culture

A teacher and school-funder who helped the release of some of the Chibok girls from Boko Haram extremists in Nigeria, has been declared the winner of this year’s Nansen Refugee Award, sponsored by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Zannah Mustapha has opened schools in the conflict zone of north-east Nigeria, where the Boko Haram group first began its terror campaign.

He provides free education to child victims of violence.

New UN relief chief relays voices of displaced to world leaders

Gender equality a “driver” in fighting violence against women and girls

Only female contingent commander in South Sudan heads new hospital project in Bentiu

When he took office in January of this year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres pledged to reach gender parity across the global organization.

Mr Guterres took that commitment a step forward this week by launching a strategy to reach parity among senior leaders by 2021, and ultimately across the UN system in 2028.

Currently, there is a negative correlation between the representation of women and seniority in the UN as the proportion of women staff decreases as grade levels increase.

Emtithal (Emi) Mahmoud writes poetry to draw attention to the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan, as well as the global refugee crisis.

The Sudanese poet, who currently lives in the United States, recently visited El Fasher, Darfur.

Brought up in the region - which has suffered years of conflict - she left Sudan as a toddler for Yemen, and reached the United States in 1998.

Emi first discovered slam poetry while attending Yale University, and holds two world championship titles for her work, which expresses her love and connection to Sudan and its people.

A slave uprising in the Caribbean nearly 300 years ago represents a symbolic victory for human rights and freedom.

That’s according to the UN educational and cultural organization, UNESCO, which celebrates the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition annually on 23 August.

"Time running out” to stop terrorism’s spread across the Sahel

Time is “running out” to find and implement solutions to the spread of terrorist groups and their extremist ideology across Africa’s Sahel region. That’s according to El Ghassim Wane, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, briefing the Security Council on Tuesday. He was outlining preparations for the deployment of a new Sahel Joint Force, by the governments of the so-called G-5: Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.

A new generation of “impartial but competent” young journalists is on the rise across the Pacific, thanks in part to training being offered by the UN Educational and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.

That’s the upbeat assessment of UNESCO’s Director of Office and Representative to the Pacific States, Nisha.

This week we're bringing you a special programme to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week, which runs until 7 August.

Breastfeeding protects both babies and their mothers from an array of diseases and helps boost their health long-term.

But despite the benefits of breastfeeding for babies and mothers, no country in the world fully meets recommended standards for the practice.