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A “new black market” for synthetics and drug trafficking through war zones are fuelling instability around the world, the chief of the UN drugs and crime office said on Monday.

The top UN envoy for Afghanistan on Monday underscored the need for realistic engagement with the country as humanitarian and human rights crises deepen amid growing international isolation.

Gender equality is a critical goal at a time when the demand for rights faces a global backlash, top UN officials told thousands of diplomats, business and civil society delegates gathered at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday for the world’s largest annual conference focused on women’s issues.

Children are feared to be among more than 1,000 people reportedly killed in fierce fighting over the weekend in Syria’s coastal northwest, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said.

Ever since former US First Lady and human rights champion Eleanor Roosevelt inspired the first UN sub-commission on the status of women in the 1940s, thousands of women around the world meet at UN Headquarters in New York every March to take the pulse of the planet and make their voices heard.

Attacks across Ukraine on Friday reportedly left 21 civilians dead and scores injured, making it one of the deadliest days this year, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country said in a statement issued on Saturday night. 

The killing of civilians in coastal areas in northwest Syria must cease immediately, the UN rights chief said on Sunday following a series of coordinated attacks reportedly launched by elements of the former government and other local armed men.

Humanitarian agencies warned on Friday that ongoing Israeli military operations in the northern West Bank are exacerbating an already dire situation for displaced Palestinians.

A UN helicopter attempting to evacuate wounded South Sudanese soldiers in the north of the country was attacked on Friday, killing a crew member and injuring two others.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday that potentially life-saving food and nutrition assistance in Central Sahel and Nigeria will have to end next month, unless emergency funds can be secured.

The fall of the Assad regime has created a historic opportunity to rid Syria of chemical weapons and ensure long-term compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the UN’s top disarmament official told the Security Council on Friday.

Up to one million desperate Syrians living in camps and displacement sites across the country’s northwest intend to return home within the next year – sparking deep concerns of a new humanitarian crisis.