UN health agency declares elimination of measles in the Americas
The region of the Americas is the first in the world to have eliminated measles, a viral disease that can cause severe health problems, the United Nations health agency has declared. “This is an historic day for our region and indeed the world,” said Carissa F. Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization of […]
Repealing anti-abortion laws would save the lives of nearly 50,000 women a year – UN experts
Warning that unsafe abortions kill nearly 50,000 women each year, United Nations human rights experts today called on States across the world to repeal restrictive abortion laws and policies, and all punitive measures and discriminatory barriers to access safe reproductive health services.
Vast majority of world – 6.76 billion people – living with excessive air pollution – UN report
With some 6.5 million people dying annually from air pollution and 92 per cent of the world’s population living in places where levels exceed recommended limits, the United Nations today rolled out its most detailed profile of the scourge ever in a bid to slash the deadly toll.
‘Colombians bidding farewell to decades of flames,’ Ban says in Cartagena, pledging UN support to historic peace deal
26 September 2016 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has described the signing of the historic peace agreement between the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP), as a “bidding of farewell to decades of flames, and sending up of a bright flare of hope that illuminates the entire […]
Least developed countries will miss 2021 targets without world support – deputy UN chief
Unless progress speeds up considerably with full support from the international community, the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) will miss the growth and productivity targets they have set themselves by the target date of 2021, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson warned today. “Structural constraints, natural disasters, pandemics, conflict and post-conflict situations, and climate […]
Small island States threatened by rising seas call at UN General Assembly for urgent mitigation
Small island Pacific States threatened with disappearing under the flood of rising oceans took the podium at the General Assembly today to warn that the United Nations remains their last best hope as climate change outpaces efforts to counter it. “Twenty-five years ago, the small island developing States cried out for action against human-induced climate […]