United Nations peace operations must be deployed in support of – not in place of – active diplomatic efforts, Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council today, as he outlined some critical changes necessary to make these missions more effective. “Today we gather to fortify this flagship UN activity,” Mr. Guterres said during an open debate on […]
Opening the annual general debate, the President of the United Nations General Assembly today stressed the need for more work on prevention, a greater focus on people, and keeping promises made to advance prosperity and protect the planet. “We are spending too much time and money reacting to conflicts, and not enough on preventing them,” Miroslav […]
Last month saw a decrease in the number of civilian casualties due to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, according to a new report issued today by the United Nations human rights office, which added that the sudden flaring and easing of tensions continues to make daily life dangerous for civilians living close to the so-called […]
The flow of desperate Rohingya fleeing across the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh is unprecedented in terms of volume and speed, United Nations humanitarian agencies said today, amid calls for international support for the emergency response. About 370,000 people have crossed the Bangladeshi border in the last two and a half weeks, according to the […]
The Security Council today unanimously agreed to impose tighter sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), imposing limits on oil exports, banning the country’s textile imports and access to gas liquids, and more closely inspecting cargo ships going in and out of its ports. In the approved text, the 15-member Council seeks to […]
The United Nations human rights chief today lashed out at the treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar which has led to more than 300,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh in the past three weeks, as security forces and local militia reportedly burn villages and shoot civilians. “The situation seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” Zeid Ra‘ad […]