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MINUSMA/Harandane Dicko

Security Council upholds role of multilateralism in a complex world

7 May 2021
UN Affairs

The President of the UN General Assembly on Friday urged countries to “do better” in making COVID-19 vaccines available to everyone, everywhere, warning that “good intentions are no match for vaccines in arms.” 

© UNICEF/Amarjeet Singh

India’s new COVID-19 wave is spreading like ‘wildfire’, warns UN Children’s Fund

7 May 2021
Health

A new wave of COVID-19 infections is spreading like “wildfire” across India, leaving many youngsters destitute, the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF said on Friday.

Unsplash/Zinko Hein

‘No time to lose’, stop flow of deadly weapons to Myanmar military now, urges UN rights expert

7 May 2021
Peace and Security

The United Nations independent human rights expert on Myanmar on Friday called on countries that have not yet done so, to impose arms embargo on the country urgently, to stop the “massacre” of citizens across the country.

UNRWA/Lara Jonasdottir

Stop evictions in East Jerusalem neighbourhood immediately, UN rights office urges Israel

7 May 2021
Human Rights

The UN’s human rights office (OHCHR), on Friday, called on Israel to immediately halt all forced evictions, including those in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, as well as to exercise maximum restraint in the use of force while ensuring safety and security there.

UNICEF/Giacomo Pirozzi

Brazil: UN rights office urges independent probe into deadly police operation in Rio de Janeiro

7 May 2021
Human Rights

The UN's human rights office (OHCHR) on Friday called for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into a major police operation in a favela in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, in which at least 25 were reportedly killed, including a police officer.

© ICC-CPI

Former LRA leader, ex-child soldier, sentenced to 25 years in prison

6 May 2021
Law and Crime Prevention

A former leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, who himself had been abducted by the rebel group as a child, was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday. 

© UNICEF/Giovanni Diffidenti

Nearly 8 years on, ‘gaps, inconsistencies, discrepancies’ remain over Syria chemical weapons declaration

6 May 2021
Peace and Security

The Security Council heard new evidence in longstanding international efforts to eradicate Syria’s chemical weapons programme on Thursday, including the results of an investigation into the possible of use of chlorine gas in the city of Saraqib in 2018, as the UN’s top disarmament official provided her regular briefing to ambassadors.

Unsplash/Daniel Moqvist

Cut methane emissions to avert global temperature rise, UN-backed study urges

6 May 2021
Climate and Environment

Methane emissions caused by human activity can be reduced by up to 45 per cent this decade, thus helping to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, according to a UN-backed report published on Thursday. 

CIFOR/Nanang Sujana

Guterres renews zero-emissions appeal to avoid falling into climate abyss

6 May 2021
Climate and Environment

All countries should commit to zero carbon emissions by 2050 if the world is to avoid a disastrous 2.4 degree Celsius temperature rise by the end of this century, UN Secretary General António Guterres said on Thursday.

UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

Latin America rights groups face growing threats, attacks: Bachelet

6 May 2021
Human Rights

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Thursday issued an alert over the rising number of threats, attacks and attempts to undermine national human rights institutions, in Latin America and the Caribbean.