The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about the COVID-19 surge in China, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday, in his first virtual briefing for the year.
“We continue to ask China for more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalizations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive, real-time viral sequencing,” he said, speaking from Geneva. More
After a year of brutal warfare from Afghanistan to Ukraine, forcing record numbers to flee their homes, the world needs peace in 2023 “more than ever”, said the UN Secretary-General, in his New Year message.
“Every New Year is a moment of rebirth”, said António Guterres. We sweep out the ashes of the old year and prepare for a brighter day. In 2022, millions of people around the world literally swept out ashes.”
The impact on civilians, meant that over 100 million people found themselves fleeing violence, wildfires, droughts, poverty and hunger, the UN chief said. More
The United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) ended in Montreal, Canada, on 19 December 2022 with a landmark agreement to guide global action on nature through to 2030. Representatives from 188 governments have been gathered in Montreal for the past two weeks for the important summit.
Chaired by China and hosted by Canada, COP 15 resulted in the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) on the last day of negotiations. The GBF aims to address biodiversity loss, restore ecosystems and protect indigenous rights. The plan includes concrete measures to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30 per cent of the planet and 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030. It also contains proposals to increase finance to developing countries – a major sticking point during talks. More
The UN chief said on Monday he was determined to make 2023 “a year for peace” and a “year for action”, highlighting the need for practical solutions to a raft of pressing problems facing all regions of the world.
“We owe it to people to find solutions, to fight back, and to act”, said Secretary-General António Guterres. “At times, discreetly but always with determination, we will fight back.”
Building on his general call to action, Mr. Guterres announced that he would convene a Climate Ambition Summit next September, and called on every leader to “step up – from governments, business, cities and regions, civil society and finance.” More
The UN family and the entire humanitarian community in Afghanistan condemned the Taliban’s decision to close universities to women and called on Wednesday for the de facto authorities to “immediately revoke the decision”.
In a statement, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also urged the de facto authorities to “reopen girls’ schools beyond the sixth grade and end all measures preventing women and girls from participating fully in daily public life”. More
The UN’s key biodiversity conference, COP15, began on Tuesday in Montreal, Canada, where negotiators will set new targets and goals aimed at arresting the alarming destruction of nature, due by human activity.
The conference is being billed as a major biodiversity COP, because it is expected to lead to the adoption of a new Global Biodiversity Framework, guiding actions worldwide through 2030, to preserve and protect our natural resources. More
More than 40 people have been killed in Iran during the past week, including two teenagers, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.
The development came amid ongoing nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini.
Updating the Security Council on Monday, the head of UN Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) recalled that last Friday, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) test-fired what it described as a new-type of intercontinental ballistic missile.
Citing the DPRK’s official news agency and various government sources, Rosemary DiCarlo told ambassadors that at around 10:15 am local time, the so-called Hwasong-17 missile flew a distance of 1,000 km at an altitude of approximately 6,100 km.
“It is reportedly the first successful test of the DPRK’s largest and most powerful missile, capable of reaching all of North America”, she stated. More
After days of intense negotiations that stretched into early Sunday morning in Sharm el-Sheikh, countries at the latest UN Climate Change Conference, COP27, reached agreement on an outcome that established a funding mechanism to compensate vulnerable nations for ‘loss and damage’ from climate-induced disasters. More
The latest report from the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), released on Sunday, shows that the last eight years have been the warmest on record, fuelled by ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations.
The provisional 2022 State of the Global Climate study outlines the increasingly dramatic signs of the climate emergency, which include a doubling of the rate of sea level rise since 1993, to a new record high this year; and indications of unprecedented glacier melting on the European Alps. More