UN News Centre

A United Nations-backed report issued today has revealed that despite a 79 per cent worldwide decrease in measles deaths between 2000 and 2015, nearly 400 children still die from the disease every day.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Marrakech (COP 22), put its spotlight today on cities, towns and regions around the world that are striving to play a key role in implementing the Paris Agreement, which entered into force on 4 November, including by reducing their carbon emissions.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is advocating a collaboration between the international conservation community and palm oil developers in order to create sustainable strategies that will save fragile ecosystems and the species that inhabit them, particularly apes.

Rise in the price indices of staple grains, sugar and dairy have pushed global food price index up by 0.7 per cent in October 2016 to 172.6 points (9.1 per cent from a year earlier), the United Nations food and agricultural agency said today.

An international protocol on forced labour has entered into force, a major milestone in the fight to end the practice, which the United Nations labour agency estimates victimizes 21 million people worldwide.

A senior United Nations relief official today announced the release of $12 million from the Humanitarian Fund in Central African Republic (CAR) for 26 projects for national and international non-governmental organizations and UN agencies in the sub-Saharan country.

Noting the centrality of science in major global sustainable development agenda, the head of the United Nations educational and scientific agency underscored the importance of science centres and museums to build skill and capacities as well as to send strong messages about the importance of science for sustainable development.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will make the situation in Libya a priority in 2017, its prosecutor said today, citing the widespread violence, lawlessness and impunity in the country and the tragic consequences of the conflict borne by civilians.

Ahead of the inaugural World Tsunami Awareness Day on 5 November, two survivors of the most devastating tsunami in recent history – a Czech supermodel and a member of the Spanish family featured in the film The Impossible (2012) – have joined the United Nations’ commemoration of the Day.

Voicing concern over the many pressing human rights impacts on some six million people since the worst mine disaster occurred in Brazil one year ago, a group of United Nations human rights experts today issued a strong call on the Government to immediately redouble efforts to solve health problems and speed up the resettlement process of those affected.

With the Paris Agreement on climate change entering into force today, famed chefs Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca are joining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG Fund) to tackle climate change from a different perspective: sustainable cooking.

As Haiti struggles to recover from the massive destruction wrought by Hurricane Matthew, which pummelled the tiny island one month ago today, the United Nations warned that while its seems as if “the world has moved on,” Haiti’s needs are vast, exemplified by the nearly 600,000 children being stalked by disease, hunger and malnutrition and in need of assistance.

The ongoing conflict in South Sudan has led to immense suffering and displacement, with an average of 3,500 people fleeing the country each day to neighbouring countries, prompting the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), national authorities, and other humanitarian actors to race to create safe and humane conditions for arrivals – 90 per cent of whom are women and children.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today warned that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) fighters have taken some 1,600 civilians to Mosul city in an attempt to shield themselves from airstrikes, and that nearly 400 women from Kurdish, Yezidi or Shi’a Muslim communities in Tal Afar are now being held captive.

As the Paris Agreement on climate change enters into force, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for the same determination going forward to implement the Agreement as well as to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

A number of children and pregnant women were among the 240 people reported to have drowned off the coast of Libya while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea this week, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund said.

After an independent inquiry found that the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) failed to protect civilians as deadly violence broke out in and around its premises in the capital, Juba, in July, the top UN peacekeeping official today announced that he has established a task force to carry out the probe’s recommendations, which include ensuring greater accountability of the mission’s leadership.

With some 546,000 women of reproductive age in Haiti affected by Hurricane Matthew, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has urged greater attention to women’s vulnerability in the aftermath of the storm, which devastated not only people’s livelihoods but health facilities and other vital infrastructure.

Strongly condemning repeated violations of the ceasefire arrangements by the Plateforme and Coordination in and around northern Mali’s restive Kidal town, the United Nations Security Council today warned that such acts threaten the viability of the peace agreement in the country and called on the armed groups to immediately cease hostilities and return to dialogue.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed today the announcement of the adoption of the new Constitution in Côte d'Ivoire by the Commission Electorale Indépendante, which followed the 30 October constitutional referendum.