Flooding and Food Security: The Urgent Need for Research

Recently, countries around the world, including the United States of America, celebrated the United Nations 2026 World Food Day. This year’s theme, “Innovate Today. Nourish Tomorrow,” highlighted how efforts to foster innovation and forward-thinking solutions can help to ensure that everyone in our world has access to sufficient, diverse, safe, and nutritious foods while safeguarding the planet for future generations.

We Cannot Afford to Manage Chemicals One at a Time

Governments today face an extraordinarily difficult set of tasks: cutting emissions, protecting nature, reducing pollution, creating jobs, strengthening economies, and improving people's health, all while public finances remain under pressure.

The World Is Watching Norway. Will the Country Protect Antarctica?

A global boycott of Antarctic krill products is gathering support. As a Norwegian, I want my country – the world’s largest krill-fishing nation – to change course when it comes to protecting Antarctica.

Choosing the Next UN Secretary-General: The Threat of Veto or Veto Itself Must Not Silence the World

The selection of the next Secretary-General of the United Nations has reached a critical juncture. It raises fundamental questions about fairness, transparency, regional balance, and the democratic legitimacy of the world’s most universal organization.

From 44 Countries, One Shared Commitment: A Child Marriage-Free World

The message from Just Rights for Children (JRC) was clear: protecting children must take precedence over customs used to justify their marriage.

Wanted: A Feminist UN Secretary-General for ‘We the Peoples’, Not the Powerful

Notwithstanding last minute shenanigans and the possibility of backroom deals by powerful states, two women from Latin America are leading contenders in the race for the UN’s next Secretary-General. After 80-plus years of men-only leadership, momentum is building to break the glass ceiling at the global institution dedicated to saving future generations from the scourge of war.

Why Trump Expects the Nobel Peace Prize

Much of the world has been bemused by US President Donald Trump's expectation of the Nobel Peace Prize. While aggressive towards most of the world, friend and foe alike, he has treated hostile nuclear powers more respectfully.

Peace Needs Children’s Voices

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind. The United Nations was established with this commitment.

The Eradication of Extreme Poverty by 2030: a Key UN goal will be a Missed Target

The international day for the eradication of poverty, commemorated last week, was a grim reminder that the UN will not achieve its highly-ambitious target of helping eradicate extreme poverty—"in all its forms”-- by 2030.

International Day of Climate Action 2026

 
The world is getting hotter. And the consequences are already being felt. From devastating floods and prolonged droughts to intensifying heatwaves, climate change is disrupting lives and livelihoods across the globe.

What a Seawater Sample Can Tell Scientists About Ocean Health

A fishing boat’s catch tells only part of the story of the waters around World Heritage sites. Species that escape the net, shelter inside reefs or pass through deeper channels can go unrecorded, leaving communities and conservation officials with an incomplete picture of the marine life supporting coastal livelihoods.

People Who Choose to End Their Lives

People who choose to end their lives through voluntary assisted dying typically face terminal, incurable, or debilitating conditions that cause severe physical or psychological suffering.

Two Summits in Bangkok: IMF/World Bank and Finance Ministers Inside, the People’s Assembly Outside

Bangkok hosted two summits last week. Inside the Queen Sirikit Convention Center, more than 15,000 finance ministers, central bank governors and CEOs of the world’s largest banks and corporations attended the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. They flew in business class and slept in five-star hotels to talk about growth, inflation and public spending, and thus to decide the destiny of billions of people they will never meet. Outside, hundreds of social movements and civil society organizations held the People’s Assembly, for the 99% whose voice would not be heard. They flew economy and often shared modest rooms. The first was the summit of money and power. The second, the summit of the rest of us.

Finding Silver Linings Amid Haze of Climatic Uncertainty

With the city enveloped in a cloak of haze, the urgency of tackling the climate crisis could hardly have been clearer as the four-day Global Tipping Points Conference 2026 drew to a close at Malaysia’s Sunway University on Thursday.

‘Prioritize Social Inclusion as Rapid Transformations Risk Leaving Millions Behind’

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) new report, which addresses the rapid global transformations driven by artificial intelligence (AI), demographic shifts, climate change, and conflict, highlights the widening disparities in employment, social inclusion, and access to services.

If the UN COP17 Is Serious About Biodiversity, It Needs to Follow the Money

On Monday, governments from across the world will gather in Armenia for COP17, the UN biodiversity summit, to assess progress on the global agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. For anyone who cares about the livability of our planet for future generations, and the richness of life on earth, the stakes could hardly be higher. Policy makers will debate targets, implementation, and the lack of money to protect nature, in particular the failure of developed countries to fulfil their obligations. But there is a more basic question that should put at the center of those discussions: what happens when the financial system governments are counting on to fund nature protection is also financing its destruction?

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2026

 
A safe home is more than a roof over our heads. It is the foundation of health, security, opportunity and human dignity. Yet for billions of people, that foundation remains out of reach.

Crisis and Opportunity at the UN

At this year’s highest-profile UN event, Donald Trump publicly mused over his ‘big decision’ about whether to ‘annihilate’ Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as dozens of delegates walked out, branded those who condemn genocide in Gaza ‘moral cowards’.

World Lost More Than 7 Million Hectares of Forest in 2025

The world lost more than 7 million hectares of forest to deforestation in 2025, a modest improvement on recent years but still far from what is needed to meet global forest protection targets by 2030, according to a new assessment of international conservation efforts.

When Medicine Becomes a Tool for Torture: The Hidden Role of Medical Personnel in Russian Captivity

Medicine is supposed to protect human life and dignity. Yet testimonies from Ukrainians released from Russian captivity reveal a disturbing reality: medical personnel in places of detention have not only denied prisoners necessary treatment but, in documented cases, participated in torture and ill-treatment.

UN to Launch Survey to Track Down Racism at the Secretariat

The United Nations has once again revived a longstanding problem that has been left lingering behind closed doors for decades – racism and racial discrimination at the UN Secretariat.