UN News Centre

Globally acclaimed Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has kicked off his role as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support the 17 Global Goals known as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, agreed last year by world leaders to tackle our planet’s toughest challenges by 2030.

“A woman of firsts,”is perhaps only a summary description of Dame Margaret Anstee, the first woman to serve as a United Nations Under-Secretary-General.

With more people forced to flee their homes than at any time since World War II, world leaders came together at the United Nations today to adopt the New York Declaration, which expresses their political will to protect the rights of refugees and migrants, to save lives and share responsibility for large movements on a global scale.

Expressing disappointment that humanitarian actors have not been able to reach eastern Aleppo in Syria, the United Nations humanitarian chief urged all parties to the conflict to facilitate regular and sustained access to the besieged and hard-to-reach areas across the country.

The United Nations nuclear energy agency has begun constructing a new laboratory that will enable it to better help countries use nuclear techniques, such as application of irradiation to sterilize insects, in the fight against pests, including mosquitoes that spread the Zika virus and other diseases.

A greater place for science in international decision-making is essential to making real the blueprint for ending extreme poverty and averting the threat of runaway climate change set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today joined the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in launching a ‘Time Machine’ that will use data storytelling to highlight the lack of availability of statistics on children and particularly those related to child-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators.

While welcoming Kuwait’s commitment to fight trafficking in persons, a United Nations human rights expert today urged the Government to further strengthen its assistance and support measures for trafficked and exploited domestic workers, adopt prevention measures, and fully protect their rights.

Highlighting the challenges facing Afghanistan due to decades-long violence and instability, the United Nations envoy to the country stressed today that avenues for peace there must be explored with utmost urgency and seriousness.

The Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) through the end of the year, while reaffirming its readiness to consider withdrawing the operation and transitioning to a future UN presence there following a proposed mid-November review of situation on the ground in the country.

Many refugees view access to a mobile phone and the Internet as being as critical to their safety and security as food, water and shelter, according to a new report out today from the United Nations refugee agency and a technology consulting company.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that the global challenges pertaining to refugees and migrants, climate change, and the war in Syria are the major topics that will likely figure prominently in this year’s high-level week at the United Nations.

The United Nations agricultural agency today released a new action plan to help countries combat the spread of antimicrobial resistance in their food supply chains and to counter the growing threat of medicine-resistant &#39superbugs.&#39

Economic growth is not enough to save those threatened daily with starvation and governments need to tailor policies and investments to transform rural areas in developing countries if they want to eliminate poverty &#8211 those are some of the key findings from a new report by the United Nations rural poverty agency.

Although political space has opened in Libya and there is progress in the fight against terrorism, the political divisions underpinning the North African country’s conflict are deepening, a United Nations envoy warned today.

The United Nations General Assembly today opened its 71st session, with an emphasis on ensuring that implementation of the new global development goals, adopted by its 193 Member States last year, is well underway.

Some 24 hours after the latest cessation of hostilities in Syria began, a United Nations envoy today said that despite allegations of mortar shelling and airstrikes yesterday evening, violence in the country has declined substantially.

The world’s 48 least developed countries (LDCs) have experienced some positive developments, yet challenges remain with new risks and uncertainties threatening development gains, according to a new United Nations report released today.

Close to 300,000 migrants and refugees have reached Europe between the start of this year and mid-September, with most of them entering through Greece and Italy, according to an update from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) today.

Highlighting that the number of pledges to relocate asylum-seekers continues to be woefully low and its implementation slow and challenging, the United Nations refugee agency today called on European countries to do more to deliver significantly on the commitments they have made.