International Organizations Concerned by El Niño Funding Gap

The response to the 2015-2016 severe El Nino - which has effected over 60 million people from Southern Africa, to South-East Asia to Latin America -  remains severely underfunded.

Cloning for Medicine: the Miracle that Wasn’t

PARIS, AFP - When Dolly the cloned sheep was born 20 years ago on July 5, many hailed mankind's new-found mastery over DNA as a harbinger of medical miracles such as lab-grown transplant organs.

The Chilcot Inquiry must tell the truth

The long awaited Chilcot Report (5 years) on the Invasion of Iraq will finally be released on 6th July, 2016. The Report is to be welcomed and the hope has been expressed that this inquiry will tell the truth of what happened to the Iraqi people and clarify the UKs involvement, through an official Government recognition of facts of the wars, sanctions and invasion of Iraq and for transparency, accountability and reparation to be paid to the Iraqi people by the UK Government who participated in these illegal and immoral genocidal wars.

First Independent Expert To Tackle LGBTI Discrimination: “Historic Victory”

Human rights groups have described the UN Human Rights Council's (HRC) decision on Thursday to appoint an independent expert to target the ongoing discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people all over the world as a "historic victory."

Suspend Saudi Arabia from Human Rights Council, Human Rights Groups Say

Saudi Arabia’s membership in the Human Rights Council (HRC) should be suspended by members of the UN General Assembly, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) said on Wednesday.

North and South Face Off Over “Right to the City”

The declaration that will be presented for approval at the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in October has again sparked conflict between the opposing positions taken by the industrial North and the developing South.

The Geography of Poverty

World leaders agreed in 2000 to halve the number of people living in poverty by 2015. The poverty line was defined as the purchasing power parity (PPP) equivalent to a US dollar a day, later adjusted to the 2005 PPP equivalent of $1.25 daily in 2008 to the 2012 PPP equivalent of $1.90 daily in 2015. As the cost of living rise unevenly across the world, the World Bank periodically updates the global poverty line to reflect these changes. Nevertheless, there are many concerns about how the line was defined and has been revised over the decades.

Preventable Child Deaths Not Always Linked to Poorest Countries: UNICEF

Millions of children still die before reaching their fifth birthday every year, according to the 2016 State of The World’s Children Report released here Tuesday by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Sweden Among New Members of UN Security Council

Bolivia, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan and Sweden were elected on Tuesday to serve on the UN Security Council (UNSC) as non-permanent members, while Italy and Netherlands have split the remaining contested seat.

The Case for Cash in Humanitarian Emergencies

Currently only six percent of humanitarian aid worldwide comes in the form of cash handouts, yet many aid organisations believe that cash transfers should be seen as the rule, not the exception.

Civil Society Under Serious Attack

Despite their contribution to social justice, civil society organisations came under “serious attack” in 109 countries in 2015, according to a new report published by CIVICUS Monday.

Journalists Face Unprecedented Violence

There has never been a time more dangerous to be a journalist than today. On an average week, one journalist gets killed, according to UNESCO, and the pace of these attacks keeps increasing.

Toward a More Reflective Planet

The last time the atmosphere held as much carbon dioxide as it does today was about three million years ago – a time when sea levels were 10-30 meters higher than they are now. Climate models have long struggled to duplicate those large fluctuations in sea levels – until now. Indeed, for the first time, a high-quality model of Antarctic ice and climate has been able to simulate these large swings. That is smart science, but it brings devastating news.

Will Brexit Have Political Ramifications at UN?

The much-ballyhooed British exit (Brexit) from the 28-member European Union (EU) is likely to have political ramifications at the United Nations – both in the short and the long term.

Making Sustainability Part of the Corporate DNA

Companies, governments and non-profit actors agree that economic growth and sustainable development have to go hand in hand to shape our increasingly globalised world in a fair way.

Least Developed Countries’ Vulnerabilities Make Graduation Difficult

Last month, over two thousand high-level participants from across the world met in Antalya, Turkey for the Midterm Review of the Istanbul Programme of Action, an action plan used to guide sustainable economic development efforts for Least Developed Countries for the 2011 to 2020 period. The main goal was to understand the lessons learnt by the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) over the past five years and apply the knowledge moving forward.

Women’s Health Takes Center Stage at UN Population Awards   

Social Scientist, Carmen Barroso and Polish Organisation, Childbirth in Dignity received the United Nations Population Awards here Thursday for their outstanding work in population, improving individuals’ health and welfare, and specifically for their decades-long leadership in women's rights.

Disagreement Continues Over Global Drug Policy

A new report has found that global drug use largely remains the same, but perspectives on how to address the issue still vary drastically.

Bringing Back Our Girls Is Not The End of The Story

"Wherever war reaches there is rape, and wherever rape is there is trauma, pain and terror” Zainab Bangura, Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict said here last week.

Lords of the Campus

Thomas Pogge is a professor of philosophy at Yale University, one of the most eminent educational institutions in the world. From there he directs the Global Justice Centre, which advocates, among other issues, the premise that the wealthy countries of the world have a moral and ethical responsibility towards providing aid to poorer nations.

UN Staff Unions Demand Stronger Action on Sexual Abuse

The United Nations claims it is doing its best to curb widespread sexual abuses in its peacekeeping operations overseas – from Haiti all the way to the Central African Republic.