News

Prisons have become a fragile link in many criminal justice systems, weakened by over-incarceration, overcrowding, poor conditions and chronic neglect – fuelling calls for urgent reform. 

Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities mark a dangerous new escalation in the Middle East, a top UN official told the Security Council during an emergency session convened on Friday.

Escalating gang violence in Haiti has displaced a record 1.3 million people, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday. 

Ships in the port of Nice sounded their fog-horns on Friday, a brassy crescendo to a rare moment of global unity as the Third United Nations Ocean Conference drew to a close. Moments earlier, more than 170 countries had adopted by consensus a sweeping political declaration promising urgent action to protect the ocean.

UN agencies on Friday continue to stress they must be allowed to deliver aid in the Gaza Strip as famine looms and a telecommunications blackout threatens lifesaving operations. 

As diplomatic efforts continue to end fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN development agency (UNDP) issued an appeal on Friday on behalf of people uprooted by the violence to help them rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

Secretary-General António Guterres condemned Israeli strikes in Iran late Thursday evening, urging ‘maximum restraint’ from Member States. The head of the UN-backed atomic watchdog also highlighted the risk of a wider conflict.  

Meeting in emergency session on Thursday in New York, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and lasting ceasefire in Gaza. 

With over half of the Sudanese population in need of aid and lean season rapidly approaching, the UN Chief for Humanitarian Affairs once again sounded the alarm about the crisis unfolding in Sudan on Thursday. 

Yemen cannot endure more years of division, economic collapse and human suffering, the UN’s top official on the crisis told the Security Council on Thursday, warning that “time is not on our side.”

A London-bound Air India jet carrying 242 people crashed moments after take-off from Ahmedabad on Thursday, reportedly killing more than 200 on board, with dozens still unaccounted for.

Two counties in the Upper Nile State of South Sudan are sliding into famine, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned in a new report released Thursday.