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A team of scientific divers assess the marine biodiversity on the top of a seamount in Porto Santo, Madeira, Portugal.
© Nuno Vasco Rodrigues/UN World Oceans Day 2023

Beyond borders: Why new 'high seas' treaty is critical for the world

The UN’s 193 Member States adopted a landmark legally binding marine biodiversity agreement on Monday following nearly two decades of fierce negotiations over forging a common wave of conservation and sustainability in the high seas beyond national boundaries – covering two thirds of the planet’s oceans. Here are five key points on why it is important for the world.

The Government of Togo and the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) destroyed 2,000 seized and obsolete weapons and 10,000 rounds of ammunition to mark the International Day of Peace.
UNREC

Trafficking in the Sahel: Muzzling the illicit arms trade

Shoppers in Mali’s Gao, Timbuktu, and Ménaka regions can snap up AK-pattern assault rifles for $750 and cartridges for 70 cents apiece, from locally handcrafted pistols to smuggled French and Turkish machine guns, as a dizzying array of illegal weaponry dots market stalls across the Sahel, a 6,000-kilometre-wide belt in the middle of Africa.

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Lebanese poet and artist Kahlil Gibran was celebrated at the United Nations on the 100th anniversary of his most famous work, The Prophet, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Kahlil Gibran Museum

Century-old call for equality resonates today

One of the world’s most celebrated poets is also one of the closest to the heart of the UN. Kahlil Gibran wrote The Prophet a century ago, and this milestone was marked at a special exhibit at the UN, which is also celebrating 75 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.