UN News Centre

Despite the immense needs in conflict-affected areas of northern Mali, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) is hampered by constrained access and limited funding, and is thus calling for &#8220action now&#8221 to help the more than 380,000 children who remain out of school in the region.

On a December evening in 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was beaten and brutally raped by five men and a youth on board an off-duty bus in the Indian capital, New Delhi. The injuries she sustained were so severe that she succumbed to them 13 days later, setting off protests in India and around the world for ending the scourge of violence against women.

To mark International Anti-Corruption Day the United Nations is calling for people across the globe to join a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about what Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called a “corrosive” scourge, and encouraging people from all walks of life to take action against this crime.

The United Nations Security Council today adopted a historic resolution on youth, peace and security that urges greater representation by young men and women in the prevention and resolution of conflict amid “the rise of radicalization to violence and violent extremism amongst youth, which can be conducive to terrorism.”

Despite a significant reduction in hostilities in eastern Ukraine in the last few months in a conflict that has already left over 9,000 people dead and nearly 21,000 injured, serious human rights concerns persist, including killings, torture and impunity, the United Nations reported today.

The world is making “significant progress” toward malaria elimination with prevention and treatment efforts saving more than 660 million lives and $900 million in case management costs since 2001, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported.

A new stage in the development of a final agreement on climate change to limit global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius or less has been reached today, according to the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change.

Warning of dire effects of climate change, abject poverty, fast population growth and a tormenting rise in violence and insecurity in Africa’s Sahel region, United Nations agencies and partners today launched the Sahel humanitarian appeal for 2016, which includes a regional plan that calls for $1.98 billion to provide vital assistance to millions of people in nine countries across the region.

The violent activities of armed groups such as Boko Haram and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have triggered a dire humanitarian and security crisis in Central Africa, the United Nations envoy on the region said today, telling the Security Council the challenges faced by the affected countries should not be underestimated and ongoing vigilance and international support is needed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today issued a comprehensive analysis of global health trends since 2000, and laid out actions that should be prioritized over the next 15 years to achieve the newly-agreed United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), saying that universal health care is the “linchpin of development in health.”

Hundreds of thousands of people affected in catastrophic collapse of a mining dam in southeastern Brazil still lack full access to safe drinking water and sanitation more than one month after the disaster, a United Nations expert warned today, calling on the Government to urgently tackle the crisis and ensure people’s basic rights.

Voicing grave concern at terrorist safe havens in Libya and the humanitarian crisis caused by Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria, the United Nations Security Council today appealed for greater international security cooperation and more humanitarian aid to bring stability to sub-Saharan Africa.

United Nations agencies and their aid partners today expressed their “deepest concern” over critical and growing shortages of lifesaving medicines and supplies across Nepal and appealed to all sides to ease an effective blockade of the country’s southern border due to unrest over a new constitution.

Welcoming the recent elections in Myanmar as ‘a new chapter in the country’s history,’ United Nations Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee today reaffirmed her commitment to work with all parties in the country to improve the human rights situation there, saying "the people have expressed the will for change. There is no turning back now."

While recognizing Israel’s “serious security challenges,” a senior United Nations official today called its punitive demolition of the homes of alleged attackers “inherently unjust” and against international law, noting that 20 Palestinians, eight of them children, were made homeless in the past three days.

A recent multi-country survey revealed that people are confused about the rising threat of antibiotic resistance to public health and are unclear about how to prevent it from growing, World Health Organization (WHO) said today at the launch of a global campaign at the initiation of the first World Antibiotic Awareness Week.

More than five years since the unrest in Syria began, senior United Nations officials today stressed to the Security Council that the status quo in the war-torn country cannot continue, highlighting the effects of the conflict on civilians, especially women and children.

The current El Niño, a weather pattern of devastating droughts and catastrophic floods that can affect tens of millions of people around the globe, is expected to strengthen further by year&#39s end, on track to be one of the three strongest in 65 years, according to the latest update from the United Nations weather agency.

Libya continues to be embroiled in political strife and deadly violence &#8211 with all parties committing possible war crimes amid multiple armed conflicts affecting several regions and contributing to a general breakdown of law and order, according to a new United Nations human rights report released today.

Tolerance is much more than passively accepting the &#8220other;&#8221 it brings obligations to act, and must be taught, nurtured and defended, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling on the world to recognize the mounting threat posed by those who strive to divide, and pledge to forge a path defined by dialogue and mutual understanding.