Anniversary, marked 10 December.
As the most basic rights of rural people continue to be trampled on in many parts of the world, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, welcomed Monday the adoption on Monday by the UN General Assembly of a new declaration to help safeguard them.
Efforts to establish a constitutional committee for Syria are worth going the “extra mile” for, UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday, after meeting the foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey - guarantors of a fragile ceasefire in the wartorn country – who agreed that it should convene for the first time early next year, in Geneva.
Recent violence and rising tensions in the West Bank are fuelling a climate of hatred and fear, “driving both Israelis and Palestinians further away” from a resolution to the conflict, the United Nations envoy for the Middle East Peace Process has said.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) launched a $2.7 billion appeal on behalf of South Sudanese refugees on Tuesday, to address Africa’s largest displacement crisis, where millions have been uprooted by years of brutal civil war.
Human migration is “a powerful driver of economic growth, dynamism and understanding,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said, in his message commemorating International Migrants Day, marked on 18 December.
The decision by Kosovo’s parliament to form a national army was described by the UN Peacekeeping chief on Monday as having “further deteriorated relations between Belgrade and Pristina,” which, he said, have been strained for some time.
A negotiated end to the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan “has never been more real…than it is now”, the head of the United Nations peace mission in the country has said, highlighting a series of important milestones achieved over recent months.
The United Nations General Assembly affirmed a non-legally binding Global Compact on Refugees on Monday, marking the latest move by Member States to support the rights of over 68.5 million people have been forced to flee worldwide, including more than 25.4 million people who have crossed borders to become refugees.
The first comprehensive survey of the devastation inflicted on the ancient Syrian city of Aleppo by years of urban warfare, has been published thanks to ground-breaking satellite imaging tools, developed by UN agencies – an essential first step towards its eventual reconstruction.
