Timeline League of Nations and United Nations B: 2016
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UN_B 2016 - Present
2016 Jan 9, UN officials said at least 10 people have died and over 1,000 fallen sick with cholera in an outbreak among Somali refugees in the world's largest refugee camp in Kenya.
(AFP, 1/9/16)
2016 Jan 15, The UN said it has documented cases of Burundi's security forces gang-raping women during searches of opposition supporters' houses and heard witness testimony of mass graves.
(Reuters, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 15, The UN children's fund UNICEF confirmed cases of severe malnutrition among children in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, where local relief workers reported 32 deaths of starvation in the past month.
(Reuters, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 18, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon signed a letter informing the General Assembly that 15 countries including oil producer Venezuela are in arrears in paying their annual contribution to the UN regular budget, which means they can't vote in the 193-member world body unless there are exceptional circumstances.
(AP, 1/22/16)
2016 Jan 19, The UN said the number of civilians killed in violence in Iraq over the past two years is "staggering", with at least 18,802 people killed and another 36,245 injured. The figures count only documented casualties from January 1, 2014, through October 31, 2015, and the actual numbers were likely far higher.
(AFP, 1/19/16)
2016 Jan 19, The UN said an estimated 3,500 people, mainly women and children, are being held as slaves in Iraq by Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 1/19/16)
2016 Jan 20, The UN World Food Program said that some 2.5 million people in the Central African Republic face hunger. The number has doubled in just one year.
(AP, 1/20/16)
2016 Jan 21, A UN report said South Sudanese government troops held women as sex slaves while attacking scores of civilians just outside UN bases in Unity state.
(SFC, 1/22/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 23, In Ethiopia UN Security Council ambassadors and African Union leaders met for crisis talks on Burundi, after the government refused a proposed AU force to stem violence in the troubled country.
(AFP, 1/23/16)
2016 Jan 26, UNICEF said some 250 million children live in countries affected by violent conflicts, and that it needed nearly $3.0 billion this year to help the most vulnerable of them.
(AFP, 1/26/16)
2016 Jan 27, The UN launched an appeal for $393 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan to help millions of vulnerable people this year.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, The UN said some 34,000 people in Sudan's western Darfur region have fled fierce clashes between government forces and rebels around the mountainous Jebel Marra area.
(AFP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 29, The UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura will meet a Syrian government delegation in Geneva to kick off the first peace talks for almost two years and will later meet other participants in the talks, his office said in a statement.
(Reuters, 1/29/16)
2016 Jan 31, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warnedy Ethiopia is struggling from its worst drought for 30 years with some 10.2 million in dire need of life saving aid.
(AFP, 1/31/16)
2016 Jan 31, The UN launched an appeal for $861 million in international humanitarian assistance to help millions of people in Iraq who are suffering from war and displacement.
(AFP, 1/31/16)
2016 Feb 3, A confidential report to the UN Security Council accused Rwanda of recruiting and training Burundian refugees with the goal of ousting Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(Reuters, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 4, A UN envoy halted his attempts to conduct Syrian peace talks after the army, backed by Russian air strikes, advanced against rebel forces north of Aleppo, choking opposition supply lines from Turkey to the city.
(Reuters, 2/4/16)
2016 Feb 4, The UN children's agency released a report saying at least 200 million girls and women in 30 countries are estimated to have undergone female circumcision — half of them in Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia.
(AP, 2/4/16)
2016 Feb 5, A UN panel said it had adopted an opinion "in which it considered that Mr Julian Assange was arbitrarily detained by the governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland." It added: "The working group also considered that the detention should be brought to an end and that Mr Assange should be afforded the right to compensation."
(AFP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 5, A UN report said thirty-four militant groups from around the world had reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State extremist group as of mid-December — and that number will only grow in 2016.
(AP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 8, The UN said at least 40,000 people are being starved to death in South Sudan war zones on the brink of famine.
(AFP, 2/8/16)
2016 Feb 10, The United Nations Development Program said it has raised $60 million for food aid in Zimbabwe and is feeding 1 million people as the country faces its worst drought in a quarter century.
(Reuters, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 12, In northern Mali militants attacked a UN base, killing at least 3 people and injuring 30 others in Kidal.
(AP, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 15, The UN World Food Program (WFP) said as many as 49 million people in southern Africa could be affected by a drought that has been worsened by the most severe and longest El Nino weather pattern in 35 years.
(Reuters, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 16, In Egypt Boutros Boutros-Ghali (93), the first UN chief from the African continent, died in Cairo. He helped negotiate Egypt's landmark peace deal with Israel but then clashed with the United States when he served a single term as UN secretary-general (1992-1996).
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 25, A UN human rights report documented thousands of cases of beheadings, arbitrary detention and torture involving electrocution and beatings with pipes and cables in an increasingly lawless Libya, where impunity has grown since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi nearly five years ago.
(AP, 2/25/16)
2016 Mar 1, North Korea said it will boycott the UN Human Rights Council deploring the "politicization" of the body.
(Reuters, 3/1/16)
2016 Mar 2, The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that dramatically expands existing UN sanctions on North Korea in response to its Jan. 6 nuclear test, a measure largely negotiated by Washington and Beijing.
(Reuters, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 11, The UN said South Sudan has encouraged fighters to rape women in place of wages while children have been burnt alive and called the young nation one of the world's most "horrendous" human rights situations.
(AFP, 3/11/16)
2016 Mar 11, The UN Security Council approved its first-ever resolution tackling the escalating problem of sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers who act as predators when sent to protect vulnerable civilians in some of the world's most volatile areas.
(AP, 3/11/16)
2016 Mar 14, The United Nations human rights investigator for North Korea called for leader Kim Jong Un and senior officials in the country to be prosecuted for committing crimes against humanity.
(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 14, In Switzerland UN mediator Staffan de Mistura opened talks to end a five-year war in Syria. The first of three rounds of talks aimed to agree a "clear roadmap" for Syria fail to make progress.
(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 16, The United Nations' food agency said it needed $220 million in funding to provide assistance to drought-hit Zimbabwe until March 2017.
(Reuters, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 22, This year's United Nations World Water Day focused on water and jobs and designed to highlight how water can create paid and decent work and contribute to a greener economy and sustainable development. Some 650 million people, or one in 10 of the world's population, lacked access to safe water.
(Reuters, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 16, The Moroccan government said it reducing its support for the UN peacekeeping operation in Western Sahara in response to UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s recent comments about the disputed territory.
(SFC, 3/17/16, p.A2)
2016 Mar 18, The UN World Food Program said some Syrians in the besieged areas of Daraya and Deir al-Zor have been reduced to eating grass because food supplies are cut off.
(Reuters, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 22, The UN Security Council agreed to a Chinese request to remove sanctions on four ships the United Nations had blacklisted for ties to Pyongyang's arms trade. The agreement came after China secured assurances the vessels would not use North Korean crews.
(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 24, UN war crimes judges at The Hague threw out one of two charges of genocide against wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. The UN war crimes tribunal handed a genocide conviction and 40-year sentence to Karadzic.
(AFP, 3/24/16)(AFP, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 25, In the Congo DRC UN helicopter gunships attacked Ugandan rebels active in the volatile east, inflicting casualties.
(AFP, 3/25/16)
2016 Mar 31, UN war crimes judges acquitted radical Serb leader Vojislav Seselj (61) on all nine charges of committing atrocities in the 1990s Balkans wars in a surprise verdict swiftly denounced as "shameful" by Croatia.
(AFP, 3/31/16)
2016 Apr 1, The UN peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo said that it has received allegations of sexual abuse against Tanzanian peacekeepers based in Congo's northeast.
(Reuters, 4/2/16)
2016 Apr 22, Leaders from 175 states gathered at the UN on Earth Day to sign the Paris climate deal, a record turn-out that boosted hopes of quick action on combating global warming. The Paris agreement will come into force as soon as 55 countries responsible for 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gases have ratified the accord.
(AFP, 4/22/16)(SFC, 4/23/16, p.A3)
2016 Apr 29, The UN Security Council voted to restore the UN mission in disputed Western Sahara but was divided over the steps demanded from Morocco to bring the peacekeeping force back to full operations.
(AFP, 4/29/16)
2016 May 2, A UN arbitration court ruled that India should release Italian marine Salvatore Girone, who has been detained in Delhi for more than four years, and allow him to return home.
(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 14, UN experts said Congolese army officers and police reported receiving pistols from a group of 30 North Korean instructors training their presidential guard and special police forces, which would appear to be a violation of UN sanctions banning Pyongyang from exporting weapons or providing military training.
(AP, 5/13/16)
2016 May 20, The United Nations human rights office called on Mexico to properly investigate large-scale extrajudicial killings and bring those responsible to justice, including higher-ranking military officers.
(Reuters, 5/20/16)
2016 May 20, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed former Irish president Mary Robinson and Kenyan diplomat Macharia Kamau as special envoys for El Nino and climate.
(AFP, 5/20/16)
2016 May 22, The UN envoy for Yemen said peace talks in Qatar aimed at ending fighting in the impoverished Arab country are making "incredible progress" and that a halt in fighting is largely holding.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 27, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said around 2.8 million people in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras need food aid after two consecutive years of severe drought decimated crops and exacerbated hunger among the poor due to prolonged dry spells since mid-2014, linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon.
(Reuters, 5/27/16)
2016 May 29, In central Mali at least five UN peacekeepers were killed in an ambush by suspected militants some 50 km out of Mopti.
(AFP, 5/29/16)
2016 Jun 3, The UN accused both the Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian rebels of torturing fighters and their sympathisers captured in the separatist east.
(AFP, 6/3/16)
2016 Jun 4, UN and police officials said criminal gangs are plundering the Earth's natural resources faster than previously thought, with the value of environmental crimes estimated to be as high as $258 billion annually.
(Reuters, 6/4/16)
2016 Jun 8, Eritrea's government rejected accusations of human rights abuses after a UN commission of inquiry said Eritrea's "systematic, widespread" human rights abuses should be referred to the International Criminal Court as crimes against humanity that include enslavement of up to 400,000 people.
(Reuters, 6/8/16)(AP, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 9, A UN panel said Ireland’s abortion ban subjects women to discriminatory, cruel and degrading treatment and should be ended immediately for cases involving fatal fetal abnormalities.
(SFC, 6/10/16, p.A5)
2016 Jun 16, United Nations investigators said the Islamic State is committing genocide against the Yazidis in Syria and Iraq to destroy the religious community of 400,000 people through killings, sexual slavery and other crimes.
(Reuters, 6/16/16)
2016 Jun 20, The UN said the number of refugees and others fleeing their homes worldwide has hit a new record, spiking to 65.3 million people by the end of 2015.
(AP, 6/20/16)
2016 Jun 22, The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Accord panel was awarded Spain's Princess of Asturias award for international cooperation.
(AP, 6/22/16)
2016 Jul 12, The UN launched a global appeal for $952 million to fund Sudan's humanitarian needs, most of it to help people affected by the deadly conflict in Darfur.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 15, UNESCO put four new sites on its World Heritage List. The new sites, announced in Istanbul, include China's Zuojiang Huashan rock art cultural landscape, Iran's ancient aqueducts known as Qanat, and India's archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara. The World Heritage Committee also selected Micronesia's artificial islets of Nan Madol and simultaneously placed it on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, The UN said at least 300 people were killed and 42,000 fled their homes this month during the July 8-11 intense gun battles in Juba, South Sudan. The dead included two Chinese peacekeepers.
(AFP, 7/15/16)(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 22, The United Nations refugee agency said more than 26,000 people have fled South Sudan to Uganda this month.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, The UN World Tourism Organization signed an agreement with Turkey to help the country boost its ailing tourism sector, which has suffered due to a string of bombings and a failed coup.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 29, The UN Security Council agreed to send a contingent of 228 United Nations police to Burundi to control the continuing violence and to protect human rights in the East African nation.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Burundi more than 1,000 people participated in a government-backed demonstration in the capital, Bujumbura, to protest France's proposal passed by UN Security Council to deploy UN police to the country.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Aug 2, UN agencies said tens of thousands of people have fled a fresh outbreak of violence in South Sudan, reporting mass killings, looting and forced recruitment of child soldiers. At least 9 people were reported killed over the weekend in the latest clashes on a road in Central Equatoria state, the region that includes the capital Juba.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 3, A UN commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria said the Islamic State group is still committing genocide and other crimes against the Yazidi minority in Iraq.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 4, The UN refugee agency said it has received reports that the Islamic State group may have captured up to 3,000 Iraqis who were fleeing violence and that 12 of them may have been killed.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Shiite rebels announced that the coalition has committed eight "unintended bombings" and blamed UN agencies for not coordinating with the coalition, causing civilian casualties.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 9, The United Nations warned that up to two million people in Syria's Aleppo have gone without running water for the past four days.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 18, The United Nations said for the first time that it was involved in the introduction of cholera to Haiti in October 2010 and needs to do "much more" to end the suffering of those affected, estimated at more than 800,000 people.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 25, The UN called for the creation of an independent international body to investigate an array of serious violations in war-torn Yemen.
(AFP, 8/25/16)
2016 Sep 9, The UN said its peacekeeping force in Congo has evacuated some 300 supporters of South Sudan's opposition leader Riek Machar, many of whom were wounded, acutely malnourished or in life-threatening condition.
(AP, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 20, The United Nations suspended all aid shipments into Syria after what it said was a deadly attack on an aid convoy carrying humanitarian supplies.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 23, Iraq and the UN signed an agreement aimed at helping the Baghdad government tackle sexual violence in conflict, an issue that made headlines following the capture and rape of Yazidi women by Islamic State extremists in 2014.
(AP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 24, Syrian government forces captured a rebel-held area on the edge of Aleppo. A monitoring group said 49 people were killed. The UN said nearly 2 million people in Aleppo are without running water following an escalation in fighting over the past few days.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 29, The United Nations described a desperate situation in Syria's rebel-held eastern Aleppo, warning "hundreds" needed medical evacuation and that there was only enough food aid left for a quarter of the city's population.
(AFP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed a peace treaty with a notorious warlord, pledging to lobby the US and the United Nations to remove him and his party from terrorist blacklists. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar signed the agreement via a video link into Kabul's presidential palace.
(AP, 9/29/16)
2016 Oct 2, India ratified the Paris climate change agreement at the UN in New York.
(SFC, 10/3/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 4, The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned Russia over use of incendiary weapons in air strikes on the Syrian city of Aleppo, where he said attacks on civilian targets may amount to crimes against humanity.
(Reuters, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 14, Israel suspended cooperation with UNESCO, a day after the UN cultural agency adopted a draft resolution that Israel says denies the deep, historic Jewish connection to holy sites in Jerusalem.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 18, UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, adopted a controversial Arab-sponsored resolution condemning Israel's actions at a flashpoint holy site in east Jerusalem that has sparked fury in the Jewish state.
(AFP, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 21, The UN said Islamic State militants have taken 550 families from villages around Mosul and are holding them close to Islamic State locations in the city, probably as human shields.
(Reuters, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 23, The Afghan government and UN released a new joint survey that saw an increase of 10 percent in opium poppy cultivation and 91 percent decrease in eradication across the country.
(AP, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 28, The UN General Assembly voted Russia off the Human Rights Council.
(SFC, 10/29/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 4, UN experts said the Afghan government and several other countries estimated that there are about 45,000 opposition fighters in Afghanistan and that between 20 percent and 25 percent are foreigners.
(AP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 7, UN talks to implement the Paris climate pact opened in Marrakesh. Diplomats from 196 nations met in Morocco to flesh out the planet-saving plan inked in the French capital last December.
(AFP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 9, The first batch of Kenyan troops who had served in a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan arrived home, after Nairobi ordered them to withdraw in response to the sacking of the Kenyan commander of the UNMISS force.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 11, The UN said aid workers in a besieged section of Aleppo, Syria, distributed their last food rations today.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6h6y8jc)
2016 Nov 15, The United Nations warned that 75,000 Nigerian children risk dying in "a few months" as hunger grips the country's ravaged northeast in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency.
(AFP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, A key UN committee approved a resolution condemning North Korea's "systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights" and encouraging the Security Council to refer the country to the International Criminal Court.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 17, The United Nations said its budget to assist people suffering from Zimbabwe's worst drought in a quarter of a century that left millions in need of food aid had fallen short by $140 million.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 18, The UN Security Council extended for one year an international inquiry to determine blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria, paving the way for a showdown between Russia and Western powers over how to punish those responsible.
(Reuters, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, UN talks to implement the Paris climate pact ended in Marrakesh. Diplomats from 196 nations had met in Morocco to flesh out the planet-saving plan inked in the French capital last December.
{Morocco, UN, Environment}
(AFP, 11/7/16)(Econ, 11/26/16, p.55)
2016 Nov 30, The UN warned that op to 500,000 civilians in Mosul are facing a "catastrophic" drinking water shortage, as Iraqi forces advanced against the Islamic State group in the city.
(AFP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, The United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea aimed at cutting the Asian country's annual export revenue by a quarter in response to Pyongyang's fifth and largest nuclear test in September.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Dec 1, The UN mission in Iraq said 1,959 Iraqi forces were killed last month and at least 450 others wounded. The UN statement also said at least 926 civilians were killed, bringing to 2,885 the number of Iraqis killed in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict last month.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, Yasmin Sooka, the head of the UN commission of human rights in the South Sudan, said ethnic cleansing is taking place in some areas of South Sudan and the stage is set for a repeat of the Rwandan genocide.
(Reuters, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi met in the southern city of Aden to discuss a new bid to end the country's conflict.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 2, UN investigators said South Sudanese soldiers have brutally raped an elderly woman and a pregnant woman lost her baby after being gang-raped by seven soldiers. Three in five women in UN-administered "protection of civilian" sites around the capital Juba experienced rape or sexual assault, according to a 2016 report by the UN Population Fund.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, The UN said nearly 20,000 children have fled their homes in battered east Aleppo in recent days, warning that time is running out to provide them with the help they desperately need.
(AFP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 5, The UN launched a record humanitarian appeal, asking for $22.2 billion in 2017 to help almost 93 million people hit by conflicts and natural disasters.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 7, The UN Committee against Torture called on Sri Lanka to investigate "routine torture" of detainees by security forces and rebuked its government for failing to prosecute war crimes committed during the country's 26-year conflict.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 12, Former Portuguese PM Antonio Guterres was sworn in as the 9th sec. general of the UN.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 13, Rheal LeBlanc, head of UN press and external relations, said the appointment of Wonder Woman as an honorary ambassador for the Empowerment of Woman and Girls would end this week, a move that come less than two months after a splashy ceremony at the UN.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, The UN said Syrian pro-government forces executed 82 civilians in Aleppo including women and children as the crucial battle for the city neared its end.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 14, The UN said that Islamic State extremists have destroyed the ancient site of Nimrud in Iraq almost beyond recognition.
(SFC, 12/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 14, A team of UN investigators said South Sudan is "on the brink of an all-out ethnic civil war which could destabilize the entire region".
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 16, The UN said it is getting daily reports of rapes and killings of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar and independent monitors are being barred from investigating.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 19, The UN Security Council approved the deployment of UN monitors to Aleppo as the evacuation of fighters and civilians from the last remaining opposition stronghold in the northern city resumed after days of delays.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, The UN established the Int'l. Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) to investigate crimes in Syria since 2011, following a resolution presented by Liechtenstein.
(Econ., 1/2/21, p.46)
2016 Dec 20, The UN human rights chief asked Philippine authorities to investigate President Rodrigo Duterte for murder after he claimed to have killed people in the past and also to examine the "appalling epidemic of extra-judicial killings" committed during his anti-drug crackdown.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 22, The UN Security Council postponed a vote on a draft resolution demanding that Israel halt its settlement activities in the Palestinian territories and east Jerusalem. Egypt requested the delay to allow time for consultations on the measure.
(AFP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 23, The UN Security Council passed a landmark resolution condemning Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank after the United States refrained from using its veto. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the US, France, Russia, Britain or China to be adopted. New Zealand, along with Senegal, Venezuela and Malaysia, co-sponsored the UN Security Council resolution.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)(AFP, 12/24/16)(AP, 6/13/17)
2016 Dec 23, The United Nations Security Council failed to adopt a US-drafted resolution to impose an arms embargo and further sanctions on South Sudan despite warnings by UN officials of a possible genocide in the world's newest state.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 The UN paid at least $18 million this year to companies with close ties to Syria’s Pres. Bashar Assad.
(SFC, 8/2/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 11, Aid agencies said dozens of migrants are at risk of freezing to death in Europe after heavy snowfall and bitterly cold temperatures hit Greece and the Balkans. The UN Missing Migrants Project has recorded 11 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean since the start of the year.
(AP, 1/11/17)
2017 Jan 16, The UN humanitarian aid official in Yemen said that the civilian death toll in the nearly two-year conflict has reached 10,000, with 40,000 others wounded.
(AP, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 16, Lawyers at a UN court urged Turkey to release Judge Aydin Sedaf Akay, who is being held in connection with July's coup attempt, saying his detention was delaying a Rwandan politician's conviction for genocide.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 17, The UN said Somalia risks slipping back into famine, as worsening drought has left millions without food, water or healthcare in a country crippled by decades of war.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 18, Senegal presented a draft resolution to the UN Security Council seeking support for ECOWAS efforts to press Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh to step down. At least 26,000 people have fled Gambia into Senegal fearing President Yahya Jammeh's decision to stay in power.
(AFP, 1/18/17)(AP, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 20, UN human rights envoy Yanghee Lee ended a 12-day visit to Myanmar with a bleak evaluation of the government's ability to deal with the problems facing the country's ethnic minorities. She said the situation there was deteriorating.
(AP, 1/20/17)
2017 Jan 26, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to keep the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus for another six months and urged Greek and Turkish Cypriots "to grasp the current opportunity" to reunite the divided Mediterranean island.
(AP, 1/26/17)
2017 Jan 28, UN sanctions monitors reported to the world body's Security Council that the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition has carried out attacks in Yemen that "may amount to war crimes".
(Reuters, 1/29/17)
2017 Jan 31, The UN children's agency (UNICEF) launched an appeal for $3.3 billion to help 48 million children caught up in crises worldwide amid fears of a funding cut from top donor the United States.
(AFP, 1/31/17)
2017 Jan 31, An armed group attacked a UN technical team working along the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, killing five people and wounding several near the Cameroonian border town of Kontcha.
(Reuters, 2/1/17)
2017 Feb 2, The United Nations' highest court ruled that it has the authority to adjudicate in a maritime boundary dispute between Kenya and Somalia over stretches of the Indian Ocean potentially rich in oil and gas.
(Reuters, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 3, The UN human rights office said Myanmar's security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that probably amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly "ethnic cleansing".
(Reuters, 2/3/17)
2017 Feb 3, The United Nations removed the name of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan warlord, from its Islamic State group and al-Qaida sanctions list.
(AP, 2/4/17)
2017 Feb 8, Senior UN officials said more than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims may have been killed in a Myanmar army crackdown, suggesting the death toll has been a far greater than previously reported.
(Reuters, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 8, The UN appealed for $2.1 billion to provide desperately needed aid to millions of people in war-ravaged Yemen this year, warning the country could soon face famine.
(AFP, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 10, The United Nations received a notice from Gambia reversing its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.
(AP, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 15, The UN children's agency launched a $110 million appeal to help two million acutely malnourished children across Sudan, including hundreds of thousands living in conflict areas.
(AFP, 2/15/17)
2017 Feb 16, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Zimbabwe is likely to be the country hardest hit by an outbreak of armyworms that is destroying crops and threatening food security in southern Africa.
(Reuters, 2/16/17)
2017 Feb 17, The UN World Meteorological Organization said the extent of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic last month was the lowest on record for January, while concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit a January record.
(Reuters, 2/17/17)
2017 Feb 21, UNICEF said nearly 1.4 million children are at "imminent risk" of death in famines in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
(Reuters, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 23, UN aid agencies and donor countries gathered in Oslo for a two-day meeting to raise emergency aid for millions of people threatened by famine in the Lake Chad region, which comprises northeast Nigeria, northern Cameroon, western Chad and southeast Niger.
(AFP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 23, Syrian peace talks under the auspices of the United Nations resumed in Geneva, 10 months after falling apart over escalating bloodshed in the war-torn country. The UN's Syria envoy met rival negotiators, but even getting them into the same room appeared uncertain as hopes remained slim for a breakthrough.
(AP, 2/23/17)(AFP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 24, In Norway fourteen donor countries, with the US conspicuously absent, pledged $672 million in emergency aid for people threatened by famine after eight years of Boko Haram violence in the Lake Chad region, but the sum is just a fraction of what the UN says is needed.
(AFP, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb 26, Syrian activists called for the Assad government to engage in serious talks on political transition and for the United Nations to strengthen the fragile ceasefire as violence engulfed parts of the country.
(Reuters, 2/26/17)
2017 Feb 27, The United Nations refugee agency said more than 31,000 South Sudanese refugees - mostly women and children - have crossed the border into Sudan this year, fleeing famine and conflict.
(Reuters, 2/27/17)
2017 Feb 27, The UN World Health Organization (WHO) issued a list of the top dozen bacteria most dangerous to humans, warning that doctors are fast running out of treatment options. They included Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.
(AP, 2/27/17)(Econ, 3/4/17, p.65)
2017 Feb 28, The UN said nearly 1,500 children have been recruited by Yemen's warring parties, mostly the Shiite Huthi rebels, since March 2015.
(AFP, 2/28/17)
2017 Feb 28, China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have imposed new sanctions on Syria for using chemical weapons against its own citizens.
(SFC, 3/1/17, p.A3)
2017 Mar 1, The UN's World Meteorological Organization published the highest temperatures on record in three Antarctic zones, setting a benchmark for studying how climate change is affecting this crucial region.
(AFP, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 1, A UN official said fighting around Yemen's port of Mokha has forced some 45,000 people from their homes, with many facing continued uncertainty and the threat of further displacement.
(AP, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 3, The UN said Sri Lankan security and police forces are reportedly still committing rape and torture, and the country must investigate and prosecute those involved as well as those implicated in past wartime atrocities.
(Reuters, 3/3/17)
2017 Mar 4, The United Nations announced aid worth $5 million (4.7 million euros) to help people affected by the humanitarian crisis in the violence-wracked Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 3/4/17)
2017 Mar 4, The annual report by a UN panel of experts on North Korea said North Korean weapons barred by UN sanctions have ended up in the hands of UN peacekeepers in Africa.
(AP, 3/4/17)
2017 Mar 5, The UN said tens of thousands of civilians have fled offensives against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, where the jihadists are battling to keep what remains of their territory.
(AFP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 7, UN Sec.-Gen. Antonio Guterres urged int’l. support to alleviate Somalia’s worsening hunger crisis.
(SFC, 3/8/17, p.A4)
2017 Mar 7, The United Nations said South Africa's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court has been revoked, stalling what would have been the first-ever departure from the tribunal that pursues the world's worst atrocities.
(AP, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 7, A new United Nations report described South Sudan as teetering on the edge of genocide and experiencing ethnic cleansing, a stark portrayal of a nation whose crises now include famine.
(AP, 3/7/17)
2017 Mar 8, The UN nuclear agency's 35-nation Board of Governors backed the agency's chief, Yukiya Amano (69), for a third term as director general after he ran unopposed on a platform of continuity in dealing with issues like Iran's nuclear program.
(Reuters, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 8, The UN warned that fighting in Colombia in recent weeks has displaced some 913 families in areas formerly dominated by leftist rebels in four provinces along the Pacific Ocean.
(SFC, 3/9/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 8, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the top UN rights official, said three mass graves have been discovered in central Democratic Republic of Congo, where hundreds have been killed since July in clashes between security forces and a local militia.
(Reuters, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 10, The UN warned that the world is facing its worst humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II, with more than 20 million people facing starvation and famine in four countries (northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen).
(AFP, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 10, The UN accused Turkish security forces of committing serious abuses during operations against Kurdish militants in the southeast after a ceasefire collapsed in July 2015.
(AFP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 12, In eastern CongoDRC UN officials Michael Sharp of the United States and Zaida Catalan, a dual national of Chile and Sweden, disappeared along with four Congolese citizens while traveling in the Kasai region. On March 27 the bodies of Sharp, Catalan and a Congolese were found in the region. They had been investigating an armed conflict in the region between government forces and the Kamuina Nsapu militia. Jose Tshibuabua (1964-2019) was charged with murder after Reuters and Radio France Internationale (RFI) revealed in December 2017 that he had been working as an intelligence service informant at the same time he and several family with ties to the militia met the investigators to help them plan their fatal trip.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.A4)(AP, 3/28/17)(AFP, 3/29/17)(Reuters, 10/22/19)
2017 Mar 14, The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria said Syria's air force deliberately bombed water sources in December, a war crime that cut off water for 5.5 million people in and around the capital Damascus. The UN investigative commission also said it believes government forces deliberately bombed a school complex in the country's northern countryside in October, killing 21 children.
(Reuters, 3/14/17)(AP, 3/14/17)
2017 Mar 18, Rima Khalaf, a UN undersecretary-general, resigned after refusing to withdraw her report for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. She had authored a recent report that accused Israel of establishing an "apartheid regime." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas soon informed Rima Khalaf by phone that she would receive the Palestine Medal of the Highest Honor in recognition of her "courage and support" for the Palestinian people.
(AP, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 18, CongoDRC’s UN mission said government forces have targeted civilians, including women and children, resulting in numerous deaths in central Congo this week and are restricting United Nations peacekeepers' access to the area.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 18, Meeting in Cairo representatives of the United Nations, European Union, Arab League and African Union supported efforts by Libya's unity government to assert control over Tripoli after days of fighting with rival militias.
(AFP, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 20, French Pres. Francois Hollande said world donors pledged more than $75 million to an historic UNESCO-backed alliance to protect cultural heritage sites threatened by war and the wave of ideological-driven destruction carried out by Islamic State group militants.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, The United States criticized the UN Human Rights Council, saying addressing the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories as part of its agenda exhibited the group's "long-standing bias against Israel."
(Reuters, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 21, The UN said more than 2,600 Nigerians who fled into northern Cameroon to escape Boko Haram jihadists have been forced to go home since the start of the year.
(AFP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 24, The UN-backed Human Rights Council approved a resolution to dispatch an int’l. fact-finding mission to Myanmar to probe reported abuses by military and security forces, particularly against the minority Rohingya Muslim community.
(SFC, 3/25/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 24, The United Nations human rights office said an average of 100 civilians a month are dying in Yemen's war which enters its third year this weekend, most killed by the Saudi-led coalition's air strikes and shelling.
(Reuters, 3/24/17)
2017 Mar 27, The United States, Britain and France were among almost 40 countries that did not join talks on a nuclear weapons ban treaty starting at the UN.
(Reuters, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 30, The UN refugee agency said the number of Syrians who have fled their country after six years of civil war has surpassed the 5-million mark.
(AP, 3/30/17)
2017 Mar, United Nations satellite images showed at least 18,000 structures have been destroyed in the Yei area of South Sudan, one of the most significant caches of evidence of widespread destruction in the country's civil war.
(AP, 4/7/17)
2017 Apr 4, The US State Department said the UN Population Fund will lose $32.5 million in funding from the 2017 budget, with funds shifted to similar programs at the US Agency for International Development. The Trump administration accused the agency, through its work with China's government, of supporting population control programs in China that include coercive abortion.
(AP, 4/4/17)
2017 Apr 4, Iraqi air strikes resumed on Islamic State positions Mosul. The United Nations said it was expanding camps for people fleeing the city.
(Reuters, 4/4/17)
2016 Apr 10, The UN said European countries must stop returning asylum seekers to Hungary due to deteriorating conditions there for new arrivals including children, and allegations of abuse.
(AFP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 12, UNICEF said thousands of children in Peru are at risk of severe malnutrition as a result of recent floods and mudslides that have killed 106 people and left many homeless.
(SFC, 4/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 13, The Security Council voted unanimously to end the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti in mid-October after more than 20 years. The resolution also creates a follow-on peacekeeping mission for an initial period of six months comprising 1,275 police who will continue training the national police force.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 13, The UN demanded that Chechnya halt the abduction, detention and killing of gay and bisexual men. Russia’s Novaya Gazeta had recently published a series of reports saying recent waves of crackdowns in Chechnya have seen more than 100 men arrested and at least three killed.
(SFC, 4/14/17, p.A2)(Econ, 4/8/17, p.44)
2017 Apr 13, A panel of United Nations human rights experts condemned Turkey for violating the right to work and education through blanket dismissals of civil servants and school teachers under a state of emergency.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 13, The UN said cholera and acute diarrhea have killed more than 500 people and left tens of thousands of others sick in drought-hit parts of Somalia since January.
(AFP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 17, The UN said the six-month-old operation to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State group has forced around half a million people to flee their homes.
(AFP, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 18, The UN rights chief condemned the feared youth wing of Burundi's ruling party for repeatedly calling for the rape and murder of opposition supporters. Human Rights Watch has accused the Imbonerakure of being involved in assaults on opposition members, gang-rapes of women and torture. The UN regularly refers to them as a militia.
(AFP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 19, The UN human rights office said that investigators have confirmed another 17 mass graves in central Congo, bringing the number to 40 discovered since clashes between soldiers and a local militia intensified in August. Congolese soldiers reportedly dug the 17 newly discovered mass graves after fighting with suspected militia members in late March and killing at least 74 people, including 30 children.
(AP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 19, Judges at the UN's highest court rejected a Ukrainian interim request to order Russia to stop supporting troops in the east of the country, saying its request did not meet legal requirements under an international terrorism treaty. The court ordered Russia to halt discrimination of ethnic Crimean Tartars.
(Reuters, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 19, UNESCO awarded its prestigious Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize to migrant rescue association SOS Mediterranee and Lampedusa Mayor Giuseppina Nicolini, whose tiny Italian island is on the frontline of the refugee crisis.
(AFP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 25, The UN said int’l. donors have pledged $1.1 billion to avert famine in Yemen and appealed to the fighting sides to allow humanitarian access.
(SFC, 4/26/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 27, The UN refugee agency chose Yusra Mardini as a goodwill ambassador. The Syrian teenage girl helped save a boat carrying fellow refugees and swam on the first Refugee Olympic team in Rio last year.
(AP, 4/27/17)
2017 Apr 28, United Nations officials said at least 11 people have died from a mysterious illness in Liberia, and tests have been negative for the Ebola virus. Those who fell sick this week all had attended a relative's funeral.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 Apr 28, The United Nations Security Council unanimously backed attempts to restart talks between Morocco and the Polisario independence movement over the Western Sahara conflict and extended its peacekeeping mission for another year.
(Reuters, 4/29/17)
2017 Apr 28, The US urged the UN Security Council to increase economic pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program and to lean on China to turn the screws on its wayward ally.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 May 1, The UN said an advance party of peacekeepers with a bolstered mandate to use force have arrived in South Sudan, the first blue helmets with a greater authority to protect civilians in the troubled East African nation.
(AP, 5/1/17)
2017 May 2, UNICEF said about 1.4 million children in drought-hit Somalia are projected to suffer acute malnutrition this year, 50 percent more than estimated in January.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2017 May 3, In Colombia UN official Arley Lopez, a member of a team working on a project to substitute illegal crops with legal ones, was kidnapped by dissident former FARC rebels who have rejected the peace process. On July 5 the government announced that Lopez has been released.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 May 3, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he will withhold $1 million in payments to the United Nations following a resolution adopted by its cultural agency that he says diminishes Jewish ties to Jerusalem.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 5, The UN’s human rights office denounced China's "ongoing crackdown" and detention of lawyers and activists and called on authorities to release all those being held for exercising what it called fundamental freedoms.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, The executive board of the UN's cultural agency ratified a resolution that identifies Israel as "the occupying power" in Jerusalem and calls on it to rescind any move changing the city's "character and status."
(AFP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 8, Attackers in Central African Republic ambushed a convoy of UN peacekeepers from Cambodia and Morocco, killing one Cambodian soldier and wounding 8 others. Eight fighters from the anti-Balaka rebel group were also killed in the battle. Three Cambodian soldiers and a Moroccan peacekeeper were reported missing and possibly kidnapped. The three Cambodian soldiers were found dead the next day.
(AP, 5/9/17)(AP, 5/21/17)
2017 May 11, The United Nations confirmed 58 cases of cholera and 47 cholera-associated deaths across war-torn Yemen in the past two weeks, the second such outbreak in a year.
(AFP, 5/11/17)
2017 May 12, The UN called for an investigation into crimes against sexual minorities following an uptick in deadly violence against transgender women in El Salvador.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 17, UNICEF said more than 300,000 children migrated alone worldwide from 2015 through 2016.
(SFC, 5/18/17, p.A2)
2017 May 18, The UN International Court of Justice ordered Pakistan not to execute Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, convicted of espionage and terrorism, in a case that has further strained relations between the Asian neighbors.
(AP, 5/18/17)
2017 May 24, Angry UN staff in Geneva protested against a proposed 7.5 percent cut to their salaries, the equivalent of almost a month's pay, and called for strike action if it is implemented.
(Reuters, 5/24/17)
2017 Jun 1, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) found "part of a tunnel in Gaza that passed under two adjacent agency schools in the Maghazi camp" during construction work while the schools were empty during the summer holiday.
(AFP, 6/10/17)
2017 Jun 3, UNICEF said Yemen was getting an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 new cholera cases every day and that many patients can’t afford to travel to free clinics.
(SSFC, 6/4/17, p.A3)
2017 Jun 8, The UN rights office said it has credible reports that the Islamic State group has killed more than 230 civilians trying to flee western Mosul since May 26.
(AFP, 6/8/17)
2017 Jun 9, The UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, said its Kidal camp "had come under heavy rocket/mortar fire" and "a little later a position nearby was attacked" outside their base, killing three peacekeepers and wounding eight more.
(AFP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 9, The UN children's agency warned that the fight for the Islamic State group's stronghold of Raqqa threatens more than 40,000 children, while overnight airstrikes on the city in northern Syria killed more than a dozen people.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 12, UN agencies said at least 279 people have died and thousands sickened in Sudan from suspected acute diarrhea since August, raising health concerns in the country ahead of the rainy season.
(AFP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 14, A Turkish court in Ankara sentenced Aydin Sefa Akay, a Turkish national and UN judge, to seven and a half years in prison for "membership in an armed terror group." The conviction drew a rebuke the next day from the UN court he works for.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 21, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that paves the way for the deployment of a five-nation African military force to fight jihadists in the Sahel region. Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger had agreed in March to set up the special joint counterterrorism operation.
(AFP, 6/21/17)
2017 Jun 24, A new UN report said Angola has expelled more than 8,000 Congolese who entered the southern African country while fleeing deadly violence at home.
(AP, 6/24/17)
2017 Jun 26, The UN certified that all FARC individual firearms and weapons, except for a small number needed to safeguard the soon-to-disband camps, have been collected.
(AP, 6/27/17)
2017 Jun 28, A UN Security Council diplomat said a tentative deal on nearly $600 million in cuts to the UN peacekeeping budget has been reached following weeks of tough negotiations over US demands for a sharp cost reduction.
(AFP, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 29, The UN Security Council extended sanctions on illegal oil exports from Libya to cover refined petroleum products as well, in a bid to stem rampant smuggling of subsidized fuel by sea.
(Reuters, 6/30/17)
2017 Jun 30, The United Nations closed its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast after 13 years during which it ushered the West African nation through a political crisis to elections and played a decisive role in the 2011 civil war.
(Reuters, 6/30/17)
2017 Jul 7, At the UN 122 nations approved a treaty to outlaw nuclear weapons. The meeting was boycotted by all NATO members, except the Netherlands and all nine nuclear-armed nations. The Netherlands was opposed and Singapore abstained.
(SFC, 7/8/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 7, A week of UN-mediated talks in the Swiss Alps to end the partition of Cyprus collapsed in acrimony, throwing the prospect of any reunification between Greek and Turkish Cypriots into disarray.
(Reuters, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 7, UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, described Hebron's Old City as a Palestinian world heritage site in danger, prompting a walkout by Israel's ambassador to the organization.
(AP, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 8, Eritrean officials claimed "victory" after the UN cultural agency unanimously decided to put the African nation's capital city of Asmara on the UNESCO World Heritage list — the result of years of lobbying by one of the world's most reclusive governments.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 9, The United Nations' cultural agency added to its list of World Heritage sites six caves in west Germany with art dating back to the Ice Age and old silver ore mines in southern Poland.
(AP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 9, UNESCO added Mbanza Kongo in northwest Angola as a world heritage site. It was the capital of the Kongo kingdom, a largely independent state between the 14th and 19th centuries.
(AP, 7/10/17)
2017 Jul 10, The UN's envoy for Syria opened a new round of indirect talks in Geneva, the seventh so far, between Syrian government representatives and opposition leaders to try to wind down the battered country's civil war.
(AP, 7/10/17)
2017 Jul 11, The UN said about 80,000 people have fled fighting between the Democratic Republic of Congo army and a new rebel coalition, joining the millions already uprooted in Africa's worst displacement crisis.
(Reuters, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 12, The UN said it has identified an additional 38 probable mass graves in Democratic Republic of Congo's central Kasai region, bringing the total to at least 80 since the outbreak of an insurrection last August.
(Reuters, 7/12/17)
2017 Jul 14, UN officials said more than 52,000 Venezuelans have applied for asylum this year, nearly twice the number in all of 2016. The UN human rights office noted figures from the Venezuelan Attorney General's office indicating 92 people have died in connection with protests since April 1.
(AP, 7/14/17)
2017 Jul 17, A UN report said 1,662 civilians were killed in Afghanistan between January and June of this year. Insurgent attacks killed 1,141 and 434 were killed during military operations against insurgents.
(SFC, 7/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 21, The UN reported that North Korea is suffering its worst drought in 16 years.
(SFC, 7/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 26, The UN said Congo DRC military elements were responsible for digging at least 42 mass graves in three Kasai provinces after clashes with alleged militia members in recent months. Experts were appointed to look into the growing crisis.
(SFC, 7/27/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 5, The UN Security Council unanimously approved the sanctions on North Korea, including banning coal and other exports worth over $1 billion. The US-drafted measure, negotiated with China, aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs.
(AP, 8/6/17)
2017 Aug 5, The United Nations said it was investigating mass graves found in a northern Mali town along with a slew of human rights abuses committed by armed groups vying for control of the area.
(AFP, 8/6/17)
2017 Aug 14, UN food agencies said nearly eight million people face acute hunger in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a result of conflict, especially in the central Kasai region.
(AFP, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 21, A confidential UN report, seen by Reuters today, found North Korea evaded UN sanctions by "deliberately using indirect channels" to export banned commodities and had generated $270 million since February.
(Reuters, 8/21/17)
2017 Aug 24, The United Nations called for a humanitarian pause to allow an estimated 20,000 trapped civilians to escape from the Syrian city of Raqqa, and urged the US-led coalition to rein in air strikes that have caused casualties.
(Reuters, 8/24/17)
2017 Aug 25, The UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said in an annual report that North Korea has increased its efforts to produce parts for a new nuclear reactor it is building while continuing to operate the main existing one that provides fuel for its atom bombs.
(Reuters, 8/25/17)
2017 Aug 27, The UN World Food Program (WFP) says it has reduced food rations for 320,000 refugees living in northwest Tanzania as a result of funding shortfalls.
(AP, 8/27/17)
2017 Aug 27, Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales announced he is expelling the head of a UN anti-corruption commission (CICIG) that is investigating the president's campaign financing. He also announced he was firing Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales for failure to carry out the expulsion. The constitutional court soon blocked the expulsion order.
(AP, 8/27/17)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.29)
2017 Aug 28, The UN refugee agency said more than 3,000 Rohingya refugees had arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar in the past three days.
(AFP, 8/28/17)
2017 Aug 30, UN chief Antonio Guterres called for the blockade of Gaza to be lifted as he visited the Palestinian enclave enduring "one of the most dramatic humanitarian crises" he had seen.
(AFP, 8/30/17)
2017 Aug 30, The UN said Venezuela's security forces had committed extensive and apparently deliberate human rights violations in crushing anti-government protests and that democracy was "barely alive".
(Reuters, 8/30/17)
2017 Sep 4, The UN Security Council held its second emergency meeting in a week about North Korea after a powerful nuclear test explosion added another layer of urgency for diplomats wrestling with what to do about the North's persistent weapons programs.
(AP, 9/4/17)
2017 Sep 4, UN investigators accused Burundi's government of crimes against humanity, including executions and torture, and urged the International Criminal Court to open a case "as soon as possible". Burundi formally announced it was withdrawing from the court, with the move set to take effect on October 27.
(AFP, 9/4/17)
2017 Sep 5, The UN Security Council agreed to set up a sanctions regime for Mali to punish those who obstruct a 2015 peace deal as fears grow that the West African country is sliding back into turmoil.
(AFP, 9/5/17)
2017 Sep 6, UN-mandated investigators said that Syrian President Bashar Assad's air force conducted a sarin-gas attack last April 4 that killed at least 83 civilians and sparked a retaliatory US strike. Investigators said government forces have used chemical weapons more than two dozen times during Syria's civil war, including the deadly attack on Khan Sheikhoun.
(AP, 9/6/17)(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 6, UN workers said about 146,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted in Myanmar in late August. This has brought to 233,000 the number of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Bangladesh since October 2016.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 8, The UN refugee agency said an alarming and unprecedented influx of 270,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh over the past two weeks from violence in Myanmar, a dramatic jump in the total as new pockets of people are found.
(AP, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 8, The UN warned that its staff had witnessed destruction and suffering on "an enormous scale" in the Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile Kasai region.
(AFP, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 8, The UN said it is preparing to deploy up to 250 Nepalese guards to Libya to protect its base in the capital as part of a plan to return its operations to the country.
(Reuters, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 11, The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of people who have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine has reached 313,000.
(AP, 9/11/17)
2017 Sep 11, The UN voted on a new resolution for the toughest sanctions ever on North Korea. UN experts have reported that North Korea illegally exported commodities worth at least $270 million to China and other countries over a six-month period ending in August. The council banned textile exports and capped imports of crude oil.
(SFC, 9/11/17 p.A2)(AP, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 12, North Korea condemned "vicious" new UN sanctions imposed over its sixth and largest nuclear test, warning it would make the US "suffer the greatest pain" it has ever experienced.
(AP, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 14, The UN said the number of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh to escape ethnic unrest hit 389,000 and warned of a looming "worst case scenario" with all of the Muslim minority group trying to leave. The UN appealed for massive help.
(AFP, 9/14/17)(Reuters, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 14, A North Korean state agency threatened to use nuclear weapons to "sink" Japan and reduce the United States to "ashes and darkness" for supporting a UN Security Council resolution and sanctions over its latest nuclear test.
(Reuters, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 19, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said her government stands ready to accept returnees once procedures are worked out, and to be globally scrutinized by the international community. In Geneva the International Organization for Migration put the total number of Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh at 421,000. UNICEF said more than a quarter of a million of those were children.
(AP, 9/19/17)
2017 Sep 20, At the UN 51 countries lined up to sign a new treaty outlawing nuclear weapons. None of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons -- the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel -- took part in the negotiations. The treaty was adopted by 122 countries at the United Nations in July. The treaty will enter into force when 50 countries have signed and ratified it.
(AFP, 9/20/17)
2017 Sep 21, The UN Security Council unanimously decided to set up an investigation team to collect evidence on the massacres of Iraq's Yazidi minority and other atrocities committed by the Islamic State group in Iraq.
(AFP, 9/21/17)
2017 Sep 22, China’s commerce ministry said it will limit exports of refined petroleum products to North Korea starting October 1, confirming Beijing's participation in new UN sanctions intended to rein in its rogue neighbor.
(AP, 9/23/17)
2017 Sep 24, In northern Mali three UN soldiers from Bangladesh were killed by an explosive device that detonated as they were escorting a convoy.
(Reuters, 9/24/17)
2017 Sep 25, The UN human rights office said in a report that Russia is violating international law in Crimea, including by imposing Russian citizenship on its people and deliberately transferring hundreds of prisoners and detainees to prisons in Russia.
(AP, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 26, The UN drastically increased the estimated number of Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar to 480,000 as Bangladesh eased restrictions on aid groups working in refugee camps and sought $250 million to cope with the crisis.
(AFP, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 26, Human Rights Watch said Myanmar is committing crimes against humanity in its campaign against Muslim insurgents in Rakhine state and called for the UN Security Council to impose sanctions and an arms embargo.
(Reuters, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 29, The UN Human Rights Council voted to extend the mission of an international probe into atrocities in Burundi, overriding strong pushback from the government accused of crimes against humanity.
(AFP, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 29, The UN Children's Fund said Boko Haram's ongoing insurgency in northern Nigeria has forced the closure of more than 57 percent of schools in Borno state, leaving about 3 million children without an education as the school year begins.
(AP, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 29, The UN Human Rights Council deadlocked over whether to send war crimes investigators to Yemen, a move being pushed by some EU states but fiercely resisted by Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 9/29/17)
2017 Oct 2, A Myanmar minister proposed taking back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh following a military crackdown, as UN representatives were given their first access to Rakhine since the trouble erupted on August 25.
(AFP, 10/2/17)
2017 Oct 3, Iraqi security forces pushed to recapture Hawija. The UN said up to 78,000 people could be trapped in the northern Islamic State-held city.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 4, The UN Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) said that it regrets a decision by Turkish Cypriot authorities to start imposing taxes and fees on humanitarian goods delivered to Greek Cypriots in the breakaway north of the ethnically split island.
(AP, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 5, The UN said Somali refugees are fleeing war, cholera and hunger in Yemen, with 10,000 expected to return home to a country they escaped over conflict and poverty.
(AFP, 10/5/17)
2017 Oct 6, In eastern Congo DRC militia fighters attacked a UN peacekeeping base, triggering clashes that left two of the fighters dead and two peacekeepers slightly wounded. Thirty-four rebels from a Mai-Mai militia have been killed in fighting with Congo's army in the past week.
(Reuters, 10/6/17)
2017 Oct 9, In eastern Congo DRC a UN peacekeeper was killed and 12 others injured after an attack near a UN base in Mamundioma by Ugandan rebels belonging to the group known as ADF. At least 22 people were reported missing.
(AP, 10/9/17)(SFC, 10/10/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 9, The UN atomic agency chief affirmed Iran's commitment to a 2015 nuclear deal, in a statement that came as US President Donald Trump said Tehran was not living up to the "spirit" of the agreement.
(AFP, 10/9/17)
2017 Oct 12, The US State Dept. said the US is pulling out of UNESCO, effective Dec. 31, because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias and a need for "fundamental reform" of the UN cultural agency. The US stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member in 2011. The US now owes about $550 million in back payments. Washington did the same thing in the 1980s because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests. The US rejoined in 2003.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, A group of senior officers from the general staff of the Russian armed forces could not attend the joint briefing with the Chinese military at the UN in NYC because they were not issued US visas.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 12, The United Nations migration agency said West African migrants trying to reach Europe are dying in far greater numbers in the Sahara than in the Mediterranean but efforts to dissuade them may cause new routes to open up.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 13, The UN human rights office said Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia have all unjustly arrested dozens of people during anti-gay crackdowns in recent weeks, subjecting many to mistreatment in custody.
(Reuters, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 19, A Baghdad court issued an arrest warrant for Kosrat Rasul, the vice president of Iraqi Kurdistan, on charges of "provocation" against Iraq's armed forces. The UN expressed concern at reports of forced displacement of civilians, mainly Kurds, and the looting and destruction of their houses and businesses in northern Iraq.
(AFP, 10/19/17)(Reuters, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 20, The UN subcommittee on torture prevention suspended a visit to Rwanda, citing obstructions imposed by the government that compromised its fact-finding mission.
(Reuters, 10/21/17)
2017 Oct 23, A UN committee said it has added 32 items that have both civilian and military use to a list of prohibited goods and technologies banned from sale or transfer to North Korea.
(SFC, 10/24/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 23, UNICEF said more than 1,100 children are suffering from acute malnutrition in the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area outside Damascus.
(AFP, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 23, The UN's humanitarian coordination agency OCHA said more than 11 million Yemeni children need humanitarian aid as a result of a war raging since March 2015.
(AFP, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 24, Russia cast a veto at the UN Security Council preventing the renewal of the mandate to a mission that investigates the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The mission's mandate is due to expire in mid-November.
(Reuters, 10/24/17)
2017 Oct 27, UN human rights investigators, after a first mission to Bangladesh, said Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar have testified that a "consistent, methodical pattern" of killings, torture, rape and arson is taking place.
(Reuters, 10/27/17)
2017 Oct 27, The UN's food assistance agency said Myanmar's government has given the go-ahead for it to resume operations in northern Rakhine state after a two-month hiatus.
(AP, 10/27/17)
2017 Oct 27, The UN condemned the "deliberate starvation of civilians" as a war tactic following the release of "shocking" images showing severely malnourished children in an area near Damascus besieged by Syria's military.
(AFP, 10/27/17)
2017 Oct 28, The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM) newspaper said it had "incorrectly stated that UN-Habitat had agreed with the Union government to provide technical assistance in building housings for displaced people in northern Rakhine." Union officials said that the issue is still under negotiation.
(Reuters, 10/28/17)
2017 Oct 30, The UN weather agency warned that carbon-dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere increased at record-breaking speed last year.
(AP, 10/30/17)
2017 Oct, Paraguay’s education minister banned classes about sexual diversity in schools and even volunteered to help burn all books related to the subject. The ban was implemented after schools began using a UN Children's Fund guidebook for teachers on avoiding discrimination between girls and boys and achieving gender equality.
(AP, 12/14/17)
2017 Nov 2, Russia dismissed a report by a UN-led panel that blamed the Syrian regime for the April 4 sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun as "superficial and unprofessional".
(AFP, 11/2/17)
2017 Nov 3, The UN human rights office called on Australia to restore food, water and health services to about 600 interned refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea, which Canberra cut off three days ago.
(AP, 11/3/17)
2017 Nov 5, In Congo DRC clashes between Congolese troops and supporters of renegade Colonel Abbas Kayonga in the eastern city of Bukavu killed seven people before he surrendered and turned himself in to UN peacekeepers. Kayonga was sacked on Nov. 2 from his post overseeing anti-fraud efforts in local mines.
(Reuters, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 6, The UN said this year will be among the three hottest on record, as almost 200 countries began talks in Germany to bolster a global climate accord that the United States plans to quit.
(Reuters, 11/6/17)
2017 Nov 7, The United States accused Iran of supplying Yemen's Houthi rebels with a missile that was fired into Saudi Arabia in July and called for the UN to hold Tehran accountable for violating two UN Security Council resolutions.
(Reuters, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 7, A company working in Central African Republic on a UN contract said it has fired a driver who took bribes to transport Muslim civilians to safer parts of the country amid rising sectarian violence. Dubai-based ECOLOG International said that it has terminated the employee implicated in the matter.
(AP, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 7, Syria said at UN climate talks in Bonn that it would join the Paris Agreement, leaving the United States as the only nation to say it will remain outside the landmark treaty.
(AFP, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 8, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow opposed a draft UN resolution to extend the mandate of the investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) into chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
(Reuters, 11/8/17)
2017 Nov 8, A UN report said a militant faction loyal to Islamic State (IS) has increased its following in northern Somalia from a few dozen last year to up to 200 this year.
(Reuters, 11/8/17)
2017 Nov 9, A coalition of US cities, companies and other groups said that many in the United States remained committed to the 2015 Paris climate agreement despite plans by US President Donald Trump to pull out. The coalition opened a 2,500-square meter tent pavilion outside the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn.
(AP, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 9, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said the 400,000 civilians besieged in the Syrian enclave of Eastern Ghouta face "complete catastrophe" because aid deliveries are blocked, and hundreds of people need urgent medical evacuation.
(Reuters, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 9, The United Nations and more than 20 aid groups said that the Saudi-led coalition's tightening of a blockade on war-torn Yemen could bring millions of people closer to "starvation and death".
(AP, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 10, UNESCO member states overwhelmingly approved the nomination of France's former culture minister Audrey Azoulay to head the embattled cultural agency.
(AFP, 11/10/17)
2017 Dec 24, The US Mission to the UN said that the UN's 2018-2019 budget would be slashed by over $285 million. The mission said reductions would also be made to the UN's management and support functions.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 28, China blocked a US effort at the United Nations to blacklist six foreign-flagged ships following reports of illicit sales of oil products to North Korea.
(Reuters, 12/31/17)
2017 Dec 28, The UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said Saudi-led airstrikes have killed 109 civilians over the past 10 days.
(AP, 12/28/17)
2017 A UN Security Council resolution demanded that all countries send home all North Korean workers by Dec. 22, 2019, to stop them earning foreign currency for North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
(Reuters, 1/23/20)
2018 Jan 2, UN human rights experts called on Saudi Arabia to end "repression" of rights activists and release dozens detained since September for peacefully exercising their civil and political rights.
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 11, The United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said more than 15,000 Cameroonian refugees have fled to Nigeria amid a crackdown on Anglophone separatists.
(Reuters, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 17, Syria's dominant Kurdish party called on the UN Security Council to act quickly to ensure the safety of Kurdish-controlled territories in the country's north, including an enclave that Turkey has threatened to attack.
(AP, 1/17/18)
2018 Jan 19, The United Nations said about half the 2.6 million people displaced in Iraq after a three-year war with Islamic State militants are children and persisting violence hampers efforts to ease their suffering.
(Reuters, 1/19/18)
2018 Jan 18, The United Nations refugee agency said intensified hostilities in Yemen have forced more than 32,000 people to flee their homes in the past two months. Unidentified gunmen abducted an employee at the UN migration agency in Sanaa.
(AFP, 1/19/18)(AP, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 21, The United Nations made a record appeal for aid to Yemen, calling for $2.96 billion in humanitarian relief for the war-torn country.
(AFP, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, France called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over Syria following a Turkish incursion into northern Syria's Afrin province.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 22, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees launched an "unprecedented" appeal seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in response to funding cuts by the Trump administration.
(AP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 21, Congolese security forces shot dead at least six people and wounded dozens more as they fired tear gas to disperse a protest organized by the Catholic church in Kinshasa against President Joseph Kabila. 68 people were wounded and 121 arrested. The UN later said it had information about "a number of other killings" in protests elsewhere in the country and that UN monitors were among the targets of violence by Congolese security agents.
(Reuters, 1/23/18)(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 23, The UN refugee agency said more than 688,000 people were displaced inside the Central African Republic as of the end of 2017, a 60 percent jump from the year before. The population of CAR is estimated at around 4.6 million.
(AP, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 24, UN sources said that Yemen's Houthi rebels have banned over 35 UN and international agencies and relief groups from working in the territory under their control, allegations denied by a rebel spokesman.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 25, UN-brokered peace talks with the Syrian government and opposition began in Vienna, days before Syria's close ally Russia was due to host separate negotiations to end the war.
(AP, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 28, The African Union summit opened in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. UN leaders and the African Union urged stronger international cooperation.
(AP, 1/28/18)
2018 Jan 30, The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said an estimated 60,000 children face potential starvation in North Korea, where international sanctions are exacerbating the situation by slowing aid deliveries.
(Reuters, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 30, The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that Russia, Kuwait and nine European countries have agreed to speed up their contributions to help fill a shortfall left by the Trump administration's decision to greatly reduce crucial US funding.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 31, The UN human rights office said that 206 companies — mostly Israeli and American — are facing a review of their business practices involving Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.
(AP, 1/31/18)
2018 Jan 31, The UN refugee agency appealed for $157 million (126 million euros) to help over a quarter of a million people affected by the insurgency led by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Since 2013, the Boko Haram conflict has internally displaced another 2.4 million people in northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
(AFP, 1/31/18)
2018 Feb 2, The UN's top court on sided largely with Costa Rica in a decade-old border dispute, ordering Nicaragua to remove a military camp from disputed territory. The International Court of Justice at The Hague laid down definitive maritime boundaries between Costa Rica and Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and a small land boundary in a remote, disputed wetland.
(Reuters, 2/2/18)(AP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 2, A UN humanitarian report said conflict between Myanmar's army and guerrillas of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Myanmar has escalated since Jan. 19, including in Sumprabum, Waingmaw and Tanai townships.
(Reuters, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 2, UN experts said North Korea is flouting UN sanctions on oil and gas, engaging in prohibited ballistic missile cooperation with Syria and Myanmar, and illegally exporting commodities that brought in nearly $200 million in just nine months last year.
(AP, 2/3/18)
2018 Feb 2, It was reported that Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, daughter of former Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, has stepped down as Uzbekistan's UNESCO representative, becoming the latest official from her father's administration to depart.
(Reuters, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 5, In Nepal a visiting UN rights official said Nepal's restrictions on woman migrating for work are discriminatory and inconsistent with international law. Nepal last year introduced a ban on women working as domestic helpers in the Gulf.
(AFP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 7, The United Nations top human rights official called on the Maldives government to immediately lift the state of emergency imposed two days ago, calling it to "an all-out assault on democracy".
(Reuters, 2/7/18)
2018 Feb 7, The UN said more than 300 child soldiers have been released by armed groups in South Sudan.
(SFC, 2/8/18, p.A2)
2018 Feb 8, The UN said a military offensive launched last month by Congolese troops against Ugandan militants in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is likely to force nearly 370,000 people from their homes.
(Reuters, 2/8/18)
2018 Feb 9, The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said poor rains and crop infestations in southern Africa are threatening deeper hunger across the region, with millions of people, particularly children, at risk.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, The UN said that surging violence across Yemen had pushed some 85,000 people from their homes in the past 10 weeks, with hundreds continuing to flee each day.
(AFP, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 11, The United Nation's children agency said one in four Iraqi children are in poverty and four million are in need of assistance as a result of the country's war with Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 13, The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said over 22,000 people fled Congo to Uganda last week following a surge of ethnic violence in the northeast, raising the total number of arrivals to about 34,000 since the start of the year.
(Reuters, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 18, The UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said violence by criminal gangs battling over drug trafficking areas has displaced more than 800 people in northwestern Colombia.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 19, A top UN food agency official said about 224 million people are under-nourished in Africa as climate change and conflicts heighten food insecurity across the continent.
(AFP, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 21, In western Rwanda anti-riot police surrounded at least 3,000 Congolese refugees who had camped at a UN refugee office overnight to protest reduced food rations at their camp. UNHCR said last month it was cutting rations due to funding shortages.
(Reuters, 2/21/18)
2018 Feb 22, The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said twenty-six refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo have died in a camp in Uganda from acute diarrhea, and hundreds more cases have been registered.
(Reuters, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 22, The UN said journalists and rights activists in South Sudan have been killed or arrested and newspapers closed, often by the government, hampering coverage of one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises.
(Reuters, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 23, A report by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) said the United Kingdom violates women's rights in Northern Ireland by unduly restricting their access to abortion.
(Reuters, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 23, The UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura renewed his urgent call for a ceasefire to stop both the "horrific" bombing of besieged eastern Ghouta and indiscriminate mortar shelling on Damascus.
(Reuters, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 23, South Sudan's government said it was asking the UN commission for the names of accused senior military officials and will investigate. A new UN report told of gang-rapes, castrations, ethnic violence and other abuses. UN investigators said they had identified more than 40 South Sudanese military officers who may be responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
(AP, 2/23/18)(Reuters, 2/24/18)
2018 Feb 24, The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan said it has recalled a Ghanaian police unit working at one of its protection camps while it investigates allegations that some of them were involved in sexual abuse.
(Reuters, 2/24/18)
2018 Feb 24, The UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria "without delay", to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations.
(AFP, 2/25/18)
2018 Feb 26, It was reported that the UN mission in South Sudan has recalled a 46-member peacekeeping unit after some members allegedly paid women living in a protection camp for sex. Ghanaian officers were recalled from Wau to Juba.
(SFC, 2/26/18, p.A2)
2018 Feb 26, A United Nations spokeswoman said military operations have killed at least 30 people, including women and children, in Syria's besieged eastern Ghouta in the last 48 hours, while shelling on Damascus continued from the rebel-held area.
(Reuters, 2/26/18)
2018 Feb 28, UN experts said its investigations into Pyongyang's transfer of prohibited ballistic missile, conventional arms and dual use goods found more than 40 previously unreported shipments to Syria between 2012 and 2017. It said an unnamed UN member state also reported evidence of Myanmar's receipt of a range of conventional weapons from North Korea including multiple rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles in addition to ballistic missile systems.
(AP, 2/28/18)
2018 Mar 1, In northeastern Nigeria three workers for UN agencies were among 11 people killed in an attack by armed Boko Haram militants on a military base near the border with Cameroon. Aid agencies soon pulled out of Rann, leaving tens of thousands uprooted by the fighting living again in parlous conditions with little or no international humanitarian support.
(AP, 3/2/18)(Reuters, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 2, The UN suspended aid work helping tens of thousands of people in northeastern Nigeria after an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants a day earlier in the town of Rann, Borno state. The suspected militants killed at least 11 people, including the three aid workers. Three other aid workers were missing.
(Reuters, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 5, A UN report said Iran has arrested activists and political opponents in a clampdown on freedom of expression as use of torture continues despite promises of reform. The report was compiled by Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer serving as UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, who died suddenly last month.
(Reuters, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 9, The United Nations warned that more than 2 million children in the Democratic Republic of Congo are estimated to be at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition if they do not get the aid they need.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 9, South Sudan said it is suspending the UN’s Radio Miraya station for allegedly refusing to comply with the country's media laws. The government may not be able to take the station off the air because the transmitter is on the UN base in Juba.
(AP, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 12, A UN investigator said that Myanmar's government appears to be pursuing a policy of starvation in Rakhine state to force out the remaining Muslim Rohingya population.
(Reuters, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 15, The UN human rights office said in a report that Mexican authorities had tortured dozens of people in connection with an investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students, and called for a full inquiry.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution renewing for a year its peace mission in South Sudan, while also threatening to later impose an arms embargo if necessary.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 20, The UN's anti-corruption commission in Guatemala said the government has removed 11 police investigators working with a panel to uncover graft.
(SFC, 3/21/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 20, The UN called on Turkey to end its 20-month-old state of emergency and accused Ankara of mass arrests, arbitrary sackings and other abuses.
(Reuters, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 21, The United Nations human rights office said armed groups execute and torture civilians in Libya in almost complete impunity seven years after the revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
(Reuters, 3/21/18)
2018 Mar 21, The UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) launched a commission of inquiry into complaints that Venezuela is violating standards including freedom of association and workers' rights to organize.
(Reuters, 3/21/18)
2018 Mar 22, The UN Security Council in a unanimous statement said at least 13.1 million Congolese are in need of humanitarian aid, including 7.7 million who are severely food insecure.
(AFP, 3/24/18)
2018 Mar 22, Cambodia's ambassador to the UN's office in Geneva rejected a statement to the UN Human Rights Council endorsed by 45 nations that urges improvements in the Southeast Asia nation's rights situation ahead of a general election this July.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 27, The UN Security Council unanimously backed a resolution that tasks the peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo with helping to prepare elections and avoid deadly violence.
(AFP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 30, The UN Security Council annnounced a new package of sanctions that targeted smuggling at sea by North Korea. The UN blacklisted 27 ships, 21 shipping companies and one individual accused of helping North Korea evade previous sanctions. The ships included five based in China, 15 North Korean ships and 12 non-North Korean ships.
(AP, 3/31/18)(SSFC, 4/1/18, p.A4)(Reuters, 4/3/18)
2018 Mar 31, In the Central African Republic UN peacekeepers on patrol exchanged fire with members of an armed group in the Muslim rebel bastion called PK5 in Bangui.
(AFP, 4/1/18)
2018 Apr 2, Israel announced it had reached a deal with the UN refugee agency to cancel a controversial plan to deport African migrants and replace it with a new one that will see thousands sent to Western countries. PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that Canada, Italy and Germany will take in some of Israel's African migrants under an agreement Israel reached with the UN refugee agency.
(AfP, 4/2/18)(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 3, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he was cancelling an agreement with the UN refugee agency to relocate thousands of African migrants, bowing to right-wing pressure to scrap the deal. The fact that thousands of migrants would be allowed to stay raised an outcry from right-wing politicians and on social media from Netanyahu's nationalist voter base.
(Reuters, 4/3/18)
2018 Apr 3, In Switzerland the United Nations raised more than $2 billion to help civilians in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates drew praise for offering hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for Yemen, where their air campaign against Houthi rebels has killed thousands of civilians and their crippling blockade has hindered aid delivery.
(AFP, 4/3/18)(AP, 4/3/18)
2018 Apr 4, The United Nations said that it has conducted its first humanitarian mission to Raqa since the Syrian city was liberated from the Islamic State group, warning that returning civilians face enormous risks. Jan Egeland, the head of the UN's Syria humanitarian taskforce, said the city is littered with unexploded devices, homes are still full of bombs (and) grenades and children are still being maimed and killed.
(AFP, 4/4/18)
2018 Apr 5, The United Nations said it is beefing up its inspections of ships bringing humanitarian aid to Yemen to ensure that no military items are being smuggled and to speed delivery of desperately-needed relief supplies.
(Reuters, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 5, In Mali two Chadian peacekeepers were killed and at least 10 others were wounded when a UN camp came under mortar fire in the northern Kidal region. The French army said that French and Malian troops had killed about 30 Islamist insurgents during a gun battle near the border with Niger.
(Reuters, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 6, Mali's army killed 14 jihadist suspects, arrested a day earlier in Dioura, who were trying to escape detention in its central region. The suspects were later said to be Fulani civilians. A UN peacekeeper from Niger was killed when two armed men in the northern city of Gao opened fire on his vehicle.
(Reuters, 4/7/18)(AFP, 4/7/18)(AP, 4/9/18)
2018 Apr 8, In the Central African Republic unidentified gunmen opened fire on a UN base in the Muslim PK5 neighborhood of Bangui late today, capping a day that saw at least one civilian killed and dozens of people injured.
(Reuters, 4/9/18)
2018 Apr 10, The United Nations said Libyan militias, including some affiliated with authorities, are holding thousands of prisoners in prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention that includes torture.
(AP, 4/10/18)
2018 Apr 11, A UN war crimes court sentenced Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj to ten years in prison, partially overturning his acquittal over crimes against humanity and other charges dating to the Balkan wars in the 1990s. He was acquitted in 2016 of nine war crimes and crimes against humanity charges because of insufficient evidence.
(AP, 4/11/18)
2018 Apr 12, In France Palestinian, Israeli, Jordanian, US and EU delegations along with representatives of UNESCO leadership negotiated a compromise resolution on "Occupied Palestine". Diplomats agreed to move the most controversial language to a non-binding annex and avoided a contentious vote.
(AP, 4/13/18)
2018 Apr 13, A new UN report put Myanmar's armed forces on a UN blacklist of government and rebel groups "credibly suspected" of carrying out rapes and other acts of sexual violence in conflict for the first time.
(AP, 4/14/18)
2018 Apr 14, Russia called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council as Moscow said it would consider supplying S-300 missile systems to Syria following US-led strikes. Russia said Syria's air defence system, which mostly consists of systems made in the Soviet Union, has intercepted 71 of the missiles fired by the US, British and French forces. Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White warned that Russia was actively attempting to sow confusion about the attack.
(Reuters, 4/14/18)
2018 Apr 16, The United Nations said it has provided the "necessary clearances" for a fact-finding mission from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate a suspected chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
(AP, 4/16/18)
2018 Apr 22, Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he is donating $4.5 million to the United Nations body that oversees climate change negotiations.
(AP, 4/23/18)
2018 Apr 23, Jailed Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid won the 2018 Press Freedom Prize awarded by the UN cultural agency UNESCO, a choice that drew criticism from the Egyptian authorities.
(Reuters, 4/23/18)
2018 Apr 24, The United Nations called on Nicaragua to investigate a crackdown on protests that have left at least 27 dead.
(AFP, 4/24/18)
2018 Apr 24, The European Union and the UN appealed for swift political talks to end the long war in Syria, saying the latest territorial gains by Damascus and its allies had not brought peace any closer.
(Reuters, 4/24/18)
2018 Apr 28, A UN Security Council delegation arrived in Bangladesh to get a firsthand look at the plight of some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar to escape military-led violence.
(AP, 4/28/18)
2018 Apr 29, In Bangladesh Rohingya refugees made emotional pleas to the UN Security Council for help to return safely to their homes in neighboring Myanmar and for justice over the reason they fled - accusations of killings, rapes and arson.
(Reuters, 4/29/18)
2018 Apr 30, The UN said ten aid workers have been released after being abducted in South Sudan almost a week ago.
(AP, 4/30/18)
2018 Apr 30, In Myanmar members of a UN Security Council team probing the country's crisis over its ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority met with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and military commander Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing after visiting Bangladesh.
(AP, 4/30/18)
2018 May 1, In Myanmar a 15-member UN Security Council delegation visited volatile areas of Rakhine state, from where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled military-led violence, to see firsthand the aftermath of the army's crackdown as well as Myanmar's preparations for taking back the refugees.
(AP, 5/1/18)
2018 May 9, The UN Security Council urged Myanmar's government to fulfill its commitment to hold perpetrators of violence against Rohingya Muslims accountable and to address the root causes that led about 700,000 members of the ethnic minority to flee to Bangladesh.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 10, The UN's refugee agency airlifted 132 vulnerable migrants from Libya to Niger, the first group to be flown out after a two-month halt in such evacuations.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 10, The United Nations human rights investigator on North Korea called on for six South Korean nationals in custody there to be freed, voicing concern over conditions of their detention.
(Reuters, 5/10/18)
2018 May 14, The UN appealed for a major increase in funding to aid Sudan with hundreds of thousands of people set to join millions in need of relief amid worsening economic and humanitarian crises.
(AFP, 5/15/18)
2018 May 14, The UN World Health Organization said eliminating trans fats is critical to preventing deaths worldwide as it released a plan to help countries wipe out trans fats from the global food supply in the next five years.
(AP, 5/14/18)
2018 May 15, The UN said some 160,000 people have fled their homes in Cameroon's English-speaking regions because of violence between anglophone separatists and government forces.
(AFP, 5/15/18)
2018 May 17, The UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it is sending 150 peacekeepers to Unity state to protect civilians who are being targeted in clashes between the government and rebel troops.
(Reuters, 5/17/18)
2018 May 18, The UN Human Rights Council voted 29-2 with 14 abstentions to back a resolution that also condemned "the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians." The United States decried it as an example of a biased focus on Israel by the council.
(AP, 5/18/18)
2018 May 24, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution that for the first time recognizes the link between conflict and hunger and condemns the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
(SFC, 5/25/18, p.A2)
2018 May 28, The UN agency for children said it has distributed cash to nearly 1.5 million families in war-battered Yemen to help avert the risk of famine.
(AP, 5/28/18)
2018 May 30, The UN said it has documented the disappearance of 21 men and two women in Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas State from February until May 16 this year. The U.N. human rights office said it has "strong indications" that Mexican federal security forces are behind a wave of disappearances in and around the city of Nuevo Laredo.
(Reuters, 5/30/18)
2018 Jun 4, UNESCO, the UN's cultural body, released its first ever guidelines on fighting anti-Semitism in education.
(AP, 6/4/18)
2018 Jun 5, The United Nations urged Washington to immediately halt its controversial practice of separating asylum-seeking Central American immigrant children from their parents at the southern border. Pres. Trump tweeted: "Separating families at the Border is the fault of bad legislation passed by the Democrats," however no law mandates that parents must be separated from their children at the border, and it's not a policy Democrats have pushed or can change alone as the minority in Congress.
(AFP, 6/5/18)(AP, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 5, A new UN report said government bans on plastic can be effective in cutting back on waste, but poor follow-through has left many such bans ineffective. World Environment Day highlighted the perils of plastic with the tagline "if you can't reuse it, refuse it".
(AP, 6/5/18)(AFP, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 6, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said Bangladeshi security forces have shot dead around 130 people and arrested 13,000 in the past three weeks since the government introduced a "zero tolerance" policy against illegal drugs.
(AP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 6, Myanmar and UN agencies signed an agreement that could eventually lead to the return of some of the 700,000 Rohingya Muslims. The memorandum of understanding promised to establish a "framework of cooperation" that aims to create conditions for "voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable" repatriation of Rohingya refugees but does not address Myanmar's denial of citizenship for the minority.
(AP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 8, The United Nations General Assembly voted to elect Germany, Belgium, South Africa, the Dominican Republic and Indonesia for a two-year term in the Security Council starting on Jan. 1, 2019.
(Reuters, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 8, Lebanon accused the United Nations refugee agency of intimidating refugees to prevent their return to Syria and blocked residency applications for the agency's staff.
(AFP, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 19, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the number of countries involved in "violent conflicts" is the highest in 30 years, while the number of people killed in conflicts has risen tenfold since 2005. Guterres spoke at the annual Oslo Forum panel discussion on peacemaking.
(AP, 6/19/18)
2018 Jun 19, The US announced its withdrawal from the UN's Human Rights Council. No country had ever dropped out voluntarily in the 12-year history of the 47-member council.
(AP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 21, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said new Hungarian laws that criminalize people for helping asylum-seekers are shameful and blatantly xenophobic.
(Reuters, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 21, UN envoy for Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener ended nine days of talks with Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and commander-in-chief General Min Aung Hlaing among other officials. She told authorities in Naypyidaw that credible measures were needed to establish accountability for the violence that engulfed Rakhine state and drove 700,000 Rohingya from their homes.
(AFP, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 21, A report by the UN children's agency UNICEF said that a third of all children living in Britain, around 4.5 million, live in areas with harmful air pollution.
(Reuters, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 22, Diplomats in Geneva said that Israel has temporarily reduced its participation with the UN's main human rights body, days after the United States pulled out largely over its allegation that the Human Rights Council is biased against Israel.
(AP, 6/22/18)
2018 Jun 22, The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said government security forces in Venezuela carry out unjustified killings without any apparent consequences as the rule of law. The report highlights the case earlier this year in which rebel police officer Oscar Perez and six in his group were shot to death as they tried to surrender. UN officials say they believe the group was executed on orders from top government officials in violation of their basic rights.
(AP, 6/22/18)
2018 Jun 25, UNAIDS staffer Martina Brostrom, who says she was sexually assaulted by UNAIDS former deputy executive director Luiz Loures in Thailand in 2015, cast fresh doubt on an investigation into her case and called for the agency chief to be sacked.
(AFP, 6/25/18)
2018 Jun 27, The United States cut a $2 million pledge for the UN Counterterrorism Office and downgraded its presence at a conference on the issue.
(AP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 29, The UN's migration agency snubbed the Trump administration's candidate to lead it. Portuguese Socialist and former EU commissioner Antonio Vitorino (61) won an election to be the next director-general of the International Organization for Migration, edging out both a top IOM official and US candidate Ken Isaacs.
(AP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jul 2, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he heard "unimaginable" accounts of atrocities during a visit to Bangladesh's refugee camps and called for Myanmar to be held responsible for "crimes" against the Rohingya.
(AFP, 7/2/18)
2018 Jul 2, The UN refugee spokesman said the number of people forced to flee their homes in southwestern Syria as a result of the two week escalation in fighting has climbed to 270,000 people.
(Reuters, 7/2/18)
2018 Jul 5, Peru, in a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, led more than 50 countries in urging Venezuela to restore the rule of law and open its doors to humanitarian assistance, as an economic crisis causes shortages of medicine and growing malnutrition.
(Reuters, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 10, The UN human rights office said at least 232 civilians were killed and 120 women and girls raped in "scorched earth" attacks by South Sudan government troops and aligned forces in opposition-held villages earlier this year.
(Reuters, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 10, The UN said more than 800 children as young as 11 years of age were recruited to Yemen's devastating conflict in 2017 alone.
(AFP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 10, The UN said at least 16,000 people have been displaced from their homes by armed conflict in the border region between Colombia and Venezuela.
(AFP, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 10, In Yemen Martin Griffiths, the UN envoy for Yemen, met with embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in another round of talks aimed at brokering a truce between the government and rebels.
(AFP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 13, All 193 UN member nations except the United States, which pulled out last year, approved the Global Compact For Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. On July 18 Hungary said it will quit the migration pact before its final approval, calling the agreement a "threat to the world." By early December right-wing European governments such as Austria, Hungary and Poland had dropped out. The pact was to be adopted mid-December in Marrakesh, Morocco.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)(Reuters, 12/9/18)
2018 Jul 13, The United Nations Security Council imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan, nearly five years after civil war erupted in the country.
(Reuters, 7/13/18)
2018 Jul 17, The UN human rights office said police and authorities in Nicaragua have killed and imprisoned people without due process and committed torture. It called for an end to violence in which an estimated 280 people have died since April.
(Reuters, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 23, The UN Int'l Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the United Arab Emirates to immediately allow Qatari families affected by a dispute between the countries to reunite, imposing the measure before it hears the full case filed by Qatar at a later date.
(Reuters, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 25, The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said it would reduce jobs in Gaza and the West Bank at the end of this month following US budget cuts.
(Reuters, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 25, UN special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths arrived in Sanaa to meet with rebel leaders amid efforts to restart peace talks after a two-year hiatus.
(AP, 7/25/18)
2018 Aug 2, UN peacekeepers returned to patrol the frontier between Syria and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. The peacekeeping mission had been halted in 2014 over security concerns amid the violence in Syria's civil war.
(SFC, 8/3/18, p.A2)
2018 Aug 3, UN experts said in a new report that North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and is violating UN sanctions including by "a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products".
(AP, 8/4/18)
2018 Aug 7, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he has chosen former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to be the world body's new human rights chief.
(Reuters, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 8, Workers seized partial control of the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Hamas-run Gaza, accusing their union of "mutiny" over job cuts.
(AFP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 10, The UN gave unanimous approval for former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet as the next UN human rights chief.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 10, A UN anti-discrimination committee raised concerns over China's treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority, citing reports of mass detentions as it considered Beijing's record over recent years.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 14, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said Libya's Misrata militia ran 370 families, originally from the western city of Tawergha, out of their homes in the Triq al-Matar camp last week. The militia forced 1,900 displaced people out of their refugee camp in the capital, Tripoli.
(AP, 8/14/18)
2018 Aug 17, The UN Human Rights Committee ruled that Brazil's imprisoned leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cannot be disqualified from upcoming presidential elections because his legal appeals are ongoing.
(AFP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 18, Kofi Annan (80) of Ghana, a former UN Secretary-General (1997-2006) and Nobel peace laureate (2001), died in Switzerland. He was the first black African to assume the world's top diplomatic post.
(AP, 8/18/18)
2018 Aug 19, In South Sudan the UN World Food Program dropped food supplies in Nyal, an opposition-held town in the war-ravaged region. The WFP said it expected 30,000 people will have come by the time it has delivered the final drop on August 21. The UN has been dropping food supplies in Nyal every three months since 2014.
(Reuters, 8/20/18)
2018 Aug 20, The UN's World Health Organization said the number of measles cases in Europe jumped to more than 41,000 during the first six months of 2018 and at least 37 people have died. Half, or some 23,000 cases, occurred in Ukraine.
(AP, 8/20/18)
2018 Aug 20, The UN nuclear watchdog said it did not find any indication that North Korea had stopped its nuclear activities, adding to doubts about the country's willingness to abandon its arsenal.
(Reuters, 8/21/18)
2018 Aug 23, The United Nations refugee and migration agencies called on Latin American countries to ease entry for Venezuelan nationals fleeing economic hardship and a deepening political crisis.
(Reuters, 8/23/18)
2018 Aug 24, The UN migration agency said the exodus of migrants from Venezuela is building towards a "crisis moment" comparable to events involving refugees in the Mediterranean.
(Reuters, 8/24/18)
2018 Aug 27, UN investigators said Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and the commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted for the gravest crimes under international law.
(Reuters, 8/27/18)
2018 Aug 28, Three experts working for the UN's top human rights body said the governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia may have been responsible for war crimes including rape, torture, disappearances and "deprivation of the right to life" during 3½ years of battling Yemeni rebels.
(AP, 8/28/18)
2018 Aug 29, The UN reported that Nicaragua's government turned a blind eye while armed mobs rounded up protesters, some of whom were later raped with rifles and tortured in detention. Managua rejected the report as biased.
(Reuters, 8/29/18)
2018 Aug 30, The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega ended a United Nations human rights team visit a day after the body published a report blaming it for the violent repression of opposition protests.
(AP, 8/31/18)
2018 Aug 31, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced that he is shutting down a crusading UN-sponsored anti-graft commission that pressed a number of high-profile corruption probes, including one pending against the president himself over purported illicit campaign financing.
(AP, 8/31/18)
2018 Aug 31, The US announced that it will no longer support the 68-year-old United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Contributions were cut from $360 million to $60 million this year and down to zero in 2019.
(AP, 8/31/18)(SFC, 6/4/19, p.A2)
2018 Sep 1, The United Nations human rights mission left Nicaragua after being ordered out by a government it criticized over its heavy-handed response to anti-regime protests.
(AFP, 9/1/18)
2018 Sep 1, Dutch former defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (45) was appointed as the United Nation's envoy to Iraq, to head a mission which plays an essential role in the country's political and economic spheres.
(AFP, 9/1/18)
2018 Sep 3, In Lebanon UN schools for Palestinian refugees started the new school year on time, despite the US decision to cancel funding to the international body's Palestinian relief agency.
(AP, 9/3/18)
2018 Sep 5, UN investigators warned that crimes against humanity and other serious rights violations were continuing unabated in Burundi, blaming in part President Pierre Nkurunziza's repeated calls to hatred and violence.
(AFP, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 6, In Geneva, Switzerland, scheduled peace talks between Yemen's government and Huthi rebels hung in the balance as both sides traded ultimatums and a UN envoy scrambled to mediate. The rebel delegation, still in Sanaa, insisted the UN must meet a list of conditions before it will travel to Switzerland, prompting government representatives already in Geneva to give the Huthis a 24-hour deadline or it "will leave".
(AFP, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 7, The United Nations-mediated peace talks on Yemen stalled pending the arrival of the Shiite rebels to Geneva, who said they didn't attend because they were not guaranteed safe return after the discussions.
(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 7, North Korea and South Korea asked the United Nations to circulate the "Panmunjom Declaration on Peace, Prosperity and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula" as an official UN document.
(AP, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 8, Yemen peace talks in Geneva collapsed after three days of waiting for the Houthi movement delegation, but the UN envoy vowed to press ahead with diplomacy.
(Reuters, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 10, In Geneva new UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet criticized the Italian government for refusing entry to migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean operated by private charities. Hours later Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who heads Italy's anti-immigrant League party, threatened to cut Italian funding for the UN.
(Reuters, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 11, In Geneva the UN envoy for Syria hosted key diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey to discuss work toward rewriting the country's constitution, amid concerns about a possibly devastating military offensive on rebel-held Idlib province.
(AP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 13, The UN Security Council extended its political mission in Libya for a year but did not endorse a December 10 date for elections that was agreed during a Paris meeting four months ago.
(AFP, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 18, UN-backed investigators who examined a bloody crackdown by Myanmar security forces that caused hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh issued a searing critique of the United Nations' own response to the human rights crisis. The members of a fact-finding mission on Myanmar fleshed out preliminary findings and recommendations released in a shorter version three weeks ago.
(AP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 19, The UN said more than 500 people have died from cholera in the Lake Chad region since the start of the year, representing the worst outbreak to hit the area in four years. The Lake Chad region straddles parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, which are also grappling with a jihadist insurgency.
(AFP, 9/19/18)
2018 Sep 19, A new UN report indicated that Colombian coca cultivation increased 17 percent in 2017.
(SFC, 9/20/18, p.A2)
2018 Sep 22, The United Nations said a cholera outbreak in north-eastern Nigeria has claimed nearly 100 lives over the past two weeks.
(AFP, 9/22/18)
2018 Sep 24, The UN World Food Program took its campaign to fight world hunger to a global cinema audience with an innovative, interactive advertisement.
(AFP, 9/24/18)
2018 Sep 24, Donald Trump arrived at the UN for a meeting on the global drug trade, ahead of a sit-down with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who comes bearing a personal message to Trump from Kim after their inter-Korean talks last week. Some 129 countries at the UN signed on to a US-drafted pledge to fight the global drug problem.
(AP, 9/24/18)(Reuters, 9/24/18)
2018 Sep 24, Staff at the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees went on strike in the Gaza Strip to protest against job losses and US funding cuts.
(AFP, 9/24/18)
2018 Sep 25, In NYC UN Sec.-Gen. Antonio Guterres opened the annual meeting of world leaders. He painted a grim picture of the world spotlighting the breakdown of trust around the globe and the need to counter unilateralism and reinvigorate the int'l. cooperation that is the foundation of the UN.
(SFC, 9/26/18, p.A2)
2018 Sep 25, The United Nations and individual donors rushed food to a desperate corner of northern Yemen where starving villagers were found to be living off leaves.
(AP, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 27, The UN's top human rights body agreed to set up a team to collect evidence of alleged crimes committed in Myanmar since 2011 that could one day be used to prosecute violators in court.
(AP, 9/27/18)
2018 Sep 28, The United Nations Human Rights Council voted to extend an international probe of alleged war crimes committed in Yemen despite strong opposition from Saudi Arabia and several of its allies.
(AP, 9/28/18)
2018 Sep 30, The Maltese authorities finally took 58 migrants from the Aquarius to Valletta after they had waited for days in rough seas on the rescue ship that can no longer go to port after its flag was pulled. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said that it had not yet been decided where which of the migrants.
(AFP, 9/30/18)
2018 Oct 1, UNRWA pulled part of its international staff out of the Gaza Strip due to security concerns.
(AP, 10/2/18)
2018 Oct 3, The UN's top court (ICJ) ordered the United States to lift sanctions on humanitarian goods for Iran in a stunning rebuke to US President Donald Trump.
(AFP, 10/3/18)(SFC, 10/4/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 3, Yemen's Shiite rebels released Salah and Madian Saleh, the two sons of late former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The UN children's agency suspended cash transfers to 9 million of Yemen's most impoverished citizens under pressure from Yemen's Houthi rebels. UNICEF said the decision came after it was unable to set up a call center to get feedback from beneficiaries.
(AP, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 4, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat announced in a statement a "detailed plan to remove UNRWA from Jerusalem and replace its services with municipal services".
(AFP, 10/5/18)
2018 Oct 7, The UN children's agency resumed emergency cash transfers to 9 million Yemenis after it was allowed to operate a call center to help monitor aid distribution.
(AP, 10/9/18)
2018 Oct 9, Nikki Haley (46) announced her resignation as the top US diplomat to the United Nations saying was leaving by the end of the year.
(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 10, The UN said that the number of Afghans killed or wounded by air strikes rose 39 percent in the first nine months of 2018. At least 8,050 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in the first nine months of 2018. The United States is the only foreign force known to carry out air strikes in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 10/10/18)(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 10, The UN urged warring parties in Syria to allow basic health service deliveries to tens of thousands of increasingly desperate Syrians trapped in the desert near the Jordanian border. UNICEF said two babies without access to hospitals had died in the past 48 hours near the Rukban border crossing.
(AFP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 12, The UN children's agency UNICEF said a militia fighting against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria has released 833 children from its own ranks, some as young as 11.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, The Philippines became one of 18 new council members elected to the UN Human Rights Council despite rights groups' complaints that its government, widely condemned internationally for a deadly drug crackdown, doesn't belong in a group meant to call out abuses.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 13, UN sanctions monitors in an unpublished report said banned charcoal exports from Somalia are thriving, generating millions of dollars a year for al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremists — and often passing through Iran to have their origins obscured.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 16, The UN refugee agency expressed concern over Angola's expulsion of some 200,000 Congolese in the past two weeks, saying it would create a humanitarian crisis.
(SFC, 10/17/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 16, The rival Koreas and the US-led United Nations Command met to discuss efforts to disarm a military zone the rivals control within their shared border under a peace agreement between the two countries.
(AP, 10/16/18)
2018 Oct 17, UN agencies called for an end to the practice in some countries of determining whether a girl or woman is a virgin through gynecological testing.
(SFC, 10/18/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 18, A new UN report said South Sudan's armed opposition abducted women and girls as young as 12 and lined them up so commanders could choose "wives," and those not selected were left to be raped repeatedly by other fighters. The report focused on the Western Equatoria region between April and August, saying 900 people were abducted and some 24,000 people forced to flee their homes as fighting surged after months of relative calm.
(AP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 18, A UN humanitarian aid official said that Syria's government has withdrawn a controversial law that allowed authorities to seize property left behind by civilians who fled the country's civil war.
(AP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 23, The UN Human Rights Committee said that France's ban on the niqab, the full-body Islamic veil, was a violation of human rights and called on it to review the legislation. It gave Paris 180 days to report back to say what actions it had taken.
(Reuters, 10/23/18)
2018 Oct 29, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council that up to 15,000 people remain within the IS-controlled area and around 7,000 people have in recent weeks been displaced by fighting from Hajin, the last major stronghold of Islamic State in Syria on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.
(AP, 10/29/18)
2018 Nov 1, The UN General Assembly vote 189-2 to approve a resolution condemning the American embargo of Cuba. The US and Israel voted no. Moldova and Ukraine did not vote.
(SFC, 11/2/18, p.A2)
2018 Nov 1, The UN children's agency said over seven million children face a serious threat of famine in Yemen and ending the country's war will not save all of them.
(AFP, 11/1/18)
2018 Nov 6, UN investigators said more than 200 mass graves containing between 6,000 and 12,000 bodies have been found in Iraq from the time of the Islamic State group's three-year reign.
(AP, 11/6/18)
2018 Nov 7, The UN and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent completed a desperately needed aid delivery to displaced Syrians in the remote Rukban desert camp near the border with Jordan. Nearly 50,000 people were stranded in the desert and had received no aid since January.
(AP, 11/7/18)
2018 Nov 8, The UN said at least 2.3 million people have fled economic and political crisis in Venezuela, mostly since 2015.
(AFP, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 13, UN human rights boss Michelle Bachelet called on Bangladesh to halt plans to repatriate 2,200 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, warning that their lives would be at "serious risk".
(Reuters, 11/13/18)
2018 Nov 14, The UN Security Council unanimously voted to lift a nearly decade-old arms embargo and targeted sanctions on Eritrea after a rapprochement with Ethiopia and thawing of relations with Djibouti.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 16, The United States said it would oppose for the first time an annual resolution at the United Nations calling on Israel to rescind its authority in the occupied Golan Heights, drawing praise from Israeli officials.
(Reuters, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 19, In France UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder unveiled the interactive "Facts about the Holocaust " site at the cultural agency's Paris headquarters.
(AP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 19, A UN draft resolution on Yemen was presented to the Security Council. It called for an immediate truce in the port city of Hodeida and set a two-week deadline for the warring sides to remove all barriers to humanitarian aid.
(AFP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 22, United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths met Yemen's rebel chief to nail down details of peace talks expected in December, a day before a planned visit to the battleground port city of Hodeida.
(AFP, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 23, The UN migration agency said at least 631 African migrants have died trying to reach Spain so far this year, nearly three times more than in all of 2017.
(Reuters, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 24, South Korea said that the United Nations Security Council granted an exemption to sanctions that will allow surveys on North Korean railroad sections the Koreas want to connect with the South.
(AP, 11/24/18)
2018 Nov 26, UNESCO said Korean wrestling was added to a list of "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" on the basis of an application by the two Koreas.
(AP, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 27, UN agencies said asylum seekers at the Mexican border fleeing violence or persecution are entitled to lodge claims in the United States to obtain sanctuary there in a fresh attempt to shield migrants from tough US immigration policies.
(Reuters, 11/27/18)
2018 Nov 27, The United Nations environment office warned that the gap is widening between current greenhouse gas emissions and the levels needed to stop catastrophic global warming. It said in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) this century, emissions need to drop 55 percent by 2030 compared to 2017 levels.
(AP, 11/27/18)
2018 Nov 29, An investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) of its widely-praised refugee program in Uganda said it has found corruption costing millions of dollars and misconduct.
(Reuters, 11/29/18)
2018 Nov 30, The United Nations said it had helped hundreds of Central Americans who travelled with migrant caravans towards the US to return to their home countries.
(AFP, 11/30/18)
2018 Nov, A UN-backed study was published saying the area of Mexico that illegally farms opium poppies had grown by more than one-fifth this year, to an area the size of Philadelphia.
(AP, 2/6/19)
2018 Dec 3, The UN World Intellectual Property Organization said China has issued the most international patent applications for an eighth straight year, showing the country's heft in intellectual property amid US President Donald Trump's accusation that the growing Asia power steals it.
(AP, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 3, UN official Michel Forst called on the Colombian government to step up measures to protect human rights defenders following an upsurge in the number murdered since the signing of a peace agreement with former FARC guerrillas.
(AFP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 3, A UN chartered flight flew 50 wounded rebels along with their escorts out of the Yemeni capital Sanaa for medical treatment, a critical step towards bringing warring parties to planned UN-brokered negotiations in Sweden.
(AFP, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 3, In Poland UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a dramatic appeal to world leaders to take the threat of global warming seriously and to act boldly to avert a catastrophic rise in temperatures before the end of the century. Nations facing imminent environmental disaster called on rich polluters to help them back from the brink.
(AP, 12/3/18)(AFP, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 4, The UN said it was seeking $738 million in 2019 to help neighboring countries cope with the inflow of millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, who have "no prospect for return in the short to medium term".
(Reuters, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 4, The UN warned of a "severe increase" in Yemen's hunger rate and cautioned the situation would deteriorate further in 2019, when four million more people are expected to need food aid.
(AFP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 4, A Houthi delegation left for Sweden for UN-sponsored Yemen peace talks, the first since 2016, as Western nations pressed for an end to the war and the United Nations warned of a looming economic disaster.
(Reuters, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 5, The UN secretary-general's envoy for Western Sahara met with foreign ministers from Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania plus leaders of the Polisario Front in Geneva over the future of the Morocco-annexed territory.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 6, The UN's human rights office said Burundi's government has asked it to leave, months after the outgoing UN rights chief called the country one of the "most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times".
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 6, The UN World Food Program said a survey of food security in Yemen has found more than 15 million people are in a "crisis" or "emergency" situation and that number could hit 20 million without sustained food aid.
(Reuters, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 6, Meeting in Sweden Yemen's warring sides agreed to free thousands of prisoners, in what a UN mediator called a hopeful start to the first peace talks in years to end a war that has pushed millions of people on the verge of starvation.
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 6, In Geneva two days of UN talks on Western Sahara ended with all sides promising to meet again for a similar "round table" in the first quarter of 2019, UN envoy Horst Koehler told reporters after the meeting ended unexpectedly early.
(Reuters, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 9, The UN's humanitarian office said that 369 trucks will carry one month's worth of supplies to Syria. It's the first cross-border aid shipment since the Syrian government recaptured a trade crossing with Jordan from Syrian rebels and reopened it in October.
(AP, 12/9/18)
2018 Dec 10, In Morocco a United Nations conference in Marrakesh adopted a migration pact in front of leaders and representatives from around 150 countries, despite a string of withdrawals driven by anti-immigrant populism.
(AFP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 10, Brazil's incoming foreign relations minister said Brazil will pull out of a United Nations pact on dealing with rising migration, joining the United States and a growing number of countries in rejecting the agreement.
(Reuters, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 12, Sweden said it was freezing its support to UNAIDS until executive director Michel Sidibe is removed. An expert report has blasted the agency's leadership for systematically failing to address bullying, abuse and sexual harassment.
(AFP, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 13, United Nations human rights experts expressed concern over recent rollbacks of women's rights in Poland, especially those regarding reproductive health and societal roles.
(AFP, 12/13/18)
2018 Dec 13, Scandal-plagued UNAIDS head Michel Sidibe offered to resign in June, following an expert report that said his "defective leadership" had plunged the agency into crisis.
(AFP, 12/13/18)
2018 Dec 13, Yemen's warring parties agreed to cease fighting for the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah and withdraw their troops. The Houthis have agreed in principle on a UN's role in Sanaa airport, a spokesman for the armed movement said in Sweden. The UN role would include carrying out safety and inspection checks at the airport.
(Reuters, 12/13/18)
2018 Dec 14, The Nigerian military accused United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) staff of spying for Islamist militants in northeast Nigeria, and suspended the agency's activities there. A new military statement hours later lifted a suspension of UNICEF's work in the extremist-threatened northeast. The reversal came after an emergency meeting with UNICEF representatives.
(Reuters, 12/14/18)(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 17, The United Nations and the Palestinian Authority appealed for $350 million in aid for Palestinians next year, saying much more was needed but they had to be realistic after a year of funding cuts.
(Reuters, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 19, The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said it will cut food aid next year to about 190,000 poor Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank due a shortage of funds.
(Reuters, 12/19/18)
2018 Dec 20, The UN said the "overwhelming majority" of women and older girls who passed through Libya as migrants reported being gang-raped by traffickers or having witnessed others taken away to be sexually abused in a report based on hundreds of interviews.
(AP, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 20, The United States told the UN Security Council that it was committed to the "permanent destruction" of Islamic State in Syria and would "use all instruments of our national power" to push for the withdrawal of Iranian-backed forces in the country.
(Reuters, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 22, UN monitors arrived in Yemen to oversee a fragile ceasefire in the rebel-held city of Hodeida, the latest push to secure peace in the devastated country.
(AFP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 23, A UN team led by a Dutch officer arrived at Hodeida to monitor a cease-fire that went into force in the Red Sea port city where Yemen's civil war rivals been fighting for months.
(AP, 12/23/18)
2018 Dec 31, The UN food agency threatened to suspend some aid shipments to Yemen if the Houthi rebels do not investigate and stop theft and fraud in food distribution. The suspension would affect some 3 million people.
(AP, 12/31/18)
2018 Gambia got the backing of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take Myanmar to the UN's Int'l. Court of Justice (ICJ).
(Econ., 1/2/21, p.46)
2019 Jan 1, The US and Israel officially quit UNESCO, the UN's educational, scientific and cultural agency at the stroke of midnight, the culmination of a process triggered more than a year ago amid concerns that the organization fosters anti-Israel bias. Since 2011 the US has accrued $600 million in unpaid dues, which was one of the reasons for Pres. Donald Trump's decision to withdraw. Israel owed an estimated $10 million.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Somalia's government ordered the UN top envoy to the troubled country to leave, accusing him of "deliberately interfering with the country's sovereignty." Nicholas Haysom had raised concerns at the action of Somalia's UN-backed security services in recent violence that left several people dead.
(AFP, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 4, The UN human rights office called on Bahrain to release activist Nabeel Rajab, saying that the upholding of his five-year jail sentence by the top court this week showed "continued suppression of government critics".
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 15, The UN reported that freezing temperatures and the lack of medical care have killed at least 15 displaced Syrian children in recent weeks.
(AFP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 16, The UN Security Council unanimously approved the deployment of up to 75 observers to Yemen's port city of Hodeidah for six months to monitor a ceasefire and redeployment of forces by the warring parties.
(AP, 1/16/19)
2019 Jan 16, The UN said at least 890 people are believed to have been killed over three days in December in ethnic violence in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, and it warned that the toll could be higher still.
(Reuters, 1/16/19)
2019 Jan 18, The United Nations said it was "extremely alarmed" by the forced return by Cameroon of thousands of refugees to northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram Islamists pose a continuing threat to civilians. The UN refugee agency said Cameroon forced "several thousand" refugees back to Nigeria this week. According to the UNHCR Cameroon is currently hosting 370,000 refugees, 100,000 of whom are Nigerians.
(AFP, 1/18/19)
2019 Jan 18, The UN human rights office said at least 34 people have been killed in Congo since disputed provisional election results were announced on Jan. 10.
(AP, 1/18/19)
2019 Jan 19, A new UN report said fuel is being shipped illegally for Iran to Houthi Shiite rebels in Yemen to finance their war against the government.
(SSFC, 1/20/19, p.A8)
2019 Jan 22, Libya's coastguard said 473 migrants trying to reach Italy by inflatables had been brought back to the North African country. The UN criticized European countries for not allowing migrants to disembark at safe ports.
(Reuters, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 24, Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said she will travel to Turkey next week to head an "independent international inquiry" into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 1/24/19)
2019 Jan 25, A separatist movement in Indonesia's West Papua province delivered a petition with 1.8 million signatures demanding an independence referendum to UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet.
(Reuters, 1/27/19)
2019 Jan 25, Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, said Myanmar's army chief should be prosecuted for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority, adding that holding perpetrators to account for crimes was necessary before refugees who fled the country could return.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 25, The UN human rights boss Michelle Bachelet called for an independent investigation into alleged excessive use of force by Venezuelan security forces or allied militia, citing reports of at least 20 people killed this week.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 26, Venezuela's political showdown moved to the United Nations where a Security Council meeting called by the United States pit backers of President Nicolas Maduro against the Trump administration and supporters of the country's self-declared interim leader Juan Guaido.
(AP, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 29, It was reported that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been chosen as the winner of Germany's prestigious International Charlemagne Prize for contributions to European unity.
(AP, 1/29/19)
2019 Jan 29, The United Nations refugee agency says more than 30,000 Nigerians fled the border town of Rann over the weekend to seek safety in Cameroon as attacks by Boko Haram extremists continue. Spokesman Babar Baloch said thousands more have fled to neighboring Chad because of the violence in northeastern Nigeria.
(AP, 1/29/19)
2019 Feb 2, The UN and African Union announced that a peace deal has been reached between the Central African Republic government and 14 armed groups after their first-ever direct dialogue aimed at ending years of conflict.
(AP, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 3, The head of the UN mission in Yemen launched talks between the government and Huthi rebels aboard a boat in the Red Sea aimed at shoring up a ceasefire.
(AFP, 2/3/19)
2019 Feb 4, The UN Human Rights Committee ruled that Finland has breached the political rights of its Sami population, charging that Helsinki had violated the indigenous people's right to "internal self-determination." According to the Finnish Sami parliament, there are 10,000 Sami in Finland.
(AFP, 2/4/19)
2019 Feb 6, The UN said that its largest humanitarian aid convoy since the start of the Syrian conflict has reached Rukban refugee camp, where thousands of desperate people are stranded in the desert close to the border with Jordan.
(Reuters, 2/6/19)
2019 Feb 13, Judges at the International Court of Justice ruled that the UN body has jurisdiction to hear a claim by Iran to recover $1.75 billion in assets frozen by Washington. The case filed in June 2016 centers on assets from the Iranian national bank, Bank Markazi, seized by US courts to compensate families of victims of a 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine Corps. base which Washington blames on Iran.
(Reuters, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 18, The UN said Yemen's warring parties have agreed to start withdrawing forces from the main port of Hodeidah under a UN-sponsored deal, following weeks of diplomacy to salvage a pact that stalled over control of the Red Sea city.
(Reuters, 2/18/19)
2019 Feb 19, A UN report said more than 100,000 people have been displaced by factional fighting and lawlessness in Burkina Faso, most within the past two months.
(Reuters, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 20, A UN report said investigators have identified perpetrators of pervasive rape and killings and torture in secret safe houses in South Sudan, and believe oil revenues have driven much of the violence in its civil war.
(Reuters, 2/20/19)
2019 Feb 23, The UN said that three Guinean peacekeepers had been killed during an attack on their vehicles in Siby near the capital of Bamako, Mali.
(AP, 2/24/19)
2019 Feb 24, The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said 3,804 civilians were killed last year, the highest number since the international organization began tallying figures in 2009.
(AP, 2/24/19)
2019 Feb 25, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the international arms control system is facing collapse and urged Russia and the US to stop the imminent demise of a crucial nuclear treaty.
(AFP, 2/25/19)
2019 Feb 25, The United Nations' highest court ruled that Britain carved up Mauritius illegally when it agreed to end colonial rule and must "bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible." The ICJ said that the Chagos Islands archipelago should be handed over to Mauritius in order to complete its "decolonization." Three months later, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Chagos Islands being returned - with 116 states backing the move and only six against.
(AP, 2/25/19)(BBC, 10/19/20)
2019 Feb 28, A UN probe released today said Israel may have committed crimes against humanity in responding to last year's unrest in Gaza, as snipers "intentionally" shot civilians including children, journalists and the disabled.
(AFP, 2/28/19)
2019 Mar 5, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Burundi has forced the United Nations to shut its local human rights office after 23 years.
(Reuters, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 6, United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that she is seeking access to China to verify continuing reports of disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly of Muslims in the Xinjiang region.
(Reuters, 3/6/19)
2019 Mar 6, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said sanctions had exacerbated the crisis in Venezuela but also slammed Maduro's "violations of civil and political rights" in her annual report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
(AFP, 3/6/19)
2019 Mar 7, In Geneva three dozen countries, including all 28 EU members, called on Saudi Arabia to release 10 activists and cooperate with a UN-led investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its Istanbul consulate. This was the first rebuke of the kingdom at the UN Human Rights Council since it was set up in 2006.
(Reuters, 3/7/19)
2019 Mar 8, The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said in a report that around 5,000 Yemeni civilians were either killed or wounded last year, which averages out to 93 victims each week.
(AP, 3/8/19)
2019 Mar 10, The UN said its children's fund is paying some 100,000 teachers in Yemen, as two million children go without education in the war-torn country.
(AFP, 3/10/19)
2019 Mar 11, The UN's anti-drug agency said production of methamphetamine is skyrocketing in Southeast Asia, with prices dropping and usage expanding.
(AP, 3/11/19)
2019 Mar 12, A document drawn up by the World Food Program (WFP), labeled as a "Concept of Operations," outlined how the UN organization and its partners "may facilitate the identification, staging, forward movement, reception, and sustainment of (Rohingya) refugees" on Bhasan Char, Bangladesh, estimating an initial appeal for donor funding of between $8.6 and $19 million.
(Reuters, 3/23/19)
2019 Mar 13, A human rights expert urged the UN to take "immediate action" to provide justice and remedies to displaced minority communities in Kosovo who were sheltered on lead-contaminated wasteland.
(AP, 3/13/19)
2019 Mar 13, In Kenya the sixth Global Environment Outlook was released at a UN conference in Nairobi. It said unsustainable human activities globally have degraded the Earth's ecosystems, endangering the ecological foundations of society.
(SFC, 3/14/19, p.A6)
2019 Mar 14, The United Nations said that no UN staff should travel on the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Kenya nations meeting at the UN environment assembly in Nairobi announced that they had agreed to "significantly reduce" single-use plastics over the next decade.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 18, A UN report released today showed an increase in allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by staff working in UN agencies and their partner organizations.
(AFP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 20, UN judges sentenced former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic to life in prison on appeal, ending one of the most momentous trials over massacres and other atrocities committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
(Reuters, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 20, The UN human rights chief warned that children in Yemen continued to be killed and maimed at an alarming rate, despite a three-month-old truce in Hodeida. The UN said thousands of tons of food aid near the port city of Hodeida is infested with insects and must be fumigated to feed millions of people.
(AP, 3/20/19)(AFP, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 22, The UN Human Rights Council criticized Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights a day after US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the disputed territory.
(Reuters, 3/22/19)
2019 Mar 26, In Tunisia UN official Moncef Kartas, charged with investigating alleged violations of a UN arms embargo on Libya, was detained in Tunis on suspicion of spying. On March 29 Tunisian authorities confirmed that they had detained two Tunisians, including Kartas, on suspicion of "spying for foreign parties".
(AFP, 3/29/19)(AFP, 4/13/19)
2019 Mar 28, The UN Security Council ordered countries worldwide to step up the fight against terrorism financing by ensuring they have laws that make it a serious crime to fund terrorist acts.
(AFP, 3/28/19)
2019 Mar 30, United Nations officials said at least 746 people have been reported killed in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe since Cyclone Idai landed on March 14.
(Reuters, 3/30/19)
2019 Apr 2, The UN said more than 113 million people across 53 countries experienced "acute hunger" last year because of wars and climate disasters, with Africa the worst-hit region.
(AFP, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 4, A UN official said Mali is in dire need of humanitarian aid, with more than three million people requiring food and basic assistance even as billions of dollars go to security missions.
(AFP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 4, The World Health Organization said global life expectancy grew by 5.5 years between 2000 and 2016.
(AFP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 9, The UN Security Council told the Central African Republic that it must make progress in reintegrating rebels into the security forces as a condition to review an arms embargo. The UN arms embargo was imposed in 2013 when the country descended into bloodletting.
(AFP, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 11, The United Nations said the fighting in Libya between Haftar's forces and troops under the internationally-backed Tripoli government had killed at least 56 people and forced 8,000 to flee their homes in the city in the last week.
(Reuters, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 14, The UN health agency said more than 120 people have been killed since a Libyan military commander launched an assault on the capital 10 days ago, igniting clashes with rival militias.
(AP, 4/14/19)
2019 Apr 17, The UN said around a third of all conflict-related detainees in Afghanistan say they have suffered from torture or ill-treatment. The US-backed Afghan government is holding thousands of detainees, many of them captured as part of the ongoing war with the Taliban.
(AP, 4/17/19)
2019 Apr 18, The United States and Russia said they could not support a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya at this time.
(Reuters, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 19, The UN said it had evacuated 163 refugees from war-ravaged Libya to neighboring Niger, but more than 3,000 others were still trapped in detention centers affected by clashes.
(AFP, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 23, A UN panel overseeing compensation claims by countries and organizations affected by Iraq's 1990-1991 invasion of Kuwait said it has paid $240 million to the Gulf state's national oil company.
(AP, 4/23/19)
2019 Apr 23, A UN-commissioned report said the war in Yemen has set back its development by more than 20 years.
(AP, 4/23/19)
2019 Apr 25, UN peacekeepers in Lebanon confirmed the existence of a third cross-border tunnel, out of six the Israeli military said it discovered in the area last year.
(AP, 4/25/19)
2019 Apr 26, The UN's International Labour Organization said Qatar is set to abolish its controversial exit visa system for all foreign workers by the end of the year.
(AFP, 4/26/19)
2019 Apr 26, A UN spokesperson said more than 7,000 people have left a desperate desert camp for displaced Syrians near the Jordanian border since March. Around 36,000 people remained in the isolated Rukban camp near Al-Tanf base used by the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 4/26/19)
2019 Apr 26, The UN migration agency said Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, "creating an acute humanitarian situation".
(Reuters, 4/26/19)
2019 Apr 30, The UN refugee agency said that seeking asylum was a fundamental right and that people lodging applications should not be made to pay a fee, as proposed by the Trump administration.
(Reuters, 4/30/19)
2019 May 1, The UN added Masood Azhar, the leader of a Pakistan-based Islamist group, to its list of global terrorists after China lifted its objections. Pakistan confirmed the move. This came months after Azhar's group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 suicide attack in disputed Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers.
(AFP, 5/1/19)(AP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 1, The UN said fighting in northwestern Syria has displaced more than 32,500 people since February, as the regime and its ally Russia have stepped up their bombardment. More than 200 civilians have been killed since February.
(AFP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 2, The UN's migration agency said at least eight Africa migrants have died in makeshift camps in war-hit Yemen of complications related to acute watery diarrhea at the Ibn Khaldoon Hospital in Lahj.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 3, The UN human rights office said Hungary is deliberately depriving rejected asylum seekers of food as they await deportation, in violation of international law.
(Reuters, 5/3/19)
2019 May 3, The UN's top food agencies said about 10 million people in North Korea are facing "severe food shortages" after the East Asian nation had one of the worst harvests in a decade.
(AP, 5/3/19)
2019 May 6, The United Nations' first comprehensive report on biodiversity said nature is in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with extinction looming over 1 million species of plants and animals.
(AP, 5/06/19)
2019 May 10, United Nations environmental officials said almost every country in the world has agreed on a legally binding framework for reducing polluting plastic waste, with the United States a notable exception.
(AP, 5/11/19)
2019 May 14, A UN fact-finding mission said the world must cut off financial and other support for Myanmar's armed forces, repeating a call for top generals to be prosecuted for abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
(Reuters, 5/14/19)
2019 May 15, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking in Fiji, said that he's traveling to three South Pacific island nations to see the effects of climate change firsthand.
(AP, 5/15/19)
2019 May 17, North Korea sent a letter asking United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to deal with the "illegal" seizure of one of its cargo ships by the United States.
(Reuters, 5/18/19)
2019 May 18, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was vital "to save the Pacific to save the world" as he wrapped up his brief South Pacific tour in Vanuatu.
(AP, 5/18/19)
2019 May 20, The UN Food and Agricultural Organization warned that plunging populations of bees worldwide threaten the future of agriculture and food security.
(http://tinyurl.com/y32c5qtc)(SSFC, 5/26/19, p.A16)
2019 May 21, The United Nations human rights office called on US authorities to ensure that women have access to safe abortions, saying bans lead to risky underground abortions that can endanger a woman's life.
(Reuters, 5/21/19)
2019 May 23, The UN named David Gressly as pointman to coordinate the global response to the devastating Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as it ramps up efforts to contain the outbreak.
(AP, 5/23/19)
2019 May 25, A UN maritime tribunal ruled that Russia must immediately release three Ukrainian naval vessels captured by Russia in November and also free the 24 sailors it detained.
(AP, 5/25/19)
2019 May 28, The United Nations refugee agency said violence in northwest Nigeria has forced around 20,000 refugees to flee to neighboring Niger since April.
(Reuters, 5/28/19)
2019 May 28, The UN human rights office reported that North Koreans are forced to pay bribes to officials to survive in their isolated country where corruption is "endemic" and repression rife, Pyongyang dismissed the report as politically motivated.
(Reuters, 5/28/19)
2019 May, UNAIDS chief, Michel Sidibe, left his post early after allegations that he improperly handled sexual assault claims against one of his deputies.
{UN}
(AP, 8/14/19)
2019 Jun 3, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a "high risk" of atrocities in Mali in a report that calls for beefing up the UN peacekeeping presence in the strife-torn center of the country.
(AFP, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 3, A UN said people in all major cities across the western Balkans face alarming levels of air pollution that are reducing their life expectancies because the underdeveloped, politically fragile region is still heavily reliant on burning coal to generate power. The report was prepared cooperation with the WHO and air quality management institutions in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
(AP, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 3, UN officials said international donors have pledged $1.2 billion to help Mozambique recover from the devastation caused by cyclones Idai and Kenneth, but $3.2 billion is needed overall.
(AFP, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 4, The UN's World Food Program said fighters have set fire to thousands of acres of wheat and other crops in northwest Syria in a campaign that has turned food supplies in a "weapon of war" and forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee.
(Reuters, 6/4/19)
2019 Jun 7, The UN refugee agency said heavy rains have triggered severe flooding in southwestern Libya since late May, killing four people and forcing more than 2,500 to flee their homes.
(AP, 6/7/19)
2019 Jun 8, The Philippine government attacked UN human rights experts for "unpardonable intrusions", after a call for an international investigation into killings linked to President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.
(Reuters, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 10, The head of the UN atomic watchdog urged world powers to continue dialogue with Iran to keep it in the landmark 2015 deal aimed at preventing the country from building nuclear weapons, and to help defuse mounting tensions in the region.
(AP, 6/10/19)
2019 Jun 13, The UN said it had confirmed the killing of 17 people and the burning of more than 100 houses in Deleij village in Sudan's central Darfur region earlier this week. Opposition medics said "Janjaweed militias" fired live ammunition at civilians on June 10 at a market in Deleij, killing 11 people and wounding 20 others.
(Reuters, 6/13/19)
2019 Jun 13, UN counterterrorism chief Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov began a 3-day visit to Xinjiang despite protests from the US and a rights group that the trip would be inappropriate in light of the human rights conditions in China's far west region.
(AP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 14, The highest UN court rejected a request by the United Arab Emirates for interim measures to be imposed on Qatar in a racial discrimination dispute. Judges at the International Court of Justice rejected by a 15-1 majority a UAE application to compel Qatar to unblock a website that enables family reunifications and to prevent state-run media from aggravating the dispute. They also rejected a request for Doha to drop a similar case at a UN anti-discrimination committee.
(AP, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 14, The World Health Organization emergency committee met on whether to declare a raging Ebola epidemic an international threat, after an outbreak that began in Democratic Republic of Congo crossed into Uganda. The committee expressed deep concern but declined to declare a global emergency.
(AFP, 6/14/19)(SFC, 6/15/19, p.A4)
2019 Jun 17, The UN reported that the world's population of 7.76 billion will reach 9.7 billion in 2050.
(SFC, 6/19/19, p.A4)
2019 Jun 18, The UN and local authorities said hundreds of thousands of people have fled inter-ethnic violence in northeastern areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past two weeks. Local officials last week said at least 50 people had been killed in a matter of days in Ituri province, while other sources put the death toll from the inter-ethnic violence at over 70.
(AFP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 19, Two UN human rights experts said Cambodian authorities have questioned, summoned or detained more than 140 members of the former Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in an escalating suppression of dissent.
(Reuters, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 19, An independent UN report into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said there is "credible evidence" to warrant further investigation into the possible role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and suggested sanctions on his personal assets.
(AP, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 19, The UN refugee agency said a record 71 million people have been displaced worldwide by war, persecution and other violence.
(AP, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 19, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet arrived in Venezuela as part of a visit to review the country's ongoing economic and political crisis.
(AFP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 21, The UN's International Labor Organization (ILO) overseeing international labor standards adopted a new treaty against violence and harassment in the workplace, fueled by the women's #MeToo movement.
(Reuters, 6/21/19)
2019 Jun 21, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on Venezuela to release jailed dissidents and said the crisis-wracked country faced a "serious" humanitarian situation.
(AFP, 6/21/19)
2019 Jun 23, Qu Dongyu (55) became the first Chinese national to be elected to head the UN's Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
(AFP, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 25, The UN Security Council has approved a resolution establishing a political mission in Haiti starting on Oct. 16 to advise the government on promoting political stability and rule of law in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
(AP, 6/25/19)
2019 Jun 25, Hatice Cengiz, the Turkish fiancee of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, took her campaign for justice in his killing to the United Nations' top human rights body and urged the UN to take "the next step" following a key investigator's finding that Saudi Arabia bears responsibility.
(AP, 6/25/19)
2019 Jun 26, The UN refugee agency said a photo of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria, who drowned on the US-Mexico border, symbolizes the failure to deal with their desperation.
(Reuters, 6/26/19)
2019 Jun 26, The UN Security Council approved a resolution establishing a political mission in Haiti starting Oct. 16 that will officially replace all UN peacekeeping activities in the country.
(SFC, 6/27/19, p.A2)
2019 Jun 28, The UN Security Council voted to beef up the mandate of the more than 16,000 peacekeeping mission in Mali to help tackle escalating violence.
(SSFC, 6/30/19, p.A4)
2019 Jun 28, A new UN report said more than 7,500 children have been killed or wounded in Yemen in the past 5½ years.
(SSFC, 6/30/19, p.A4)
2019 Jul 2, A United Nations investigator said Burmese security forces and insurgents are committing human rights violations against civilians in restive western states that may amount to fresh war crimes.
(Reuters, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 2, The UN World Food Program (WFP) said it will triple the number of people it is providing food and cash assistance to in northeastern Congo's Ituri province, which is facing inter-ethnic violence and an Ebola epidemic.
(AP, 7/3/19)
2019 Jul 3, The UN said that conflict had intensified in a region of South Sudan since a peace deal was signed, with hundreds of civilians raped or murdered by warring factions.
(AFP, 7/3/19)
2019 Jul 4, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet reported that Venezuela's government registered nearly 5,300 killings during security operations last year linked to cases of "resistance to authority," denouncing a "shockingly high" number of extrajudicial killings.
(AP, 7/5/19)
2019 Jul 8, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that she was "deeply shocked" by conditions under which migrants and refugees are held at US detention centers, following reports of severe overcrowding and disease-ridden cells.
(AFP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The UN Global Study on Homicide 2919 said some 464,000 homicides were recorded around the world in 2017, far more than the number pf people killed in armed conflicts and terrorist attacks.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The UN said war-battered Yemen has been hit with more than 460,000 suspected cholera cases so far this year — a sharp rise from the 380,000 cases for all of 2018.
(AP, 7/9/19)
2019 Jul 8, Twenty-two countries signed a letter to the UN Human Rights Council, calling on China to end the “mass arbitrary detention" of Uighurs and other Muslims and to allow international observers access to detention camps.
(Econ, 7/27/19, p.36)
2019 Jul 9, The UN said the battle between rival militias for the Libyan capital has killed more than 1,000 people since it began in April.
(AP, 7/9/19)
2019 Jul 10, The UN environment agency said networks and organizations representing more than 7,000 institutions of higher and further education around the world have signed a letter declaring "a climate emergency" and committing to tackle it.
(AP, 7/10/19)
2019 Jul 11, The United Nations’ top human rights body voted to launch an investigation into thousands of killings in the Philippines’ brutal war on drugs. The Human Rights Council voted 18-14 with 15 abstentions to approve the resolution.
(AP, 7/11/19)
2019 Jul 11, China attacked a statement by 22 Western countries at the UN urging it to stop holding members of its Muslim population in detention centers, calling the measure necessary for national security and accusing the countries of trampling on its sovereignty.
(AP, 7/11/19)
2019 Jul 12, The United Nations said it was "alarmed" at death sentences given by a court run by Yemen's Huthi rebels to 30 academics, trade unionists and preachers for alleged spying.
(AFP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 12, United Nations Security Council ambassadors got a firsthand look at the challenges of peace nearly three years into Colombia's historic accord with leftist rebels as they visited with Pres. Ivan Duque, politicians and former rebels at a time of mounting concern.
(AP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 12, Sweden said that it will refrain from signing a United Nations convention on nuclear weapons, with the foreign minister arguing that the treaty "in its current form is not ready".
(AP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 15, The United Nations reported that more than 821 million people suffered from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition worldwide last year. The number has risen now for the third year in a row.
(AFP, 7/15/19)
2019 Jul 17, The UN said hundreds of fighters from several militia groups in conflict-torn Central African Republic have laid down their weapons. The nation, gripped by crisis since a 2013 coup, is striving to disarm and demobilize some 14 rebel groups as part of its latest peace efforts.
(AFP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, The United Nations' highest court ordered Pakistan to stay the execution of Kulbhushan Jadhav, an alleged Indian spy, and undertake a full review of his case, after agreeing with India's contention the man's rights had been violated in a case that has been a source of friction between the nuclear neighbors.
(AP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 18, A new United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report said transnational crime syndicates are raking in tens of billions of dollars a year selling everything from drugs to counterfeit goods as cartels outpace law enforcement to expand their influence across Southeast Asia.
(Bloomberg, 7/18/19)
2019 Jul 25, The UN reported that nearly 700 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo were victims of summary and extrajudicial executions this year, with a third carried out by security forces.
(AFP, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 25, Diplomats said the United States has blocked an attempt to get the UN Security Council to condemn Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
(The Independent, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 29, UN envoy Ghassan Salame raised the alarm over "the increasing frequency of attacks on Mitiga", the Libyan capital's only functioning airport.
(AFP, 8/1/19)
2019 Jul 29, An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees even as the organization faced an unprecedented crisis after US funding cuts.
(AFP, 7/29/19)
2019 Jul 30, A UN report said more civilians were killed by Afghan and international coalition forces in Afghanistan in the first half of this year than by the Taliban and other militants.
(AP, 7/30/19)
2019 Jul 31, Kelly Craft (57), married to a wealthy coal magnate, won Senate confirmation to be the next US ambassador to the UN, overcoming Democratic resistance after Pres. Donald Trump tapped her for the high-profile post.
(AFP, 8/1/19)
2019 Jul, A group of hackers took advantage of a flaw in Microsoft's SharePoint software and an unknown type of malware to gain access to dozens of servers at the UN's Geneva and Vienna offices, as well as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The hack was made public in January, 2020.
(Engadget, 1/29/20)
2019 Aug 1, The UN said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has authorized an investigation into attacks on health facilities and schools in the last major rebel-held stronghold in northwest Syria, following a petition from 10 members of the UN Security Council.
(AP, 8/1/19)
2019 Aug 2, The UN said illegal coca plantations in Colombia reduced slightly in 2018 but the country remains the world's biggest producer of the primary ingredient in cocaine production.
(AFP, 8/2/19)
2019 Aug 3, The UN mission said July saw the highest number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in a single month since 2017. Preliminary findings indicated more than 1,500 civilians were killed or wounded.
(AP, 8/3/19)
2019 Aug 4, The UN World Food Program (WFP) said it reached an agreement with Yemen's rebels to resume food deliveries to rebel-controlled parts of the country after suspending the aid for over a month.
(AP, 8/4/19)
2019 Aug 5, United Nations investigators urged world leaders to impose targeted financial sanctions on companies linked to the military in Myanmar, and said foreign firms doing business with them could be complicit in international crimes. The investigators identified at least 59 foreign companies with some form of commercial ties to the Myanmar military.
(AP, 8/5/19)
2019 Aug 5, It was reported that an Associated Press investigation has found that more than a dozen UN aid workers deployed to deal with the humanitarian crisis caused by five years of civil war in Yemen are being accused of graft — joining with combatants on all sides to enrich themselves from an international outpouring of donated food, medicine, fuel and money.
(AP, 8/5/19)
2019 Aug 6, The UN's humanitarian agency said malaria has killed more than 1,800 people in Burundi this year.
(AFP, 8/6/19)
2019 Aug 7, Members of the United Nations signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation, an agreement it hopes will make it easier to settle cross-border commercial disputes and stabilize trade relationships.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, It was reported that a confidential UN report reveals that North Korea has been employing a range of sophisticated cyberattacks in an effort to bankroll its development of weapons of mass destruction.
(BGR News, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said reports suggest more than 100,000 people in Syria have been detained, abducted or gone missing during the eight-year conflict, with the government mainly responsible.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 8, A UN climate panel said in a report that divesting from fossil fuels alone won't be enough to limit warming from climate change, adding that issues including deforestation and agriculture must be addressed to drive down greenhouse gas emissions.
(ABC News, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 8, The UN called on forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognized government and a rival administration to commit to a humanitarian truce by midnight on August 9.
(AFP, 8/9/19)
2019 Aug 9, The UN refugee agency says fighting over Libya's capital of Tripoli has displaced more than 105,000 people since April, when a Libyan commander launched an offensive to take the city from the UN-backed government.
(AP, 8/9/19)
2019 Aug 9, A new report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said increased carbon-dioxide levels lower the nutritional value of food staples like rice and wheat.
(Business Insider, 8/10/19)
2019 Aug 12, It was reported that UN experts are investigating at least 35 instances in 17 countries of North Koreans using cyberattacks to illegally raise money for weapons of mass destruction programs — and they are calling for sanctions against ships providing gasoline and diesel to the country.
(AP, 8/12/19)
2019 Aug 14, The United Nations said it was gravely concerned about reports indicating 11 civilians had been killed in an Afghan security force operation in an eastern province near the border with Pakistan. A politician in the area said government forces had attacked a student gathering over the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 14, Winifred "Winnie" Byanyima, a former Ugandan politician and the current head of the humanitarian group Oxfam International, was appointed the new executive director of the UN AIDS agency.
(AP, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 15, The United Nations said more than 37 attacks have been reported against health workers, health facilities and ambulances in Libya since the self-styled Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Hifter launched an offensive in early April to capture the capital of Tripoli.
(AP, 8/15/19)
2019 Aug 16, A group of UN human rights experts called for the immediate release of three Iranian women given long jail terms for protesting laws compelling women to wear veils.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, The UN migration agency said more than 500 migrants have lost their lives in the Americas so far this year, about a 33% increase from a year ago.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, The UN expert on human rights in Iran said last year saw increasing restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and continuing violations of the right to life, liberty and a fair trial in the Islamic Republic, including 253 reported executions of adults and children.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 18, The UN mission in Libya condemned airstrikes by the self-styled Libyan National Army on a militia-run airport west of, Tripoli, saying the facility had no military targets.
(AP, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 20, Officials from the UN refugee agency and Bangladesh's government say few Muslim Rohingya refugees have responded to plans for their repatriation to Myanmar, and all who did say they don't want to go back.
(AP, 8/20/19)
2019 Aug 21, The UN World Health Organization said the levels of microplastics in drinking water don't appear to be risky, but that research has been spotty and more is needed into their effects on the environment and health.
(AP, 8/22/19)
2019 Aug 22, The UN Security Council held an open meeting at Russia's request on a US missile test that would have been banned under a treaty that both Washington and Moscow abandoned earlier this month.
(AP, 8/21/19)
2019 Aug 22, Paris and the UN called for the protection of the fire-plagued Amazon rainforest as Brazil's right-wing president accused his French counterpart of having a "colonialist mentality" over the issue.
(AFP, 8/22/19)
2019 Aug 22, A UN report charged that sexual violence carried out by Myanmar's security forces against the country's Muslim Rohingya minority was so widespread and severe that it demonstrates intent to commit genocide as well as warrants prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
(AP, 8/22/19)
2019 Aug 23, UN special rapporteur Philip Alston challenged Malaysia's claim to have nearly ended poverty, saying there was "significant poverty" with an estimated one in six people in the Southeast Asian country considered poor.
(AP, 8/23/19)
2019 Aug 23, UNICEF said more than 9,000 schools have closed and more than 1.9 million children in West and Central Africa have been forced out of school because of increasing violence in the region and attacks specifically targeting education facilities.
(AP, 8/23/19)
2019 Aug 26, US Pres. Donald Trump failed to attend a meeting about climate change and biodiversity attended by other world leaders at the G7. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the world faces "a dramatic climate emergency." He urged leaders at a Sept. 23 summit in New York to agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than they promised in the 2015 Paris climate accord. Guterres said that Greenland's ice cap was melting "dramatically" and that 2015 through 2019 were "the five hottest years on record".
(AP, 8/26/19)
2019 Aug 27, The UN refugee agency spokesman said at least 40 people are feared dead or missing after the latest wreck of a boat carrying migrants bound for Europe off the coast of Libya. 65 migrants, mostly from Sudan, were rescued.
(Reuters, 8/27/19)(SFC, 8/28/19, p.A4)
2019 Aug 27, Tanzanian authorities said they had reached an agreement with Burundi to send all Burundian refugees back home from October 1. The UN refugee agency urged the two governments not to forcibly repatriate Burundian refugees sheltering in Tanzania.
(AP, 8/28/19)
2019 Aug 28, A UN commission (CICIG) that spent the last 12 years probing graft in Guatemala described the country as "captured" by corruption in its final report, days before it is set to wrap up operations after President Jimmy Morales refused to renew its mandate.
(AP, 8/28/19)
2019 Aug 29, The World Health Organization said there has been a "dramatic resurgence" of measles in Europe, in part fueled by vaccine refusals, with nearly 90,000 people sickened by the virus in the first half of 2019.
(AP, 8/29/19)
2019 Sep 3, A report the UN trade agency UNCTAD said leaving the European Union without a trade deal would cost Britain at least $16 billion in lost exports, and would probably cost far more after indirect effects are taken into account.
(Reuters, 9/3/19)
2019 Sep 4, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro accused Chile's former leader Michelle Bachelet, now the UN human rights chief, of meddling in his country's affairs after she criticized a rise police violence and an erosion of democracy.
(Reuters, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 4, North Korea told the United Nations to cut the number of international staff it deploys in the country because the world body's programs have failed "due to the politicization of UN assistance by hostile forces".
(Reuters, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 5, A UN report said North Korea is pressing ahead with its nuclear weapons program while evading sanctions.
(AFP, 9/6/19)
2019 Sep 5, Diplomats said the US has blocked the UN Security Council from issuing a statement following the recent exchange of cross-border fire between the militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Israeli forces in Israel. The initial draft of the French-proposed council statement would have condemned "all violations of the Blue Line," which is the UN-drawn dividing line between the two countries.
(AP, 9/6/19)
2019 Sep 5, It was reported that the UN agencies for health and children have launched a diphtheria vaccination campaign in war-torn Yemen targeting over 2.8 million children between the ages of six weeks and 15 years. A UN spokesman said that over 4,000 Yemenis have gotten diphtheria since 2017 and more than 200 have died.
(AP, 9/5/19)
2019 Sep 5, A UN source said at least 66 civilians were kidnapped in July in southeastern Niger near the border with Nigeria where the jihadist group Boko Haram is active.
(AP, 9/5/19)
2019 Sep 6, It was reported that Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification warned (during UN talks on the issue in New Delhi this week) that vast swathes of land, from Africa to the Middle East, are being left useless by climate shifts and human pressures such as deforestation, mining and farming, threatening to hike migration and conflict.
(Reuters, 9/6/19)
2019 Sep 6, The UN said it had sent aid to thousands of displaced Syrians living in an isolated desert camp near the Jordanian border, the first such delivery since February.
(AFP, 9/6/19)
2019 Sep 7, The UN said flooding triggered by heavy rains in Sudan have killed a total of 78 people across the country in the past two months.
(AP, 9/7/19)
2019 Sep 9, The United Nations' atomic watchdog (IAEA) confirmed that Iran is preparing to use more advanced centrifuges, another breach of limits set in the country's unraveling nuclear deal with major powers.
(AP, 9/9/19)
2019 Sep 9, The UN human rights chief said that extrajudicial killings appeared to be continuing in Venezuela and the Special Action Forces (FAES) presumed to be responsible had received support from the highest levels of government.
(Reuters, 9/9/19)
2019 Sep 12, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to ease the arms embargo on the Central African Republic's government following its signing of a peace agreement with 14 armed groups in February and progress in reforming its security sector.
(AP, 9/12/19)
2019 Sep 12, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution renewing its mission in Libya for another year and pledging to support struggling efforts to build a ceasefire in the war-torn country.
(AFP, 9/12/19)
2019 Sep 13, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres selected a Nigerian general to lead a UN investigation into attacks on hospitals and other civilian sites in Syria's last opposition stronghold in the northwest amid protests that its findings will be kept secret.
(AP, 9/13/19)
2019 Sep 16, A UN-backed court based in the Netherlands unveiled new charges, including terrorism and intentional homicide, against a Hezbollah fighter who also is accused of assassinating former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced that a judge has confirmed a new five-count indictment accusing Salim Jamil Ayyash of three bombings targeting Lebanese politicians in 2004 and 2005.
(AP, 9/16/19)
2019 Sep 16, A special UN fact-finding mission has urged that Myanmar be held responsible in international legal forums for alleged genocide against its Muslim Rohingya minority.
(AP, 9/16/19)
2019 Sep 16, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock said Saudi Arabia plans to pay $500 million next week of a pledge it made in February to help fund a humanitarian response in Yemen, which the world body has described as the world's worst aid crisis.
(Reuters, 9/16/19)
2019 Sep 17, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a compromise resolution extending the UN political mission in Afghanistan. It dropped a Chinese demand to include a reference to China's $1 trillion "belt and road" initiative but stressed the need for regional connectivity.
(AP, 9/17/19)
2019 Sep 19, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said one-quarter of UN member states have carried out suspected reprisals against activists who cooperate with the world body on human rights issues.
(Reuters, 9/19/19)
2019 Sep 19, The UN said North Korea's crop production this year is expected to drop to its lowest level in five years, bringing serious shortages for 40% of the population, as a dry spell and poor irrigation hit an economy already reeling from sanctions over its weapons programs.
(Reuters, 9/19/19)
2019 Sep 19, The US announced that it is expelling two Cuban diplomats and restricting travel of members of Cuba's permanent mission to the United Nations as leaders gathered from around the world for the annual UN General Assembly.
(AP, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 20, The UN's humanitarian agency said that two of Sudan's southeastern provinces have reported 124 suspected cholera cases with seven deaths.
(AP, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 21, Youth leaders gathered at the U&N to demand radical moves to fight climate change.
(AP, 9/21/19)
2019 Sep 22, The UN said Gabon will become the first African country paid with international funds to preserve its forests in an effort to fight climate change.
(AFP, 9/22/10)
2019 Sep 23, At the UN world leader after world leader said that they will do more to prevent a warming world from reaching even more dangerous levels, but as they made their pledges, they conceded it was not enough.
(AP, 9/23/19)
2019 Sep 23, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the creation of a committee on Syria that will include government and opposition representatives to draft a post-war constitution.
(AFP, 9/23/19)
2019 Sep 23, Two dozen mainly European countries voiced concern at alleged torture, unlawful detentions and unfair trials of critics, including women activists and journalists, in Saudi Arabia. This was the second joint statement criticizing the kingdom read out at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in six months.
(AP, 9/23/19)
2019 Sep 24, US Pres. Donald Trump addressed the UN and used his speech to single out Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela for criticism at the UN General Assembly. Trump delivered a roaring defense of nationalism and American sovereignty even as he tried to rally a multinational response to Iran's escalating aggression. In remarks to reporters Trump said he held up aid to Ukraine to fight corruption and urge European nations to share in helping out Ukraine.
(AP, 9/24/19)
2019 Sep 24, Far-right Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro blamed the international media and environmental organizations for spreading “lies" about the fires that are ravaging the Amazon rainforest during a nationalist speech that opened the 2019 United Nations General Assembly.
(Huffpost, 9/24/19)
2019 Sep 24, The United Nations warned that air pollution from Indonesian forest fires is putting nearly 10 million children at risk. Scientists said the blazes were releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases.
(AFP, 9/24/19)
2019 Sep 25, The UN agency coordinating postal systems worldwide reached a compromise to reform its fee structure, proposed by the United States, that would avert the Trump administration leaving the global network.
(Reuters, 9/25/19)
2019 Sep 26, The UN International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran has committed a further breach of its nuclear deal with major powers by enriching uranium with advanced centrifuges, and plans to install more of those advanced machines than previously announced.
(Reuters, 9/26/19)
2019 Sep 26, Sierra Leone Pres. Julius Maada Bio called for "urgent and imperative" reform of the UN Security Council to give more representation and "an equal say" to Africa in international decision making.
(AP, 9/26/19)
2019 Sep 27, The UN Human Rights Council agreed to set up an international fact-finding mission to document violations in Venezuela, including torture and thousands of summary executions.
(Reuters, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 27, It was reported that the UN has suspended Sri Lankan troops from peacekeeping duties after Colombo ignored repeated warnings and appointed a general accused of war crimes to head its army. Major General Shavendra Silva was promoted last month despite the allegations against him. Some 490 Sri Lankan troops are currently deployed for peacekeeping operations in Mali, Lebanon and Sudan.
(AFP, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 27, The UN said worsening violence has doubled the number of people displaced from northwest Nigeria to some 40,000 over the past four months.
(Reuters, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 27, A UN human rights envoy said Zimbabwe's political and economic environment is deteriorating, causing anxiety as hopes fade for a long-awaited improvement in people's living conditions.
(Reuters, 9/27/19)
2019 Oct 2, It was reported that the United States is withholding its dues to the UN's aviation agency, arguing the body needs to move quickly with reforms like expanding public access to documents and giving greater protections to whistleblowers.
(Reuters, 10/2/19)
2019 Oct 3, A UN report said deteriorating security across Afghanistan in the past four years led to over 14,000 “grave violations" against children, including nearly 3,500 youngsters killed and over 9,000 injured.
(AP, 10/3/19)
2019 Oct 4, A panel of experts at the UN labor agency is calling on Venezuelan authorities to halt violence, threats and other forms of “aggression" against workers and employers who oppose President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
(AP, 10/4/19)
2019 Oct 9, A UN report released today criticized American airstrikes earlier this year against alleged drug facilities in Afghanistan, saying they were unlawful and caused significant civilian casualties. The raids killed at least 30 civilians and may have left dozens more dead.
(AP, 10/9/19)(The Telegraph, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 9, A United Nations Development Program report said "If fighting continues through 2022, Yemen will rank the poorest country in the world, with 79 percent of the population living under the poverty line and 65 percent classified as extremely poor".
(AFP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 9, UNICEF, the UN children's agency, said more than 4,000 people have died in Congo this year in the world's largest measles outbreak. More than 200,000 measles cases have been reported across Congo since January.
(AP, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 10, A UN photo showed eight North Korean vessels, several carrying illicit coal shipments, anchored in Chinese waters off the port of Ningbo-Zhoushan. The photo was made public on April 17, 2020.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2019 Oct 11, World Health Organization (WHO) experts said measles is staging a devastating comeback in epidemics across the world as the virus exploits dangerous gaps in vaccination coverage.
(Reuters, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 11, Today marked the eighth annual International Day of the Girl, a UN observance that focuses attention and resources on the fight for girls’ rights and empowerment.
(https://unausa.org/event/international-day-of-the-girl/)
2019 Oct 15, The UN said Turkey could be deemed responsible for summary executions by an affiliated armed group of captured Kurdish fighters and a politician, acts that may amount to war crimes.
(Reuters, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 15, The UN Security Council ended 15 years of peacekeeping operations in Haiti, voicing regret that the country is still saddled with huge economic, political and social woes.
(AFP, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 17, A new UN report said an "unprecedented" number of civilians were killed or wounded in Afghanistan from July to September this year.
(AFP, 10/17/19)
2019 Oct 17, Venezuela won a contested election for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council despite a campaign by over 50 organizations and many countries opposed to Nicolas Maduro's government and its rights record. The 193-member world body elected 14 members to the 47-member Human Rights Council for three-year terms starting Jan. 1. Under its rules, seats are allocated to regions to ensure geographical representation.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 18, The UN condemned Egypt over the recent arrests of prominent activists and demanded that Cairo probe allegations that they were tortured by the security services while in custody.
(AFP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 18, The United States said it has paid the United Nations $180 million toward its annual dues and expects to make another payment of $96 million within the next few weeks, which should help ease the UN's worst cash crisis in nearly a decade.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 22, An independent UN investigator on human rights said food insecurity in North Korea "is at an alarming level," with nearly half the population — 11 million people — undernourished.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, The UN said four joint observation posts manned by both forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognized government and the country's Houthi rebels have been established in the key port city of Hodeida.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 22, Sadako Ogata (b.1927), leader of the UN refugee agency from 1991-2000, died. She was one of the first Japanese to hold a top job at an international organization.
(AP, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 23, Michael Lynk, the UN independent expert on human rights in the Palestinian territories, called for an international ban on all products made in Israeli settlements as a step to potentially end Israel's 52-year "illegal occupation".
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 24, An independent UN human rights expert said Iran executed seven child offenders last year and two so far this year even though human rights law prohibits the death penalty for anyone under age 18. Javaid Rehman said he has "credible information" that there are at least 90 child offenders currently on death row in Iran.
(AP, 10/24/19)
2019 Oct 24, The United Nations said it would send a special mission to investigate human rights abuses in Chile, where a general strike went into its second day following a week of street protests that left 19 dead.
(AFP, 10/25/19)
2019 Oct 24, The Turkish and Syrian ambassadors clashed at their first UN Security Council encounter since Turkey launched a cross-border offensive earlier this month following the withdrawal of US forces.
(AP, 10/25/19)
2019 Oct 29, China and the West clashed at the UN human rights committee over claims that Beijing systematically oppresses ethnic minority Muslims in far western Xinjiang province. The United States and 22 other countries at the United Nations pushed China to stop detaining ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims, prompting China's UN envoy to warn it was not "helpful" for trade talks between Beijing and Washington.
(AP, 10/30/19)(Reuters, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 30, Michel Kafando, the UN envoy to Burundi, announced that he planned to step down from the post he has held for two years, amid concerns over the impartiality of elections set for 2020.
(AFP, 10/30/19)
2019 Oct 30, The UN humanitarian office said that humanitarian groups are "relieved" that Nigeria's has suspended the ban on Mercy Corps and Action Against Hunger.
(AP, 10/31/19)
2019 Oct 31, Three United Nations agencies warned that record 45 million people across southern Africa face severe food shortages in the next six months, with around a quarter of them currently enduring drought-induced "crisis" food insecurity.
(Reuters, 10/31/19)
2019 Oct 31, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to keep the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur for another year in hopes the new civilian-led transitional government can restore peace.
(AP, 10/31/19)
2019 Nov 1, The UN said Spain will host the COP25 climate summit in December, after Chile abandoned plans to hold it due to deadly anti-government protests.
(AFP, 11/1/19)
2019 Nov 3, Speaking in Thailand at a meeting of ASEAN leaders UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern over the plight of the 730,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state, calling on Myanmar's government to take responsibility by dealing with the "root causes" of their flight to Bangladesh and working toward their safe repatriation.
(AP, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 3, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees reached an agreement with its employees in Jordan to end a strike launched earlier today.
(AP, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 4, The United States formally notified the UN that it was withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, making the world's largest economy the sole outlier from the agreement.
(AFP, 11/5/19)
2019 Nov 6, The UN said Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner general of the agency known as UNRWA, has been placed on administrative leave as an internal probe into alleged mismanagement at the organization proceeds. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees was set up in the years after more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their lands during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.
(AFP, 11/6/19)
2019 Nov 7, The UN General Assembly voted 187-3 to condemn the American economic embargo of Cuba for the 28th year, rejecting US criticism of human rights violations there and criticizing the Trump administration's increasingly tough enforcement measures.
(AP, 11/7/19)
2019 Nov 8, The United Nations' highest court ruled that it has jurisdiction in a case brought by Ukraine that alleges Russia breached treaties on terrorist financing and racial discrimination following its annexation of Crimea by arming rebels in eastern Ukraine and reining in the rights of ethnic Tartars and other minorities.
(AP, 11/8/19)
2019 Nov 11, A report by UN experts said Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have repeatedly violated an arms embargo on Libya and it is "highly probable" that a foreign attack aircraft is responsible for a deadly strike on a migrant detention center. The report also accused Sudan and the head of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known by his nickname Hemeti, of violating UN sanctions by deploying 1,000 Sudanese troops to Libya.
(Reuters, 11/11/19)
2019 Nov 12, A panel of experts' report to the UN Security Council said a significant escalation of US airstrikes targeting al-Shabab militants and leaders has kept the al-Qaida-linked group "off-balance" but has had "little effect on its ability to launch regular asymmetric attacks throughout Somalia".
(AP, 11/13/19)
2019 Nov 13, The UN refugee agency said nations in Latin America and the Caribbean will need $1.35 billion to respond to the massive exodus of Venezuelans. An estimated 4.6 million Venezuelans have now fled their crisis-torn country.
(AP, 11/13/19)
2019 Nov 14, A key UN committee approved a resolution condemning North Korea’s widespread human rights violations which may amount to crimes against humanity — a decision denounced by the country’s UN mission as “politically motivated" and based on “fabrications".
(AP, 11/14/19)
2019 Nov 15, The United Nations Security Council extended the UN's peacekeeping mission in the violence-plagued Central African Republic for another year.
(AFP, 11/15/19)
2019 Nov 15, The UN Security Council extended an arms embargo on Somalia and a ban on trade in charcoal, a key source of funds for al-Shabab extremists — and it imposed a new ban on ingredients for explosive devices the group is increasingly using.
(AP, 11/16/19)
2019 Nov 16, Iran informed the UN IAEA that its stock of heavy water, a moderator used in a type of reactor it is developing, had exceeded 130 metric tons.
(Reuters, 11/18/19)
2019 Nov 18, A UN nuclear watchdog IAEA report showed that Iran has breached another limit of its nuclear deal with major powers by accumulating slightly more than 130 tons of heavy water, a substance used in a type of reactor it is developing.
(AP, 11/18/19)
2019 Nov 18, Adela Raz, Afghanistan’s first female ambassador to the UN, launched a UN group to protect the rights Afghan women gained after the Taliban was ousted from power 18 years ago, amid fresh efforts to rekindle talks with the fundamentalist group to end the country’s long-running war.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 18, An independent expert working with the UN human rights office estimated that over 100,000 children are being held in migration-related detention in the United States. The 100,000 figure was drawn from a UN refugee agency report citing data from 2015, the latest figure his team could find. New US government data released this month found 69,550 migrant children have been held in US government custody over the past year.
(AP, 11/18/19) (AP, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 18, The head of a UN treaty said a rare species of porpoise is facing imminent extinction as fishing vessels appear to be flouting an international ban on them entering its last sanctuary, off the coast of Mexico.
(Reuters, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 19, The United Nations voiced alarm at reports dozens may have been killed in Iranian demonstrations, as the Islamic republic said it will unblock the internet only once calm has been restored.
(AFP, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 19, The UN and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory remain in breach of international law, rejecting the Trump administration's position accepting them.
(Reuters, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 25, Today marked International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Tens of thousands of women marched as the UN women's agency kicked off 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
(Reuters, 11/25/19)(SFC, 11/27/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 1, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the world must stop a "war against nature" and find more political will to combat climate change. Guterres also said Bank of England Governor Mark Carney (54) will lead a push by the United Nations to make the finance sector take proper account of the risks posed by climate change.
(Reuters, 12/1/19)(AP, 12/1/19)
2019 Dec 2, The UN opened a two-week climate summit in Madrid. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that governments risked sleepwalking past a point of no return.
(Reuters, 12/2/19)
2019 Dec 3, Agnes Callamard, the UN rapporteur for extrajudicial executions, said the world has not done enough to ensure justice is done over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 12/3/19)
2019 Dec 3, The UN said this decade is set to be the hottest in history in an annual assessment outlining the ways in which climate change is outpacing humanity's ability to adapt to it. Man-made emissions from burning fossil fuels, building infrastructure, growing crops and transporting goods mean 2019 is set to break the record for atmospheric carbon concentrations, locking in further warming. Oceans, which absorb 90 percent of the excess heat produced by greenhouse gases, are now at their highest recorded temperatures.
(AFP, 12/3/19)
2019 Dec 3, The United Nations said about half of Zimbabwe’s population faces severe hunger amid a devastating drought and economic collapse.
(AP, 12/3/19)
2019 Dec 4, It was reported that the United Nations human rights office is urging Tanzania to reconsider its decision barring individuals and non-governmental groups from filing cases against it at the African Court on Human and People’s Rights. The continental court is based in the East African nation.
(AP, 12/4/19)
2019 Dec 6, The Republic of Djibouti announced, in New York, that it is starting its official campaign for election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
(PRNewswire, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 9, The UN's general assembly passed a resolution condemning Russia's occupation of Crimea and the city of Sebastopol and urging the withdrawal of its military forces "without delay".
(The Telegraph, 12/9/19)
2019 Dec 9, The UN released $2.6 million in emergency aid to combat the measles epidemic in Samoa as the death toll reached 70.
(AP, 12/10/19)
2019 Dec 10, UN experts said the interference of Chadian and Sudanese fighters in Libya is “a direct threat" to the security and stability of the war-torn country, which a leader of the Islamic State extremist group has declared “one of the main axes" of its future operations.
(AP, 12/10/19)
2019 Dec 10, The Greek government said it has lodged objections to the United Nations over an accord between Libya and Turkey mapping out maritime boundaries as a violation of international law.
(Reuters, 12/10/19)
2019 Dec 10, The United States held back a UN Security Council meeting to discuss North Korea’s human rights abuses, after Pyongyang warned it would be a “serious provocation".
(The Independent, 12/11/19)
2019 Dec 11, Europe sought to bolster the world's faltering battle against climate change with its "Green Deal" to slash fossil fuel dependence, while teen activist Greta Thunberg rebuked global leaders for dragging their feet.
(Reuters, 12/11/19)
2019 Dec 11, In Spain dozens of young campaigners and indigenous rights activists were thrown out of United Nations climate talks after staging a protest demanding that nations commit to act now to avert catastrophic climate change.
(AFP, 12/11/19)
2019 Dec 12, The United Nations warned that famine threatens the lives of up to 5.5 million people in South Sudan, where droughts and flooding have destroyed crops and livestock, compounding "intense political instability".
(Reuters, 12/12/19)
2019 Dec 13, A famous Belgian carnival was removed from the UN's cultural heritage list following complaints that its most recent edition contained blatant displays of anti-Semitism. The Aalst carnival was taken off UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list during a meeting in Bogota, Colombia, becoming the first cultural tradition stricken from the UN's global inventory of cultural practices.
(AP, 12/13/19)
2019 Dec 13, The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that despite some improvements, Greece was still in violation of certain international obligations in how and where people are imprisoned.
(AP, 12/13/19)
2019 Dec 13, A UN human rights report accused Chilean security forces of serious human rights violations against protesters over the past two months, including deaths, torture, sexual abuse and the use of excessive force.
(AP, 12/13/19)
2019 Dec 13, The United Nations extended the work of its Palestinian refugee agency for another three years, despite fierce opposition from the United States and Israel.
(AFP, 12/13/19)
2019 Dec 15, The UN Secretary General said global efforts to tackle climate change have stalled due to a lack of ambition, as the COP25 conference in Madrid drew to a close with a watered-down agreement. Brazil, Australia and the United States were singled out for their refusal to compromise on their own emissions targets.
(AP, 12/15/19)
2019 Dec 16, The United Nations' AIDS agency fired two staffers for financial and sexual misconduct, including whistleblower Martina Brostrom, whose allegations of being sexually assaulted sparked months of turmoil at the organization.
(AP, 12/16/19)
2019 Dec 17, The UN urged governments, businesses and others to “reboot" the world's response to refugees as the number of people fleeing their homes rises along with hostility to migrants.
(AP, 12/17/19)
2019 Dec 18, The UN General Assembly called on the US, which hosts the organization's headquarters, to lift restrictions on Iranian diplomats. The resolution also condemned the denial of visas to Russian diplomats.
(AFP, 12/18/19)
2019 Dec 18, To celebrate International Migrants Day, the United Nations rolled out the #WeTogether hashtag on social media to draw attention to the struggles of 272 million migrants. The Trump administration, meanwhile, spent the day unveiling proposals to tighten eligibility requirements for US asylum seekers.
(The Week, 12/18/19)
2019 Dec 20, A group of independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council called for Iran to release all people detained during recent unrest. They said they are “shocked" by reports that suggest prisoners are being tortured or otherwise abused.
(AP, 12/20/19)
2019 Dec 24, The UN said a dozen humanitarian organizations in war-torn southern Yemen have suspended their operations following a string of targeted attacks. Yemen's rebel-led health ministry announced that severe outbreaks of swine flu and dengue fever have killed close to 200 people since October.
(AP, 12/24/19)
2019 Dec 26, The UN reported that more than 100,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured over the past decade, as it renewed calls to end the bloody 18-year conflict.
(AFP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 27, The UN General Assembly approved a Russian-led resolution that will start the process of drafting a new international treaty to combat cybercrime over objections from the European Union, the United States and other countries.
(AP, 12/27/19)(AFP, 12/28/19)
2019 Dec 27, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution strongly condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention.
(AP, 12/28/19)
2020 Jan 1, United Nations shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO) banned ships from using fuels with a sulphur content above 0.5%, compared with 3.5% previously, in the biggest shake up for the oil and shipping industries in decades.
(Reuters, 1/22/20)
2020 Jan 7, Iran's foreign minister said he has been informed by UN chief Antonio Guterres that Washington has denied him a visa for a trip to UN headquarters in New York.
(AFP, 1/7/20)
2020 Jan 10, The United Nations said seven countries -- Lebanon, Yemen, Venezuela, Central African Republic, Gambia, Lesotho and Tonga -- have fallen behind in their financial contributions and would not be able to in the 74th session of the General Assembly.
(AFP, 1/11/20)
2020 Jan 11, Lebanon said it "regrets" being among seven countries stripped by the United Nations of voting privileges in the General Assembly for failing to pay their dues.
(AFP, 1/11/20)
2020 Jan 14, It was reported that UN sanctions experts are warning people not to attend a cryptocurrency conference in North Korea in February, flagging it as a likely sanctions violation, according to a confidential report due to be submitted to the UN Security Council later this month.
(Reuters, 1/14/20)
2020 Jan 15, Four coastal Louisiana tribes and one in Alaska that say the US government violated their human rights by failing to take action on climate change have submitted a formal complaint to the United Nations in Switzerland.
(AP, 1/17/20)
2020 Jan 21, The UN said rising numbers of children in Guatemala are going hungry as drought linked to climate change reduces food harvests, fueling child malnutrition rates.
(Reuters, 1/21/20)
2020 Jan 21, A UN human rights panel ruled for the first time that people fleeing the effects of climate change may be entitled to claim asylum, even as it dismissed an individual plaintiff's case against his deportation from New Zealand.
(AP, 1/21/20)
2020 Jan 21, A UN-backed Conference on Disarmament opened in Geneva. The United States urged China to join trilateral nuclear arms talks with Moscow, calling Beijing's secrecy around growing stockpiles a "serious threat to strategic stability".
(Reuters, 1/21/20)
2020 Jan 24, UN deputy chief Amina Mohammed said there is an “alarming" crisis in education, pointing to the 258 million children under the age of 17 who are not going to school — and only 49 percent completing secondary education.
(AP, 1/25/20)
2020 Jan 26, In Libya fighting erupted as the country's east-based forces advanced toward the strategic western city of Misrata. The UN mission to Libya slammed ongoing violations of a UN Security Council arms embargo, despite commitments made a week ago at an international summit in Berlin. It said numerous flights had landed in Libyan airports over the last 10 days, providing both sides with "advanced weapons, armored vehicles, advisers and fighters".
(AP, 1/26/20)(AFP, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 28, The UN's WHO said China has agreed that the World Health Organization can send international experts there "as soon as possible" to increase understanding of a new coronavirus and guide the global response to the outbreak.
(Reuters, 1/28/20)
2020 Jan 28, The UN reported that hundreds of children in the Sahel were killed, maimed or forcibly separated from their parents last year as the jihadist conflict continued to rage across the region.
(AFP, 1/28/20)
2020 Jan 28, The UN refugee agency reported that tribal clashes in Sudan’s West Darfur province forced more than 11,000 people to flee into neighboring Chad over the past month.
(AP, 1/28/20)
2020 Jan 28, The UN food agency said that one of its warehouses in the Houthi-controlled part of Yemen had been looted. WFP said 127.5 tons (over 115,000 kg) of aid were stolen in the northern province of Hajja.
(AP, 1/28/20)
2020 Jan 29, UNICEF said a six-ton shipment of respiratory masks and protective suits for health care workers landed in China today for distribution in Wuhan, the epicenter of a spreading coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 1/29/20)
2020 Jan 29, Bangladesh officials said authorities in partnership with the United Nations will expand educational programs for hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya children living in refugee camps who are currently receiving only basic lessons.
(AP, 1/29/20)
2020 Jan 30, The UN's refugee agency in Libya announced it is suspending its operations at a jam-packed migrant facility over safety concerns as deadly fighting near the capital intensifies.
(AP, 1/30/20)
2020 Jan 30, The UN said the worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years needs some $76 million to help control and the money is “required by, actually, now".
(AP, 1/30/20)
2020 Jan 30, The UN Security Council called for an immediate end to a “significant" escalation in fighting in Yemen between Houthi Shiite rebels and the Saudi-led military coalition supporting the government.
(AP, 1/30/20)
2020 Jan 31, The UN Security Council approved a slight relaxation of the arms embargo on the Central African Republic, an issue that has been a source of friction between France and Russia. It allows the CAR to acquire military vehicles mounted with up to 14.5mm weapons, provided the United Nations is notified ahead of time.
(AFP, 2/1/20)
2020 Jan 31, A UN report said Yemen's Huthi rebels are in possession of new weapons similar to those produced in Iran in potential violation of a UN arms embargo.
(AFP, 1/31/20)
2020 Feb 4, PM Boris Johnson formally launched the UN COP26 process in London with a pledge to bring forward the UK’s target to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035, in a bid to cut greenhouse gas pollution. COP26 is the abbreviated name of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP26 will be held in Glasgow in November.
(Bloomberg, 2/4/20)(AFP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 5, Organizers said Italian fashion house Prada is helping to fund a United Nations program that will enlist high school students from 10 cities to spread awareness about how humans impact the world's oceans.
(AP, 2/5/20)
2020 Feb 7, The UN said people are fleeing a surge of attacks in northern Mozambique where witnesses have described beheadings, mass kidnappings and villages burned to the ground.
(Reuters, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 7, A UN poverty expert said Spain is depriving its poor of basic rights, even as its businesses recover from the economic crisis.
(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 7, Tunisia fired Moncef Baati, its ambassador to the UN, accusing him of failing to consult the foreign ministry on key issues that diplomatic sources said included Washington's controversial Middle East peace plan.
(AFP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 10, The United Nations said it is to test drones equipped with mapping sensors and atomizers to spray pesticides in parts of east Africa battling an invasion of desert locusts that are ravaging crops and exacerbating a hunger crisis.
(Reuters, 2/10/20)
2020 Feb 10, A confidential United Nations report disclosed that. North Korea stepped up its exports of illegal coal shipments in 2019, with most of those deliveries headed for China.
(Bloomberg, 2/10/20)
2020 Feb 11, The UN's World Health Organization convened outside experts to fast-track promising tests, drugs and vaccines to help slow the outbreak of a new virus that emerged in China that has killed more than 1,000 people and spread to two dozen other countries. The coronavirus is now called COVID-19.
(AP, 2/11/20)(ABC News, 2/11/20)
2020 Feb 12, The UN human rights office issued a report on companies it said have business ties to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a long-delayed move likely to draw the ire of Israel and its main ally the United States. It said 94 of the companies were domiciled in Israel and 18 in six other states.
(Reuters, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, The UN Security Council endorsed a 55-point road map for ending the war in Libya and condemned the recent increase in violence in the oil-rich North African country.
(AP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 16, The UN said Yemen’s warring sides have agreed to implement a long-delayed and major prisoner swap, in a sign that talks to end the disastrous war between the country's internationally recognized government and its Houthi rebels could be making progress.
(AP, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 16, Germany and the UN, which co-hosted a Jan. 19 Berlin summit, gathered foreign ministers and other officials from a dozen countries on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to try to bolster a drive to cut off outside military support for Libya's warring parties.
(AP, 2/16/20)
2020 Feb 18, The UN issued a scathing report that accused Haitian police of not protecting an impoverished neighborhood from corrupt officers and gang leaders they say shot at people and set fire to homes and cars in a recent three-day attack.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 18, It was reported that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have blocked half of the United Nations’ aid delivery programs in the war-torn country — a strong-arm tactic to force the agency to give them greater control over the massive humanitarian campaign, along with a cut of billions of dollars in foreign assistance.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 19, A UN-backed report said children and adolescents are being bombarded with ads on social media promoting harmful products from fast food to tobacco and alcohol.
(Reuters, 2/19/20)
2020 Feb 20, The UN envoy for Haiti said the political impasse that has paralyzed Haiti is sending its economy deeper into recession, with 4.6 million people needing humanitarian aid with no immediate end in sight.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, The UN migration agency said a rubber dinghy packed with 91 migrants that set out from Libyan shores in hopes of reaching Europe has apparently gone missing in the Mediterranean.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, A UN rights probe said South Sudan's government forces and other armed groups have "deliberately starved" civilians by denying aid access and displacing communities.
(AFP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, The UN said estimated 170,000 of the 900,000 civilians forced from their homes in a massive wave of displacement in northwestern Syria are living out in the open.
(AFP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 24, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a “call to action" to countries, businesses and all people to help renew and revive human rights across the globe, laying out a seven-point plan amid concerns about climate change, conflict and repression.
(AP, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, The UN mission in Libya said that the country’s warring sides had agreed to turn a shaky cease-fire into a formal deal, stirring modest hopes after weeks of sporadic violence that derailed negotiations.
(AP, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 25, The UN Security Council renewed its sanctions regime on Yemen for another year, after tense negotiations between Britain and Russia, which threatened to veto any mention, even implicit, of Iran.
(AFP, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 25, In Mali three Irish soldiers were injured in a roadside bomb attack on a multinational convoy of UN peacekeepers about 80 km (50 miles) northeast of the city of Gao.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Mar 2, Investigators for the UN-backed Human Rights Council said that they had found evidence of war crimes in Syria committed by nearly all sides in the conflict during the second half of last year and into January.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, The United Nation's refugee agency said that Greece had no right to stop accepting asylum applications as Athens struggled with a sudden increase of arrivals at its border of Middle East refugees and migrants from Turkey.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 3, UN watchdog IAEA, policing Iran's nuclear deal with major powers, admonished Tehran for failing to provide access to two undeclared locations or fully answer its questions about past activities there and at a previously known site.
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the last patient being treated for Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo was discharged today, bringing the 19-month-old outbreak closer than ever to an end.
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 5, A new UN study said nearly 90 percent of the world's population holds some prejudice against women.
(AFP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 5, The UN said a British UN employee is one of the four people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Senegal.
(AFP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Peru Javier Perez de Cuellar (100), former UN secretary general (1981-1991) known for his peace-making efforts including brokering a ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war, died.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 9, The UN adopted a stripped-down political declaration on women's rights that seeks to preserve gains under threat but does not advocate new ways to ensure progress toward equality. The adopted text follows the main lines of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995, which sought to promote women's emancipation and advancement around the world.
(AFP, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 10, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that “apparently systematic" human rights violations in North Korean detention centers, including sexual violence against women and girls, could amount to crimes against humanity.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Petteri Taalas, the head of the UN weather agency, said last year was the second warmest on record, the past decade was the hottest in human history and January was the warmest January since 1850.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 12, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, welcoming “encouraging developments" toward peace and a reduction in political violence by the warring parties after six years of civil war.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 13, A UN report said allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in UN peacekeeping and political missions rose significantly in 2019, with allegations against civilian personnel nearly doubling.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 17, The United Nations and nine countries called on Libya's warring parties to cease hostilities to allow health authorities to fight against the new coronavirus.
(AFP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, The UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration announced a temporary pause in refugee resettlement to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. That led the US to pause its admissions until at least April 6.
(The Week, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 19, African finance ministers held a virtual conference to discuss how to deal with the social and economic impacts of the pandemic on African nations. Days later a statement by the UN Economic Commission for Africa said they called for a $100 billion stimulus package, including a suspension of debt service payments, to help the continent combat coronavirus.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 20, Experts at the UN declared Finland to be the world's happiest nation for the third year running. The US fell to No. 18.
(AFP, 3/20/20) (NY Times, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 23, Norway's foreign ministry said the UN will create a fund to support the treatment of coronavirus patients worldwide. Almost 340,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and more than 14,500 have died.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 24, The UN top envoy for Syria called for a nationwide ceasefire to allow for a better response to the threat of the novel coronavirus. The government in Damascus has so far only reported one case of COVID-19.
(AFP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Forces from Yemen's Houthi movement blocked a UN-chartered ship carrying representatives of the internationally recognized government from leaving Hodeidah port. The UN has been holding meetings between the warring parties on board the ship for months.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 30, UN members voted by e-mail to keep troops in Sudan’s restive Darfur region until the end of May and maintain the UN political mission in Somalia until June 30.
(AP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, UN members extended the mandate of the UN panel of experts monitoring sanctions against North Korea until April 30, 2021, and stressed the importance of supporting the UN's far-flung peacekeeping operations.
(AP, 3/30/20)
2020 Apr 2, The UN General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution recognizing “the unprecedented effects" of the coronavirus pandemic and calling for “intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat" the COVID-19 disease.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations is facing a cash crisis because of non-payment of dues by member states, which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Guterres said the UN ended 2019 with arrears of $711 million.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 5, The United Nations urged governments around the world to fight the rise in domestic violence as abuse soared since stay-at-home orders have been imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
(The Week, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, The UN patent agency said China was the biggest source of applications for international patents in the world last year, pushing the United States out of the top spot it has held since the global system was set up more than 40 years ago.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 8, In Geneva WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus vocally defended himself and the UN health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. He accused Taiwan’s foreign ministry of being linked to a months-long campaign against him. Taiwan has reported just 379 cases and five deaths.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, A plane carrying 90 tons of UN health, water and sanitation aid arrived in Venezuela to help the cash-strapped country fight the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 10, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned of an increasing number of new locust swarms forming in Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Somalia. The UN has raised its aid appeal from $76 million to $153 million, saying immediate action is needed before more rainfall fuels further growth in locust numbers.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, The UN special envoy for Yemen gave the warring parties in the Arab world’s poorest country revised proposals for a nationwide cease-fire and the urgent resumption of peace talks.
(AP, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 13, The UN said swarms of locusts in Ethiopia have damaged 200,000 hectares (half a million acres) of cropland and driven around a million people to require emergency food aid. Billions of desert locusts have already chomped their way through much of East Africa, including Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.
(AFP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Sudan inked a deal with the United Nations World Food Program to import wheat, state media reported, more than a year after the country was rocked by protests sparked by bread price hikes. 10 more cases of the coronavirus were discovered in Khartoum.
(AFP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, The United Nations released $2.5 million from its emergency humanitarian fund to help thousands of people in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu affected by Cyclone Harold and offered support to other hard-hit countries.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 15, The UN said some 74 million people in the water-scarce Arab region are at greater risk of catching the novel coronavirus because they lack a sink or soap at home.
(AFP, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 16, The UN warned that hundreds of thousands of children could die this year due to the global economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and tens of millions more could fall into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 20, UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, appealed for an additional $92.4 million to help fight the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa, a conflict-battered region with the highest number of children in need anywhere.
(AP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 22, The UN urged the world to fight climate change with the same determination as it is showing in the battle against COVID-19.
(AFP, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, The UN in a report said there was evidence of rising violence against women in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, and a doubling in the number of femicides in Argentina during the coronavirus-related quarantine.
(NBC News, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 24, The UN launched an international push for a vaccine to defeat the pandemic. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a virtual briefing asked for international organizations, world leaders and the private sector to join the effort. Notably absent were the leaders of China, where the virus first emerged late last year, and the United States.
(AFP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 27, The UN human rights office voiced concern about more than a dozen countries that have declared states of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic where police have arrested or detained hundreds of thousands of people and killed others.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 29, A UN human rights expert said that Myanmar might be committing more war crimes against its ethnic minority populations.
(The Week, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 29, The UN said more than 40 cases of COVID-19 and at least three deaths have been reported in Syria.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said 16 armed groups have responded positively to his appeal for a global cease-fire to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 5/1/20)
2020 Apr 30, It was reported that Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has donated a $100,000 prize she won from a Danish foundation to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) for use against the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AFP, 4/30/20)
2020 May 4, The UN migration agency said at least 78 migrants fleeing war-torn Libya for Europe remain stuck at sea without a designated port to dock.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 5, The UN children's agency said that an estimated 46 million people - 19 million of them children - fled violence and conflict last year but remained in their home country, and millions more were displaced by disasters.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 7, A leaked UN report said hundreds of mercenaries from Russia's shadowy Wagner Group are operating in Libya.
(BBC, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, The United Nations issued a new appeal for £3.8 billion in funding to "protect millions of lives and stem the spread of coronavirus in fragile countries."
(The Telegraph, 5/7/20)
2020 May 8, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) launched an emergency coronavirus appeal, saying Palestinians across the Middle East were suffering a devastating socio-economic impact.
(AFP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, The US blocked a vote on a UN security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic, because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization.
(The Guardian, 5/9/20)
2020 May 12, The UN said COVID-19 has been confirmed in a crowded civilian protection camp in Juba, South Sudan's capital.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, The United Nations refugee agency said violence in northwest Nigeria has forced about 23,000 refugees to flee to Niger since April and raised concerns about the deteriorating security situation.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 13, The UN forecast that the COVID-19 pandemic will shrink the world economy by 3.2% this year, the sharpest contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
(SFC, 5/14/20, p.C6)
2020 May 13, A World Health Organization report into Italy's coronavirus response was posted after it had received necessary approvals within the UN system. It was written by Francesco Zambon, WHO's chief field coordinator for Italy and its regions, and a team of WHO public health experts and consultants. The WHO later said it was withdrawn because of “factual inaccuracies" that it has not detailed and denied that it received any pressure from the Italian government to remove it.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 May 14, China’s UN Mission said its acting deputy ambassador, Yao Shaojun, called the United States “the largest debtor," saying it owed about $1.16 billion to the regular UN budget and $1.3 billion to the peacekeeping budget.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 18, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said narcotics police in Myanmar have seized a large amount of liquid fentanyl, providing the first evidence that the synthetic opioid is being produced in quantity in Southeast Asia’s infamous Golden Triangle region. The raids were carried out between Feb. 20 and April 9 in Kutkhai township of Shan state.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, The UN said flooding in central Somalia has affected nearly 1 million people, displacing about 400,000 people. At least 24 people have died in the flash floods that hit Beledweyne and Jowhar, two agricultural centers in Somalia's central area.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 21, The UN launched a new initiative to sign up millions of “digital first responders" around the world to counter misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and spread fact-based information and advice to their networks of family, friends and followers.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 27, The UN World Food Program warned that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Human Rights Watch called on the UN’s top human rights body to launch an independent investigation into the Philippine government’s drug war that has left thousands dead, pointing in particular to its harmful effects on children.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, The United States and China clashed over Hong Kong at the UN after Beijing opposed a request by Washington for the Security Council to meet over China's plan to impose new national security legislation on the territory.
(Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020 May 28, In Mali Lieut. Col. Carlos Moisés Guillén Alfaro (46), a pilot with the El Salvadoran air force, became the first UN peacekeeper to officially die of COVID-19.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 May 29, The UN Security Council approved a resolution extending for a year an arms embargo on South Sudan and a travel ban and financial sanctions for targeted individuals, with Russia, China and South Africa abstaining.
(AP, 5/30/20)
2020 May 29, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the deaths of the first two UN peacekeepers from COVID-19. He made the announcement at a ceremony marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, saying both peacekeepers, who died over the last 24 hours, were serving in Mali.
(AP, 5/30/20)
2020 May 29, Lebanon’s government agreed to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel for another year.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 Jun 2, The United Nations' Libya mission (UNSMIL) said the country's warring parties had agreed to restart talks aimed at reaching a lasting ceasefire, after a three-month suspension.
(AFP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, The UN raised only around half the required $2.41 billion in humanitarian aid for Yemen, ravaged by war and coronavirus, at a donor conference co-hosted by Saudi Arabia in the sixth year of its military intervention.
(AFP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 3, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted two resolutions to create a mission in Sudan to support the country's political transition and extend the mandate of peacekeepers in Darfur.
(AFP, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 4, The UN human rights office called on the Philippine government in a new report to end all violence targeting suspected drug offenders and to disband private and state-backed paramilitary groups.
(AP, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 5, The UN called on Congolese authorities to establish state authority in conflict regions by increasing the presence of security forces and ensuring civilian protection. Various conflicts involving armed groups and government forces in Congo have killed more than 1,300 civilians in the past eight months and violence has surged in recent weeks in eastern provinces.
(AP, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the arms embargo on Libya for a year.
(SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 8, UN General Assembly Pres. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said that world leaders will not be coming to New York for their annual gathering in late September for the first time in the 75-year history of the United Nations because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, The UN held its first virtual World Oceans Day event, partnering with nonprofit Oceanic Global as a production partner, making the live event free to attend globally.
(https://www.un.org/en/observances/oceans-day)
2020 Jun 10, Dozens of Sudanese protesters rallied in Khartoum against a newly formed United Nations mission mandated to support a political transition following last year's ouster of President Omar al-Bashir.
(AFP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 11, The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said international trade is set to plunge by 27% in the second quarter and by 20% for the year, as major sectors including the automotive and energy industries collapse from the effects the pandemic.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, The UN refugee agency announced that more than 94,000 people have been displaced and forced to flee their homes in several parts of Yemen since January.
(AP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, The United Nations voiced "horror" after reports that eight mass graves had been discovered in an area recently seized by Libya's unity government after forces loyal to eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar withdrew.
(AFP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 15, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s government off a global blacklist of parties whose actions have harmed children in conflict, a move that drew immediate protests from human rights groups.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 17, The UN General Assembly held council elections. India and Mexico were chosen as non-permanent members of the Security Council alongside Norway and Ireland, while Djibouti and Kenya - both of which failed to receive the two-thirds vote majority required to win - will go to a second round of voting on June 18.
(AP, 6/17/20)(The Telegraph, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, Kenya defeated Djibouti for an African seat on the UN Security Council in a second round of voting held under dramatically different procedures because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, The UN reported that DR Congo's military is receiving weapons and training from multiple countries without notifying the United Nations as required by a 2004 resolution. Experts pointed to instructors and equipment from Albania, Romania, Turkey, South Africa, Israel, China, Iran, the United Kingdom, North Korea, Sudan and the United States, among others.
(AP, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 19, The United Nations Human Rights Council condemned discriminatory and violent policing that led to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month and ordered a report be drawn up on "systemic racism" against people of African descent. The Trump administration quit the forum two years ago alleging anti-Israeli bias.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, The board of the United Nations' atomic watchdog agency adopted a resolution calling for Iran to provide inspectors access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material. Russia and China voted against the IAEA resolution.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, UN experts reported that armed groups, criminal networks and some law enforcement agents in Congo are reaping vast sums of money from illegally exploiting gold and other natural resources and smuggling them to Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, The UN Human Rights Council condemned what it called serious human rights violations in Nicaragua and urged President Daniel Ortega to cease such tactics.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 21, The UN released a special report expressing concerns over what it called recent “deliberate attacks" against health care workers and facilities in Afghanistan during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 22, The UN says the coronavirus outbreak in South Sudan is growing rapidly, with nearly 1,900 cases, including more than 50 health workers infected, more than 30 deaths and no way to know the true number of infections.
(AP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, Venezuela accused the US of blocking its ability to pay over $21 million in dues to the UN causing the loss of its voting rights in the General Assembly.
(AP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 23, International donors pledged over $130 million to the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees, an amount the organization's head says is encouraging but not enough to keep operations running through the end of the year.
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 24, The United Nations and the Arab League joined in calling for Israel to abandon its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
(AFP, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 25, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned that without massive financial support, Yemen will “fall off the cliff," with many more people starving to death, succumbing to COVID-19, dying of cholera and watching their children die because they haven’t been immunized for killer diseases.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, The UN said the abandoned FSO Safer oil tanker moored off the coast of Yemen loaded with more than 1 million barrels of crude oil is at risk of rupture or exploding, causing massive environmental damage to Red Sea marine life, desalination factories and international shipping routes. The ship has been in the hands of the Houthis since 2015.
(AP, 6/25/20)(Econ., 10/3/20, p.39)
2020 Jun 26, The UN children’s agency warned that millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across war-torn Yemen amid a "huge" drop in humanitarian aid funding.
(AP, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, An unusually large group of independent UN human rights experts urged the international community to “take all appropriate measures" to monitor China and “act collectively and decisively" to ensure its government respects human rights.
(AP, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that 580 civilians have been killed in central Mali this year amid worsening inter-communal violence, faulting security forces for rights violations and saying radical groups like the regional wings of al-Qaida and Islamic State are fanning and exploiting it.
(AP, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 28, The UN called for "urgent measures to spare civilians" in Myanmar's conflict-wracked northwest, saying fighting has intensified between the army and insurgents.
(AFP, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 29, The UN World Food Program said millions of people have been pushed into hunger by the coronavirus pandemic, as it appealed for nearly $5 billion to help feed the growing numbers in poor and middle-income countries.
(AP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in Mali for a year and called for a long-term and detailed plan for it to hand over security responsibilities and leave the West African nation.
(AP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 30, The UN said more than one million people have been forced to flee their homes in the violence-ravaged eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the start of the year.
(AP, 6/30/20)
2020 Jun 30, The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) released its annual report. It said more than 140 million females are considered missing today because of a preference for sons over daughters and extreme neglect of young girls. The report also said child marriages occur 33,000 times a day, despite being almost universally banned.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 30, It was reported that politicians around the world have called for a UN probe into a Chinese government birth control campaign targeting largely Muslim minorities in the far western region of Xinjiang, even as Beijing said it treats all ethnicities equally under the law. The forced abortions and sterilization on Uighur women reportedly caused birth rates to plunge 24% in Xinjiang last year.
(AP, 6/30/20)(Econ., 7/4/20, p.36)
2020 Jun 30, EU and UN officials announced that EU institutions would donate 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion) for this year and next to help Syrians who fled their homeland and those who are still there.
(AP, 6/30/20)
2020 Jul 1, The UN Security Council demanded an “immediate cessation of hostilities" in key conflicts including Syria, Yemen, Libya, South Sudan and Congo to tackle COVID-19 in its first resolution on the new coronavirus.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 2, A UN annual report said the world's mountain of discarded flat-screen TVs, cellphones and other electronic goods grew to a record high last year.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, A UN report said there have been at least 1,324 additional violent deaths carried out in Venezuela by Pres. Maduro’s hit squads during “security operations" between Jan. 1 and May 31, 2020.
(Miami Herald, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 6, The UN warned that COVID-19 could cause an additional half a million AIDS deaths if treatment is disrupted long term. The UN also said the pandemic was jeopardizing years of progress against HIV.
(AFP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 7, The United Nations expert on extrajudicial killings concluded that the US drone strike that killed Iran's top general Qasem Soleimani was "unlawful." Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, concluded it was an "arbitrary killing" that violated the UN charter.
(AFP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, The US State Department and the UN said that the Trump administration had formally notified the UN that the United States would leave the WHO next year.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 7, China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution that would maintain two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest for a year. Russia immediately circulated a draft Security Council resolution that would authorize the delivery of aid through a single crossing point from Turkey for six months.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 8, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council that the conflict in Libya has entered a new phase "with foreign interference reaching unprecedented levels".
(Reuters, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The UN warned that lives are at risk as the new coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in the trafficking of substandard masks, sanitizers and other medical products.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, A Russian bid to get the United Nations to reduce cross-border humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria was voted down by the Security Council. Authorization for aid, which comes through two crossing points on the Turkish border, expires on July 10.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The WHO said Sri Lanka and Maldives have become the first two countries in the World Health Organization's South-East Asia region to eliminate both measles and rubella ahead of a 2023 target.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Yemen's UN humanitarian coordinator said the country is once again on the brink of famine as donor funds that averted catastrophe just 18 months ago have dried up.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 10, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned that Lebanon's economic crisis is getting out of hand, calling for urgent internal reforms coupled with international support to prevent further mayhem.
(AFP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed that the illegal global ivory trade has decreased, but trafficking of pangolins is on the rise.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 11, Russia scored a victory for its ally Syria by forcing the Security Council to limit humanitarian aid deliveries to the country’s mainly rebel-held northwest to just one crossing point from Turkey, a move that Western nations say will cut a lifeline for 1.3 million people.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 13, The United Nations said the ranks of the world’s hungry grew by 10 million last year and warns that the coronavirus pandemic could push as many as 130 million more people into chronic hunger this year.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi urged the East African country's new government to "break the cycle of violence" and start cooperating with the United Nations.
(AFP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, The UN's top court (ICJ) backed Qatar in a bitter row with four Middle East nations that imposed an air blockade against Doha after accusing it of backing radical Islamists and Iran. The acrimonious standoff erupted three years ago pitting Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Qatar.
(AFP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 15, The United Nations Security Council heard that up to 1.1 million barrels of oil could spill into the Red Sea causing a disaster four times worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. The Yemeni-government owned tanker, FSO Safer, started taking on water in May.
(NBC News, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that the United Nations has asked the Nicolas Maduro regime to dismantle criminal gangs running gold mines in Venezuela's Amazon region. Nearly 150 people are reported to have died in or around the gold mines from March 2016 to 2020. Venezuelan human rights and environmental groups have said that legal and illegal mining are rapidly decimating Venezuela's Amazon. A UN report on Venezuela cited documented cases of executions, torture and forced disappearances. Among the atrocities cited is the execution of 38 young men by Pres. Nicolas Maduro’s hit squads.
(The Independent, 7/15/20)(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 22, UN agencies warned that food shortages will rise sharply in parts of war-torn Yemen in the next six months, mainly because of the overall economic decline and the pandemic that has ripped through the Arab world’s poorest country.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 24, The UN weather agency warned that average temperatures in Siberia were 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) above average last month, a spate of exceptional heat that has fanned devastating fires in the Arctic Circle and contributed to a rapid depletion in ice sea off Russia's Arctic coast.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 26, A UN report, released earlier this week, says more than 6,000 Pakistani insurgents are hiding in Afghanistan, most belonging to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban group responsible for attacking Pakistani military and civilian targets.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 28, The UN human rights office reported that scores of North Korean women who had traveled abroad in a desperate search for work were abused by security officials and police through beatings, detention in unsanitary conditions, undernourishment and invasive body searches after being sent back home. The women spoke to UN human rights officials after eventually fleeing North Korea following their detention.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, The UN said that the unprecedented social and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic will see nearly seven million more children experience stunting as a result of malnutrition.
(AFP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 29, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said coca cultivation jumped 10% in Bolivia in 2019, the final year of President Evo Morales' government, partly because of reduced eradication efforts amid rising social and political conflicts.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 29, The UN said more than 100 civilians including women and children were killed by ground fighting, explosive remnants and airstrikes in Libya between April and June, an increase of 65% from the first three months of the year.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Aug 3, A confidential new UN report warned that several countries believe North Korea has likely developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its nuclear devices.
(The Telegraph, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, The World Health Organization said an advance team looking into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak has concluded its mission in China, and the UN health agency is preparing the deployment of a larger group of experts to the suspected outbreak zone.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 4, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the coronavirus pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education in history, with schools closed in more than 160 countries in mid-July, affecting over 1 billion students.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, The UN International Labor Organization welcomed a global agreement to combat the worst forms of child labor as the first time all of its member states have ratified a convention — in a process that lasted 21 years.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 5, The UN reported that more than 1,300 people were killed in the first half of 2020 by armed groups in DR Congo, three times more than in the same period in 2019.
(AFP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 6, The UN said seasonal torrential rains have wreaked havoc on houses and infrastructure across Sudan, affecting more than 50,000 people.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, The UN said almost 150 people were extrajudicially killed by Malian and Burkinabe security forces in Mali between April and June. The quarterly MINUSMA report also found 50 extrajudicial killings in late May by Burkina Faso troops in the village of Boulkessi, and settlements close to the nation's Mali border. More than 1,700 people were killed by armed groups in the first half of this year, up from about 300 in the whole of 2018.
(AFP, 8/6/20)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 11, A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the World Food Program would be sending 50,000 tons of wheat flour to Beirut to stabilize Lebanon's wheat supply.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, The UN reported at least 81 people were killed and dozens injured during weekend clashes between South Sudan’s army and armed civilians in north-central Tonj.
(AP, 8/11/20)(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 12, UNICEF USA announced its first major program supporting children in the United States. The agency will be investing $1 million this year on an initiative to help US cities become more child-friendly.
(AP, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 13, The UN reported that at least eight children under the age of five have died in recent days from health problems linked to the dire conditions in a camp in northern Syria housing tens of thousands of female supporters of the Islamic State group and their children.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 14, The UN Security Council voted to reject the United States' effort to extend a global arms embargo on Iran.
(The Week, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, The UN launched an appeal to raise $565 million to help Lebanon recover from this month's devastating port blast that killed 171 people.
(AFP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 20, The Trump administration submitted a letter to the United Nations Security Council accusing Iran of failing to comply with its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and calling for restoring UN sanctions against Tehran, including an arms embargo.
(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, It was reported that Iran has offered to allow UN nuclear inspectors to visit two controversial nuclear sites as part of its diplomatic charm offensive to have the international arms embargo against Tehran lifted.
(The Telegraph, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 28, The UN rights chief called on the Democratic Republic of Congo to swiftly investigate death threats against Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege and bring those responsible to justice. Death threats were made in July after he had sent out a tweet condemning the massacre of 18 people in South Kivu, the strife-torn province in eastern DR Congo where he has his clinic. Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his work against sexual violence in war.
(AFP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the United Nations and its 193 member nations to step up action to increase the number of women in military and civilian positions at all levels in the UN’s far-flung peacekeeping operations.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, The UN Scurity Council unanimously approved a resoslution cutting the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) from 15,000 to 13,000 and expanded its mandate to address US and Israeli concerns about activities of the militant group Hezbollah.
(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 29, The United Nations voiced alarm over what it called “a dramatic turn of events" in Libya's civil war, after a power struggle between leaders of the Tripoli-based government surfaced in the wake of anti-corruption protests.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 30, The UN International Labor Organization said new labor rules in the energy-rich nation of Qatar “effectively dismantles" the country's long-criticized “kafala" employment system. As of now, migrant workers can change jobs before the end of their contracts without obtaining the permission of their current employers. The ILO also said Qatar also has adopted a minimum monthly wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275) for workers, which will take effect some six months after the law is published in the country's official gazette.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 31, The WHO warned that the risk of further spread of the vaccine-derived polio across central Africa and the Horn of Africa was “high," noting the large-scale population movements in the region. A new polio outbreak in Sudan is linked to an ongoing vaccine-sparked epidemic in Chad. More than a dozen African countries are currently battling outbreaks of polio caused by the virus, including Angola, Congo, Nigeria and Zambia. Last week the UN health agency declared the African continent free of the wild polio virus.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The United States said that it will not pay some $80 million it currently owes to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) and will instead redirect the money to help pay its United Nations bill in New York. The United States currently owes the WHO some $18 million for financial year 2019 and $62 million for financial year 2020.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 4, The UN said locusts are threatening another part of Africa, with up to 7 million people in the southern region facing further food insecurity. The outbreaks of African migratory locusts in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe are not related to the huge outbreak of billions of desert locusts that has affected East Africa for months.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it has begun withdrawing troops from various camps around the country where tens of thousands of civilians sought protection during its civil war.
(AFP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Seven human rights experts affiliated with the UN raised concerns over Hong Kong’s new national security law in a letter addressed to Chinese authorities, saying the legislation limits certain fundamental freedoms.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition challenger in Belarus’ disputed presidential election, spoke to the UN Security Council and urged the international community to impose sanctions on “the individuals that committed electoral violations and crimes against humanity" and take other measures to stop the violence against protesters.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 4, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that there is a risk of famine and widespread food insecurity in four countries affected by conflict — Congo, Yemen, northeast Nigeria and South Sudan — and that the lives of millions of people are in danger.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan said it has begun withdrawing its troops and police from the civilian protection camps that began as a frantic experiment in the heat of civil war and still shelter more than 180,000 people two years after the conflict ended.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 8, The UN refugee agency said it has confirmed two coronavirus cases in the Azraq camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 9, A new UN report said the world is getting closer to passing a temperature limit set by global leaders five years ago and may exceed it in the next decade or so.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, United Nations peacekeepers returned to provide protection for a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Congolese Dr. Denis Mukwege, who has faced death threats, after alarmed supporters urged the UN to reinstate the security following months without it.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, It was reported that UN-backed experts have found evidence that rebels in Yemen recruited nearly three dozen teenage girls — some said to be survivors of sexual violence — as spies, medics, guards and members of an all-female force.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 11, The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a wide-ranging resolution on tackling the coronavirus pandemic over objections from the United States and Israel, which protested a successful last-minute Cuban amendment that strongly urged countries to oppose any unilateral economic, financial or trade sanctions.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 15, Volkan Bozkir, Turkish diplomat and the new president of the UN General Assembly warned that unilateralism will only strengthen the COVID-19 pandemic and called for a new commitment to global cooperation, including on the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, The UN said countries are set to miss all of the targets they set themselves a decade ago to preserve nature and save Earth's vital biodiversity.
(AFP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, UN-backed investigators pointed to signs that Syria’s government continues to perpetrate rape, torture and murder as the country’s nine-year conflict grinds on, while citing possible war crimes by a Turkey-backed coalition of rebel groups and calling on Ankara to do more to help prevent them.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 16, The UN children's agency UNICEF has called on the Nigerian authorities to urgently review an Islamic court's decision to sentence a 13-year-old boy to 10 years in prison for blasphemy. The boy was convicted in August of making uncomplimentary remarks about God during an argument with a friend in northern Kano state.
(BBC, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it is experiencing a financial crisis that could force it to halt some services to an already impoverished population of more than 5 million people.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Independent experts for the UN’s top human rights body accused the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of crimes against humanity, highlighting grisly cases of torture and killings allegedly carried out by security forces who used techniques like electric shocks, genital mutilation and asphyxiation.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 17, UN food chief David Beasley called on the world's billionaires to step up to help save some 30 million people he said are at risk of dying if they don't receive help from the World Food Program.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 18, The UN Human Rights Council agreed to a resolution submitted by the European Union to launch closer UN monitoring of alleged rights violations in Belarus, despite multiple attempts by Russia to water it down.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 19, US President Donald Trump's administration declared all United Nations sanctions on Tehran had been restored.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, The Iranian rial fell to a record low against the US dollar on the unofficial market, a day after the US President Donald Trump's administration declared all United Nations sanctions on Tehran had been restored. Major powers dismissed a unilateral US declaration that UN sanctions on Tehran were back in force.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)(AFP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 21, The UN week opened with a celebration of the global body's 75th birthday in the form of a virtual summit where Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded -- in person -- for more multilateral diplomacy.
(AFP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 22, US President Donald Trump demanded that the United Nations hold China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic as he defended his own handling of COVID-19 in America where the death toll is nearing 200,000.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro defended his administration’s record protecting the Amazon rainforest, telling the United Nations’ virtual meeting of global leaders that his country has been wrongly portrayed as an environmental villain.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 23, The UN said that critical aid had been cut at 300 health centers across war-ravaged Yemen due to a lack of funding, with lifesaving food handouts also reduced.
(AFP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman (84) made a rare address to the UN General Assembly, using the moment to highlight the foundational notions of his regime — his steadfast commitment to the Palestinians, his stature as custodian of Islam’s holiest sites and his assertion that Iran is responsible for much of the region’s instability.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro blasted United States sanctions in his address to the UN General Assembly, while avoiding any mention of a report accusing his government of crimes against humanity.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 24, A UN migration official said the number of migrants and refugees who are sleeping rough in Bosnia keeps rising because of the persistent refusal by authorities at different levels of government in the country to coordinate their work and embrace “rational" solutions.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 25, UN diplomats said Russia and China have blocked the official release of a report by UN experts on Libya that accused its warring parties and their international backers -- including Russia -- of violating a UN arms embargo on the conflict-wracked country.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 29, The UN General Assemble concluded with a parade of divisive grievances that echoed when the final gavel fell. Assembly President Volkan Bozkir ended the six-day meeting on an upbeat note, returning to the need for multilateralism and unity.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 30, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it is time for countries to start using money from their national COVID-19 recovery and response plans to help fund the World Health Organization's global vaccine plan.
(Reuters, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 30, The UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said it has inspected the second of two suspected former secret atomic sites in Iran, as agreed with Tehran last month in a deal that ended a standoff over access.
(Reuters, 9/30/20)
2020 Oct 1, UN shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO) said its website and intranet had been disabled by a sophisticated cyber attack and its IT specialists had shut down key systems to prevent further damage.
(Reuters, 10/1/20)
2020 Oct 1, Britain, France, Germany, Estonia and Belgium wrote in a letter to the United Nations Security Council that the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny "constitutes a threat to international peace and security."
(Reuters, 10/1/20)
2020 Oct 2, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing member nations to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya suspected of smuggling migrants or engaging in human trafficking from the north African nation for another year.
(AP, 10/2/20)
2020 Oct 6, The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean must continue to ratchet up stimulus to beat back the devastating economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 10/6/20)
2020 Oct 6, UN figures showed that the number of people hit by seasonal flooding in East Africa has increased more than five fold in four years. Nearly every state in Sudan has experienced heavy flooding and in neighboring South Sudan, 800,000 people have been affected with 368,000 people forced from their homes.
(BBC, 10/6/20)
2020 Oct 9, The World Food Program, a United Nations agency, won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 11, Today is the International Day of the Girl Child. In 2011 the UN declared Oct. 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child to promote girls’ rights and address the challenges girls face around the world.
(AP, 10/11/20)
2020 Oct 13, China was reelected to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), alongside Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Nepal. Saudi Arabia was the only country up for election that failed to be elected, mustering only 90 votes. Fifteen positions were up for grabs on the 47-seat body.
(AFP, 10/14/20)
2020 Oct 15, United Nations humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council that aid agencies had just 42 percent of their programs funded in Yemen, meaning key services were being axed.
(The Telegraph, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 18, Iran said a 2007 UN embargo on arms sales to and from the Islamic republic expired today in line with a 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers from which Washington has withdrawn. Washington argued that arms sales to Iran would still violate UN resolutions and threatened sanctions on anyone making such sales. Restrictions on the development of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles will remain in place until 2023.
(AP, 10/18/20)(Econ., 10/17/20, p.41)
2020 Oct 19, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that Kim Sledge of the band Sister Sledge will donate proceeds from a cover of the band's classic song "We Are Family" to the World Health Organization Foundation.
(Reuters, 10/19/20)
2020 Oct 20, Denmark in partnership with Germany, the European Union and the UN hosted a conference on the Sahel in a bid to instill a more acute sense of urgency. International donors agreed to give $1.7 billion in humanitarian aid to the central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger), after the United Nations said the northern African region plagued by violence and climate change was at "breaking point".
(AFP, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 23, Libya's two warring factions signed a "permanent" ceasefire agreement in Geneva after five days of talks at the UN, which hailed the deal as a historic moment following years of turmoil and bloodshed. The UN said all mercenaries and foreign fighters are supposed to depart from Libya within three months of the signing of the nationwide ceasefire.
(AFP, 10/23/20)(Reuters, 10/23/20)
2020 Oct 24, The UN turned 75. It officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, when the UN Charter, agreed four months earlier, came into force.
(AFP, 10/24/20)
2020 Oct 24, The United Nations announced that 50 countries have ratified a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons triggering its entry into force in 90 days, a move hailed by anti-nuclear activists but strongly opposed by the United States and the other major nuclear powers.
(AP, 10/24/20)
2020 Oct 27, The United Nations canceled all in-person meetings for this week after a UN member nation reported five cases of COVID-19 among its staff.
(AP, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 27, Inspectors from the UN's atomic watchdog have confirmed Iran has started building an underground centrifuge assembly plant after its previous one exploded in what Tehran called a sabotage attack over the summer.
(AP, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct, Thirty-nine UN members signed a statement condemning the horrors in China Xinjiang province. This was up from 23 who so a year earlier.
(Econ., 12/19/20, p.76)
2020 Nov 2, At a UN plenary meeting on the ICC 71 nations voiced strong opposition to what they consider threats to the International Criminal Court and decried sanctions on its top officials, issuing a statement that did not name any country but was clearly aimed at the US.
(AP, 11/2/20)
2020 Nov 9, The United Nations opened talks on Libya's future in Tunisia aimed at ending nearly a decade of chaos and bloodshed by arranging elections, but obstacles remain despite progress in cementing last month's ceasefire.
(Reuters, 11/9/20)
2020 Nov 9, The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees announced that it has run out of money to pay the salaries of its staff across the Middle East, after two years of funding cuts by the United States and some other donors.
(Reuters, 11/9/20)
2020 Nov 9, The United States faced its first review in five years at the UN’s main human rights body, with the detentions of migrant children and the killings of unarmed Black people during the Trump administration’s tenure among issues high on minds.
(AP, 11/9/20)
2020 Nov 10, The UN called on Mozambique to investigate reports that militants had massacred villagers and beheaded women and children in a restive northern region.
(Reuters, 11/11/20)
2020 Nov 11, A report by the UN atomic watchdog (IAEA) said Iran has installed a first cascade of advanced centrifuges in the underground Natanz uranium enrichment plant that its deal with major powers says can only be used for first-generation IR-1 machines.
(AP, 11/11/20)
2020 Nov 12, The UN Security Council voted to prevent the sale or shipment to Somalia of components of improvised explosive devices if there is “significant risk" they may be used to manufacture the often deadly devices that are increasingly being used in attacks by al-Shabab extremists.
(AP, 11/12/20)
2020 Nov 16, The UN refugee agency said Ethiopia’s growing conflict has resulted in more than 25,300 refugees fleeing the Tigray region into Sudan.
(AP, 11/16/20)
2020 Nov 17, The UN said that thousands of people were fleeing northern Ethiopia's conflict-torn Tigray region and the border area with Sudan now faced a full-blown refugee emergency.
(AFP, 11/17/20)
2020 Nov 18, The United Nations humanitarian office said it is releasing $100 million in emergency funding to seven countries at risk of famine in Africa and the Middle East amid conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic. A statement overnight said $80 million of the money will go to Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. Another $20 million has been set aside for "anticipatory action to fight hunger in Ethiopia.
(AP, 11/18/20)
2020 Nov 20, It was reported that Burundi is no longer welcoming the UN special envoy to the East African nation, asserting that peace has been achieved after a deadly political crisis. The office had opened in 2016 in the wake of deadly political unrest around former President Pierre Nkurunziza’s ultimately successful decision to pursue another term.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, The United Nations refugee agency said about 32,000 people have fled Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region into neighboring Sudan, and it is preparing to take in up to 200,000 in the next six months if necessary.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 23, The United Nations weather agency said a slowdown in industrial activity linked to the coronavirus pandemic has cut emissions of pollutants and heat-trapping greenhouse gases, but hasn't reduced their record levels in the atmosphere.
(AP, 11/23/20)
2020 Nov 25, A UN report said Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and sent poverty and unemployment skyrocketing.
(AP, 11/25/20)
2020 Nov 26, United Nations experts said police and border guards must combat racial profiling and ensure that their use of "big data" collected via artificial intelligence does not reinforce biases against minorities.
(Reuters, 11/26/20)
2020 Dec 1, UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, said thousands of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia's conflict-hit northern region of Tigray have run out of food.
(BBC, 12/1/20)
2020 Dec 1, In her World AIDS Day message, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima lamented the fact that more than 12 million people are still waiting to get on HIV treatment, while 1.7 million people were infected with HIV in 2019 because of lack of access.
(AP, 12/1/20)
2020 Dec 1, The 193-member UN General Assembly urged all countries to designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers after travel restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19 have left hundreds of thousands stranded at sea for months.
(Reuters, 12/1/20)
2020 Dec 1, The UN children’s agency said at least 11 children, including a 1-month-old, were killed in Yemen in two separate attacks in the past three days.
(AP, 12/1/20)
2020 Dec 2, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered another urgent appeal to curb climate change highlighting new reports of 2020's record-breaking weather and growing fossil fuel extractions that trigger global warming.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 2, Officials said that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees paid the salaries of 30,000 Palestinian staff across the Middle East for last month, but a funding shortfall may still hinder payment in December.
(Reuters, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 2, The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted to remove cannabis and cannabis resin from a category of the world's most dangerous drugs, which could impact the global medical marijuana industry.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 2, The top UN official for Libya said there are at least 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in the war-torn nation, and warned of a “serious crisis" as weapons continue pouring into the North African country.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 2, The International Union for Conservation of Nature said climate change is increasingly damaging the UN’s most cherished heritage sites, reporting that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and dozens of other natural wonders are facing severe threats.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 2, Ethiopia and the UN agreed to allow aid into the country's conflict-torn Tigray region.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 3, UN agencies warned that the window to prevent a famine in war-torn Yemen is narrowing, with a new study showing that millions of people in the country will face some form of food crisis next year.
(AP, 12/3/20)
2020 Dec 4, The UN refugee agency said Rohingya refugees must be able to make free and informed decisions about relocating to Bangladesh's Bhashan Char island, as naval vessels began carrying some 1,600 towards the remote site.
(Reuters, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 4, The UN said continued fighting in many parts of Ethiopia's Tigray region is hindering efforts to deliver aid.
(BBC, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 4, The UN World Food Program (WFP) said Southern Madagascar is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster.
(AP, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 6, Ethiopian troops shot at and detained UN staff after they drove through check-points in the conflict-hit northern Tigray region. The UN team had reportedly ignored instructions not to be in the area.
(BBC, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 7, Two UN agencies said that the removal of subsidies in Lebanon without guarantees to protect the vulnerable would amount to a social catastrophe.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution urging Russia to immediately withdraw all its military forces from Crimea “and end its temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine without delay." The vote was 63-17 with 62 abstentions, close to the vote on a similar resolution adopted last year.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 8, The UN said over 50 donors pledged $370 million to the UN fund to finance humanitarian emergencies caused by conflict, climate change, natural disasters, the coronavirus pandemic and gender-based violence.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 9, The UN hit out at violence that erupted in DR Congo's parliament, pitting backers of President Felix Tshisekedi against supporters of his predecessor Joseph Kabila.
(AFP, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 9, A UN report showed that greenhouse gas emissions reached a new high last year, putting the world on track for an average temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius.
(Reuters, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 10, In Thailand pro-democracy demonstrators in Bangkok marked UN Human Rights Day with rallies calling for the abolition of Thailand’s strict royal defamation law, which was recently revived to prosecute more than 20 of the protest movement’s leaders.
(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 11, A UN-backed tribunal sentenced fugitive Hezbollah member, Salim Ayyash, to five concurrent terms of life imprisonment in absentia over his involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 12/11/20)
2020 Dec 12, United Nations' Climate Ambition Summit was held on the fifth anniversary of the international Paris climate. At the virtual gathering UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said world leaders should declare states of "climate emergency" in their countries to spur action to avoid catastrophic global warming.
(Reuters, 12/12/20)
2020 Dec 16, The UN has warned that about 2.3 million children in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region are cut off from humanitarian assistance as violence continues.
(BBC, 12/16/20)
2020 Dec 17, The UN announced a $35.6 million emergency aid package for civilians caught up in fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray region.
(AP, 12/17/20)
2020 Dec 17, It was reported that the UN has reached an agreement with the Taliban leadership to set up thousands of schools inside Afghanistan's insurgent-controlled territory.
(The Telegraph, 12/17/20)
2020 Dec 17, NASA and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) pledging cooperation in areas of science and technology to support the peaceful use of outer space.
(PR Newswire, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 18, The United Nations’ highest court (ICJ) ruled that it will intervene to settle a decades-old border dispute between South American neighbors Guyana and Venezuela.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 18, The UN said it had deployed peacekeeping forces to the Central African Rep.
(BBC, 12/20/20)
2020 Dec 18, Officials said the World Health Organization program to help get COVID-19 vaccines to all countries in need has access to nearly 2 billion doses of “promising" vaccine candidates. WHO's partners in COVAX, a UN-backed program, include the Gavi vaccine alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 22, The United Nations appealed for $156 million to help the tens of thousands of refugees who have fled fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray, again requesting full humanitarian access to the conflict-hit northern region.
(AFP, 12/22/20)
2020 Dec 22, UN Security Council members decided to end the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan’s western Darfur region when the mission's mandate runs out on Dec. 31, after pressure from the country's transitional government, Russia and African nations.
(AP, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 23, The UN said that Bambari, the Central African Republic's fourth-largest town, which was seized by rebels a day earlier ahead of elections this weekend, is in the hands of United Nations peacekeepers and national security forces.
(AP, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 25, In the Central African Rep. three UN peacekeepers from Burundi were killed and two others wounded in attacks by armed combatants. The Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), an alliance of the country's most powerful rebel groups, said that it had called off a three-day ceasefire due to attacks by government forces.
(AP, 12/26/20)(BBC, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 30, UN human rights experts said US President Donald Trump's pardon of four American men convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007 violated US obligations under international law.
(Reuters, 12/30/20)
2020 Dec 31, The UN General Assembly closed the year by approving the $3.231 billion budget for 2021. Only Israel and the US voted against it citing disagreements on Israel and Iran.
(The Telegraph, 12/31/20)
2021 Jan 1, The 47-member UN Human Rights Council now included China and Russia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.76)
2021 Jan 2, Brian Urquhart (101), a troubleshooting British diplomat who joined the UN at its birth in 1945, died at his home in Tyringham, Mass. He was best known for creating and directing the UN’s peacekeeping operations in conflict-filled areas around the world.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 8, The United Nations said it fears “massive community transmission" of COVID-19 in Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region, fueled by displacement and the collapse of health services, as humanitarian workers finally begin to access the region two months after fighting began. A UN report said fighting is still going on in several parts of the northern Tigray region and almost 2.3 million people, or nearly half of the population, need aid.
(AP, 1/8/21)(Reuters, 1/8/21)
2021 Jan 14, The United Nations' atomic watchdog agency confirmed that Iran has informed it the country has begun installing equipment for the production of uranium metal, which would be another violation of the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
(AP, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 14, The UN Environment Program (UNEP) said half of the world's climate change financing should go to helping poorer nations adapt to the effects of global warming, such as droughts, rising seas and floods.
(AP, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 14, The UN chief and top officials urged the United States to reverse its decision to declare Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels a terrorist group to prevent massive famine and death in the conflict-torn Arab nation — but the Trump administration in its final days stood by its action.
(AP, 1/14/21)
2021 Jan 20, United Nations agencies warned that more than 350 million people in the Asia-Pacific region are going hungry as the coronavirus pandemic destroys jobs and pushes food prices higher.
(AP, 1/20/21)
2021 Jan 20, The World Health Organization said that three COVID-19 vaccines were in the late stages of review for possible emergency use listing, in addition to the one made by Pfizer and BioNTech already approved. The WHO said shots from Moderna, AstraZeneca and China's Sinopharm and Sinovac could win emergency go-ahead in coming weeks or months.
(Reuters, 1/20/21)
2021 Jan 21, The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning damage and destruction of religious sites and asking the secretary-general to convene a global conference to spearhead public support for safeguarding places of religious heritage.
(AP, 1/21/21)
2021 Jan 21, The UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict said “serious allegations of sexual violence" have emerged in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, while women and girls face shortages of rape kits and HIV drugs amid restrictions on humanitarian access.
(AP, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 22, The first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons entered into force, hailed as a historic step to rid the world of its deadliest weapons but strongly opposed by the world's nuclear-armed nations. The treaty, approved in 2017, received its 50th ratification on Oct. 24, 2020, triggering a 90-day period before its entry into force on Jan. 22. None of the nine countries known or believed to possess nuclear weapons — the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel — supported it and neither did the 30-nation NATO alliance.
(AP, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 23, The UN refugee agency said tribal clashes in Sudan’s Darfur region have killed at least 250 people and displaced more than 100,000 people since erupting earlier this month.
(AP, 1/23/21)
2021 Jan 24, The United Nations launched "Reset Earth," an animated film and game aimed at engaging Gen Z teenagers on the importance of protecting the ozone layer.
(AP, 1/24/21)
2021 Jan 25, A group of UN experts criticized Sri Lanka's requirement that those who die of COVID-19 be cremated, even it goes against a family's religious beliefs.
(AP, 1/26/21)
2021 Jan 26, UN experts said economic profiteering is fueling the catastrophe in Yemen, where a six-year war has involved attacks on civilians, forced disappearances and other violations of human rights and international law.
(AP, 1/26/21)
2021 Jan 27, The UN appealed for $100 million to help it boost support for refugees fleeing escalating conflicts and crises in Africa who embark on risky migration routes to Europe.
(AFP, 1/27/21)
2021 Jan 27, A UN Human Rights Committee said Italy failed to protect the “right to life" of over 200 migrants who died in October, 2013, when the boat they were on sank in the Mediterranean Sea. The committee called on Italian authorities to “proceed with an independent and timely investigation and to prosecute those responsible" for the deaths.
(AP, 1/27/21)
2021 Jan 28, The maritime law tribunal of the UN ruled that Britain has no sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and criticized London for its failure to hand the territory back to Mauritius. The decision confirmed a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a vote in the UN General Assembly. The ruling should enable Mauritius to start settling its new maritime borders.
(BBC, 1/28/21)
2021 Jan 29, The UN counterterrorism chief urged countries to repatriate the 27,000 children stranded in a massive camp in northeastern Syria, many of them sons and daughters of Islamic State extremists who once controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
(AP, 1/29/21)
2021 Feb 1, The UN said violence-torn Central African Republic is facing an increasingly dire humanitarian situation with high insecurity on the main supply route from Cameroon blocking humanitarian deliveries and prices for basic food prices soaring.
(AP, 2/1/21)
2021 Feb 2, The WHO said that breast cancer has overtaken lung cancer as the most common form of the disease, accounting for nearly 12% of new cases each year worldwide.
(Reuters, 2/2/21)
2021 Feb 3, A new UN report said nearly a third of all detainees held in Afghan detention centers say they have suffered some form of torture or ill-treatment.
(AP, 2/3/21)
2021 Feb 3, COVAX, a UN-backed program to deploy COVID-19 vaccines to the neediest people worldwide, especially in poor countries, announced plans for an initial distribution of 100 million doses by the end of March and 200 million more by July.
(AP, 2/3/21)
2021 Feb 3, The United Nations humanitarian chief privately told the UN Security Council that Ethiopia may not have control of up to 40% of the territory in its embattled Tigray region and does not have full command of forces from neighboring Eritrea operating there.
(AP, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 3, The United Nations’ highest court ruled that it can hear a case brought by Iran against the United States. It seeks to end sanctions the administration of former President Donald Trump re-imposed in 2018 after pulling out of an international deal aimed at curtailing Tehran’s nuclear program.
(AP, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 4, The United Nations Security Council "expressed deep concern at the declaration of the state of emergency imposed in Myanmar by the military" and called for the immediate release of Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others who have been detained.
(Reuters, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 5, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reappointed former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as his special envoy on climate ambition and solutions "to mobilize stronger and more ambitious climate action" ahead of a global summit in November.
(Reuters, 2/5/21)
2021 Feb 5, The UN migration agency said over 800 hundred Europe-bound migrants were intercepted in the Mediterranean sea off Libya's coasts and taken into detention over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 2/5/21)
2021 Feb 5, The United Nations kicked off the selection of its next secretary-general, asking the 193 UN member states to submit candidates to be the world organization’s chief diplomat and operating officer.
(AP, 2/5/21)
2021 Feb 8, United Nations data showed food prices hit six-year highs in January after rising for eight consecutive months.
(Reuters, 2/8/21)
2021 Feb 8, UN agencies received approval from Ethiopia’s government to send 25 more staff members to embattled Tigray, a region where the United Nations says hunger is growing and much of the area has been inaccessible to humanitarian workers.
(AP, 2/8/21)
2021 Feb 8, A United Nations panel reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has relied on government hackers to upgrade his country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
(AP, 2/9/21)
2021 Feb 9, A World Health Organization expert said the coronavirus is unlikely to have leaked from a Chinese lab and most probably jumped to humans via an intermediary species.
(AP, 2/9/21)
2021 Feb 9, It was reported that a preliminary UN inquiry into the theft of $281 million worth of assets from a cryptocurrency exchange last September "strongly suggests" links to North Korea. Industry analysts pointed to Seychelles-based KuCoin as the victim of one of the largest reported digital currency heists.
(Reuters, 2/9/21)
2021 Feb 10, A UN report said that a recovery in global trade is expected to slow again in the first quarter of 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic keeps disrupting the travel industry after world trade contracted 9% in 2020.
(Reuters, 2/10/21)
2021 Feb 10, The UN counter-terrorism chief urged the repatriation of tens of thousands of women and children suspected of links to the Islamic State extremist group, warning that many are being radicalized in deteriorating detention camps in Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 2/11/21)
2021 Feb 10, In central Mali an attack on a UN base in Kerena injured at least 20 peacekeepers.
(AP, 2/10/21)
2021 Feb 12, The 47-member UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi and other officials from detention and refrain from using violence on protesters. The UN human rights office said more than 350 people, including officials, activists and monks, have been arrested in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 coup.
(AP, 2/13/21)
2021 Feb 12, Four UN agencies said more than 2 million Yemeni children under the age of 5 are expected to endure acute malnutrition in 2021.
(AP, 2/12/21)
2021 Feb 16, The UN announced it is releasing $15 million from its emergency relief fund to help Guinea and Congo combat new outbreaks of Ebola.
(AP, 2/16/21)
2021 Feb 19, The UN Security Council gave a green light to keep the UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri operating and funded for at least this year.
(AP, 2/19/21)
2021 Feb 19, A UN commission announced that the scale of violence in South Sudan is “a lot worse" than during the country’s five-year civil war.
(AP, 2/19/21)
2021 Feb 23, The annual UN report on the human rights situation in Colombia found that violence is “intensifying" in some rural areas where state presence is weak and armed groups are fighting for territorial control following the 2016 demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group.
(AP, 2/23/21)
2021 Feb 23, The UN refugee agency said at least 7,000 people who fled escalating ethnic violence in western Ethiopia have sought asylum in neighboring Sudan.
(AP, 2/23/21)
2021 Feb 25, The UN Secretary General extended the UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former PM Rafik Hariri for two years and reaffirmed the UN commitment to support its work in bringing to justice those responsible for major crimes.
(AP, 2/26/21)
2021 Feb 25, The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on a top police security official in Sanaa, which is controlled by Houthi rebels, citing his prominent role in intimidations, systematic arrests, detentions, torture, sexual violence "and rape against politically active women".
(AP, 2/26/21)
2021 Feb 26, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet cited the need for an “independent and comprehensive assessment" of the rights situation in China’s Xinjiang region, while emphasizing that activists, lawyers and rights defenders face unfair charges, detention and trials in China.
(AP, 2/26/21)
2021 Feb 26, United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, in rare public comments on Saudi Arabia, said that people were unlawfully held in the kingdom and urged it to uphold freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly.
(Reuters, 2/26/21)
2021 Feb 26, Agnes Callamard, the UN human rights expert who led a UN investigation into the 2018 death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, called on the United States to take the lead in ensuring justice is served for his murder.
(Reuters, 2/26/21)
2021 Feb 27, Pro-independence rebels fighting Morocco for Western Sahara said the UN was responsible for "political deadlock" over the disputed territory, on the 45th anniversary of their unilateral declaration of independence.
(AFP, 2/27/21)
2021 Feb 28, A UN humanitarian agency warned that more than 16 million people in Yemen would go hungry this year, with already some half a million people in the war-torn country living in famine-like conditions.
(AP, 2/28/21)
2021 Mar 1, Two top UN human rights experts urged an international probe into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and called for his immediate release from prison.
(AP, 3/1/21)
2021 Mar 1, A UN commissioned report said tens of thousands of civilians in Syria were “arbitrarily detained" in enforced disappearances during the country's 10-year conflict.
(AP, 3/1/21)
2021 Mar 1, The UN launched an appeal for countries to fund its response to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where more than six years of war has created the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
(AP, 3/1/21)
2021 Mar 2, The United Nations launched an appeal for $266 million (221 million euros) to help feed more than three million refugees and asylum seekers across East Africa, suffering extra hardship because of the coronavirus pandemic. A funding shortfall has led the WFP to slash its monthly assistance for refugees in Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda.
(AFP, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 2, Aid organizations working in Yemen said their programs will be severely cut after a UN appeal for aid to the world’s worst humanitarian disaster fell well short of its goal. Despite repeated warnings that a large-scale famine is looming, the amount raised a day earlier was about $1.7 billion.
(AP, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 2, Myanmar's ambassador to the United Nations in New York formally staked his claim as the country's legitimate representative in letters to the UN General Assembly president and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
(Reuters, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 3, Tin Maung Naing, Myanmar's deputy UN ambassador, resigned. He was assigned by the military to head the country’s mission to the United Nations after the ambassador strongly opposed their recent coup.
(AP, 3/3/21)
2021 Mar 4, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned that “a campaign of destruction" is taking place in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray province, saying at least 4.5 million people need assistance and demanding that forces from neighboring Eritrea accused of committing atrocities in Tigray leave Ethiopia.
(AP, 3/4/21)
2021 Mar 4, The head of the UN atomic watchdog (IAEA) said Iran has agreed to sit down with international technical experts investigating the discovery of uranium particles at three former undeclared sites in the country.
(AP, 3/4/21)
2021 Mar 4, A UN report estimated that 17% of the food produced globally each year is wasted. That amounts to 931 million metric tons (1.03 billion tons) of food.
(AP, 3/4/21)
2021 Mar 5, An attempt to get UN Security Council approval for a statement calling for an end to violence in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region and to spotlight the millions in need of humanitarian assistance was dropped late today after objections from India, Russia and especially China.
(AP, 3/5/21)
2021 Mar 5, The UN special envoy for Myanmar called for urgent Security Council action to reverse Myanmar’s military coup, saying about 50 peaceful protesters were killed in the military’s worst crackdowns this week and scores more were seriously injured.
(AP, 3/5/21)
2021 Mar 9, The UN WHO and its partners reported in a new study that nearly one in three women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes.
(AP, 3/9/21)
2021 Mar 10, The UN Security Council agreed on a statement that condemns violence against Myanmar protesters and urges military restraint, but dropped language condemning the army takeover as a coup and threatening possible further action due to opposition by China, Russia, India and Vietnam.
(Reuters, 3/10/21)
2021 Mar 10, The UN children’s agency said Syria’s 10-year-long civil war has killed or wounded almost 12,000 children and left millions out of school in what could have repercussions for years to come in the country.
(AP, 3/10/21)
2021 Mar 12, The UN Security Council approved an increase of nearly 3,700 military and police to the UN peacekeeping force in Central African Republic to help reverse the deteriorating security situation in the conflict-torn nation where violence has increased since last December’s presidential election.
(AP, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 12, The UN Security Council urged countries with troops and mercenaries in Libya to withdraw them “without delay" as demanded in the cease-fire agreement between the country’s warring parties.
(AP, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 12, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the almost 20,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.
(SSFC, 3/14/21, p.A7)
2021 Mar 12, The WHO granted an emergency use listing for the coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson.
(SFC, 3/13/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 12, The US condemned China's treatment of Uighurs and other minorities at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, citing "crimes against humanity and genocide" in the province of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 14, The United Nations says more than 80% of Syrians now live in poverty, and 60% are at risk of hunger. The currency has crashed, now at 4,000 Syrian pounds to the dollar on the black market, compared to 700 a year ago and 47 at the beginning of the conflict in 2011.
(AP, 3/14/21)
2021 Mar 17, The United Nations' nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said it has confirmed that Iran has begun operating a cascade of advanced centrifuges at an underground site.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A UN spokesman said human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has agreed to Ethiopia's request for a joint investigation into the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in the country's northern Tigray region.
(AFP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A UN team of investigators on Myanmar appealed for people to collect and preserve documentary evidence of crimes ordered by the military since a Feb. 1 coup, in order to build future cases against its leaders.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A World Health Organization (WHO) vaccine safety panel said that it considers that the benefits of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that vaccinations continue.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 18, A UN report, released this week, sketched a grim picture of conflict-wrecked Libya, accusing several foreign governments of turning the oil-rich country into a stage to play out rivalries and ignoring UN sanctions and a decade-long arms embargo.
(AP, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 18, President Joe Biden met virtually with the UN Security Council and reaffirmed his determination to restore America’s global leadership and re-engage with global institutions including the United Nations.
(AP, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 19, A UN spokesman said the world body in North Korea has been left with no international staff, who are now working remotely.
(AP, 3/19/21)
2021 Mar 20, The UN children’s agency said a surge of fighting in war-torn Yemen has been particularly brutal for children this month, with at least eight killed and 33 wounded.
(AP, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 21, The UN marked International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
(AP, 3/21/21)
2021 Mar 23, The United Nations, United States, Russia and the European Union met virtually to discuss relaunching their long-stalled effort to get Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a two-state solution to their decades-old conflict.
(AP, 3/23/21)
2021 Mar 23, The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling on the office of the UN human rights chief to step up its monitoring of the situation in Sri Lanka regarding all alleged crimes linked to rights violations.
(AP, 3/23/21)
2021 Mar 23, The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling on the office of the UN human rights chief to urge Israel's government to ensure that Palestinian areas have “non-discriminatory" access to COVID-19 vaccines.
(AP, 3/23/21)
2021 Mar 24, The UN Security Council criticized “the protracted political, constitutional, humanitarian and security crises in Haiti" and again urged the government to hold long-delayed legislative elections and prepare for presidential elections this year.
(AP, 3/24/21)
2021 Mar 25, The United Nations and an Ethiopian rights agency said they had agreed to carry out a joint investigation into abuses in the embattled region of Tigray, where fighting persists as government troops hunt down the region's fugitive leaders.
(AP, 3/25/21)
2021 Mar 26, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of UN experts monitoring sanctions against North Korea hours after members met to discuss Pyongyang’s latest test firings of banned ballistic missiles.
(AP, 3/26/21)
2021 Mar 28, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations is holding "serious negotiations" with China for unfettered access to the Xinjiang region to verify reports that Muslim Uighurs are being persecuted.
(Reuters, 3/28/21)
2021 Mar 29, A joint WHO-China study concluded that it is "extremely unlikely" that the coronavirus pandemic started with a leak from a Chinese lab and that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario.
(AP, 3/29/21)
2021 Mar 29, A United Nations working group said scores of Chinese and foreign companies producing "well-known global brands" may be involved in human trafficking, forced labor and other human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region.
(South China Morning Post, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 29, The UN child welfare agency said that the number of child migrants passing through the perilous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama has risen dramatically.
(AP, 3/29/21)
2021 Mar 29, The UN panel of experts monitoring sanctions against Yemen pulled back from its claims of corruption and money laundering by the government, central bank and a UAE-based holding corporation, saying a preliminary review of new information has found no evidence.
(AP, 3/29/21)
2021 Mar 30, The EU and UN hosted dozens of nations and international organizations in virtual talks to help tackle the humanitarian crisis deepening in Syria and neighboring countries as the civil war there entered its 11th year without a political solution in sight.
(AP, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 30, The WHO and more than 20 heads of government and global agencies called for an international treaty for pandemic preparedness that they say will protect future generations.
(AP, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 31, The UN's sexual and reproductive health agency pushed international allies to provide $26.7 million in funding that would go toward "life-saving sexual and reproductive services and a multi-sectoral response to gender-based violence" in Venezuela.
(Axios, 3/31/21)
2021 Mar 31, The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended against using generic anti-parasite drug ivermectin in patients with COVID-19 except for clinical trials, because of a lack of data demonstrating its benefits.
(Reuters, 3/31/21)
2021 Mar 31, The UN special envoy for Myanmar warned that the country faces the possibility of civil war “at an unprecedented scale" and urged the UN Security Council to consider “potentially significant action" to reverse the Feb. 1 military coup and restore democracy.
(AP, 3/31/21)
2021 Apr 1, The UN Security Council late today strongly condemned the use of violence against peaceful protesters in Myanmar.
(AP, 4/2/21)
2021 Apr 2, A fierce attack on a UN peacekeeping base in northern Mali killed four peacekeepers from Chad and at least 23 attackers, and injured another 34 peacekeepers.
(https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/04/1088982)
2021 Apr 5, The UN mission in Bosnia called for urgent action to stop violent pushbacks and collective expulsions of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants along the Croatian border following an incident last week involving 50 “visibly exhausted" men. The men said they had their cellphones, money and belongings taken away when they tried to cross the border and that they were beaten with sticks back into Bosnia.
(AP, 4/5/21)
2021 Apr 6, The UN said at least 56 people have been killed in four days of violence in Sudan's West Darfur region. Gunfire was reported in the city of El Geneina as people fled into Chad.
(AFP, 4/6/21)
2021 Apr 6, Two UN agencies warned that over 27 million people in Congo are suffering from acute hunger, a record high representing almost one-third of the conflict-wracked African nation’s estimated population of 87 million.
(AP, 4/6/21)
2021 Apr 6, The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it plans to reduce troop numbers by seven percent this year, due to a drop in violence in the conflict-torn country.
(AP, 4/6/21)
2021 Apr 8, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the use of improvised explosive devices is increasing as conflicts become more urbanized and armed groups proliferate, and he urged nations to work together to curb the threat from those weapons as well as land mines and other remnants of war.
(AP, 4/8/21)
2021 Apr 9, Ousted Myanmar lawmakers urged the UN Security Council to take action against the military over a Feb. 1 coup as an independent think tank warned the 15 council members that the Asian state was on the brink of collapse. The US ambassador to the UN urged the international community to take “concrete action" against the military in Myanmar including an arms embargo and sanctions against its holding companies and those who profit from them.
(Reuters, 4/9/21)(AP, 4/9/21)
2021 Apr 12, UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez said in a report that the COVID-19 pandemic led to a spike in gender-based violence last year and combatants continued to use sexual violence “as a cruel tactic of war" and political repression. The report focused on 18 countries and listed 52 parties “credibly suspected" of responsibility “for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence".
(AP, 4/12/21)
2021 Apr 13, The United Nations' health agency urged countries to suspend the sale of live animals captured from the wild in food markets. The World Health Organization recommended it as an emergency measure, saying wild animals are a leading source of emerging infectious diseases like the coronavirus.
(CBS News, 4/13/21)
2021 Apr 13, The UN World Food Program said almost one million people are facing severe hunger in northern Mozambique where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee a jihadist insurgency.
(AP, 4/13/21)
2021 Apr 13, Russia unsuccessfully tried for the first time to prevent Kosovo’s representative from speaking at the UN Security Council with the country’s flag in the background, saying the majority of council members don’t recognize its independence from Serbia.
(AP, 4/13/21)
2021 Apr 14, A UN report said nearly half of women in 57 developing countries are denied the right to decide whether to have sex with their partners, use contraception or seek health care.
(AP, 4/14/21)
2021 Apr 15, The UN humanitarian chief warned that the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen is getting even worse with the COVID-19 pandemic “roaring back" in recent weeks as the Arab world’s poorest country faces a large-scale famine.
(AP, 4/15/21)
2021 Apr 16, UN agencies said that tens of thousands of Nigerians are fleeing deadly attacks by armed groups and the continuing clashes between the rebels and national forces in the country's troubled northeastern Borno state. Up to 65,000 people were on the move.
(AP, 4/16/21)
2021 Apr 16, The UN Security Council unanimously approved Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ recent proposal for up to 60 monitors to join an existing political mission in Libya.
(AP, 4/16/21)
2021 Apr 19, A UN report said 2020 was one of the three hottest years on record, marked by wildfires, droughts, floods and melting glaciers. 2020 was ranked alongside 2016 and 2019 despite cooling La Niña conditions.
(Reuters, 4/19/21)
2021 Apr 19, The food assistance agency of the United Nations announced that it will begin operations in Venezuela after reaching an agreement with the nation’s government.
(AP, 4/19/21)
2021 Apr 20, The UN announced that it is seeking $29.2 million to help St. Vincent recover from ongoing volcanic eruptions.
(AP, 4/20/21)
2021 Apr 22, The United Nations said food insecurity is rising sharply in Myanmar in the wake of the military coup and deepening financial crisis with millions more people expected to go hungry in coming months.
(Reuters, 4/22/21)
2021 Apr 26, UN experts, in an 81-page report, warned that political, military and ethnic divisions in South Sudan are widening, leading to multiple violent incidents between the main signatories to last year’s cease-fire, the possibility of renewed war, and nearly 100,000 people facing “famine-like conditions".
(AP, 4/26/21)
2021 Apr 27, The UN Security Council demanded that all combatants protect schools, hospitals, power grids, water supplies and other infrastructure, unanimously adopting a resolution that focused for the first time on the destruction of critical civilian requirements in conflicts from Syria and Afghanistan to South Sudan and Ukraine.
(AP, 4/27/21)
2021 Apr 27, The United Nations and NGOs said that a record 29 million people need humanitarian assistance in the Sahel, noting "unparalleled" insecurity and hunger across six countries in the war-torn African region.
(AFP, 4/27/21)
2021 Apr 28, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution expressing solidarity and support for St. Vincent and urging continued financial help for the eastern Caribbean island as it deals with volcanic eruptions.
(AP, 4/28/21)
2021 Apr 29, The UN World Food Program (WFP) warned that persistent drought in southern Madagascar has left hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine and stoked acute malnutrition among children.
(AP, 4/29/21)
2021 Apr 29, The UN Security Council held an informal meeting focusing on the repatriation of more than 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries from Libya.
(AP, 4/29/21)
2021 Apr 30, The UN said more than 700 people have been arrested in Chad following this week's demonstrations against the new military government led by the son of slain Pres. Idriss Deby Itno.
(SFC, 5/1/21, p.A3)
2021 Apr 30, The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that armed conflict and insecurity in large areas of Myanmar are impeding its operations there. A UN report said political turmoil and disruptions following the coup in Myanmar could undo years of progress and double the number of its people living in poverty to nearly half the population.
(AP, 4/30/21)
2021 Apr 30, The UN Security Council again demanded the restoration of democracy in Myanmar and the release of all detainees including Aung San Suu Kyi and strongly backed calls by Southeast Asian nations for an immediate cessation of violence and talks as a first step toward a solution following the Feb. 1 military coup.
(AP, 5/1/21)
2021 May 5, More than 200 global organizations urged the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar, saying the time for statements has passed and immediate action is needed to help protect peaceful protesters against military rule and other opponents of the junta.
(AP, 5/5/21)
2021 May 6, The UN said industry could cheaply and easily slash humanity's methane emissions by at least 30 percent in a decade, adding that such cuts would slow global warming and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths.
(AFP, 5/6/21)
2021 May 6, The UN announced it has released $65 million for humanitarian aid in Ethiopia, including $40 million for the Tigray region where a military operation launched in November has escalated into a war in which widespread atrocities are reported and thousands have been killed.
(AP, 5/6/21)
2021 May 6, The UN disarmament chief reported the discovery of an undeclared chemical warfare agent at a Syrian site to a Security Council meeting where the US and its Western allies clashed with Russia over international findings that Syria has used chemical weapons.
(AP, 5/6/21)
2021 May 7, The World Health Organization gave emergency use authorization to a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China's Sinopharm, potentially paving the way for millions of the doses to reach needy countries through a UN-backed program rolling out coronavirus vaccines.
(AP, 5/7/21)
2021 May 10, The head of a UN team investigating atrocities in Iraq announced it has found “clear and compelling evidence" that Islamic State extremists committed genocide against the Yazidi minority in 2014 and said the militant group successfully developed chemical weapons and used mustard gas.
(AP, 5/10/21)
2021 May 11, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the nearly 3,700-strong peacekeeping force in the disputed Abyei region on the Sudan-South Sudan border until Nov. 15.
(AP, 5/11/21)
2021 May 12, The UN's atomic watchdog (IAEA) said Iran has enriched uranium to slightly higher purity than previously thought due to “fluctuations" in the process.
(AP, 5/12/21)
2021 May 12, The UN Security Council called for an immediate halt to fighting in Yemen, saying that only a lasting cease-fire and political settlement can end the six-year conflict in the Arab world's poorest nation and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 5/12/21)
2021 May 12, Human rights groups and Western nations met and demanded unfettered access for UN human rights experts to China's Xinjiang region. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned China for “crimes against humanity and genocide against Muslim Uyghurs" during the release of an annual report on international religious freedom.
(AP, 5/13/21)
2021 May 14, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said foreign fighters and mercenaries remain in Libya in violation of last October’s cease-fire agreement and called for their withdrawal and an end to violations of the U.N. arms embargo.
(AP, 5/14/21)
2021 May 14, The regional UN humanitarian coordinator said more than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza have fled their homes since fighting began earlier this week.
(AP, 5/14/21)
2021 May 16, International pressure to bring an end to the raging conflict between Israel and Hamas militants mounted, even as local health officials said an Israeli airstrike in Gaza overnight killed at least 33 people, the single deadliest attack of the current hostilities. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to fighting.
(NY Times, 5/16/21)(Reuters, 5/16/21)(BBC, 5/16/21)
2021 May 18, Chad’s deputy foreign minister warned the UN Security Council that mercenaries and foreign fighters from Libya are crossing into the Sahel, threatening to undermine gains in fighting terrorism by five West African nations and plunge the region into violence that will be difficult to control.
(AP, 5/18/21)
2021 May 18, France's presidency called for a resolution at the United Nations Security Council to stop the fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
(Reuters, 5/18/21)
2021 May 19, A United Nations report said roughly a sixth of the planet’s land and freshwater area now lies within protected or conservation areas.
(AP, 5/19/21)
2021 May 19, The United States said it opposes a proposed UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, reiterating that it could interfere with the Biden administration’s efforts to end the hostilities.
(AP, 5/19/21)
2021 May 20, The World Health Organization's regional director said COVID-19 vaccines currently being deployed in the fight against the pandemic in Europe appear able to protect against all variants that are circulating and causing concern.
(Reuters, 5/20/21)
2021 May 21, The UN humanitarian agency urged heavy punishments for aid workers and others who committed sex abuses during the Ebola epidemic in eastern Congo, saying it has launched a hotline to receive complaints from victims.
(AP, 5/21/21)
2021 May 21, The WHO said official tolls showing the number of deaths directly or indirectly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to be a "significant undercount." 6-8 million people may have died so far.
(Reuters, 5/21/21)
2021 May 25, Belarus’ isolation deepened as commercial planes avoided its airspace, the European Union worked up new sanctions, and a senior UN official said he was concerned for the welfare of Raman Pratasevich, the opposition journalist arrested in Minsk after his plane was diverted there. The UN human rights watchdog demanded that Belarus release Protasevich.
(AP, 5/25/21)(Reuters, 5/25/21)
2021 May 27, The UN launched an emergency appeal for $95 million for Gaza for the next three months to meet immediate humanitarian needs and repairs to key facilities destroyed or damaged during the recent conflict between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers.
(AP, 5/27/21)
2021 May 27, The United Nations Human Rights Council agreed to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate possible "violations of international humanitarian law" during the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas.
(Axios, 5/27/21)
2021 May 27, Russia said it has signed an agreement to supply the UN children's fund UNICEF with enough doses of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for 110 million people.
(Reuters, 5/27/21)
2021 May 30, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for investigations into the deaths of anti-government protesters in Cali, Colombia, following violent clashes between protesters and the military.
(AP, 5/30/21)
2021 May 31, UNICEF said a severe acute childhood malnutrition is expected to more than double this year in Haiti as the country struggles with the coronavirus pandemic, a spike in violence and dwindling resources.
(AP, 5/31/21)
2021 May 31, The UN children agency said that the bodies of three children, who apparently were among Europe-bound migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, washed ashore last week in the North African country.
(AP, 5/31/21)
2021 Jun 1, The UN said more than 90 percent of people in Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region need emergency food aid, as it appealed for over $200 million to scale up its response.
(AP, 6/1/21)
2021 Jun 1, The UN Foundation announced today that top global brands H&M and Banana Republic are once again partnering with UN Free & Equal for Pride Month this June to raise awareness and funds in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) equality worldwide.
(PR Newswire, 6/1/21)
2021 Jun 2, The UN said Iran and the Central African Republic are in arrears on paying their dues to the UN operating budget and will lose their voting rights in the 193-member General Assembly.
(AP, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 2, A UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri said it is facing a severe funding crisis and will not be able to operate beyond July without immediate assistance.
(AP, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 2, It was reported that Russia has administered at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to more than 18 million people, around 12% of the population.
(Reuters, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 2, Siam Bioscience and AstraZeneca said they would soon provide Thailand with 1.8 million doses of locally manufactured COVID-19 vaccine, the first of multiple batches this month, just days away from the launch of the country's vaccination drive.
(Reuters, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 3, The head of the international chemical weapons watchdog told the UN Security Council that its experts have investigated 77 allegations against Syria, and concluded that in 17 cases chemical weapons were likely or definitely used.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 7, The UN Security Council strongly condemned violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Central African Republic and warned that attacks on United Nations peacekeepers there may constitute war crimes.
(AP, 6/7/21)
2021 Jun 7, Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives won election as the next president of the UN General Assembly.
(AP, 6/8/21)
2021 Jun 8, The UN Security Council gave its unanimous backing to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a second term.
(AP, 6/8/21)
2021 Jun 8, UN appeals judges upheld the conviction of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic (79) for genocide and other offenses during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war and confirmed his life sentence.
(AP, 6/8/21)
2021 Jun 8, The UN General Assembly approved a declaration calling for urgent action to end AIDS by 2030, noting “with alarm" that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequalities and pushed access to AIDS medicines, treatments and diagnosis further off track.
(AP, 6/8/21)
2021 Jun 9, A UN expert said at least one-quarter of the people in Myanmar's smallest state have been forced to flee their homes because of combat with the military junta that seized power in February. He called for international pressure on the junta to deprive it of the resources.
(AP, 6/9/21)
2021 Jun 9, A report released by the International Labour Organization and the UN Children’s Fund said the number of children in child labor has risen to 160 million globally, an uptick of 8.4 million over the past four years.
(Axios, 6/9/21)
2021 Jun 9, A UN official said that a high-level UN-led committee that focuses on rapid responses to humanitarian crises estimates that some 350,000 people in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region are facing famine conditions.
(AP, 6/9/21)
2021 Jun 10, The UN Food Agency said food imports costs across the world are expected to surge to record levels this year, piling pressure on many of the poorest countries whose economies have already been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reuters, 6/10/21)
2021 Jun 11, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said there is famine in northern Ethiopia after the release of a UN-backed analysis of the situation.
(BBC, 6/11/21)
2021 Jun 11, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned of a military buildup in parts of Myanmar and rising violence, with the army using heavy weapons against armed groups as well as civilian targets, including Christian churches.
(AP, 6/11/21)
2021 Jun 11, Iran regained its UN General Assembly vote after it made a minimum dues payment, while denouncing the United States for sanctions that had blocked billions in funds.
(Axios, 6/11/21)
2021 Jun 11, The UN elected five countries to join the powerful 15-member UN Security Council with no suspense because all were unopposed -- Brazil, the UAE, Albania, Ghana and Gabon.
(AP, 6/11/21)
2021 Jun 11, The UN General Assembly approved the nomination of Costa Rican economist Rebecca Grynspan to head the UN agency promoting trade and development, the first woman and Central American to lead the Geneva-based organization.
(AP, 6/11/21)
2021 Jun 15, A UNICEF report said escalating gang violence has pushed nearly 8,500 women and children from their homes in Haiti’s capital in the past two weeks.
(AP, 6/15/21)
2021 Jun 18, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was appointed for a second-five year-term by the 193-member UN General Assembly.
(Reuters, 6/18/21)
2021 Jun 18, The World Health Organization's chief scientist said the Delta variant of COVID-19, first identified in India, is becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease.
(Reuters, 6/18/21)
2021 Jun 22, The UN World Food Program (WFP) warned that some 41 million people worldwide are at imminent risk of famine.
(Reuters, 6/22/21)
2021 Jun 22, The United Nations said the Great Barrier Reef has suffered such extensive damage that it should be listed as "in danger." The warning prompted an immediate rejection from the Australian government.
(CBS News, 6/22/21)
2021 Jun 22, A UN human rights expert said Eritrea now has "effective control" of parts of Ethiopia's Tigray region. Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker called for troops to withdraw and for a prompt investigation into abuses, including the abduction of refugees.
(AP, 6/22/21)
2021 Jun 22, Germany and the UN brought together representatives of Libya with powers that have interests in the country at a conference which aims for progress toward securing elections in the North African nation and the removal of foreign fighters.
(Reuters, 6/22/21)(AP, 6/23/21)
2021 Jun 23, The UN General Assembly, for the 29th time, voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution that calls for the US to lift its embargo against Cuba. This time the pleading focused on the devastating impact of the economic blockade during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 6/23/21)
2021 Jun 24, Morocco and the United Nations inaugurated a UN office in Rabat for counter-terrorism and training in Africa, that's seeing increasing extremist violence.
(AP, 6/24/21)
2021 Jun 24, The United Nations accused Israel of flagrantly violating international law by expanding settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, saying settlements are illegal and urging the country’s new government to halt their enlargement immediately.
(AP, 6/24/21)
2021 Jun 26, The UN World Food Program said southern Madagascar is in the throes of back-to-back droughts that are pushing 400,000 people toward starvation, and have already caused deaths from severe hunger.
(AP, 6/26/21)
2021 Jun 28, A UN envoy said shipments of Qatari-funded fuel into the Gaza Strip will resume for the first time since last month's 11-day war between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas ruler.
(AP, 6/28/21)
2021 Jun 29, The UN Security Council held its first formal public meeting on cybersecurity, addressing the growing threat of hacks to countries' key infrastructure.
(AFP, 6/29/21)
2021 Jun 30, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to US President Joe Biden's administration to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal aimed at stopping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
(Reuters, 6/30/21)
2021 Jun 30, A UN court convicted Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, former allies of late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, of aiding and abetting crimes committed by Serb paramilitaries in a Bosnian town in 1992. Each was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. The judgment can be appealed.
(AP, 6/30/21)
2021 Jul 1, The food assistance agency of the UN announced that its first shipments of supplies for vulnerable Venezuelan school children have arrived in the troubled South American country.
(AP, 7/1/21)
2021 Jul 2, UN-sponsored talks aimed at paving the way for elections in Libya in late December failed to find common ground after weeklong talks near Geneva.
(Reuters, 7/2/21)
2021 Jul 2, A UN human rights agency in a report released today said prisoners taken in the years-long conflict in eastern Ukraine have experienced systematic torture, sexual violence and other abuses.
(AP, 7/2/21)
2021 Jul 3, UN officials recent fighting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia has resulted in a famine that is now affecting more than 400,000 people.
(AP, 7/3/21)
2021 Jul 5, A UN report said Venezuelan security forces carried out fewer extra-judicial killings in the 12 months through April, but it accuses them of a continued pattern of torture or cruel treatment of individuals as well as enforced disappearances and incommunicado detentions.
(AP, 7/5/21)
2021 Jul 6, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet praised the “incredible resilience" of Myanmar’s people in helping each other in the wake of a military takeover and violent crackdown, while calling on the international community to keep up pressure on the junta to halt violence and restore democracy.
(AP, 7/6/21)
2021 Jul 6, The United Nation’s top nuclear watchdog announced that Iran has taken steps to enrich uranium metal to a 20 percent purity and manufacture nuclear reactor fuel.
(AP, 7/6/21)
2021 Jul 7, Haiti requested the United Nations send troops to help secure the country. Before being assassinated President Jovenel Moise had been working on a list of powerful politicians and businesspeople involved in Haiti’s drug trade, with the intention of handing over the dossier to the American government, according to four senior Haitian advisers and officials tasked with drafting the document.
(AP, 7/9/21)(NY Times, 12/12/21)
2021 Jul 8, The United Nations' nuclear watchdog said it reached an agreement with Japan on helping monitor and review the release of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean.
(AP, 7/8/21)
2021 Jul 9, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution extending the delivery of humanitarian aid for a year from Turkey to rebel-held northwest Syria, where the UN says 3.4 million people are in desperate need of food and other assistance.
(AP, 7/9/21)
2021 Jul 12, A UN report said world hunger and malnutrition levels worsened dramatically last year, with most of the increase likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reuters, 7/12/21)
2021 Jul 14, The UN migration agency said the number of migrants and refugees who died while attempting to reach Europe on sea crossings more than doubled so far this year compared to the first six months of 2020. At least 1,146 people perished between January and June.
(AP, 7/14/21)
2021 Jul 20, Myanmar’s military rulers again sought to replace the country’s ambassador to the United Nations, who opposed their Feb. 1 ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and takeover of the government.
(AP, 7/20/21)
2021 Jul 23, The UN General Assembly approved its first-ever resolution on vision, calling on its 193 member nations to ensure access to eye care for everyone in their countries which would contribute to a global effort to help at least 1.1 billion people with vision impairment who currently lack eye services by 2030.
(AP, 7/23/21)
2021 Jul 23, The UN Security Council condemned the decision by Turkey and Turkish Cypriots to reopen a residential section of an abandoned suburb and called for “the immediate reversal" of this unilateral action, warning that it could raise tensions on the divided Mediterranean island.
(AP, 7/23/21)
2021 Jul 26, A UN report said more women and children were killed and wounded in Afghanistan in the first half of 2021 than in the first six months of any year since the United Nations began systematically keeping count in 2009.
(AP, 7/26/21)
2021 Jul 26, In northern Mali five UN peacekeepers were injured in an attack using an improvised explosive device.
(AP, 7/26/21)
2021 Jul 27, A UN panel paid out $600 million to Kuwait's national oil company as compensation for Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait three decades ago. The corporation is the sole remaining claimant and can expect to receive a further $1.1 billion. Under a 1991 UN Security Council resolution, Iraq set aside a percentage of proceeds from its oil exports for the compensation fund.
(AP, 7/27/21)
2021 Jul 27, The head of the UN World Food Program says the agency will “run out of food" in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region on July 30, while hundreds of thousands of people there face the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade.
(AP, 7/27/21)
2021 Jul 29, The UN Security Council extended the arms embargo against the Central African Republic for a year despite an appeal from China to lift it, saying the government hasn’t met UN benchmarks including ensuring the protection and control of all weapons.
(AP, 7/30/21)
2021 Aug 2, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution establishing a Permanent Forum of People of African Descent to provide expert advice on addressing the challenges of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance.
(AP, 8/2/21)
2021 Aug 2, The UN called the Myanmar military’s election delay and extension of the state of emergency a move in the wrong direction from international calls for the restoration of democracy.
(AP, 8/2/21)
2021 Aug 3, The UN Security Council condemned deliberate attacks on civilians in Afghanistan and all instances of terrorism “in the strongest terms," while declaring its opposition to restoration of rule by the Taliban.
(AP, 8/3/21)
2021 Aug 3, The UN humanitarian chief warned Ethiopian authorities that blanket accusations against aid workers in the country’s embattled Tigray region and elsewhere are “dangerous" and must stop. Two international aid groups said that the Ethiopian government had suspended part or all of their operations.
(AP, 8/3/21)
2021 Aug 3, The UN said Rwanda has sent 300 troops to reinforce UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, where they will help protect a key highway supplying the capital. Another 150 troops will arrive by the end of the year. A UN Security Council resolution in March planned to beef up the MINUSCA force in the CAR by around 3,000 men.
(AFP, 8/4/21)
2021 Aug 6, The UN envoy for Afghanistan urged the Security Council to demand that the Taliban immediately stop attacking cities in their offensive to take more territory as American and NATO troops pull out of the country.
(AP, 8/6/21)
2021 Aug 9, The UN panel on climate change sounded a dire warning, saying the world is dangerously close to runaway warming – and that humans are "unequivocally" to blame.
(Reuters, 8/9/21)
2021 Aug 11, UN agencies voiced concern as Central American migrants are being expelled by the United States and flown deep into Mexico for deportation to their homelands. Guatemala was not participating in the joint campaign.
(AP, 8/11/21)
2021 Aug 13, The UN refugee agency's representative for the Baltic region said that while the “emergency phase" of the mass arrivals seems to be over, Lithuania must now focus on the wellbeing of the people held in immigration detention centers and on assessing their claims for international protection. So far this year, more than 4,000 asylum-seekers from 40 countries, most of them Iraqi, have illegally crossed from Belarus into Lithuania.
(AP, 8/14/21)
2021 Aug 15, The UN refugee agency said more than 550,000 people in Afghanistan have fled their homes due to the conflict since the start of this year.
(AP, 8/15/21)
2021 Aug 17, The United Nation’s atomic watchdog (IAEA) said Iran continues to produce uranium metal, which can be used in the creation of nuclear bombs.
(AP, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 25, UN World Food Program said Madagascar is on the brink of experiencing the world's first "climate change famine".
(BBC, 8/25/21)
2021 Aug 25, It was reported that the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a UN agency in charge of the world's postal policies, has voted to block the use of UK stamps from the Chagos Islands. All post to and from the remote archipelago must now bear stamps from Mauritius.
(BBC, 8/25/21)
2021 Aug 27, The 15-member UN Security Council condemned a deadly attack at Kabul's airport in Afghanistan as "especially abhorrent" for targeting civilians trying to flee the country after the Taliban came to power and people helping with the evacuation. UN officials appealed for $800 million to fill a chronic funding gap for Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 8/27/21)
2021 Aug 27, The UN atomic watchdog IAEA reported that North Korea appears to have restarted a nuclear reactor that is widely believed to have produced plutonium for nuclear weapons.
(Reuters, 8/29/21)
2021 Sep 8, A United Nations panel said that at least 18,000 Yemeni civilians have been killed or wounded by airstrikes since the country’s war escalated in 2015.
(AP, 9/8/21)
2021 Sep 10, The UN rights office said that the Taliban response to peaceful marches in Afghanistan has been increasingly violent, with authorities using live ammunition, batons and whips and causing the deaths of at least four protesters. The United Nations' educational organization warned about risks to access to education, especially for girls and women.
(Reuters, 9/10/21)(AP, 9/10/21)
2021 Sep 12, Iran said it will is to allow the UN nuclear watchdog to service monitoring cameras at Iranian nuclear sites following talks with IAEA head Rafael Grossi. Iran agreed to allow international inspectors to install new memory cards into surveillance cameras at its sensitive nuclear sites and to continue filming there.
(Reuters, 9/12/21)(AP, 9/12/21)
2021 Sep 13, United Nations' human rights chief Michelle Bachelet criticized the Taliban's human rights record since seizing power in Afghanistan, noting that stated commitments did not match realities on the ground such as the status of women.
(Reuters, 9/13/21)
2021 Sep 15, Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for a moratorium on the use of artificial intelligence technology that poses a serious risk to human rights and said that countries should expressly ban AI applications which don’t comply with international human rights law.
(AP, 9/15/21)
2021 Sep 15, The United Nations said it has sent home all 450 Gabonese troops from its peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic and opened an investigation after allegations of the sexual abuse of five girls.
(Reuters, 9/15/21)
2021 Sep 17, A UN report said global goals tackling poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change face a $100 trillion funding shortfall and are likely to be missed unless 10% of global economic output is directed to the UN targets every year to 2030.
(Reuters, 9/17/21)
2021 Sep 17, The United Nations Security Council authorized a six-month extension of the UN's political mission in Afghanistan. The Council also unanimously approved a resolution saying that Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers need to establish an inclusive government that has “the full, equal and meaningful participation of women" and upholds human rights.
(AP, 9/17/21)
2021 Sep 17, A UN report said the global average temperature will rise 2.7 degrees Celsius by century’s end even if all countries meet their promised emissions cuts, a rise that is likely to worsen extreme wildfires, droughts and floods.
(NY Times, 9/17/21)
2021 Sep 20, The UN cultural body UNESCO announced that the US will formally return an illegally imported 3,500-year-old tablet recounting the epic of Gilgamesh to Iraq on Sept. 23.
(AFP, 9/20/21)
2021 Sep 21, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reprimanded the world for the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, describing it as an "obscenity" and giving the globe an "F in Ethics".
(AP, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, A UN spokesman said Afghanistan's Taliban are challenging the credentials of their country's former UN ambassador and want to speak at the General Assembly’s high-level meeting of world leaders this week.
(AFP, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, US President Joe Biden told the United Nations General Assembly he would work with Congress to double funds by 2024 for helping developing nations deal with climate change to $11.4 billion per year.
(Reuters, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro issued a defense of his administration at the UN General Assembly, rebuffing criticism of its handling of the pandemic and touting recent data indicating less Amazon deforestation. Bolsonaro also flouted the requirement for all attendees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
(AP, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, Brazil's health minister tested positive for the coronavirus in New York after President Jair Bolsonaro spoke at the UN General Assembly. Marcelo Quiroga got his first shot of coronavirus vaccine in January.
(AP, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 21, President Xi Jinping of China told the UN General Assembly that his country would stop promoting the growth of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel overseas, in a major step to address climate change: China, he said, “will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad".
(NY Times, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 22, The UN General Assembly pledged to redouble efforts to combat racism around the world, commemorating a landmark but contentious 2001 anti-racism conference by holding an anniversary meeting once again riven with divisions.
(AP, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 22, David Beasley, the head of the UN food agency, warned that 16 million people in Yemen “are marching towards starvation" and says food rations for millions in the war-torn nation will be cut in October unless new funding arrives.
(AP, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 22, Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo requested UN support to address the flood of migrants passing through his nation.
(AP, 9/23/21)
2021 Sep 23, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urged nations to revamp their food priorities, saying the world needed food systems that safeguard the environment.
(AFP, 9/23/21)
2021 Sep 24, The UN reported that at least 350,209 people have been killed in the decade-old war in Syria, in its first report since 2014 on the death toll, adding that the tally was an "undercount".
(Reuters, 9/24/21)
2021 Sep 24, India and Pakistan clashed at the UN as Pakistani PM Imran Khan accused the rival of a "reign of terror" on Muslims, drawing a stern rebuke. Khan's address was delivered by video due to Covid precautions.
(Reuters, 9/25/21)
2021 Sep 24, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (85) accused Israel of destroying the two-state solution with actions he said could lead Palestinians to demand equal rights within one binational state comprising Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Abbas gave Israel one year to end its occupation of territories that it wants for a future state as he addressed the UN General Assembly via video link from the West Bank.
(Reuters, 9/24/21)(SFC, 9/25/21, p.A4)
2021 Sep 28, Iran rejected a US call to grant UN inspectors access to a nuclear site, saying Washington was not qualified to demand inspections without condemning a sabotage attack on the facility.
(Reuters, 9/28/21)
2021 Sep 29, UN agencies warned that more than 1 million Syrian refugees in crisis-hit Lebanon are experiencing deteriorating conditions that have left nine out of ten of them in extreme poverty.
(AP, 9/29/21)
2021 Sep 30, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN political mission in Libya until after the country's critical presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for late December.
(AP, 9/30/21)
2021 Sep 30, Ethiopia said it is expelling seven senior United Nations officials, two days after a senior UN official said hundreds of thousands of people in the northern region of Tigray were likely experiencing famine.
(Reuters, 9/30/21)
2021 Oct 1, The UN agency helping Palestinian refugees said it is facing an “existential" budget crisis and appealing for urgent funding of $120 million to keep essential education, healthcare and other services running.
(AP, 10/2/21)
2021 Oct 4, A UN investigation revealed that war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the use of child soldiers, have been committed in Libya since 2016.
(AP, 10/4/21)
2021 Oct 6, The UN cultural agency said India's school closures and its children's lack of smartphone and internet facilities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened an educational divide.
(Reuters, 10/6/21)
2021 Oct 6, United Nations veteran diplomat Staffan de Mistura was named as the organization's envoy to the Western Sahara conflict, nearly two and a half years after the post had become vacant as a dozen other candidates were rejected by either Morocco or the Polisario Front rebel movement.
(AP, 10/7/21)
2021 Oct 2, Kosovo's border crossing with Serbia was reopened as Serbs removed trucks and cars and NATO troops moved in under a European Union-mediated deal to end a dispute between the neighboring countries over car license plates.
(Reuters, 10/2/21)
2021 Oct 7, The UN Human Rights Council agreed to appoint a special rapporteur on Afghanistan to probe violations carried out by the Taliban and other parties to the conflict there.
(Reuters, 10/7/21)
2021 Oct 7, The United Nations Human Rights Council narrowly agreed to end the mandate of its independent investigators who have found that all sides in Yemen's conflict have committed acts that may amount to war crimes. The UN migration agency said fighting over the key Yemeni city of Marib has displaced around 10,000 people in the past month.
(Reuters, 10/7/21)(AP, 10/7/21)
2021 Oct 7, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for $8 billion to help equitably vaccinate 40% of people in all countries by the end of the year, as the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a plan that aims to inoculate 70% of the world by mid-2022.
(Reuters, 10/7/21)
2021 Oct 8, The UN Human Rights Council recognized access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right, formally adding its weight to the global fight against climate change and its devastating consequences.
(Reuters, 10/8/21)
2021 Oct 9, UN officials signed a deal with Bangladesh to help provide basic services to thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees who have been moved to camps on a remote island in the Bay of Bengal.
(Reuters, 10/9/21)
2021 Oct 11, The UN refugee agency said it had recovered the bodies of 15 migrants and 177 survivors from two coastguard boats returning to Libya people who had sought to cross the Mediterranean.
(Reuters, 10/11/21)
2021 Oct 11, The UN children's agency UNICEF said some 19,000 migrant children have crossed the dangerous Darien Gap on the border between Panama and Colombia so far this year. At least five children have been found dead in the jungle.
(Reuters, 10/11/21)
2021 Oct 12, The top UN top court (ICJ) ruled largely in favor of Somalia in its dispute with Kenya, setting a sea boundary in part of the Indian Ocean believed to be rich in oil and gas.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Russia hit another record of daily coronavirus deaths as the country struggled with a rapid surge of infections and lagging vaccination rates, but authorities have been adamant that there would be no new national lockdown.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 13, A UN investigator said North Koreans living under strict pandemic restrictions are facing a growing food crisis and the most vulnerable children and elderly people in the isolated Asian nation are at risk of starvation.
(AP, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 14, The UN General Assembly elected the United States to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, more than three years after the Trump administration quit the 47-member body over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform.
(Reuters, 10/14/21)
2021 Oct 14, The UN said that the deteriorating security situation in Colombia represents a "considerable challenge" to the country's 2016 peace accords.
(AP, 10/14/21)
2021 Oct 15, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN political mission in Haiti for nine months.
(AP, 10/15/21)
2021 Oct 19, The UN children's agency UNICEF said ten thousand Yemeni children have been killed or maimed since a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthi group ousted the government.
(Reuters, 10/19/21)
2021 Oct 21, United Nations human rights experts urged Pakistan to release Stephen Masih, a Christian man, who was detained two years ago for insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad and is believed to be mentally ill.
(AP, 10/21/21)
2021 Oct 25, The United Nations said greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record last year and the world is "way off track" on capping rising temperatures, showing the task facing climate talks in Glasgow aimed at averting dangerous levels of warming.
(Reuters, 10/25/21)
2021 Oct 24, The UN children's agency UNICEF said fuel shortages in Haiti are putting the lives of hundreds of women and children at risk as hospitals run low on supplies for electricity.
(Reuters, 10/24/21)
2021 Oct 26, A UN report said current commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions put the planet on track for an average 2.7 degrees Celsius temperature rise this century.
(Reuters, 10/26/21)
(AP, 10/26/21)
2021 Oct 29, The UN Security Council extended the UN peacekeeping mission in the disputed Western Sahara for a year, expressing concern at the breakdown of the 1991 cease-fire between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front and calling for a revival of UN-led negotiations.
(AP, 10/29/21)
2021 Oct 31, The UN climate summit in Glasgow opened with appeals for action and prayers, kicking off two weeks of intense diplomatic negotiations by almost 200 countries on how to tackle the common challenge of intensifying global warming.
(AP, 10/31/21)
2021 Oct 31, Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, said he will sell $6 billion worth of Tesla stock and donate the proceeds to the United Nations’ food agency if it could show how the money would solve world hunger.
(AP, 11/1/21)
2021 Nov 2, The United Nations mission in Central African Republic accused the country's presidential guard of opening fire on unarmed Egyptian peacekeepers and wounding 10 of them, but the government said the accusation was inaccurate. In an attempt to leave the area a bus transporting the Egyptian unit struck and killed a woman.
(Reuters, 11/2/21)
2021 Nov 3, The United Nations children's agency said it was planning to set up a system to directly fund Afghan teachers, after the international community placed a freeze on funding to the Taliban-led administration.
(AP, 11/3/21)
2021 Nov 4, The UN food agency said world food prices rose for a third straight month in October to reach a fresh 10-year peak, led again by increases in cereals and vegetable oils.
(Reuters, 11/4/21)
2021 Nov 5, The UN's theme today in Glasgow was youth involvement, with leaders talking about how important young people are in the battle to keep the world from getting too hot and wild from extreme weather. Mostly young activists carried banners with slogans such as “I have to clear up my mess, why don’t you clear up yours?" and “Stop climate crimes".
(Reuters, 11/5/21)
2021 Nov 5, The United Nations' top human rights official condemned actions by military leaders following a coup in Sudan and said that excessive use of force by security forces had left at least 13 people dead and more than 300 injured.
(Reuters, 11/5/21)
2021 Nov 8, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths urged Myanmar’s military leaders to provide unimpeded access to the more than 3 million people in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance since government forces seized power on Feb. 1.
(AP, 11/8/21)
2021 Nov 9, A UN spokesperson said at least 16 United Nations staff and dependents have been detained in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, amid reports of widespread arrests of ethnic Tigrayans.
(Reuters, 11/9/21)
2021 Nov 10, The United Nations said it has paid nearly $8 million in salaries to some 23,500 health workers across Afghanistan over the past month, bypassing the Taliban-run health ministry in a test case to inject much needed liquidity into a dire Afghan economy.
(Reuters, 11/10/21)
2021 Nov 10, The United Nations Security Council issued a press statement expressing “deep concern" about ongoing violence in Myanmar, whose military-installed government is using force against opponents.
(AP, 11/11/21)
2021 Nov 10, The UN Security Council slapped sanctions on three Houthi rebels linked to cross-border attacks from Yemen into Saudi Arabia and to fighting in the government’s last stronghold in the country’s north.
(AP, 11/11/21)
2021 Nov 11, The UN refugee agency said that the number of people around the world forced to abandon their homes likely increased to more than 84 million in the first half of this year, an increase fueled in particular by conflicts in Africa.
(AP, 11/11/21)
2021 Nov 12, The UN Security Council extended the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic at a meeting that saw Russia and the West clash over Russia’s military presence in the conflict-wracked nation.
(AP, 11/12/21)
2021 Nov 15, The United Nations announced it will provide $40 million in emergency funding for conflict-wracked northern Ethiopia and drought-affected southern areas, and welcomed the release of 34 truck drivers waiting to deliver aid to war-torn Tigray.
(AP, 11/15/21)
2021 Nov 17, The UN's nuclear watchdog IAEA reported that Iran has again boosted its stock of highly enriched uranium.
(AP, 11/17/21)
2021 Nov 19, World Toilet Day. The UN started World Toilet Day in 2012, and this year's campaign is designed to raise awareness of the 3.6 billion people — roughly half of the world's population — living without access to safe sanitary systems.
(Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn., 11/19/21)
2021 Nov 19, The UN said Somalia's "rapidly worsening" drought has left more than two million people facing severe food and water shortages.
(AP, 11/19/21)
2021 Nov 22, The United Nations pushed for urgent action to prop up Afghanistan's banks, warning that a spike in people unable to repay loans, lower deposits and a cash liquidity crunch could cause the financial system to collapse within months.
(Reuters, 11/22/21)
2021 Nov 23, It was reported that whistleblower Emma Reilly, who warned her bosses at the UN Human Rights office that China was getting information on dissidents coming to speak at the world body, has been fired. Reilly was dismissed within 24 hours of her giving an interview to the leading French newspaper Le Monde. It washer case that alerted many to the growing influence of China within the UN system.
(Fox News, 11/23/21)
2021 Nov 23, The World Health Organization and the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool said the Spanish National Research Council had signed a licensing agreement for its COVID-19 antibody test. It is the first time any manufacturer has allowed its coronavirus test to be included in a technology pool set up by WHO.
(AP, 11/23/21)
2021 Nov 24, The UN said a convoy of about 40 trucks carrying relief supplies, including food, had left for Tigray from neighboring Afar. The UN estimates 100 trucks should be entering Tigray each day to meet humanitarian needs.
(Reuters, 11/25/21)
2021 Nov 26, The United Nations' committee against enforced disappearances expressed concern that the Mexican government has not adopted its recommendations aimed at preventing disappearances in the Latin American country.
(Reuters, 11/26/21)
2021 Dec 1, The UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said Iran has started the process of enriching uranium to 20% purity with advanced centrifuges at its Fordow facility buried inside a mountain.
(Reuters, 12/1/21)
2021 Dec 1, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said UN flights between Tigray’s capital Mekelle and Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa had also restarted. 157 trucks with food and humanitarian aid arrived in Tigray’s capital for the first time in more than six weeks and another aid convoy was moving.
(AP, 12/1/21)
2021 Dec 3, The United Nations Development Program said it aims to almost triple its plastic waste management to 100 cities in India by 2024. India generates about 3.4 million tons of plastic waste annually.
(Reuters, 12/3/21)
2021 Dec 3, A UN expert said contemporary forms of slavery exist in Sri Lanka, with vulnerable groups such as children, women, ethnic minorities and older people particularly affected.
(AP, 12/3/21)
2021 Dec 3, The UN Security Council voted unanimously o allow international naval forces to continue using all necessary means to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia — but only for the next three months because the Somali government says there has been no piracy incident for over four years and it’s time to end the operation.
(AP, 12/3/21)
2021 Dec 8, In central Mali an explosion killed seven United Nations peacekeepers and seriously wounded three others.
(Reuters, 12/9/21)
2021 Dec 13, It was reported that Burundi’s government has signaled that it won’t allow a recently appointed UN special rapporteur on human rights into the East African nation.
(AP, 12/13/21)
2021 Dec 14, The UN said more than 100 former Afghan national security forces and others have been killed since the Taliban takeover in August, most at the hands of the hardline Islamist group which is recruiting boy soldiers and quashing women's rights. The WFP said almost all Afghans do not have enough to eat.
(Reuters, 12/14/21)
2021 Dec 14, The UN weather agency said it has certified a 38-degree Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) reading in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk on June 20, 2020, as the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic.
(AP, 12/14/21)
2021 Dec 15, Iran and a UN watchdog said they have reached agreement on replacing cameras at a nuclear complex, as Western powers warn time is running out to revive a deal on Tehran's atomic program.
(AFP, 12/15/21)
2021 Dec 15, The UN migration agency said it has launched a coronavirus vaccination campaign for stranded migrants in war-torn Yemen.
(AP, 12/15/21)
2021 Dec 15, Ghulam Isaczai, the former Afghan government’s ambassador to the United Nations, resigned after the country’s current Taliban rulers sought to replace him with their own envoy. Taliban leaders have been trying to put their own representative, Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, in their country’s seat at the UN.
(AP, 12/17/21)
2021 Dec 16, The United Nations cultural agency placed a traditional Haitian soup, widely seen as a symbol of the nation's independence, on its prized intangible cultural heritage list.
(AP, 12/16/21)
2021 Dec 19, United Nations human rights envoy Tom Andrews warned that a decision by Bangladesh to close schools for Rohingya refugees risks leaving a generation of children "practically uneducated".
(AP, 12/19/21)
2021 Dec 21, The United Nations Human Rights Office said that it had received 13 allegations of rape and gang rape by security forces during protests in Sudan on Dec. 19. Opposition medics reported a second person killed.
(Reuters, 12/21/21)
2021 Dec 21, The UN Human Rights office urged Belarus and Poland to "ensure that refugees' and migrants' human rights are at the center of their actions". Refugees were being back and forth across their border and left with little if any food, clean water or shelter.
(Reuters, 12/21/21)
2021 Dec 22, The United States formally exempted US and UN officials doing official business with the Taliban from US sanctions, clearing the way for proposed UN payments next year of some $6 million to the Islamists for security.
(Reuters, 12/22/21)
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UN_A thru 2015
UN_B 2016 - Present
2016 Jan 9, UN officials said at least 10 people have died and over 1,000 fallen sick with cholera in an outbreak among Somali refugees in the world's largest refugee camp in Kenya.
(AFP, 1/9/16)
2016 Jan 15, The UN said it has documented cases of Burundi's security forces gang-raping women during searches of opposition supporters' houses and heard witness testimony of mass graves.
(Reuters, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 15, The UN children's fund UNICEF confirmed cases of severe malnutrition among children in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, where local relief workers reported 32 deaths of starvation in the past month.
(Reuters, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 18, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon signed a letter informing the General Assembly that 15 countries including oil producer Venezuela are in arrears in paying their annual contribution to the UN regular budget, which means they can't vote in the 193-member world body unless there are exceptional circumstances.
(AP, 1/22/16)
2016 Jan 19, The UN said the number of civilians killed in violence in Iraq over the past two years is "staggering", with at least 18,802 people killed and another 36,245 injured. The figures count only documented casualties from January 1, 2014, through October 31, 2015, and the actual numbers were likely far higher.
(AFP, 1/19/16)
2016 Jan 19, The UN said an estimated 3,500 people, mainly women and children, are being held as slaves in Iraq by Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 1/19/16)
2016 Jan 20, The UN World Food Program said that some 2.5 million people in the Central African Republic face hunger. The number has doubled in just one year.
(AP, 1/20/16)
2016 Jan 21, A UN report said South Sudanese government troops held women as sex slaves while attacking scores of civilians just outside UN bases in Unity state.
(SFC, 1/22/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 23, In Ethiopia UN Security Council ambassadors and African Union leaders met for crisis talks on Burundi, after the government refused a proposed AU force to stem violence in the troubled country.
(AFP, 1/23/16)
2016 Jan 26, UNICEF said some 250 million children live in countries affected by violent conflicts, and that it needed nearly $3.0 billion this year to help the most vulnerable of them.
(AFP, 1/26/16)
2016 Jan 27, The UN launched an appeal for $393 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan to help millions of vulnerable people this year.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, The UN said some 34,000 people in Sudan's western Darfur region have fled fierce clashes between government forces and rebels around the mountainous Jebel Marra area.
(AFP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 29, The UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura will meet a Syrian government delegation in Geneva to kick off the first peace talks for almost two years and will later meet other participants in the talks, his office said in a statement.
(Reuters, 1/29/16)
2016 Jan 31, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warnedy Ethiopia is struggling from its worst drought for 30 years with some 10.2 million in dire need of life saving aid.
(AFP, 1/31/16)
2016 Jan 31, The UN launched an appeal for $861 million in international humanitarian assistance to help millions of people in Iraq who are suffering from war and displacement.
(AFP, 1/31/16)
2016 Feb 3, A confidential report to the UN Security Council accused Rwanda of recruiting and training Burundian refugees with the goal of ousting Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza.
(Reuters, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 4, A UN envoy halted his attempts to conduct Syrian peace talks after the army, backed by Russian air strikes, advanced against rebel forces north of Aleppo, choking opposition supply lines from Turkey to the city.
(Reuters, 2/4/16)
2016 Feb 4, The UN children's agency released a report saying at least 200 million girls and women in 30 countries are estimated to have undergone female circumcision — half of them in Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia.
(AP, 2/4/16)
2016 Feb 5, A UN panel said it had adopted an opinion "in which it considered that Mr Julian Assange was arbitrarily detained by the governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland." It added: "The working group also considered that the detention should be brought to an end and that Mr Assange should be afforded the right to compensation."
(AFP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 5, A UN report said thirty-four militant groups from around the world had reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State extremist group as of mid-December — and that number will only grow in 2016.
(AP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 8, The UN said at least 40,000 people are being starved to death in South Sudan war zones on the brink of famine.
(AFP, 2/8/16)
2016 Feb 10, The United Nations Development Program said it has raised $60 million for food aid in Zimbabwe and is feeding 1 million people as the country faces its worst drought in a quarter century.
(Reuters, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 12, In northern Mali militants attacked a UN base, killing at least 3 people and injuring 30 others in Kidal.
(AP, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 15, The UN World Food Program (WFP) said as many as 49 million people in southern Africa could be affected by a drought that has been worsened by the most severe and longest El Nino weather pattern in 35 years.
(Reuters, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 16, In Egypt Boutros Boutros-Ghali (93), the first UN chief from the African continent, died in Cairo. He helped negotiate Egypt's landmark peace deal with Israel but then clashed with the United States when he served a single term as UN secretary-general (1992-1996).
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 25, A UN human rights report documented thousands of cases of beheadings, arbitrary detention and torture involving electrocution and beatings with pipes and cables in an increasingly lawless Libya, where impunity has grown since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi nearly five years ago.
(AP, 2/25/16)
2016 Mar 1, North Korea said it will boycott the UN Human Rights Council deploring the "politicization" of the body.
(Reuters, 3/1/16)
2016 Mar 2, The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that dramatically expands existing UN sanctions on North Korea in response to its Jan. 6 nuclear test, a measure largely negotiated by Washington and Beijing.
(Reuters, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 11, The UN said South Sudan has encouraged fighters to rape women in place of wages while children have been burnt alive and called the young nation one of the world's most "horrendous" human rights situations.
(AFP, 3/11/16)
2016 Mar 11, The UN Security Council approved its first-ever resolution tackling the escalating problem of sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers who act as predators when sent to protect vulnerable civilians in some of the world's most volatile areas.
(AP, 3/11/16)
2016 Mar 14, The United Nations human rights investigator for North Korea called for leader Kim Jong Un and senior officials in the country to be prosecuted for committing crimes against humanity.
(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 14, In Switzerland UN mediator Staffan de Mistura opened talks to end a five-year war in Syria. The first of three rounds of talks aimed to agree a "clear roadmap" for Syria fail to make progress.
(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 16, The United Nations' food agency said it needed $220 million in funding to provide assistance to drought-hit Zimbabwe until March 2017.
(Reuters, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 22, This year's United Nations World Water Day focused on water and jobs and designed to highlight how water can create paid and decent work and contribute to a greener economy and sustainable development. Some 650 million people, or one in 10 of the world's population, lacked access to safe water.
(Reuters, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 16, The Moroccan government said it reducing its support for the UN peacekeeping operation in Western Sahara in response to UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s recent comments about the disputed territory.
(SFC, 3/17/16, p.A2)
2016 Mar 18, The UN World Food Program said some Syrians in the besieged areas of Daraya and Deir al-Zor have been reduced to eating grass because food supplies are cut off.
(Reuters, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 22, The UN Security Council agreed to a Chinese request to remove sanctions on four ships the United Nations had blacklisted for ties to Pyongyang's arms trade. The agreement came after China secured assurances the vessels would not use North Korean crews.
(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 24, UN war crimes judges at The Hague threw out one of two charges of genocide against wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. The UN war crimes tribunal handed a genocide conviction and 40-year sentence to Karadzic.
(AFP, 3/24/16)(AFP, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 25, In the Congo DRC UN helicopter gunships attacked Ugandan rebels active in the volatile east, inflicting casualties.
(AFP, 3/25/16)
2016 Mar 31, UN war crimes judges acquitted radical Serb leader Vojislav Seselj (61) on all nine charges of committing atrocities in the 1990s Balkans wars in a surprise verdict swiftly denounced as "shameful" by Croatia.
(AFP, 3/31/16)
2016 Apr 1, The UN peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo said that it has received allegations of sexual abuse against Tanzanian peacekeepers based in Congo's northeast.
(Reuters, 4/2/16)
2016 Apr 22, Leaders from 175 states gathered at the UN on Earth Day to sign the Paris climate deal, a record turn-out that boosted hopes of quick action on combating global warming. The Paris agreement will come into force as soon as 55 countries responsible for 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gases have ratified the accord.
(AFP, 4/22/16)(SFC, 4/23/16, p.A3)
2016 Apr 29, The UN Security Council voted to restore the UN mission in disputed Western Sahara but was divided over the steps demanded from Morocco to bring the peacekeeping force back to full operations.
(AFP, 4/29/16)
2016 May 2, A UN arbitration court ruled that India should release Italian marine Salvatore Girone, who has been detained in Delhi for more than four years, and allow him to return home.
(Reuters, 5/2/16)
2016 May 14, UN experts said Congolese army officers and police reported receiving pistols from a group of 30 North Korean instructors training their presidential guard and special police forces, which would appear to be a violation of UN sanctions banning Pyongyang from exporting weapons or providing military training.
(AP, 5/13/16)
2016 May 20, The United Nations human rights office called on Mexico to properly investigate large-scale extrajudicial killings and bring those responsible to justice, including higher-ranking military officers.
(Reuters, 5/20/16)
2016 May 20, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed former Irish president Mary Robinson and Kenyan diplomat Macharia Kamau as special envoys for El Nino and climate.
(AFP, 5/20/16)
2016 May 22, The UN envoy for Yemen said peace talks in Qatar aimed at ending fighting in the impoverished Arab country are making "incredible progress" and that a halt in fighting is largely holding.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 27, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said around 2.8 million people in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras need food aid after two consecutive years of severe drought decimated crops and exacerbated hunger among the poor due to prolonged dry spells since mid-2014, linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon.
(Reuters, 5/27/16)
2016 May 29, In central Mali at least five UN peacekeepers were killed in an ambush by suspected militants some 50 km out of Mopti.
(AFP, 5/29/16)
2016 Jun 3, The UN accused both the Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian rebels of torturing fighters and their sympathisers captured in the separatist east.
(AFP, 6/3/16)
2016 Jun 4, UN and police officials said criminal gangs are plundering the Earth's natural resources faster than previously thought, with the value of environmental crimes estimated to be as high as $258 billion annually.
(Reuters, 6/4/16)
2016 Jun 8, Eritrea's government rejected accusations of human rights abuses after a UN commission of inquiry said Eritrea's "systematic, widespread" human rights abuses should be referred to the International Criminal Court as crimes against humanity that include enslavement of up to 400,000 people.
(Reuters, 6/8/16)(AP, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 9, A UN panel said Ireland’s abortion ban subjects women to discriminatory, cruel and degrading treatment and should be ended immediately for cases involving fatal fetal abnormalities.
(SFC, 6/10/16, p.A5)
2016 Jun 16, United Nations investigators said the Islamic State is committing genocide against the Yazidis in Syria and Iraq to destroy the religious community of 400,000 people through killings, sexual slavery and other crimes.
(Reuters, 6/16/16)
2016 Jun 20, The UN said the number of refugees and others fleeing their homes worldwide has hit a new record, spiking to 65.3 million people by the end of 2015.
(AP, 6/20/16)
2016 Jun 22, The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Accord panel was awarded Spain's Princess of Asturias award for international cooperation.
(AP, 6/22/16)
2016 Jul 12, The UN launched a global appeal for $952 million to fund Sudan's humanitarian needs, most of it to help people affected by the deadly conflict in Darfur.
(AFP, 7/12/16)
2016 Jul 15, UNESCO put four new sites on its World Heritage List. The new sites, announced in Istanbul, include China's Zuojiang Huashan rock art cultural landscape, Iran's ancient aqueducts known as Qanat, and India's archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara. The World Heritage Committee also selected Micronesia's artificial islets of Nan Madol and simultaneously placed it on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 15, The UN said at least 300 people were killed and 42,000 fled their homes this month during the July 8-11 intense gun battles in Juba, South Sudan. The dead included two Chinese peacekeepers.
(AFP, 7/15/16)(Reuters, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 22, The United Nations refugee agency said more than 26,000 people have fled South Sudan to Uganda this month.
(AP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 22, The UN World Tourism Organization signed an agreement with Turkey to help the country boost its ailing tourism sector, which has suffered due to a string of bombings and a failed coup.
(AFP, 7/22/16)
2016 Jul 29, The UN Security Council agreed to send a contingent of 228 United Nations police to Burundi to control the continuing violence and to protect human rights in the East African nation.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Burundi more than 1,000 people participated in a government-backed demonstration in the capital, Bujumbura, to protest France's proposal passed by UN Security Council to deploy UN police to the country.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Aug 2, UN agencies said tens of thousands of people have fled a fresh outbreak of violence in South Sudan, reporting mass killings, looting and forced recruitment of child soldiers. At least 9 people were reported killed over the weekend in the latest clashes on a road in Central Equatoria state, the region that includes the capital Juba.
(Reuters, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 3, A UN commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria said the Islamic State group is still committing genocide and other crimes against the Yazidi minority in Iraq.
(AP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 4, The UN refugee agency said it has received reports that the Islamic State group may have captured up to 3,000 Iraqis who were fleeing violence and that 12 of them may have been killed.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 5, The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Shiite rebels announced that the coalition has committed eight "unintended bombings" and blamed UN agencies for not coordinating with the coalition, causing civilian casualties.
(AP, 8/5/16)
2016 Aug 9, The United Nations warned that up to two million people in Syria's Aleppo have gone without running water for the past four days.
(AFP, 8/9/16)
2016 Aug 18, The United Nations said for the first time that it was involved in the introduction of cholera to Haiti in October 2010 and needs to do "much more" to end the suffering of those affected, estimated at more than 800,000 people.
(AP, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 25, The UN called for the creation of an independent international body to investigate an array of serious violations in war-torn Yemen.
(AFP, 8/25/16)
2016 Sep 9, The UN said its peacekeeping force in Congo has evacuated some 300 supporters of South Sudan's opposition leader Riek Machar, many of whom were wounded, acutely malnourished or in life-threatening condition.
(AP, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 20, The United Nations suspended all aid shipments into Syria after what it said was a deadly attack on an aid convoy carrying humanitarian supplies.
(Reuters, 9/20/16)
2016 Sep 23, Iraq and the UN signed an agreement aimed at helping the Baghdad government tackle sexual violence in conflict, an issue that made headlines following the capture and rape of Yazidi women by Islamic State extremists in 2014.
(AP, 9/23/16)
2016 Sep 24, Syrian government forces captured a rebel-held area on the edge of Aleppo. A monitoring group said 49 people were killed. The UN said nearly 2 million people in Aleppo are without running water following an escalation in fighting over the past few days.
(AP, 9/24/16)
2016 Sep 29, The United Nations described a desperate situation in Syria's rebel-held eastern Aleppo, warning "hundreds" needed medical evacuation and that there was only enough food aid left for a quarter of the city's population.
(AFP, 9/29/16)
2016 Sep 29, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed a peace treaty with a notorious warlord, pledging to lobby the US and the United Nations to remove him and his party from terrorist blacklists. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar signed the agreement via a video link into Kabul's presidential palace.
(AP, 9/29/16)
2016 Oct 2, India ratified the Paris climate change agreement at the UN in New York.
(SFC, 10/3/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 4, The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned Russia over use of incendiary weapons in air strikes on the Syrian city of Aleppo, where he said attacks on civilian targets may amount to crimes against humanity.
(Reuters, 10/4/16)
2016 Oct 14, Israel suspended cooperation with UNESCO, a day after the UN cultural agency adopted a draft resolution that Israel says denies the deep, historic Jewish connection to holy sites in Jerusalem.
(AP, 10/14/16)
2016 Oct 18, UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, adopted a controversial Arab-sponsored resolution condemning Israel's actions at a flashpoint holy site in east Jerusalem that has sparked fury in the Jewish state.
(AFP, 10/18/16)
2016 Oct 21, The UN said Islamic State militants have taken 550 families from villages around Mosul and are holding them close to Islamic State locations in the city, probably as human shields.
(Reuters, 10/21/16)
2016 Oct 23, The Afghan government and UN released a new joint survey that saw an increase of 10 percent in opium poppy cultivation and 91 percent decrease in eradication across the country.
(AP, 10/23/16)
2016 Oct 28, The UN General Assembly voted Russia off the Human Rights Council.
(SFC, 10/29/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 4, UN experts said the Afghan government and several other countries estimated that there are about 45,000 opposition fighters in Afghanistan and that between 20 percent and 25 percent are foreigners.
(AP, 11/4/16)
2016 Nov 7, UN talks to implement the Paris climate pact opened in Marrakesh. Diplomats from 196 nations met in Morocco to flesh out the planet-saving plan inked in the French capital last December.
(AFP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 9, The first batch of Kenyan troops who had served in a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan arrived home, after Nairobi ordered them to withdraw in response to the sacking of the Kenyan commander of the UNMISS force.
(Reuters, 11/9/16)
2016 Nov 11, The UN said aid workers in a besieged section of Aleppo, Syria, distributed their last food rations today.
(http://tinyurl.com/y6h6y8jc)
2016 Nov 15, The United Nations warned that 75,000 Nigerian children risk dying in "a few months" as hunger grips the country's ravaged northeast in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency.
(AFP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 15, A key UN committee approved a resolution condemning North Korea's "systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights" and encouraging the Security Council to refer the country to the International Criminal Court.
(AP, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 17, The United Nations said its budget to assist people suffering from Zimbabwe's worst drought in a quarter of a century that left millions in need of food aid had fallen short by $140 million.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 18, The UN Security Council extended for one year an international inquiry to determine blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria, paving the way for a showdown between Russia and Western powers over how to punish those responsible.
(Reuters, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 18, UN talks to implement the Paris climate pact ended in Marrakesh. Diplomats from 196 nations had met in Morocco to flesh out the planet-saving plan inked in the French capital last December.
{Morocco, UN, Environment}
(AFP, 11/7/16)(Econ, 11/26/16, p.55)
2016 Nov 30, The UN warned that op to 500,000 civilians in Mosul are facing a "catastrophic" drinking water shortage, as Iraqi forces advanced against the Islamic State group in the city.
(AFP, 11/30/16)
2016 Nov 30, The United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea aimed at cutting the Asian country's annual export revenue by a quarter in response to Pyongyang's fifth and largest nuclear test in September.
(Reuters, 11/30/16)
2016 Dec 1, The UN mission in Iraq said 1,959 Iraqi forces were killed last month and at least 450 others wounded. The UN statement also said at least 926 civilians were killed, bringing to 2,885 the number of Iraqis killed in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict last month.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, Yasmin Sooka, the head of the UN commission of human rights in the South Sudan, said ethnic cleansing is taking place in some areas of South Sudan and the stage is set for a repeat of the Rwandan genocide.
(Reuters, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 1, UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi met in the southern city of Aden to discuss a new bid to end the country's conflict.
(AFP, 12/1/16)
2016 Dec 2, UN investigators said South Sudanese soldiers have brutally raped an elderly woman and a pregnant woman lost her baby after being gang-raped by seven soldiers. Three in five women in UN-administered "protection of civilian" sites around the capital Juba experienced rape or sexual assault, according to a 2016 report by the UN Population Fund.
(Reuters, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 2, The UN said nearly 20,000 children have fled their homes in battered east Aleppo in recent days, warning that time is running out to provide them with the help they desperately need.
(AFP, 12/2/16)
2016 Dec 5, The UN launched a record humanitarian appeal, asking for $22.2 billion in 2017 to help almost 93 million people hit by conflicts and natural disasters.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 7, The UN Committee against Torture called on Sri Lanka to investigate "routine torture" of detainees by security forces and rebuked its government for failing to prosecute war crimes committed during the country's 26-year conflict.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 12, Former Portuguese PM Antonio Guterres was sworn in as the 9th sec. general of the UN.
(SFC, 12/13/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 13, Rheal LeBlanc, head of UN press and external relations, said the appointment of Wonder Woman as an honorary ambassador for the Empowerment of Woman and Girls would end this week, a move that come less than two months after a splashy ceremony at the UN.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 13, The UN said Syrian pro-government forces executed 82 civilians in Aleppo including women and children as the crucial battle for the city neared its end.
(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 14, The UN said that Islamic State extremists have destroyed the ancient site of Nimrud in Iraq almost beyond recognition.
(SFC, 12/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 14, A team of UN investigators said South Sudan is "on the brink of an all-out ethnic civil war which could destabilize the entire region".
(AP, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 16, The UN said it is getting daily reports of rapes and killings of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar and independent monitors are being barred from investigating.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 19, The UN Security Council approved the deployment of UN monitors to Aleppo as the evacuation of fighters and civilians from the last remaining opposition stronghold in the northern city resumed after days of delays.
(AP, 12/19/16)
2016 Dec 19, The UN established the Int'l. Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) to investigate crimes in Syria since 2011, following a resolution presented by Liechtenstein.
(Econ., 1/2/21, p.46)
2016 Dec 20, The UN human rights chief asked Philippine authorities to investigate President Rodrigo Duterte for murder after he claimed to have killed people in the past and also to examine the "appalling epidemic of extra-judicial killings" committed during his anti-drug crackdown.
(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 22, The UN Security Council postponed a vote on a draft resolution demanding that Israel halt its settlement activities in the Palestinian territories and east Jerusalem. Egypt requested the delay to allow time for consultations on the measure.
(AFP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 23, The UN Security Council passed a landmark resolution condemning Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank after the United States refrained from using its veto. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the US, France, Russia, Britain or China to be adopted. New Zealand, along with Senegal, Venezuela and Malaysia, co-sponsored the UN Security Council resolution.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)(AFP, 12/24/16)(AP, 6/13/17)
2016 Dec 23, The United Nations Security Council failed to adopt a US-drafted resolution to impose an arms embargo and further sanctions on South Sudan despite warnings by UN officials of a possible genocide in the world's newest state.
(Reuters, 12/23/16)
2016 The UN paid at least $18 million this year to companies with close ties to Syria’s Pres. Bashar Assad.
(SFC, 8/2/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 11, Aid agencies said dozens of migrants are at risk of freezing to death in Europe after heavy snowfall and bitterly cold temperatures hit Greece and the Balkans. The UN Missing Migrants Project has recorded 11 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean since the start of the year.
(AP, 1/11/17)
2017 Jan 16, The UN humanitarian aid official in Yemen said that the civilian death toll in the nearly two-year conflict has reached 10,000, with 40,000 others wounded.
(AP, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 16, Lawyers at a UN court urged Turkey to release Judge Aydin Sedaf Akay, who is being held in connection with July's coup attempt, saying his detention was delaying a Rwandan politician's conviction for genocide.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 17, The UN said Somalia risks slipping back into famine, as worsening drought has left millions without food, water or healthcare in a country crippled by decades of war.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)
2017 Jan 18, Senegal presented a draft resolution to the UN Security Council seeking support for ECOWAS efforts to press Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh to step down. At least 26,000 people have fled Gambia into Senegal fearing President Yahya Jammeh's decision to stay in power.
(AFP, 1/18/17)(AP, 1/18/17)
2017 Jan 20, UN human rights envoy Yanghee Lee ended a 12-day visit to Myanmar with a bleak evaluation of the government's ability to deal with the problems facing the country's ethnic minorities. She said the situation there was deteriorating.
(AP, 1/20/17)
2017 Jan 26, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to keep the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus for another six months and urged Greek and Turkish Cypriots "to grasp the current opportunity" to reunite the divided Mediterranean island.
(AP, 1/26/17)
2017 Jan 28, UN sanctions monitors reported to the world body's Security Council that the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition has carried out attacks in Yemen that "may amount to war crimes".
(Reuters, 1/29/17)
2017 Jan 31, The UN children's agency (UNICEF) launched an appeal for $3.3 billion to help 48 million children caught up in crises worldwide amid fears of a funding cut from top donor the United States.
(AFP, 1/31/17)
2017 Jan 31, An armed group attacked a UN technical team working along the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, killing five people and wounding several near the Cameroonian border town of Kontcha.
(Reuters, 2/1/17)
2017 Feb 2, The United Nations' highest court ruled that it has the authority to adjudicate in a maritime boundary dispute between Kenya and Somalia over stretches of the Indian Ocean potentially rich in oil and gas.
(Reuters, 2/2/17)
2017 Feb 3, The UN human rights office said Myanmar's security forces have committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that probably amounts to crimes against humanity and possibly "ethnic cleansing".
(Reuters, 2/3/17)
2017 Feb 3, The United Nations removed the name of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan warlord, from its Islamic State group and al-Qaida sanctions list.
(AP, 2/4/17)
2017 Feb 8, Senior UN officials said more than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims may have been killed in a Myanmar army crackdown, suggesting the death toll has been a far greater than previously reported.
(Reuters, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 8, The UN appealed for $2.1 billion to provide desperately needed aid to millions of people in war-ravaged Yemen this year, warning the country could soon face famine.
(AFP, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 10, The United Nations received a notice from Gambia reversing its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.
(AP, 2/14/17)
2017 Feb 15, The UN children's agency launched a $110 million appeal to help two million acutely malnourished children across Sudan, including hundreds of thousands living in conflict areas.
(AFP, 2/15/17)
2017 Feb 16, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Zimbabwe is likely to be the country hardest hit by an outbreak of armyworms that is destroying crops and threatening food security in southern Africa.
(Reuters, 2/16/17)
2017 Feb 17, The UN World Meteorological Organization said the extent of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic last month was the lowest on record for January, while concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit a January record.
(Reuters, 2/17/17)
2017 Feb 21, UNICEF said nearly 1.4 million children are at "imminent risk" of death in famines in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
(Reuters, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 23, UN aid agencies and donor countries gathered in Oslo for a two-day meeting to raise emergency aid for millions of people threatened by famine in the Lake Chad region, which comprises northeast Nigeria, northern Cameroon, western Chad and southeast Niger.
(AFP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 23, Syrian peace talks under the auspices of the United Nations resumed in Geneva, 10 months after falling apart over escalating bloodshed in the war-torn country. The UN's Syria envoy met rival negotiators, but even getting them into the same room appeared uncertain as hopes remained slim for a breakthrough.
(AP, 2/23/17)(AFP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 24, In Norway fourteen donor countries, with the US conspicuously absent, pledged $672 million in emergency aid for people threatened by famine after eight years of Boko Haram violence in the Lake Chad region, but the sum is just a fraction of what the UN says is needed.
(AFP, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb 26, Syrian activists called for the Assad government to engage in serious talks on political transition and for the United Nations to strengthen the fragile ceasefire as violence engulfed parts of the country.
(Reuters, 2/26/17)
2017 Feb 27, The United Nations refugee agency said more than 31,000 South Sudanese refugees - mostly women and children - have crossed the border into Sudan this year, fleeing famine and conflict.
(Reuters, 2/27/17)
2017 Feb 27, The UN World Health Organization (WHO) issued a list of the top dozen bacteria most dangerous to humans, warning that doctors are fast running out of treatment options. They included Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.
(AP, 2/27/17)(Econ, 3/4/17, p.65)
2017 Feb 28, The UN said nearly 1,500 children have been recruited by Yemen's warring parties, mostly the Shiite Huthi rebels, since March 2015.
(AFP, 2/28/17)
2017 Feb 28, China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have imposed new sanctions on Syria for using chemical weapons against its own citizens.
(SFC, 3/1/17, p.A3)
2017 Mar 1, The UN's World Meteorological Organization published the highest temperatures on record in three Antarctic zones, setting a benchmark for studying how climate change is affecting this crucial region.
(AFP, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 1, A UN official said fighting around Yemen's port of Mokha has forced some 45,000 people from their homes, with many facing continued uncertainty and the threat of further displacement.
(AP, 3/1/17)
2017 Mar 3, The UN said Sri Lankan security and police forces are reportedly still committing rape and torture, and the country must investigate and prosecute those involved as well as those implicated in past wartime atrocities.
(Reuters, 3/3/17)
2017 Mar 4, The United Nations announced aid worth $5 million (4.7 million euros) to help people affected by the humanitarian crisis in the violence-wracked Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 3/4/17)
2017 Mar 4, The annual report by a UN panel of experts on North Korea said North Korean weapons barred by UN sanctions have ended up in the hands of UN peacekeepers in Africa.
(AP, 3/4/17)
2017 Mar 5, The UN said tens of thousands of civilians have fled offensives against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, where the jihadists are battling to keep what remains of their territory.
(AFP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 7, UN Sec.-Gen. Antonio Guterres urged int’l. support to alleviate Somalia’s worsening hunger crisis.
(SFC, 3/8/17, p.A4)
2017 Mar 7, The United Nations said South Africa's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court has been revoked, stalling what would have been the first-ever departure from the tribunal that pursues the world's worst atrocities.
(AP, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 7, A new United Nations report described South Sudan as teetering on the edge of genocide and experiencing ethnic cleansing, a stark portrayal of a nation whose crises now include famine.
(AP, 3/7/17)
2017 Mar 8, The UN nuclear agency's 35-nation Board of Governors backed the agency's chief, Yukiya Amano (69), for a third term as director general after he ran unopposed on a platform of continuity in dealing with issues like Iran's nuclear program.
(Reuters, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 8, The UN warned that fighting in Colombia in recent weeks has displaced some 913 families in areas formerly dominated by leftist rebels in four provinces along the Pacific Ocean.
(SFC, 3/9/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 8, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the top UN rights official, said three mass graves have been discovered in central Democratic Republic of Congo, where hundreds have been killed since July in clashes between security forces and a local militia.
(Reuters, 3/8/17)
2017 Mar 10, The UN warned that the world is facing its worst humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II, with more than 20 million people facing starvation and famine in four countries (northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen).
(AFP, 3/11/17)
2017 Mar 10, The UN accused Turkish security forces of committing serious abuses during operations against Kurdish militants in the southeast after a ceasefire collapsed in July 2015.
(AFP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 12, In eastern CongoDRC UN officials Michael Sharp of the United States and Zaida Catalan, a dual national of Chile and Sweden, disappeared along with four Congolese citizens while traveling in the Kasai region. On March 27 the bodies of Sharp, Catalan and a Congolese were found in the region. They had been investigating an armed conflict in the region between government forces and the Kamuina Nsapu militia. Jose Tshibuabua (1964-2019) was charged with murder after Reuters and Radio France Internationale (RFI) revealed in December 2017 that he had been working as an intelligence service informant at the same time he and several family with ties to the militia met the investigators to help them plan their fatal trip.
(SFC, 3/16/17, p.A4)(AP, 3/28/17)(AFP, 3/29/17)(Reuters, 10/22/19)
2017 Mar 14, The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria said Syria's air force deliberately bombed water sources in December, a war crime that cut off water for 5.5 million people in and around the capital Damascus. The UN investigative commission also said it believes government forces deliberately bombed a school complex in the country's northern countryside in October, killing 21 children.
(Reuters, 3/14/17)(AP, 3/14/17)
2017 Mar 18, Rima Khalaf, a UN undersecretary-general, resigned after refusing to withdraw her report for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. She had authored a recent report that accused Israel of establishing an "apartheid regime." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas soon informed Rima Khalaf by phone that she would receive the Palestine Medal of the Highest Honor in recognition of her "courage and support" for the Palestinian people.
(AP, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 18, CongoDRC’s UN mission said government forces have targeted civilians, including women and children, resulting in numerous deaths in central Congo this week and are restricting United Nations peacekeepers' access to the area.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 18, Meeting in Cairo representatives of the United Nations, European Union, Arab League and African Union supported efforts by Libya's unity government to assert control over Tripoli after days of fighting with rival militias.
(AFP, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 20, French Pres. Francois Hollande said world donors pledged more than $75 million to an historic UNESCO-backed alliance to protect cultural heritage sites threatened by war and the wave of ideological-driven destruction carried out by Islamic State group militants.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, The United States criticized the UN Human Rights Council, saying addressing the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories as part of its agenda exhibited the group's "long-standing bias against Israel."
(Reuters, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 21, The UN said more than 2,600 Nigerians who fled into northern Cameroon to escape Boko Haram jihadists have been forced to go home since the start of the year.
(AFP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 24, The UN-backed Human Rights Council approved a resolution to dispatch an int’l. fact-finding mission to Myanmar to probe reported abuses by military and security forces, particularly against the minority Rohingya Muslim community.
(SFC, 3/25/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 24, The United Nations human rights office said an average of 100 civilians a month are dying in Yemen's war which enters its third year this weekend, most killed by the Saudi-led coalition's air strikes and shelling.
(Reuters, 3/24/17)
2017 Mar 27, The United States, Britain and France were among almost 40 countries that did not join talks on a nuclear weapons ban treaty starting at the UN.
(Reuters, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 30, The UN refugee agency said the number of Syrians who have fled their country after six years of civil war has surpassed the 5-million mark.
(AP, 3/30/17)
2017 Mar, United Nations satellite images showed at least 18,000 structures have been destroyed in the Yei area of South Sudan, one of the most significant caches of evidence of widespread destruction in the country's civil war.
(AP, 4/7/17)
2017 Apr 4, The US State Department said the UN Population Fund will lose $32.5 million in funding from the 2017 budget, with funds shifted to similar programs at the US Agency for International Development. The Trump administration accused the agency, through its work with China's government, of supporting population control programs in China that include coercive abortion.
(AP, 4/4/17)
2017 Apr 4, Iraqi air strikes resumed on Islamic State positions Mosul. The United Nations said it was expanding camps for people fleeing the city.
(Reuters, 4/4/17)
2016 Apr 10, The UN said European countries must stop returning asylum seekers to Hungary due to deteriorating conditions there for new arrivals including children, and allegations of abuse.
(AFP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 12, UNICEF said thousands of children in Peru are at risk of severe malnutrition as a result of recent floods and mudslides that have killed 106 people and left many homeless.
(SFC, 4/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 13, The Security Council voted unanimously to end the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti in mid-October after more than 20 years. The resolution also creates a follow-on peacekeeping mission for an initial period of six months comprising 1,275 police who will continue training the national police force.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 13, The UN demanded that Chechnya halt the abduction, detention and killing of gay and bisexual men. Russia’s Novaya Gazeta had recently published a series of reports saying recent waves of crackdowns in Chechnya have seen more than 100 men arrested and at least three killed.
(SFC, 4/14/17, p.A2)(Econ, 4/8/17, p.44)
2017 Apr 13, A panel of United Nations human rights experts condemned Turkey for violating the right to work and education through blanket dismissals of civil servants and school teachers under a state of emergency.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 13, The UN said cholera and acute diarrhea have killed more than 500 people and left tens of thousands of others sick in drought-hit parts of Somalia since January.
(AFP, 4/13/17)
2017 Apr 17, The UN said the six-month-old operation to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State group has forced around half a million people to flee their homes.
(AFP, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 18, The UN rights chief condemned the feared youth wing of Burundi's ruling party for repeatedly calling for the rape and murder of opposition supporters. Human Rights Watch has accused the Imbonerakure of being involved in assaults on opposition members, gang-rapes of women and torture. The UN regularly refers to them as a militia.
(AFP, 4/18/17)
2017 Apr 19, The UN human rights office said that investigators have confirmed another 17 mass graves in central Congo, bringing the number to 40 discovered since clashes between soldiers and a local militia intensified in August. Congolese soldiers reportedly dug the 17 newly discovered mass graves after fighting with suspected militia members in late March and killing at least 74 people, including 30 children.
(AP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 19, Judges at the UN's highest court rejected a Ukrainian interim request to order Russia to stop supporting troops in the east of the country, saying its request did not meet legal requirements under an international terrorism treaty. The court ordered Russia to halt discrimination of ethnic Crimean Tartars.
(Reuters, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 19, UNESCO awarded its prestigious Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize to migrant rescue association SOS Mediterranee and Lampedusa Mayor Giuseppina Nicolini, whose tiny Italian island is on the frontline of the refugee crisis.
(AFP, 4/19/17)
2017 Apr 25, The UN said int’l. donors have pledged $1.1 billion to avert famine in Yemen and appealed to the fighting sides to allow humanitarian access.
(SFC, 4/26/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 27, The UN refugee agency chose Yusra Mardini as a goodwill ambassador. The Syrian teenage girl helped save a boat carrying fellow refugees and swam on the first Refugee Olympic team in Rio last year.
(AP, 4/27/17)
2017 Apr 28, United Nations officials said at least 11 people have died from a mysterious illness in Liberia, and tests have been negative for the Ebola virus. Those who fell sick this week all had attended a relative's funeral.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 Apr 28, The United Nations Security Council unanimously backed attempts to restart talks between Morocco and the Polisario independence movement over the Western Sahara conflict and extended its peacekeeping mission for another year.
(Reuters, 4/29/17)
2017 Apr 28, The US urged the UN Security Council to increase economic pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program and to lean on China to turn the screws on its wayward ally.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 May 1, The UN said an advance party of peacekeepers with a bolstered mandate to use force have arrived in South Sudan, the first blue helmets with a greater authority to protect civilians in the troubled East African nation.
(AP, 5/1/17)
2017 May 2, UNICEF said about 1.4 million children in drought-hit Somalia are projected to suffer acute malnutrition this year, 50 percent more than estimated in January.
(Reuters, 5/2/17)
2017 May 3, In Colombia UN official Arley Lopez, a member of a team working on a project to substitute illegal crops with legal ones, was kidnapped by dissident former FARC rebels who have rejected the peace process. On July 5 the government announced that Lopez has been released.
(Reuters, 5/4/17)(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 May 3, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he will withhold $1 million in payments to the United Nations following a resolution adopted by its cultural agency that he says diminishes Jewish ties to Jerusalem.
(AP, 5/3/17)
2017 May 5, The UN’s human rights office denounced China's "ongoing crackdown" and detention of lawyers and activists and called on authorities to release all those being held for exercising what it called fundamental freedoms.
(Reuters, 5/5/17)
2017 May 5, The executive board of the UN's cultural agency ratified a resolution that identifies Israel as "the occupying power" in Jerusalem and calls on it to rescind any move changing the city's "character and status."
(AFP, 5/5/17)
2017 May 8, Attackers in Central African Republic ambushed a convoy of UN peacekeepers from Cambodia and Morocco, killing one Cambodian soldier and wounding 8 others. Eight fighters from the anti-Balaka rebel group were also killed in the battle. Three Cambodian soldiers and a Moroccan peacekeeper were reported missing and possibly kidnapped. The three Cambodian soldiers were found dead the next day.
(AP, 5/9/17)(AP, 5/21/17)
2017 May 11, The United Nations confirmed 58 cases of cholera and 47 cholera-associated deaths across war-torn Yemen in the past two weeks, the second such outbreak in a year.
(AFP, 5/11/17)
2017 May 12, The UN called for an investigation into crimes against sexual minorities following an uptick in deadly violence against transgender women in El Salvador.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 17, UNICEF said more than 300,000 children migrated alone worldwide from 2015 through 2016.
(SFC, 5/18/17, p.A2)
2017 May 18, The UN International Court of Justice ordered Pakistan not to execute Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, convicted of espionage and terrorism, in a case that has further strained relations between the Asian neighbors.
(AP, 5/18/17)
2017 May 24, Angry UN staff in Geneva protested against a proposed 7.5 percent cut to their salaries, the equivalent of almost a month's pay, and called for strike action if it is implemented.
(Reuters, 5/24/17)
2017 Jun 1, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) found "part of a tunnel in Gaza that passed under two adjacent agency schools in the Maghazi camp" during construction work while the schools were empty during the summer holiday.
(AFP, 6/10/17)
2017 Jun 3, UNICEF said Yemen was getting an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 new cholera cases every day and that many patients can’t afford to travel to free clinics.
(SSFC, 6/4/17, p.A3)
2017 Jun 8, The UN rights office said it has credible reports that the Islamic State group has killed more than 230 civilians trying to flee western Mosul since May 26.
(AFP, 6/8/17)
2017 Jun 9, The UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, said its Kidal camp "had come under heavy rocket/mortar fire" and "a little later a position nearby was attacked" outside their base, killing three peacekeepers and wounding eight more.
(AFP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 9, The UN children's agency warned that the fight for the Islamic State group's stronghold of Raqqa threatens more than 40,000 children, while overnight airstrikes on the city in northern Syria killed more than a dozen people.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 12, UN agencies said at least 279 people have died and thousands sickened in Sudan from suspected acute diarrhea since August, raising health concerns in the country ahead of the rainy season.
(AFP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 14, A Turkish court in Ankara sentenced Aydin Sefa Akay, a Turkish national and UN judge, to seven and a half years in prison for "membership in an armed terror group." The conviction drew a rebuke the next day from the UN court he works for.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 21, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that paves the way for the deployment of a five-nation African military force to fight jihadists in the Sahel region. Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger had agreed in March to set up the special joint counterterrorism operation.
(AFP, 6/21/17)
2017 Jun 24, A new UN report said Angola has expelled more than 8,000 Congolese who entered the southern African country while fleeing deadly violence at home.
(AP, 6/24/17)
2017 Jun 26, The UN certified that all FARC individual firearms and weapons, except for a small number needed to safeguard the soon-to-disband camps, have been collected.
(AP, 6/27/17)
2017 Jun 28, A UN Security Council diplomat said a tentative deal on nearly $600 million in cuts to the UN peacekeeping budget has been reached following weeks of tough negotiations over US demands for a sharp cost reduction.
(AFP, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 29, The UN Security Council extended sanctions on illegal oil exports from Libya to cover refined petroleum products as well, in a bid to stem rampant smuggling of subsidized fuel by sea.
(Reuters, 6/30/17)
2017 Jun 30, The United Nations closed its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast after 13 years during which it ushered the West African nation through a political crisis to elections and played a decisive role in the 2011 civil war.
(Reuters, 6/30/17)
2017 Jul 7, At the UN 122 nations approved a treaty to outlaw nuclear weapons. The meeting was boycotted by all NATO members, except the Netherlands and all nine nuclear-armed nations. The Netherlands was opposed and Singapore abstained.
(SFC, 7/8/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 7, A week of UN-mediated talks in the Swiss Alps to end the partition of Cyprus collapsed in acrimony, throwing the prospect of any reunification between Greek and Turkish Cypriots into disarray.
(Reuters, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 7, UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, described Hebron's Old City as a Palestinian world heritage site in danger, prompting a walkout by Israel's ambassador to the organization.
(AP, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 8, Eritrean officials claimed "victory" after the UN cultural agency unanimously decided to put the African nation's capital city of Asmara on the UNESCO World Heritage list — the result of years of lobbying by one of the world's most reclusive governments.
(AP, 7/8/17)
2017 Jul 9, The United Nations' cultural agency added to its list of World Heritage sites six caves in west Germany with art dating back to the Ice Age and old silver ore mines in southern Poland.
(AP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 9, UNESCO added Mbanza Kongo in northwest Angola as a world heritage site. It was the capital of the Kongo kingdom, a largely independent state between the 14th and 19th centuries.
(AP, 7/10/17)
2017 Jul 10, The UN's envoy for Syria opened a new round of indirect talks in Geneva, the seventh so far, between Syrian government representatives and opposition leaders to try to wind down the battered country's civil war.
(AP, 7/10/17)
2017 Jul 11, The UN said about 80,000 people have fled fighting between the Democratic Republic of Congo army and a new rebel coalition, joining the millions already uprooted in Africa's worst displacement crisis.
(Reuters, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 12, The UN said it has identified an additional 38 probable mass graves in Democratic Republic of Congo's central Kasai region, bringing the total to at least 80 since the outbreak of an insurrection last August.
(Reuters, 7/12/17)
2017 Jul 14, UN officials said more than 52,000 Venezuelans have applied for asylum this year, nearly twice the number in all of 2016. The UN human rights office noted figures from the Venezuelan Attorney General's office indicating 92 people have died in connection with protests since April 1.
(AP, 7/14/17)
2017 Jul 17, A UN report said 1,662 civilians were killed in Afghanistan between January and June of this year. Insurgent attacks killed 1,141 and 434 were killed during military operations against insurgents.
(SFC, 7/18/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 21, The UN reported that North Korea is suffering its worst drought in 16 years.
(SFC, 7/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 26, The UN said Congo DRC military elements were responsible for digging at least 42 mass graves in three Kasai provinces after clashes with alleged militia members in recent months. Experts were appointed to look into the growing crisis.
(SFC, 7/27/17, p.A2)
2017 Aug 5, The UN Security Council unanimously approved the sanctions on North Korea, including banning coal and other exports worth over $1 billion. The US-drafted measure, negotiated with China, aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs.
(AP, 8/6/17)
2017 Aug 5, The United Nations said it was investigating mass graves found in a northern Mali town along with a slew of human rights abuses committed by armed groups vying for control of the area.
(AFP, 8/6/17)
2017 Aug 14, UN food agencies said nearly eight million people face acute hunger in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a result of conflict, especially in the central Kasai region.
(AFP, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 21, A confidential UN report, seen by Reuters today, found North Korea evaded UN sanctions by "deliberately using indirect channels" to export banned commodities and had generated $270 million since February.
(Reuters, 8/21/17)
2017 Aug 24, The United Nations called for a humanitarian pause to allow an estimated 20,000 trapped civilians to escape from the Syrian city of Raqqa, and urged the US-led coalition to rein in air strikes that have caused casualties.
(Reuters, 8/24/17)
2017 Aug 25, The UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said in an annual report that North Korea has increased its efforts to produce parts for a new nuclear reactor it is building while continuing to operate the main existing one that provides fuel for its atom bombs.
(Reuters, 8/25/17)
2017 Aug 27, The UN World Food Program (WFP) says it has reduced food rations for 320,000 refugees living in northwest Tanzania as a result of funding shortfalls.
(AP, 8/27/17)
2017 Aug 27, Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales announced he is expelling the head of a UN anti-corruption commission (CICIG) that is investigating the president's campaign financing. He also announced he was firing Foreign Minister Carlos Raul Morales for failure to carry out the expulsion. The constitutional court soon blocked the expulsion order.
(AP, 8/27/17)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.29)
2017 Aug 28, The UN refugee agency said more than 3,000 Rohingya refugees had arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar in the past three days.
(AFP, 8/28/17)
2017 Aug 30, UN chief Antonio Guterres called for the blockade of Gaza to be lifted as he visited the Palestinian enclave enduring "one of the most dramatic humanitarian crises" he had seen.
(AFP, 8/30/17)
2017 Aug 30, The UN said Venezuela's security forces had committed extensive and apparently deliberate human rights violations in crushing anti-government protests and that democracy was "barely alive".
(Reuters, 8/30/17)
2017 Sep 4, The UN Security Council held its second emergency meeting in a week about North Korea after a powerful nuclear test explosion added another layer of urgency for diplomats wrestling with what to do about the North's persistent weapons programs.
(AP, 9/4/17)
2017 Sep 4, UN investigators accused Burundi's government of crimes against humanity, including executions and torture, and urged the International Criminal Court to open a case "as soon as possible". Burundi formally announced it was withdrawing from the court, with the move set to take effect on October 27.
(AFP, 9/4/17)
2017 Sep 5, The UN Security Council agreed to set up a sanctions regime for Mali to punish those who obstruct a 2015 peace deal as fears grow that the West African country is sliding back into turmoil.
(AFP, 9/5/17)
2017 Sep 6, UN-mandated investigators said that Syrian President Bashar Assad's air force conducted a sarin-gas attack last April 4 that killed at least 83 civilians and sparked a retaliatory US strike. Investigators said government forces have used chemical weapons more than two dozen times during Syria's civil war, including the deadly attack on Khan Sheikhoun.
(AP, 9/6/17)(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 6, UN workers said about 146,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted in Myanmar in late August. This has brought to 233,000 the number of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Bangladesh since October 2016.
(Reuters, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 8, The UN refugee agency said an alarming and unprecedented influx of 270,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh over the past two weeks from violence in Myanmar, a dramatic jump in the total as new pockets of people are found.
(AP, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 8, The UN warned that its staff had witnessed destruction and suffering on "an enormous scale" in the Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile Kasai region.
(AFP, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 8, The UN said it is preparing to deploy up to 250 Nepalese guards to Libya to protect its base in the capital as part of a plan to return its operations to the country.
(Reuters, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 11, The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of people who have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine has reached 313,000.
(AP, 9/11/17)
2017 Sep 11, The UN voted on a new resolution for the toughest sanctions ever on North Korea. UN experts have reported that North Korea illegally exported commodities worth at least $270 million to China and other countries over a six-month period ending in August. The council banned textile exports and capped imports of crude oil.
(SFC, 9/11/17 p.A2)(AP, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 12, North Korea condemned "vicious" new UN sanctions imposed over its sixth and largest nuclear test, warning it would make the US "suffer the greatest pain" it has ever experienced.
(AP, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 14, The UN said the number of Rohingya who have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh to escape ethnic unrest hit 389,000 and warned of a looming "worst case scenario" with all of the Muslim minority group trying to leave. The UN appealed for massive help.
(AFP, 9/14/17)(Reuters, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 14, A North Korean state agency threatened to use nuclear weapons to "sink" Japan and reduce the United States to "ashes and darkness" for supporting a UN Security Council resolution and sanctions over its latest nuclear test.
(Reuters, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 19, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said her government stands ready to accept returnees once procedures are worked out, and to be globally scrutinized by the international community. In Geneva the International Organization for Migration put the total number of Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh at 421,000. UNICEF said more than a quarter of a million of those were children.
(AP, 9/19/17)
2017 Sep 20, At the UN 51 countries lined up to sign a new treaty outlawing nuclear weapons. None of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons -- the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel -- took part in the negotiations. The treaty was adopted by 122 countries at the United Nations in July. The treaty will enter into force when 50 countries have signed and ratified it.
(AFP, 9/20/17)
2017 Sep 21, The UN Security Council unanimously decided to set up an investigation team to collect evidence on the massacres of Iraq's Yazidi minority and other atrocities committed by the Islamic State group in Iraq.
(AFP, 9/21/17)
2017 Sep 22, China’s commerce ministry said it will limit exports of refined petroleum products to North Korea starting October 1, confirming Beijing's participation in new UN sanctions intended to rein in its rogue neighbor.
(AP, 9/23/17)
2017 Sep 24, In northern Mali three UN soldiers from Bangladesh were killed by an explosive device that detonated as they were escorting a convoy.
(Reuters, 9/24/17)
2017 Sep 25, The UN human rights office said in a report that Russia is violating international law in Crimea, including by imposing Russian citizenship on its people and deliberately transferring hundreds of prisoners and detainees to prisons in Russia.
(AP, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 26, The UN drastically increased the estimated number of Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar to 480,000 as Bangladesh eased restrictions on aid groups working in refugee camps and sought $250 million to cope with the crisis.
(AFP, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 26, Human Rights Watch said Myanmar is committing crimes against humanity in its campaign against Muslim insurgents in Rakhine state and called for the UN Security Council to impose sanctions and an arms embargo.
(Reuters, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 29, The UN Human Rights Council voted to extend the mission of an international probe into atrocities in Burundi, overriding strong pushback from the government accused of crimes against humanity.
(AFP, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 29, The UN Children's Fund said Boko Haram's ongoing insurgency in northern Nigeria has forced the closure of more than 57 percent of schools in Borno state, leaving about 3 million children without an education as the school year begins.
(AP, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 29, The UN Human Rights Council deadlocked over whether to send war crimes investigators to Yemen, a move being pushed by some EU states but fiercely resisted by Saudi Arabia.
(AFP, 9/29/17)
2017 Oct 2, A Myanmar minister proposed taking back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh following a military crackdown, as UN representatives were given their first access to Rakhine since the trouble erupted on August 25.
(AFP, 10/2/17)
2017 Oct 3, Iraqi security forces pushed to recapture Hawija. The UN said up to 78,000 people could be trapped in the northern Islamic State-held city.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 4, The UN Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) said that it regrets a decision by Turkish Cypriot authorities to start imposing taxes and fees on humanitarian goods delivered to Greek Cypriots in the breakaway north of the ethnically split island.
(AP, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 5, The UN said Somali refugees are fleeing war, cholera and hunger in Yemen, with 10,000 expected to return home to a country they escaped over conflict and poverty.
(AFP, 10/5/17)
2017 Oct 6, In eastern Congo DRC militia fighters attacked a UN peacekeeping base, triggering clashes that left two of the fighters dead and two peacekeepers slightly wounded. Thirty-four rebels from a Mai-Mai militia have been killed in fighting with Congo's army in the past week.
(Reuters, 10/6/17)
2017 Oct 9, In eastern Congo DRC a UN peacekeeper was killed and 12 others injured after an attack near a UN base in Mamundioma by Ugandan rebels belonging to the group known as ADF. At least 22 people were reported missing.
(AP, 10/9/17)(SFC, 10/10/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 9, The UN atomic agency chief affirmed Iran's commitment to a 2015 nuclear deal, in a statement that came as US President Donald Trump said Tehran was not living up to the "spirit" of the agreement.
(AFP, 10/9/17)
2017 Oct 12, The US State Dept. said the US is pulling out of UNESCO, effective Dec. 31, because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias and a need for "fundamental reform" of the UN cultural agency. The US stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member in 2011. The US now owes about $550 million in back payments. Washington did the same thing in the 1980s because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests. The US rejoined in 2003.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, A group of senior officers from the general staff of the Russian armed forces could not attend the joint briefing with the Chinese military at the UN in NYC because they were not issued US visas.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 12, The United Nations migration agency said West African migrants trying to reach Europe are dying in far greater numbers in the Sahara than in the Mediterranean but efforts to dissuade them may cause new routes to open up.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 13, The UN human rights office said Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia have all unjustly arrested dozens of people during anti-gay crackdowns in recent weeks, subjecting many to mistreatment in custody.
(Reuters, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 19, A Baghdad court issued an arrest warrant for Kosrat Rasul, the vice president of Iraqi Kurdistan, on charges of "provocation" against Iraq's armed forces. The UN expressed concern at reports of forced displacement of civilians, mainly Kurds, and the looting and destruction of their houses and businesses in northern Iraq.
(AFP, 10/19/17)(Reuters, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 20, The UN subcommittee on torture prevention suspended a visit to Rwanda, citing obstructions imposed by the government that compromised its fact-finding mission.
(Reuters, 10/21/17)
2017 Oct 23, A UN committee said it has added 32 items that have both civilian and military use to a list of prohibited goods and technologies banned from sale or transfer to North Korea.
(SFC, 10/24/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 23, UNICEF said more than 1,100 children are suffering from acute malnutrition in the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area outside Damascus.
(AFP, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 23, The UN's humanitarian coordination agency OCHA said more than 11 million Yemeni children need humanitarian aid as a result of a war raging since March 2015.
(AFP, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 24, Russia cast a veto at the UN Security Council preventing the renewal of the mandate to a mission that investigates the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The mission's mandate is due to expire in mid-November.
(Reuters, 10/24/17)
2017 Oct 27, UN human rights investigators, after a first mission to Bangladesh, said Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar have testified that a "consistent, methodical pattern" of killings, torture, rape and arson is taking place.
(Reuters, 10/27/17)
2017 Oct 27, The UN's food assistance agency said Myanmar's government has given the go-ahead for it to resume operations in northern Rakhine state after a two-month hiatus.
(AP, 10/27/17)
2017 Oct 27, The UN condemned the "deliberate starvation of civilians" as a war tactic following the release of "shocking" images showing severely malnourished children in an area near Damascus besieged by Syria's military.
(AFP, 10/27/17)
2017 Oct 28, The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM) newspaper said it had "incorrectly stated that UN-Habitat had agreed with the Union government to provide technical assistance in building housings for displaced people in northern Rakhine." Union officials said that the issue is still under negotiation.
(Reuters, 10/28/17)
2017 Oct 30, The UN weather agency warned that carbon-dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere increased at record-breaking speed last year.
(AP, 10/30/17)
2017 Oct, Paraguay’s education minister banned classes about sexual diversity in schools and even volunteered to help burn all books related to the subject. The ban was implemented after schools began using a UN Children's Fund guidebook for teachers on avoiding discrimination between girls and boys and achieving gender equality.
(AP, 12/14/17)
2017 Nov 2, Russia dismissed a report by a UN-led panel that blamed the Syrian regime for the April 4 sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun as "superficial and unprofessional".
(AFP, 11/2/17)
2017 Nov 3, The UN human rights office called on Australia to restore food, water and health services to about 600 interned refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea, which Canberra cut off three days ago.
(AP, 11/3/17)
2017 Nov 5, In Congo DRC clashes between Congolese troops and supporters of renegade Colonel Abbas Kayonga in the eastern city of Bukavu killed seven people before he surrendered and turned himself in to UN peacekeepers. Kayonga was sacked on Nov. 2 from his post overseeing anti-fraud efforts in local mines.
(Reuters, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 6, The UN said this year will be among the three hottest on record, as almost 200 countries began talks in Germany to bolster a global climate accord that the United States plans to quit.
(Reuters, 11/6/17)
2017 Nov 7, The United States accused Iran of supplying Yemen's Houthi rebels with a missile that was fired into Saudi Arabia in July and called for the UN to hold Tehran accountable for violating two UN Security Council resolutions.
(Reuters, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 7, A company working in Central African Republic on a UN contract said it has fired a driver who took bribes to transport Muslim civilians to safer parts of the country amid rising sectarian violence. Dubai-based ECOLOG International said that it has terminated the employee implicated in the matter.
(AP, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 7, Syria said at UN climate talks in Bonn that it would join the Paris Agreement, leaving the United States as the only nation to say it will remain outside the landmark treaty.
(AFP, 11/7/17)
2017 Nov 8, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow opposed a draft UN resolution to extend the mandate of the investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) into chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
(Reuters, 11/8/17)
2017 Nov 8, A UN report said a militant faction loyal to Islamic State (IS) has increased its following in northern Somalia from a few dozen last year to up to 200 this year.
(Reuters, 11/8/17)
2017 Nov 9, A coalition of US cities, companies and other groups said that many in the United States remained committed to the 2015 Paris climate agreement despite plans by US President Donald Trump to pull out. The coalition opened a 2,500-square meter tent pavilion outside the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn.
(AP, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 9, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said the 400,000 civilians besieged in the Syrian enclave of Eastern Ghouta face "complete catastrophe" because aid deliveries are blocked, and hundreds of people need urgent medical evacuation.
(Reuters, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 9, The United Nations and more than 20 aid groups said that the Saudi-led coalition's tightening of a blockade on war-torn Yemen could bring millions of people closer to "starvation and death".
(AP, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 10, UNESCO member states overwhelmingly approved the nomination of France's former culture minister Audrey Azoulay to head the embattled cultural agency.
(AFP, 11/10/17)
2017 Dec 24, The US Mission to the UN said that the UN's 2018-2019 budget would be slashed by over $285 million. The mission said reductions would also be made to the UN's management and support functions.
(AP, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 28, China blocked a US effort at the United Nations to blacklist six foreign-flagged ships following reports of illicit sales of oil products to North Korea.
(Reuters, 12/31/17)
2017 Dec 28, The UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said Saudi-led airstrikes have killed 109 civilians over the past 10 days.
(AP, 12/28/17)
2017 A UN Security Council resolution demanded that all countries send home all North Korean workers by Dec. 22, 2019, to stop them earning foreign currency for North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
(Reuters, 1/23/20)
2018 Jan 2, UN human rights experts called on Saudi Arabia to end "repression" of rights activists and release dozens detained since September for peacefully exercising their civil and political rights.
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 11, The United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said more than 15,000 Cameroonian refugees have fled to Nigeria amid a crackdown on Anglophone separatists.
(Reuters, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 17, Syria's dominant Kurdish party called on the UN Security Council to act quickly to ensure the safety of Kurdish-controlled territories in the country's north, including an enclave that Turkey has threatened to attack.
(AP, 1/17/18)
2018 Jan 19, The United Nations said about half the 2.6 million people displaced in Iraq after a three-year war with Islamic State militants are children and persisting violence hampers efforts to ease their suffering.
(Reuters, 1/19/18)
2018 Jan 18, The United Nations refugee agency said intensified hostilities in Yemen have forced more than 32,000 people to flee their homes in the past two months. Unidentified gunmen abducted an employee at the UN migration agency in Sanaa.
(AFP, 1/19/18)(AP, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 21, The United Nations made a record appeal for aid to Yemen, calling for $2.96 billion in humanitarian relief for the war-torn country.
(AFP, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, France called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over Syria following a Turkish incursion into northern Syria's Afrin province.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 22, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees launched an "unprecedented" appeal seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in response to funding cuts by the Trump administration.
(AP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 21, Congolese security forces shot dead at least six people and wounded dozens more as they fired tear gas to disperse a protest organized by the Catholic church in Kinshasa against President Joseph Kabila. 68 people were wounded and 121 arrested. The UN later said it had information about "a number of other killings" in protests elsewhere in the country and that UN monitors were among the targets of violence by Congolese security agents.
(Reuters, 1/23/18)(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 23, The UN refugee agency said more than 688,000 people were displaced inside the Central African Republic as of the end of 2017, a 60 percent jump from the year before. The population of CAR is estimated at around 4.6 million.
(AP, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 24, UN sources said that Yemen's Houthi rebels have banned over 35 UN and international agencies and relief groups from working in the territory under their control, allegations denied by a rebel spokesman.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 25, UN-brokered peace talks with the Syrian government and opposition began in Vienna, days before Syria's close ally Russia was due to host separate negotiations to end the war.
(AP, 1/25/18)
2018 Jan 28, The African Union summit opened in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. UN leaders and the African Union urged stronger international cooperation.
(AP, 1/28/18)
2018 Jan 30, The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said an estimated 60,000 children face potential starvation in North Korea, where international sanctions are exacerbating the situation by slowing aid deliveries.
(Reuters, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 30, The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that Russia, Kuwait and nine European countries have agreed to speed up their contributions to help fill a shortfall left by the Trump administration's decision to greatly reduce crucial US funding.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 31, The UN human rights office said that 206 companies — mostly Israeli and American — are facing a review of their business practices involving Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.
(AP, 1/31/18)
2018 Jan 31, The UN refugee agency appealed for $157 million (126 million euros) to help over a quarter of a million people affected by the insurgency led by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Since 2013, the Boko Haram conflict has internally displaced another 2.4 million people in northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
(AFP, 1/31/18)
2018 Feb 2, The UN's top court on sided largely with Costa Rica in a decade-old border dispute, ordering Nicaragua to remove a military camp from disputed territory. The International Court of Justice at The Hague laid down definitive maritime boundaries between Costa Rica and Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and a small land boundary in a remote, disputed wetland.
(Reuters, 2/2/18)(AP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 2, A UN humanitarian report said conflict between Myanmar's army and guerrillas of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Myanmar has escalated since Jan. 19, including in Sumprabum, Waingmaw and Tanai townships.
(Reuters, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 2, UN experts said North Korea is flouting UN sanctions on oil and gas, engaging in prohibited ballistic missile cooperation with Syria and Myanmar, and illegally exporting commodities that brought in nearly $200 million in just nine months last year.
(AP, 2/3/18)
2018 Feb 2, It was reported that Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, daughter of former Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, has stepped down as Uzbekistan's UNESCO representative, becoming the latest official from her father's administration to depart.
(Reuters, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 5, In Nepal a visiting UN rights official said Nepal's restrictions on woman migrating for work are discriminatory and inconsistent with international law. Nepal last year introduced a ban on women working as domestic helpers in the Gulf.
(AFP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 7, The United Nations top human rights official called on the Maldives government to immediately lift the state of emergency imposed two days ago, calling it to "an all-out assault on democracy".
(Reuters, 2/7/18)
2018 Feb 7, The UN said more than 300 child soldiers have been released by armed groups in South Sudan.
(SFC, 2/8/18, p.A2)
2018 Feb 8, The UN said a military offensive launched last month by Congolese troops against Ugandan militants in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is likely to force nearly 370,000 people from their homes.
(Reuters, 2/8/18)
2018 Feb 9, The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said poor rains and crop infestations in southern Africa are threatening deeper hunger across the region, with millions of people, particularly children, at risk.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, The UN said that surging violence across Yemen had pushed some 85,000 people from their homes in the past 10 weeks, with hundreds continuing to flee each day.
(AFP, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 11, The United Nation's children agency said one in four Iraqi children are in poverty and four million are in need of assistance as a result of the country's war with Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 13, The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said over 22,000 people fled Congo to Uganda last week following a surge of ethnic violence in the northeast, raising the total number of arrivals to about 34,000 since the start of the year.
(Reuters, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 18, The UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said violence by criminal gangs battling over drug trafficking areas has displaced more than 800 people in northwestern Colombia.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 19, A top UN food agency official said about 224 million people are under-nourished in Africa as climate change and conflicts heighten food insecurity across the continent.
(AFP, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 21, In western Rwanda anti-riot police surrounded at least 3,000 Congolese refugees who had camped at a UN refugee office overnight to protest reduced food rations at their camp. UNHCR said last month it was cutting rations due to funding shortages.
(Reuters, 2/21/18)
2018 Feb 22, The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said twenty-six refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo have died in a camp in Uganda from acute diarrhea, and hundreds more cases have been registered.
(Reuters, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 22, The UN said journalists and rights activists in South Sudan have been killed or arrested and newspapers closed, often by the government, hampering coverage of one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises.
(Reuters, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 23, A report by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) said the United Kingdom violates women's rights in Northern Ireland by unduly restricting their access to abortion.
(Reuters, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 23, The UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura renewed his urgent call for a ceasefire to stop both the "horrific" bombing of besieged eastern Ghouta and indiscriminate mortar shelling on Damascus.
(Reuters, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 23, South Sudan's government said it was asking the UN commission for the names of accused senior military officials and will investigate. A new UN report told of gang-rapes, castrations, ethnic violence and other abuses. UN investigators said they had identified more than 40 South Sudanese military officers who may be responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
(AP, 2/23/18)(Reuters, 2/24/18)
2018 Feb 24, The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan said it has recalled a Ghanaian police unit working at one of its protection camps while it investigates allegations that some of them were involved in sexual abuse.
(Reuters, 2/24/18)
2018 Feb 24, The UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria "without delay", to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations.
(AFP, 2/25/18)
2018 Feb 26, It was reported that the UN mission in South Sudan has recalled a 46-member peacekeeping unit after some members allegedly paid women living in a protection camp for sex. Ghanaian officers were recalled from Wau to Juba.
(SFC, 2/26/18, p.A2)
2018 Feb 26, A United Nations spokeswoman said military operations have killed at least 30 people, including women and children, in Syria's besieged eastern Ghouta in the last 48 hours, while shelling on Damascus continued from the rebel-held area.
(Reuters, 2/26/18)
2018 Feb 28, UN experts said its investigations into Pyongyang's transfer of prohibited ballistic missile, conventional arms and dual use goods found more than 40 previously unreported shipments to Syria between 2012 and 2017. It said an unnamed UN member state also reported evidence of Myanmar's receipt of a range of conventional weapons from North Korea including multiple rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles in addition to ballistic missile systems.
(AP, 2/28/18)
2018 Mar 1, In northeastern Nigeria three workers for UN agencies were among 11 people killed in an attack by armed Boko Haram militants on a military base near the border with Cameroon. Aid agencies soon pulled out of Rann, leaving tens of thousands uprooted by the fighting living again in parlous conditions with little or no international humanitarian support.
(AP, 3/2/18)(Reuters, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 2, The UN suspended aid work helping tens of thousands of people in northeastern Nigeria after an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants a day earlier in the town of Rann, Borno state. The suspected militants killed at least 11 people, including the three aid workers. Three other aid workers were missing.
(Reuters, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 5, A UN report said Iran has arrested activists and political opponents in a clampdown on freedom of expression as use of torture continues despite promises of reform. The report was compiled by Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer serving as UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, who died suddenly last month.
(Reuters, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 9, The United Nations warned that more than 2 million children in the Democratic Republic of Congo are estimated to be at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition if they do not get the aid they need.
(Reuters, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 9, South Sudan said it is suspending the UN’s Radio Miraya station for allegedly refusing to comply with the country's media laws. The government may not be able to take the station off the air because the transmitter is on the UN base in Juba.
(AP, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 12, A UN investigator said that Myanmar's government appears to be pursuing a policy of starvation in Rakhine state to force out the remaining Muslim Rohingya population.
(Reuters, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 15, The UN human rights office said in a report that Mexican authorities had tortured dozens of people in connection with an investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students, and called for a full inquiry.
(Reuters, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution renewing for a year its peace mission in South Sudan, while also threatening to later impose an arms embargo if necessary.
(AFP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 20, The UN's anti-corruption commission in Guatemala said the government has removed 11 police investigators working with a panel to uncover graft.
(SFC, 3/21/18, p.A2)
2018 Mar 20, The UN called on Turkey to end its 20-month-old state of emergency and accused Ankara of mass arrests, arbitrary sackings and other abuses.
(Reuters, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 21, The United Nations human rights office said armed groups execute and torture civilians in Libya in almost complete impunity seven years after the revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
(Reuters, 3/21/18)
2018 Mar 21, The UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) launched a commission of inquiry into complaints that Venezuela is violating standards including freedom of association and workers' rights to organize.
(Reuters, 3/21/18)
2018 Mar 22, The UN Security Council in a unanimous statement said at least 13.1 million Congolese are in need of humanitarian aid, including 7.7 million who are severely food insecure.
(AFP, 3/24/18)
2018 Mar 22, Cambodia's ambassador to the UN's office in Geneva rejected a statement to the UN Human Rights Council endorsed by 45 nations that urges improvements in the Southeast Asia nation's rights situation ahead of a general election this July.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 27, The UN Security Council unanimously backed a resolution that tasks the peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo with helping to prepare elections and avoid deadly violence.
(AFP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 30, The UN Security Council annnounced a new package of sanctions that targeted smuggling at sea by North Korea. The UN blacklisted 27 ships, 21 shipping companies and one individual accused of helping North Korea evade previous sanctions. The ships included five based in China, 15 North Korean ships and 12 non-North Korean ships.
(AP, 3/31/18)(SSFC, 4/1/18, p.A4)(Reuters, 4/3/18)
2018 Mar 31, In the Central African Republic UN peacekeepers on patrol exchanged fire with members of an armed group in the Muslim rebel bastion called PK5 in Bangui.
(AFP, 4/1/18)
2018 Apr 2, Israel announced it had reached a deal with the UN refugee agency to cancel a controversial plan to deport African migrants and replace it with a new one that will see thousands sent to Western countries. PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that Canada, Italy and Germany will take in some of Israel's African migrants under an agreement Israel reached with the UN refugee agency.
(AfP, 4/2/18)(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Apr 3, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he was cancelling an agreement with the UN refugee agency to relocate thousands of African migrants, bowing to right-wing pressure to scrap the deal. The fact that thousands of migrants would be allowed to stay raised an outcry from right-wing politicians and on social media from Netanyahu's nationalist voter base.
(Reuters, 4/3/18)
2018 Apr 3, In Switzerland the United Nations raised more than $2 billion to help civilians in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates drew praise for offering hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for Yemen, where their air campaign against Houthi rebels has killed thousands of civilians and their crippling blockade has hindered aid delivery.
(AFP, 4/3/18)(AP, 4/3/18)
2018 Apr 4, The United Nations said that it has conducted its first humanitarian mission to Raqa since the Syrian city was liberated from the Islamic State group, warning that returning civilians face enormous risks. Jan Egeland, the head of the UN's Syria humanitarian taskforce, said the city is littered with unexploded devices, homes are still full of bombs (and) grenades and children are still being maimed and killed.
(AFP, 4/4/18)
2018 Apr 5, The United Nations said it is beefing up its inspections of ships bringing humanitarian aid to Yemen to ensure that no military items are being smuggled and to speed delivery of desperately-needed relief supplies.
(Reuters, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 5, In Mali two Chadian peacekeepers were killed and at least 10 others were wounded when a UN camp came under mortar fire in the northern Kidal region. The French army said that French and Malian troops had killed about 30 Islamist insurgents during a gun battle near the border with Niger.
(Reuters, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 6, Mali's army killed 14 jihadist suspects, arrested a day earlier in Dioura, who were trying to escape detention in its central region. The suspects were later said to be Fulani civilians. A UN peacekeeper from Niger was killed when two armed men in the northern city of Gao opened fire on his vehicle.
(Reuters, 4/7/18)(AFP, 4/7/18)(AP, 4/9/18)
2018 Apr 8, In the Central African Republic unidentified gunmen opened fire on a UN base in the Muslim PK5 neighborhood of Bangui late today, capping a day that saw at least one civilian killed and dozens of people injured.
(Reuters, 4/9/18)
2018 Apr 10, The United Nations said Libyan militias, including some affiliated with authorities, are holding thousands of prisoners in prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention that includes torture.
(AP, 4/10/18)
2018 Apr 11, A UN war crimes court sentenced Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj to ten years in prison, partially overturning his acquittal over crimes against humanity and other charges dating to the Balkan wars in the 1990s. He was acquitted in 2016 of nine war crimes and crimes against humanity charges because of insufficient evidence.
(AP, 4/11/18)
2018 Apr 12, In France Palestinian, Israeli, Jordanian, US and EU delegations along with representatives of UNESCO leadership negotiated a compromise resolution on "Occupied Palestine". Diplomats agreed to move the most controversial language to a non-binding annex and avoided a contentious vote.
(AP, 4/13/18)
2018 Apr 13, A new UN report put Myanmar's armed forces on a UN blacklist of government and rebel groups "credibly suspected" of carrying out rapes and other acts of sexual violence in conflict for the first time.
(AP, 4/14/18)
2018 Apr 14, Russia called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council as Moscow said it would consider supplying S-300 missile systems to Syria following US-led strikes. Russia said Syria's air defence system, which mostly consists of systems made in the Soviet Union, has intercepted 71 of the missiles fired by the US, British and French forces. Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White warned that Russia was actively attempting to sow confusion about the attack.
(Reuters, 4/14/18)
2018 Apr 16, The United Nations said it has provided the "necessary clearances" for a fact-finding mission from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate a suspected chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
(AP, 4/16/18)
2018 Apr 22, Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he is donating $4.5 million to the United Nations body that oversees climate change negotiations.
(AP, 4/23/18)
2018 Apr 23, Jailed Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid won the 2018 Press Freedom Prize awarded by the UN cultural agency UNESCO, a choice that drew criticism from the Egyptian authorities.
(Reuters, 4/23/18)
2018 Apr 24, The United Nations called on Nicaragua to investigate a crackdown on protests that have left at least 27 dead.
(AFP, 4/24/18)
2018 Apr 24, The European Union and the UN appealed for swift political talks to end the long war in Syria, saying the latest territorial gains by Damascus and its allies had not brought peace any closer.
(Reuters, 4/24/18)
2018 Apr 28, A UN Security Council delegation arrived in Bangladesh to get a firsthand look at the plight of some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar to escape military-led violence.
(AP, 4/28/18)
2018 Apr 29, In Bangladesh Rohingya refugees made emotional pleas to the UN Security Council for help to return safely to their homes in neighboring Myanmar and for justice over the reason they fled - accusations of killings, rapes and arson.
(Reuters, 4/29/18)
2018 Apr 30, The UN said ten aid workers have been released after being abducted in South Sudan almost a week ago.
(AP, 4/30/18)
2018 Apr 30, In Myanmar members of a UN Security Council team probing the country's crisis over its ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority met with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and military commander Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing after visiting Bangladesh.
(AP, 4/30/18)
2018 May 1, In Myanmar a 15-member UN Security Council delegation visited volatile areas of Rakhine state, from where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled military-led violence, to see firsthand the aftermath of the army's crackdown as well as Myanmar's preparations for taking back the refugees.
(AP, 5/1/18)
2018 May 9, The UN Security Council urged Myanmar's government to fulfill its commitment to hold perpetrators of violence against Rohingya Muslims accountable and to address the root causes that led about 700,000 members of the ethnic minority to flee to Bangladesh.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 10, The UN's refugee agency airlifted 132 vulnerable migrants from Libya to Niger, the first group to be flown out after a two-month halt in such evacuations.
(AP, 5/10/18)
2018 May 10, The United Nations human rights investigator on North Korea called on for six South Korean nationals in custody there to be freed, voicing concern over conditions of their detention.
(Reuters, 5/10/18)
2018 May 14, The UN appealed for a major increase in funding to aid Sudan with hundreds of thousands of people set to join millions in need of relief amid worsening economic and humanitarian crises.
(AFP, 5/15/18)
2018 May 14, The UN World Health Organization said eliminating trans fats is critical to preventing deaths worldwide as it released a plan to help countries wipe out trans fats from the global food supply in the next five years.
(AP, 5/14/18)
2018 May 15, The UN said some 160,000 people have fled their homes in Cameroon's English-speaking regions because of violence between anglophone separatists and government forces.
(AFP, 5/15/18)
2018 May 17, The UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it is sending 150 peacekeepers to Unity state to protect civilians who are being targeted in clashes between the government and rebel troops.
(Reuters, 5/17/18)
2018 May 18, The UN Human Rights Council voted 29-2 with 14 abstentions to back a resolution that also condemned "the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians." The United States decried it as an example of a biased focus on Israel by the council.
(AP, 5/18/18)
2018 May 24, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution that for the first time recognizes the link between conflict and hunger and condemns the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
(SFC, 5/25/18, p.A2)
2018 May 28, The UN agency for children said it has distributed cash to nearly 1.5 million families in war-battered Yemen to help avert the risk of famine.
(AP, 5/28/18)
2018 May 30, The UN said it has documented the disappearance of 21 men and two women in Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas State from February until May 16 this year. The U.N. human rights office said it has "strong indications" that Mexican federal security forces are behind a wave of disappearances in and around the city of Nuevo Laredo.
(Reuters, 5/30/18)
2018 Jun 4, UNESCO, the UN's cultural body, released its first ever guidelines on fighting anti-Semitism in education.
(AP, 6/4/18)
2018 Jun 5, The United Nations urged Washington to immediately halt its controversial practice of separating asylum-seeking Central American immigrant children from their parents at the southern border. Pres. Trump tweeted: "Separating families at the Border is the fault of bad legislation passed by the Democrats," however no law mandates that parents must be separated from their children at the border, and it's not a policy Democrats have pushed or can change alone as the minority in Congress.
(AFP, 6/5/18)(AP, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 5, A new UN report said government bans on plastic can be effective in cutting back on waste, but poor follow-through has left many such bans ineffective. World Environment Day highlighted the perils of plastic with the tagline "if you can't reuse it, refuse it".
(AP, 6/5/18)(AFP, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 6, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said Bangladeshi security forces have shot dead around 130 people and arrested 13,000 in the past three weeks since the government introduced a "zero tolerance" policy against illegal drugs.
(AP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 6, Myanmar and UN agencies signed an agreement that could eventually lead to the return of some of the 700,000 Rohingya Muslims. The memorandum of understanding promised to establish a "framework of cooperation" that aims to create conditions for "voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable" repatriation of Rohingya refugees but does not address Myanmar's denial of citizenship for the minority.
(AP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 8, The United Nations General Assembly voted to elect Germany, Belgium, South Africa, the Dominican Republic and Indonesia for a two-year term in the Security Council starting on Jan. 1, 2019.
(Reuters, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 8, Lebanon accused the United Nations refugee agency of intimidating refugees to prevent their return to Syria and blocked residency applications for the agency's staff.
(AFP, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 19, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the number of countries involved in "violent conflicts" is the highest in 30 years, while the number of people killed in conflicts has risen tenfold since 2005. Guterres spoke at the annual Oslo Forum panel discussion on peacemaking.
(AP, 6/19/18)
2018 Jun 19, The US announced its withdrawal from the UN's Human Rights Council. No country had ever dropped out voluntarily in the 12-year history of the 47-member council.
(AP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 21, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said new Hungarian laws that criminalize people for helping asylum-seekers are shameful and blatantly xenophobic.
(Reuters, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 21, UN envoy for Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener ended nine days of talks with Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and commander-in-chief General Min Aung Hlaing among other officials. She told authorities in Naypyidaw that credible measures were needed to establish accountability for the violence that engulfed Rakhine state and drove 700,000 Rohingya from their homes.
(AFP, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 21, A report by the UN children's agency UNICEF said that a third of all children living in Britain, around 4.5 million, live in areas with harmful air pollution.
(Reuters, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 22, Diplomats in Geneva said that Israel has temporarily reduced its participation with the UN's main human rights body, days after the United States pulled out largely over its allegation that the Human Rights Council is biased against Israel.
(AP, 6/22/18)
2018 Jun 22, The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said government security forces in Venezuela carry out unjustified killings without any apparent consequences as the rule of law. The report highlights the case earlier this year in which rebel police officer Oscar Perez and six in his group were shot to death as they tried to surrender. UN officials say they believe the group was executed on orders from top government officials in violation of their basic rights.
(AP, 6/22/18)
2018 Jun 25, UNAIDS staffer Martina Brostrom, who says she was sexually assaulted by UNAIDS former deputy executive director Luiz Loures in Thailand in 2015, cast fresh doubt on an investigation into her case and called for the agency chief to be sacked.
(AFP, 6/25/18)
2018 Jun 27, The United States cut a $2 million pledge for the UN Counterterrorism Office and downgraded its presence at a conference on the issue.
(AP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 29, The UN's migration agency snubbed the Trump administration's candidate to lead it. Portuguese Socialist and former EU commissioner Antonio Vitorino (61) won an election to be the next director-general of the International Organization for Migration, edging out both a top IOM official and US candidate Ken Isaacs.
(AP, 6/29/18)
2018 Jul 2, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he heard "unimaginable" accounts of atrocities during a visit to Bangladesh's refugee camps and called for Myanmar to be held responsible for "crimes" against the Rohingya.
(AFP, 7/2/18)
2018 Jul 2, The UN refugee spokesman said the number of people forced to flee their homes in southwestern Syria as a result of the two week escalation in fighting has climbed to 270,000 people.
(Reuters, 7/2/18)
2018 Jul 5, Peru, in a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, led more than 50 countries in urging Venezuela to restore the rule of law and open its doors to humanitarian assistance, as an economic crisis causes shortages of medicine and growing malnutrition.
(Reuters, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 10, The UN human rights office said at least 232 civilians were killed and 120 women and girls raped in "scorched earth" attacks by South Sudan government troops and aligned forces in opposition-held villages earlier this year.
(Reuters, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 10, The UN said more than 800 children as young as 11 years of age were recruited to Yemen's devastating conflict in 2017 alone.
(AFP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 10, The UN said at least 16,000 people have been displaced from their homes by armed conflict in the border region between Colombia and Venezuela.
(AFP, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 10, In Yemen Martin Griffiths, the UN envoy for Yemen, met with embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in another round of talks aimed at brokering a truce between the government and rebels.
(AFP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 13, All 193 UN member nations except the United States, which pulled out last year, approved the Global Compact For Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. On July 18 Hungary said it will quit the migration pact before its final approval, calling the agreement a "threat to the world." By early December right-wing European governments such as Austria, Hungary and Poland had dropped out. The pact was to be adopted mid-December in Marrakesh, Morocco.
(Reuters, 7/18/18)(Reuters, 12/9/18)
2018 Jul 13, The United Nations Security Council imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan, nearly five years after civil war erupted in the country.
(Reuters, 7/13/18)
2018 Jul 17, The UN human rights office said police and authorities in Nicaragua have killed and imprisoned people without due process and committed torture. It called for an end to violence in which an estimated 280 people have died since April.
(Reuters, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 23, The UN Int'l Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the United Arab Emirates to immediately allow Qatari families affected by a dispute between the countries to reunite, imposing the measure before it hears the full case filed by Qatar at a later date.
(Reuters, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 25, The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said it would reduce jobs in Gaza and the West Bank at the end of this month following US budget cuts.
(Reuters, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 25, UN special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths arrived in Sanaa to meet with rebel leaders amid efforts to restart peace talks after a two-year hiatus.
(AP, 7/25/18)
2018 Aug 2, UN peacekeepers returned to patrol the frontier between Syria and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. The peacekeeping mission had been halted in 2014 over security concerns amid the violence in Syria's civil war.
(SFC, 8/3/18, p.A2)
2018 Aug 3, UN experts said in a new report that North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and is violating UN sanctions including by "a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products".
(AP, 8/4/18)
2018 Aug 7, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he has chosen former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to be the world body's new human rights chief.
(Reuters, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 8, Workers seized partial control of the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Hamas-run Gaza, accusing their union of "mutiny" over job cuts.
(AFP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 10, The UN gave unanimous approval for former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet as the next UN human rights chief.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 10, A UN anti-discrimination committee raised concerns over China's treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority, citing reports of mass detentions as it considered Beijing's record over recent years.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 14, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said Libya's Misrata militia ran 370 families, originally from the western city of Tawergha, out of their homes in the Triq al-Matar camp last week. The militia forced 1,900 displaced people out of their refugee camp in the capital, Tripoli.
(AP, 8/14/18)
2018 Aug 17, The UN Human Rights Committee ruled that Brazil's imprisoned leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cannot be disqualified from upcoming presidential elections because his legal appeals are ongoing.
(AFP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 18, Kofi Annan (80) of Ghana, a former UN Secretary-General (1997-2006) and Nobel peace laureate (2001), died in Switzerland. He was the first black African to assume the world's top diplomatic post.
(AP, 8/18/18)
2018 Aug 19, In South Sudan the UN World Food Program dropped food supplies in Nyal, an opposition-held town in the war-ravaged region. The WFP said it expected 30,000 people will have come by the time it has delivered the final drop on August 21. The UN has been dropping food supplies in Nyal every three months since 2014.
(Reuters, 8/20/18)
2018 Aug 20, The UN's World Health Organization said the number of measles cases in Europe jumped to more than 41,000 during the first six months of 2018 and at least 37 people have died. Half, or some 23,000 cases, occurred in Ukraine.
(AP, 8/20/18)
2018 Aug 20, The UN nuclear watchdog said it did not find any indication that North Korea had stopped its nuclear activities, adding to doubts about the country's willingness to abandon its arsenal.
(Reuters, 8/21/18)
2018 Aug 23, The United Nations refugee and migration agencies called on Latin American countries to ease entry for Venezuelan nationals fleeing economic hardship and a deepening political crisis.
(Reuters, 8/23/18)
2018 Aug 24, The UN migration agency said the exodus of migrants from Venezuela is building towards a "crisis moment" comparable to events involving refugees in the Mediterranean.
(Reuters, 8/24/18)
2018 Aug 27, UN investigators said Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and the commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted for the gravest crimes under international law.
(Reuters, 8/27/18)
2018 Aug 28, Three experts working for the UN's top human rights body said the governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia may have been responsible for war crimes including rape, torture, disappearances and "deprivation of the right to life" during 3½ years of battling Yemeni rebels.
(AP, 8/28/18)
2018 Aug 29, The UN reported that Nicaragua's government turned a blind eye while armed mobs rounded up protesters, some of whom were later raped with rifles and tortured in detention. Managua rejected the report as biased.
(Reuters, 8/29/18)
2018 Aug 30, The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega ended a United Nations human rights team visit a day after the body published a report blaming it for the violent repression of opposition protests.
(AP, 8/31/18)
2018 Aug 31, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced that he is shutting down a crusading UN-sponsored anti-graft commission that pressed a number of high-profile corruption probes, including one pending against the president himself over purported illicit campaign financing.
(AP, 8/31/18)
2018 Aug 31, The US announced that it will no longer support the 68-year-old United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Contributions were cut from $360 million to $60 million this year and down to zero in 2019.
(AP, 8/31/18)(SFC, 6/4/19, p.A2)
2018 Sep 1, The United Nations human rights mission left Nicaragua after being ordered out by a government it criticized over its heavy-handed response to anti-regime protests.
(AFP, 9/1/18)
2018 Sep 1, Dutch former defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (45) was appointed as the United Nation's envoy to Iraq, to head a mission which plays an essential role in the country's political and economic spheres.
(AFP, 9/1/18)
2018 Sep 3, In Lebanon UN schools for Palestinian refugees started the new school year on time, despite the US decision to cancel funding to the international body's Palestinian relief agency.
(AP, 9/3/18)
2018 Sep 5, UN investigators warned that crimes against humanity and other serious rights violations were continuing unabated in Burundi, blaming in part President Pierre Nkurunziza's repeated calls to hatred and violence.
(AFP, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 6, In Geneva, Switzerland, scheduled peace talks between Yemen's government and Huthi rebels hung in the balance as both sides traded ultimatums and a UN envoy scrambled to mediate. The rebel delegation, still in Sanaa, insisted the UN must meet a list of conditions before it will travel to Switzerland, prompting government representatives already in Geneva to give the Huthis a 24-hour deadline or it "will leave".
(AFP, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 7, The United Nations-mediated peace talks on Yemen stalled pending the arrival of the Shiite rebels to Geneva, who said they didn't attend because they were not guaranteed safe return after the discussions.
(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 7, North Korea and South Korea asked the United Nations to circulate the "Panmunjom Declaration on Peace, Prosperity and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula" as an official UN document.
(AP, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 8, Yemen peace talks in Geneva collapsed after three days of waiting for the Houthi movement delegation, but the UN envoy vowed to press ahead with diplomacy.
(Reuters, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 10, In Geneva new UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet criticized the Italian government for refusing entry to migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean operated by private charities. Hours later Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who heads Italy's anti-immigrant League party, threatened to cut Italian funding for the UN.
(Reuters, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 11, In Geneva the UN envoy for Syria hosted key diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey to discuss work toward rewriting the country's constitution, amid concerns about a possibly devastating military offensive on rebel-held Idlib province.
(AP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 13, The UN Security Council extended its political mission in Libya for a year but did not endorse a December 10 date for elections that was agreed during a Paris meeting four months ago.
(AFP, 9/13/18)
2018 Sep 18, UN-backed investigators who examined a bloody crackdown by Myanmar security forces that caused hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh issued a searing critique of the United Nations' own response to the human rights crisis. The members of a fact-finding mission on Myanmar fleshed out preliminary findings and recommendations released in a shorter version three weeks ago.
(AP, 9/18/18)
2018 Sep 19, The UN said more than 500 people have died from cholera in the Lake Chad region since the start of the year, representing the worst outbreak to hit the area in four years. The Lake Chad region straddles parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, which are also grappling with a jihadist insurgency.
(AFP, 9/19/18)
2018 Sep 19, A new UN report indicated that Colombian coca cultivation increased 17 percent in 2017.
(SFC, 9/20/18, p.A2)
2018 Sep 22, The United Nations said a cholera outbreak in north-eastern Nigeria has claimed nearly 100 lives over the past two weeks.
(AFP, 9/22/18)
2018 Sep 24, The UN World Food Program took its campaign to fight world hunger to a global cinema audience with an innovative, interactive advertisement.
(AFP, 9/24/18)
2018 Sep 24, Donald Trump arrived at the UN for a meeting on the global drug trade, ahead of a sit-down with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who comes bearing a personal message to Trump from Kim after their inter-Korean talks last week. Some 129 countries at the UN signed on to a US-drafted pledge to fight the global drug problem.
(AP, 9/24/18)(Reuters, 9/24/18)
2018 Sep 24, Staff at the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees went on strike in the Gaza Strip to protest against job losses and US funding cuts.
(AFP, 9/24/18)
2018 Sep 25, In NYC UN Sec.-Gen. Antonio Guterres opened the annual meeting of world leaders. He painted a grim picture of the world spotlighting the breakdown of trust around the globe and the need to counter unilateralism and reinvigorate the int'l. cooperation that is the foundation of the UN.
(SFC, 9/26/18, p.A2)
2018 Sep 25, The United Nations and individual donors rushed food to a desperate corner of northern Yemen where starving villagers were found to be living off leaves.
(AP, 9/25/18)
2018 Sep 27, The UN's top human rights body agreed to set up a team to collect evidence of alleged crimes committed in Myanmar since 2011 that could one day be used to prosecute violators in court.
(AP, 9/27/18)
2018 Sep 28, The United Nations Human Rights Council voted to extend an international probe of alleged war crimes committed in Yemen despite strong opposition from Saudi Arabia and several of its allies.
(AP, 9/28/18)
2018 Sep 30, The Maltese authorities finally took 58 migrants from the Aquarius to Valletta after they had waited for days in rough seas on the rescue ship that can no longer go to port after its flag was pulled. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said that it had not yet been decided where which of the migrants.
(AFP, 9/30/18)
2018 Oct 1, UNRWA pulled part of its international staff out of the Gaza Strip due to security concerns.
(AP, 10/2/18)
2018 Oct 3, The UN's top court (ICJ) ordered the United States to lift sanctions on humanitarian goods for Iran in a stunning rebuke to US President Donald Trump.
(AFP, 10/3/18)(SFC, 10/4/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 3, Yemen's Shiite rebels released Salah and Madian Saleh, the two sons of late former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The UN children's agency suspended cash transfers to 9 million of Yemen's most impoverished citizens under pressure from Yemen's Houthi rebels. UNICEF said the decision came after it was unable to set up a call center to get feedback from beneficiaries.
(AP, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 4, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat announced in a statement a "detailed plan to remove UNRWA from Jerusalem and replace its services with municipal services".
(AFP, 10/5/18)
2018 Oct 7, The UN children's agency resumed emergency cash transfers to 9 million Yemenis after it was allowed to operate a call center to help monitor aid distribution.
(AP, 10/9/18)
2018 Oct 9, Nikki Haley (46) announced her resignation as the top US diplomat to the United Nations saying was leaving by the end of the year.
(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 10, The UN said that the number of Afghans killed or wounded by air strikes rose 39 percent in the first nine months of 2018. At least 8,050 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in the first nine months of 2018. The United States is the only foreign force known to carry out air strikes in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 10/10/18)(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 10, The UN urged warring parties in Syria to allow basic health service deliveries to tens of thousands of increasingly desperate Syrians trapped in the desert near the Jordanian border. UNICEF said two babies without access to hospitals had died in the past 48 hours near the Rukban border crossing.
(AFP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 12, The UN children's agency UNICEF said a militia fighting against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria has released 833 children from its own ranks, some as young as 11.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, The Philippines became one of 18 new council members elected to the UN Human Rights Council despite rights groups' complaints that its government, widely condemned internationally for a deadly drug crackdown, doesn't belong in a group meant to call out abuses.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 13, UN sanctions monitors in an unpublished report said banned charcoal exports from Somalia are thriving, generating millions of dollars a year for al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremists — and often passing through Iran to have their origins obscured.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 16, The UN refugee agency expressed concern over Angola's expulsion of some 200,000 Congolese in the past two weeks, saying it would create a humanitarian crisis.
(SFC, 10/17/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 16, The rival Koreas and the US-led United Nations Command met to discuss efforts to disarm a military zone the rivals control within their shared border under a peace agreement between the two countries.
(AP, 10/16/18)
2018 Oct 17, UN agencies called for an end to the practice in some countries of determining whether a girl or woman is a virgin through gynecological testing.
(SFC, 10/18/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 18, A new UN report said South Sudan's armed opposition abducted women and girls as young as 12 and lined them up so commanders could choose "wives," and those not selected were left to be raped repeatedly by other fighters. The report focused on the Western Equatoria region between April and August, saying 900 people were abducted and some 24,000 people forced to flee their homes as fighting surged after months of relative calm.
(AP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 18, A UN humanitarian aid official said that Syria's government has withdrawn a controversial law that allowed authorities to seize property left behind by civilians who fled the country's civil war.
(AP, 10/18/18)
2018 Oct 23, The UN Human Rights Committee said that France's ban on the niqab, the full-body Islamic veil, was a violation of human rights and called on it to review the legislation. It gave Paris 180 days to report back to say what actions it had taken.
(Reuters, 10/23/18)
2018 Oct 29, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council that up to 15,000 people remain within the IS-controlled area and around 7,000 people have in recent weeks been displaced by fighting from Hajin, the last major stronghold of Islamic State in Syria on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.
(AP, 10/29/18)
2018 Nov 1, The UN General Assembly vote 189-2 to approve a resolution condemning the American embargo of Cuba. The US and Israel voted no. Moldova and Ukraine did not vote.
(SFC, 11/2/18, p.A2)
2018 Nov 1, The UN children's agency said over seven million children face a serious threat of famine in Yemen and ending the country's war will not save all of them.
(AFP, 11/1/18)
2018 Nov 6, UN investigators said more than 200 mass graves containing between 6,000 and 12,000 bodies have been found in Iraq from the time of the Islamic State group's three-year reign.
(AP, 11/6/18)
2018 Nov 7, The UN and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent completed a desperately needed aid delivery to displaced Syrians in the remote Rukban desert camp near the border with Jordan. Nearly 50,000 people were stranded in the desert and had received no aid since January.
(AP, 11/7/18)
2018 Nov 8, The UN said at least 2.3 million people have fled economic and political crisis in Venezuela, mostly since 2015.
(AFP, 11/8/18)
2018 Nov 13, UN human rights boss Michelle Bachelet called on Bangladesh to halt plans to repatriate 2,200 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, warning that their lives would be at "serious risk".
(Reuters, 11/13/18)
2018 Nov 14, The UN Security Council unanimously voted to lift a nearly decade-old arms embargo and targeted sanctions on Eritrea after a rapprochement with Ethiopia and thawing of relations with Djibouti.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 16, The United States said it would oppose for the first time an annual resolution at the United Nations calling on Israel to rescind its authority in the occupied Golan Heights, drawing praise from Israeli officials.
(Reuters, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 19, In France UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder unveiled the interactive "Facts about the Holocaust " site at the cultural agency's Paris headquarters.
(AP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 19, A UN draft resolution on Yemen was presented to the Security Council. It called for an immediate truce in the port city of Hodeida and set a two-week deadline for the warring sides to remove all barriers to humanitarian aid.
(AFP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 22, United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths met Yemen's rebel chief to nail down details of peace talks expected in December, a day before a planned visit to the battleground port city of Hodeida.
(AFP, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 23, The UN migration agency said at least 631 African migrants have died trying to reach Spain so far this year, nearly three times more than in all of 2017.
(Reuters, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 24, South Korea said that the United Nations Security Council granted an exemption to sanctions that will allow surveys on North Korean railroad sections the Koreas want to connect with the South.
(AP, 11/24/18)
2018 Nov 26, UNESCO said Korean wrestling was added to a list of "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" on the basis of an application by the two Koreas.
(AP, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 27, UN agencies said asylum seekers at the Mexican border fleeing violence or persecution are entitled to lodge claims in the United States to obtain sanctuary there in a fresh attempt to shield migrants from tough US immigration policies.
(Reuters, 11/27/18)
2018 Nov 27, The United Nations environment office warned that the gap is widening between current greenhouse gas emissions and the levels needed to stop catastrophic global warming. It said in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) this century, emissions need to drop 55 percent by 2030 compared to 2017 levels.
(AP, 11/27/18)
2018 Nov 29, An investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) of its widely-praised refugee program in Uganda said it has found corruption costing millions of dollars and misconduct.
(Reuters, 11/29/18)
2018 Nov 30, The United Nations said it had helped hundreds of Central Americans who travelled with migrant caravans towards the US to return to their home countries.
(AFP, 11/30/18)
2018 Nov, A UN-backed study was published saying the area of Mexico that illegally farms opium poppies had grown by more than one-fifth this year, to an area the size of Philadelphia.
(AP, 2/6/19)
2018 Dec 3, The UN World Intellectual Property Organization said China has issued the most international patent applications for an eighth straight year, showing the country's heft in intellectual property amid US President Donald Trump's accusation that the growing Asia power steals it.
(AP, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 3, UN official Michel Forst called on the Colombian government to step up measures to protect human rights defenders following an upsurge in the number murdered since the signing of a peace agreement with former FARC guerrillas.
(AFP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 3, A UN chartered flight flew 50 wounded rebels along with their escorts out of the Yemeni capital Sanaa for medical treatment, a critical step towards bringing warring parties to planned UN-brokered negotiations in Sweden.
(AFP, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 3, In Poland UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a dramatic appeal to world leaders to take the threat of global warming seriously and to act boldly to avert a catastrophic rise in temperatures before the end of the century. Nations facing imminent environmental disaster called on rich polluters to help them back from the brink.
(AP, 12/3/18)(AFP, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 4, The UN said it was seeking $738 million in 2019 to help neighboring countries cope with the inflow of millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, who have "no prospect for return in the short to medium term".
(Reuters, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 4, The UN warned of a "severe increase" in Yemen's hunger rate and cautioned the situation would deteriorate further in 2019, when four million more people are expected to need food aid.
(AFP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 4, A Houthi delegation left for Sweden for UN-sponsored Yemen peace talks, the first since 2016, as Western nations pressed for an end to the war and the United Nations warned of a looming economic disaster.
(Reuters, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 5, The UN secretary-general's envoy for Western Sahara met with foreign ministers from Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania plus leaders of the Polisario Front in Geneva over the future of the Morocco-annexed territory.
(AP, 12/5/18)
2018 Dec 6, The UN's human rights office said Burundi's government has asked it to leave, months after the outgoing UN rights chief called the country one of the "most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times".
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 6, The UN World Food Program said a survey of food security in Yemen has found more than 15 million people are in a "crisis" or "emergency" situation and that number could hit 20 million without sustained food aid.
(Reuters, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 6, Meeting in Sweden Yemen's warring sides agreed to free thousands of prisoners, in what a UN mediator called a hopeful start to the first peace talks in years to end a war that has pushed millions of people on the verge of starvation.
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 6, In Geneva two days of UN talks on Western Sahara ended with all sides promising to meet again for a similar "round table" in the first quarter of 2019, UN envoy Horst Koehler told reporters after the meeting ended unexpectedly early.
(Reuters, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 9, The UN's humanitarian office said that 369 trucks will carry one month's worth of supplies to Syria. It's the first cross-border aid shipment since the Syrian government recaptured a trade crossing with Jordan from Syrian rebels and reopened it in October.
(AP, 12/9/18)
2018 Dec 10, In Morocco a United Nations conference in Marrakesh adopted a migration pact in front of leaders and representatives from around 150 countries, despite a string of withdrawals driven by anti-immigrant populism.
(AFP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 10, Brazil's incoming foreign relations minister said Brazil will pull out of a United Nations pact on dealing with rising migration, joining the United States and a growing number of countries in rejecting the agreement.
(Reuters, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 12, Sweden said it was freezing its support to UNAIDS until executive director Michel Sidibe is removed. An expert report has blasted the agency's leadership for systematically failing to address bullying, abuse and sexual harassment.
(AFP, 12/12/18)
2018 Dec 13, United Nations human rights experts expressed concern over recent rollbacks of women's rights in Poland, especially those regarding reproductive health and societal roles.
(AFP, 12/13/18)
2018 Dec 13, Scandal-plagued UNAIDS head Michel Sidibe offered to resign in June, following an expert report that said his "defective leadership" had plunged the agency into crisis.
(AFP, 12/13/18)
2018 Dec 13, Yemen's warring parties agreed to cease fighting for the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah and withdraw their troops. The Houthis have agreed in principle on a UN's role in Sanaa airport, a spokesman for the armed movement said in Sweden. The UN role would include carrying out safety and inspection checks at the airport.
(Reuters, 12/13/18)
2018 Dec 14, The Nigerian military accused United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) staff of spying for Islamist militants in northeast Nigeria, and suspended the agency's activities there. A new military statement hours later lifted a suspension of UNICEF's work in the extremist-threatened northeast. The reversal came after an emergency meeting with UNICEF representatives.
(Reuters, 12/14/18)(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 17, The United Nations and the Palestinian Authority appealed for $350 million in aid for Palestinians next year, saying much more was needed but they had to be realistic after a year of funding cuts.
(Reuters, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 19, The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said it will cut food aid next year to about 190,000 poor Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank due a shortage of funds.
(Reuters, 12/19/18)
2018 Dec 20, The UN said the "overwhelming majority" of women and older girls who passed through Libya as migrants reported being gang-raped by traffickers or having witnessed others taken away to be sexually abused in a report based on hundreds of interviews.
(AP, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 20, The United States told the UN Security Council that it was committed to the "permanent destruction" of Islamic State in Syria and would "use all instruments of our national power" to push for the withdrawal of Iranian-backed forces in the country.
(Reuters, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 22, UN monitors arrived in Yemen to oversee a fragile ceasefire in the rebel-held city of Hodeida, the latest push to secure peace in the devastated country.
(AFP, 12/22/18)
2018 Dec 23, A UN team led by a Dutch officer arrived at Hodeida to monitor a cease-fire that went into force in the Red Sea port city where Yemen's civil war rivals been fighting for months.
(AP, 12/23/18)
2018 Dec 31, The UN food agency threatened to suspend some aid shipments to Yemen if the Houthi rebels do not investigate and stop theft and fraud in food distribution. The suspension would affect some 3 million people.
(AP, 12/31/18)
2018 Gambia got the backing of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take Myanmar to the UN's Int'l. Court of Justice (ICJ).
(Econ., 1/2/21, p.46)
2019 Jan 1, The US and Israel officially quit UNESCO, the UN's educational, scientific and cultural agency at the stroke of midnight, the culmination of a process triggered more than a year ago amid concerns that the organization fosters anti-Israel bias. Since 2011 the US has accrued $600 million in unpaid dues, which was one of the reasons for Pres. Donald Trump's decision to withdraw. Israel owed an estimated $10 million.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 1, Somalia's government ordered the UN top envoy to the troubled country to leave, accusing him of "deliberately interfering with the country's sovereignty." Nicholas Haysom had raised concerns at the action of Somalia's UN-backed security services in recent violence that left several people dead.
(AFP, 1/2/19)
2019 Jan 4, The UN human rights office called on Bahrain to release activist Nabeel Rajab, saying that the upholding of his five-year jail sentence by the top court this week showed "continued suppression of government critics".
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 15, The UN reported that freezing temperatures and the lack of medical care have killed at least 15 displaced Syrian children in recent weeks.
(AFP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 16, The UN Security Council unanimously approved the deployment of up to 75 observers to Yemen's port city of Hodeidah for six months to monitor a ceasefire and redeployment of forces by the warring parties.
(AP, 1/16/19)
2019 Jan 16, The UN said at least 890 people are believed to have been killed over three days in December in ethnic violence in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, and it warned that the toll could be higher still.
(Reuters, 1/16/19)
2019 Jan 18, The United Nations said it was "extremely alarmed" by the forced return by Cameroon of thousands of refugees to northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram Islamists pose a continuing threat to civilians. The UN refugee agency said Cameroon forced "several thousand" refugees back to Nigeria this week. According to the UNHCR Cameroon is currently hosting 370,000 refugees, 100,000 of whom are Nigerians.
(AFP, 1/18/19)
2019 Jan 18, The UN human rights office said at least 34 people have been killed in Congo since disputed provisional election results were announced on Jan. 10.
(AP, 1/18/19)
2019 Jan 19, A new UN report said fuel is being shipped illegally for Iran to Houthi Shiite rebels in Yemen to finance their war against the government.
(SSFC, 1/20/19, p.A8)
2019 Jan 22, Libya's coastguard said 473 migrants trying to reach Italy by inflatables had been brought back to the North African country. The UN criticized European countries for not allowing migrants to disembark at safe ports.
(Reuters, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 24, Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said she will travel to Turkey next week to head an "independent international inquiry" into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 1/24/19)
2019 Jan 25, A separatist movement in Indonesia's West Papua province delivered a petition with 1.8 million signatures demanding an independence referendum to UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet.
(Reuters, 1/27/19)
2019 Jan 25, Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, said Myanmar's army chief should be prosecuted for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority, adding that holding perpetrators to account for crimes was necessary before refugees who fled the country could return.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 25, The UN human rights boss Michelle Bachelet called for an independent investigation into alleged excessive use of force by Venezuelan security forces or allied militia, citing reports of at least 20 people killed this week.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 26, Venezuela's political showdown moved to the United Nations where a Security Council meeting called by the United States pit backers of President Nicolas Maduro against the Trump administration and supporters of the country's self-declared interim leader Juan Guaido.
(AP, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 29, It was reported that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been chosen as the winner of Germany's prestigious International Charlemagne Prize for contributions to European unity.
(AP, 1/29/19)
2019 Jan 29, The United Nations refugee agency says more than 30,000 Nigerians fled the border town of Rann over the weekend to seek safety in Cameroon as attacks by Boko Haram extremists continue. Spokesman Babar Baloch said thousands more have fled to neighboring Chad because of the violence in northeastern Nigeria.
(AP, 1/29/19)
2019 Feb 2, The UN and African Union announced that a peace deal has been reached between the Central African Republic government and 14 armed groups after their first-ever direct dialogue aimed at ending years of conflict.
(AP, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 3, The head of the UN mission in Yemen launched talks between the government and Huthi rebels aboard a boat in the Red Sea aimed at shoring up a ceasefire.
(AFP, 2/3/19)
2019 Feb 4, The UN Human Rights Committee ruled that Finland has breached the political rights of its Sami population, charging that Helsinki had violated the indigenous people's right to "internal self-determination." According to the Finnish Sami parliament, there are 10,000 Sami in Finland.
(AFP, 2/4/19)
2019 Feb 6, The UN said that its largest humanitarian aid convoy since the start of the Syrian conflict has reached Rukban refugee camp, where thousands of desperate people are stranded in the desert close to the border with Jordan.
(Reuters, 2/6/19)
2019 Feb 13, Judges at the International Court of Justice ruled that the UN body has jurisdiction to hear a claim by Iran to recover $1.75 billion in assets frozen by Washington. The case filed in June 2016 centers on assets from the Iranian national bank, Bank Markazi, seized by US courts to compensate families of victims of a 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine Corps. base which Washington blames on Iran.
(Reuters, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 18, The UN said Yemen's warring parties have agreed to start withdrawing forces from the main port of Hodeidah under a UN-sponsored deal, following weeks of diplomacy to salvage a pact that stalled over control of the Red Sea city.
(Reuters, 2/18/19)
2019 Feb 19, A UN report said more than 100,000 people have been displaced by factional fighting and lawlessness in Burkina Faso, most within the past two months.
(Reuters, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 20, A UN report said investigators have identified perpetrators of pervasive rape and killings and torture in secret safe houses in South Sudan, and believe oil revenues have driven much of the violence in its civil war.
(Reuters, 2/20/19)
2019 Feb 23, The UN said that three Guinean peacekeepers had been killed during an attack on their vehicles in Siby near the capital of Bamako, Mali.
(AP, 2/24/19)
2019 Feb 24, The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said 3,804 civilians were killed last year, the highest number since the international organization began tallying figures in 2009.
(AP, 2/24/19)
2019 Feb 25, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the international arms control system is facing collapse and urged Russia and the US to stop the imminent demise of a crucial nuclear treaty.
(AFP, 2/25/19)
2019 Feb 25, The United Nations' highest court ruled that Britain carved up Mauritius illegally when it agreed to end colonial rule and must "bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible." The ICJ said that the Chagos Islands archipelago should be handed over to Mauritius in order to complete its "decolonization." Three months later, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Chagos Islands being returned - with 116 states backing the move and only six against.
(AP, 2/25/19)(BBC, 10/19/20)
2019 Feb 28, A UN probe released today said Israel may have committed crimes against humanity in responding to last year's unrest in Gaza, as snipers "intentionally" shot civilians including children, journalists and the disabled.
(AFP, 2/28/19)
2019 Mar 5, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Burundi has forced the United Nations to shut its local human rights office after 23 years.
(Reuters, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 6, United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that she is seeking access to China to verify continuing reports of disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly of Muslims in the Xinjiang region.
(Reuters, 3/6/19)
2019 Mar 6, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said sanctions had exacerbated the crisis in Venezuela but also slammed Maduro's "violations of civil and political rights" in her annual report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
(AFP, 3/6/19)
2019 Mar 7, In Geneva three dozen countries, including all 28 EU members, called on Saudi Arabia to release 10 activists and cooperate with a UN-led investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its Istanbul consulate. This was the first rebuke of the kingdom at the UN Human Rights Council since it was set up in 2006.
(Reuters, 3/7/19)
2019 Mar 8, The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said in a report that around 5,000 Yemeni civilians were either killed or wounded last year, which averages out to 93 victims each week.
(AP, 3/8/19)
2019 Mar 10, The UN said its children's fund is paying some 100,000 teachers in Yemen, as two million children go without education in the war-torn country.
(AFP, 3/10/19)
2019 Mar 11, The UN's anti-drug agency said production of methamphetamine is skyrocketing in Southeast Asia, with prices dropping and usage expanding.
(AP, 3/11/19)
2019 Mar 12, A document drawn up by the World Food Program (WFP), labeled as a "Concept of Operations," outlined how the UN organization and its partners "may facilitate the identification, staging, forward movement, reception, and sustainment of (Rohingya) refugees" on Bhasan Char, Bangladesh, estimating an initial appeal for donor funding of between $8.6 and $19 million.
(Reuters, 3/23/19)
2019 Mar 13, A human rights expert urged the UN to take "immediate action" to provide justice and remedies to displaced minority communities in Kosovo who were sheltered on lead-contaminated wasteland.
(AP, 3/13/19)
2019 Mar 13, In Kenya the sixth Global Environment Outlook was released at a UN conference in Nairobi. It said unsustainable human activities globally have degraded the Earth's ecosystems, endangering the ecological foundations of society.
(SFC, 3/14/19, p.A6)
2019 Mar 14, The United Nations said that no UN staff should travel on the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 15, In Kenya nations meeting at the UN environment assembly in Nairobi announced that they had agreed to "significantly reduce" single-use plastics over the next decade.
(AFP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 18, A UN report released today showed an increase in allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by staff working in UN agencies and their partner organizations.
(AFP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 20, UN judges sentenced former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic to life in prison on appeal, ending one of the most momentous trials over massacres and other atrocities committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
(Reuters, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 20, The UN human rights chief warned that children in Yemen continued to be killed and maimed at an alarming rate, despite a three-month-old truce in Hodeida. The UN said thousands of tons of food aid near the port city of Hodeida is infested with insects and must be fumigated to feed millions of people.
(AP, 3/20/19)(AFP, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 22, The UN Human Rights Council criticized Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights a day after US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the disputed territory.
(Reuters, 3/22/19)
2019 Mar 26, In Tunisia UN official Moncef Kartas, charged with investigating alleged violations of a UN arms embargo on Libya, was detained in Tunis on suspicion of spying. On March 29 Tunisian authorities confirmed that they had detained two Tunisians, including Kartas, on suspicion of "spying for foreign parties".
(AFP, 3/29/19)(AFP, 4/13/19)
2019 Mar 28, The UN Security Council ordered countries worldwide to step up the fight against terrorism financing by ensuring they have laws that make it a serious crime to fund terrorist acts.
(AFP, 3/28/19)
2019 Mar 30, United Nations officials said at least 746 people have been reported killed in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe since Cyclone Idai landed on March 14.
(Reuters, 3/30/19)
2019 Apr 2, The UN said more than 113 million people across 53 countries experienced "acute hunger" last year because of wars and climate disasters, with Africa the worst-hit region.
(AFP, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 4, A UN official said Mali is in dire need of humanitarian aid, with more than three million people requiring food and basic assistance even as billions of dollars go to security missions.
(AFP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 4, The World Health Organization said global life expectancy grew by 5.5 years between 2000 and 2016.
(AFP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 9, The UN Security Council told the Central African Republic that it must make progress in reintegrating rebels into the security forces as a condition to review an arms embargo. The UN arms embargo was imposed in 2013 when the country descended into bloodletting.
(AFP, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 11, The United Nations said the fighting in Libya between Haftar's forces and troops under the internationally-backed Tripoli government had killed at least 56 people and forced 8,000 to flee their homes in the city in the last week.
(Reuters, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 14, The UN health agency said more than 120 people have been killed since a Libyan military commander launched an assault on the capital 10 days ago, igniting clashes with rival militias.
(AP, 4/14/19)
2019 Apr 17, The UN said around a third of all conflict-related detainees in Afghanistan say they have suffered from torture or ill-treatment. The US-backed Afghan government is holding thousands of detainees, many of them captured as part of the ongoing war with the Taliban.
(AP, 4/17/19)
2019 Apr 18, The United States and Russia said they could not support a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya at this time.
(Reuters, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 19, The UN said it had evacuated 163 refugees from war-ravaged Libya to neighboring Niger, but more than 3,000 others were still trapped in detention centers affected by clashes.
(AFP, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 23, A UN panel overseeing compensation claims by countries and organizations affected by Iraq's 1990-1991 invasion of Kuwait said it has paid $240 million to the Gulf state's national oil company.
(AP, 4/23/19)
2019 Apr 23, A UN-commissioned report said the war in Yemen has set back its development by more than 20 years.
(AP, 4/23/19)
2019 Apr 25, UN peacekeepers in Lebanon confirmed the existence of a third cross-border tunnel, out of six the Israeli military said it discovered in the area last year.
(AP, 4/25/19)
2019 Apr 26, The UN's International Labour Organization said Qatar is set to abolish its controversial exit visa system for all foreign workers by the end of the year.
(AFP, 4/26/19)
2019 Apr 26, A UN spokesperson said more than 7,000 people have left a desperate desert camp for displaced Syrians near the Jordanian border since March. Around 36,000 people remained in the isolated Rukban camp near Al-Tanf base used by the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 4/26/19)
2019 Apr 26, The UN migration agency said Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, "creating an acute humanitarian situation".
(Reuters, 4/26/19)
2019 Apr 30, The UN refugee agency said that seeking asylum was a fundamental right and that people lodging applications should not be made to pay a fee, as proposed by the Trump administration.
(Reuters, 4/30/19)
2019 May 1, The UN added Masood Azhar, the leader of a Pakistan-based Islamist group, to its list of global terrorists after China lifted its objections. Pakistan confirmed the move. This came months after Azhar's group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 suicide attack in disputed Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers.
(AFP, 5/1/19)(AP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 1, The UN said fighting in northwestern Syria has displaced more than 32,500 people since February, as the regime and its ally Russia have stepped up their bombardment. More than 200 civilians have been killed since February.
(AFP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 2, The UN's migration agency said at least eight Africa migrants have died in makeshift camps in war-hit Yemen of complications related to acute watery diarrhea at the Ibn Khaldoon Hospital in Lahj.
(AP, 5/2/19)
2019 May 3, The UN human rights office said Hungary is deliberately depriving rejected asylum seekers of food as they await deportation, in violation of international law.
(Reuters, 5/3/19)
2019 May 3, The UN's top food agencies said about 10 million people in North Korea are facing "severe food shortages" after the East Asian nation had one of the worst harvests in a decade.
(AP, 5/3/19)
2019 May 6, The United Nations' first comprehensive report on biodiversity said nature is in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with extinction looming over 1 million species of plants and animals.
(AP, 5/06/19)
2019 May 10, United Nations environmental officials said almost every country in the world has agreed on a legally binding framework for reducing polluting plastic waste, with the United States a notable exception.
(AP, 5/11/19)
2019 May 14, A UN fact-finding mission said the world must cut off financial and other support for Myanmar's armed forces, repeating a call for top generals to be prosecuted for abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
(Reuters, 5/14/19)
2019 May 15, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking in Fiji, said that he's traveling to three South Pacific island nations to see the effects of climate change firsthand.
(AP, 5/15/19)
2019 May 17, North Korea sent a letter asking United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to deal with the "illegal" seizure of one of its cargo ships by the United States.
(Reuters, 5/18/19)
2019 May 18, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was vital "to save the Pacific to save the world" as he wrapped up his brief South Pacific tour in Vanuatu.
(AP, 5/18/19)
2019 May 20, The UN Food and Agricultural Organization warned that plunging populations of bees worldwide threaten the future of agriculture and food security.
(http://tinyurl.com/y32c5qtc)(SSFC, 5/26/19, p.A16)
2019 May 21, The United Nations human rights office called on US authorities to ensure that women have access to safe abortions, saying bans lead to risky underground abortions that can endanger a woman's life.
(Reuters, 5/21/19)
2019 May 23, The UN named David Gressly as pointman to coordinate the global response to the devastating Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as it ramps up efforts to contain the outbreak.
(AP, 5/23/19)
2019 May 25, A UN maritime tribunal ruled that Russia must immediately release three Ukrainian naval vessels captured by Russia in November and also free the 24 sailors it detained.
(AP, 5/25/19)
2019 May 28, The United Nations refugee agency said violence in northwest Nigeria has forced around 20,000 refugees to flee to neighboring Niger since April.
(Reuters, 5/28/19)
2019 May 28, The UN human rights office reported that North Koreans are forced to pay bribes to officials to survive in their isolated country where corruption is "endemic" and repression rife, Pyongyang dismissed the report as politically motivated.
(Reuters, 5/28/19)
2019 May, UNAIDS chief, Michel Sidibe, left his post early after allegations that he improperly handled sexual assault claims against one of his deputies.
{UN}
(AP, 8/14/19)
2019 Jun 3, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a "high risk" of atrocities in Mali in a report that calls for beefing up the UN peacekeeping presence in the strife-torn center of the country.
(AFP, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 3, A UN said people in all major cities across the western Balkans face alarming levels of air pollution that are reducing their life expectancies because the underdeveloped, politically fragile region is still heavily reliant on burning coal to generate power. The report was prepared cooperation with the WHO and air quality management institutions in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
(AP, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 3, UN officials said international donors have pledged $1.2 billion to help Mozambique recover from the devastation caused by cyclones Idai and Kenneth, but $3.2 billion is needed overall.
(AFP, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 4, The UN's World Food Program said fighters have set fire to thousands of acres of wheat and other crops in northwest Syria in a campaign that has turned food supplies in a "weapon of war" and forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee.
(Reuters, 6/4/19)
2019 Jun 7, The UN refugee agency said heavy rains have triggered severe flooding in southwestern Libya since late May, killing four people and forcing more than 2,500 to flee their homes.
(AP, 6/7/19)
2019 Jun 8, The Philippine government attacked UN human rights experts for "unpardonable intrusions", after a call for an international investigation into killings linked to President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.
(Reuters, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 10, The head of the UN atomic watchdog urged world powers to continue dialogue with Iran to keep it in the landmark 2015 deal aimed at preventing the country from building nuclear weapons, and to help defuse mounting tensions in the region.
(AP, 6/10/19)
2019 Jun 13, The UN said it had confirmed the killing of 17 people and the burning of more than 100 houses in Deleij village in Sudan's central Darfur region earlier this week. Opposition medics said "Janjaweed militias" fired live ammunition at civilians on June 10 at a market in Deleij, killing 11 people and wounding 20 others.
(Reuters, 6/13/19)
2019 Jun 13, UN counterterrorism chief Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov began a 3-day visit to Xinjiang despite protests from the US and a rights group that the trip would be inappropriate in light of the human rights conditions in China's far west region.
(AP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 14, The highest UN court rejected a request by the United Arab Emirates for interim measures to be imposed on Qatar in a racial discrimination dispute. Judges at the International Court of Justice rejected by a 15-1 majority a UAE application to compel Qatar to unblock a website that enables family reunifications and to prevent state-run media from aggravating the dispute. They also rejected a request for Doha to drop a similar case at a UN anti-discrimination committee.
(AP, 6/14/19)
2019 Jun 14, The World Health Organization emergency committee met on whether to declare a raging Ebola epidemic an international threat, after an outbreak that began in Democratic Republic of Congo crossed into Uganda. The committee expressed deep concern but declined to declare a global emergency.
(AFP, 6/14/19)(SFC, 6/15/19, p.A4)
2019 Jun 17, The UN reported that the world's population of 7.76 billion will reach 9.7 billion in 2050.
(SFC, 6/19/19, p.A4)
2019 Jun 18, The UN and local authorities said hundreds of thousands of people have fled inter-ethnic violence in northeastern areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past two weeks. Local officials last week said at least 50 people had been killed in a matter of days in Ituri province, while other sources put the death toll from the inter-ethnic violence at over 70.
(AFP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 19, Two UN human rights experts said Cambodian authorities have questioned, summoned or detained more than 140 members of the former Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in an escalating suppression of dissent.
(Reuters, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 19, An independent UN report into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said there is "credible evidence" to warrant further investigation into the possible role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and suggested sanctions on his personal assets.
(AP, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 19, The UN refugee agency said a record 71 million people have been displaced worldwide by war, persecution and other violence.
(AP, 6/19/19)
2019 Jun 19, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet arrived in Venezuela as part of a visit to review the country's ongoing economic and political crisis.
(AFP, 6/20/19)
2019 Jun 21, The UN's International Labor Organization (ILO) overseeing international labor standards adopted a new treaty against violence and harassment in the workplace, fueled by the women's #MeToo movement.
(Reuters, 6/21/19)
2019 Jun 21, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on Venezuela to release jailed dissidents and said the crisis-wracked country faced a "serious" humanitarian situation.
(AFP, 6/21/19)
2019 Jun 23, Qu Dongyu (55) became the first Chinese national to be elected to head the UN's Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
(AFP, 6/23/19)
2019 Jun 25, The UN Security Council has approved a resolution establishing a political mission in Haiti starting on Oct. 16 to advise the government on promoting political stability and rule of law in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
(AP, 6/25/19)
2019 Jun 25, Hatice Cengiz, the Turkish fiancee of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, took her campaign for justice in his killing to the United Nations' top human rights body and urged the UN to take "the next step" following a key investigator's finding that Saudi Arabia bears responsibility.
(AP, 6/25/19)
2019 Jun 26, The UN refugee agency said a photo of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria, who drowned on the US-Mexico border, symbolizes the failure to deal with their desperation.
(Reuters, 6/26/19)
2019 Jun 26, The UN Security Council approved a resolution establishing a political mission in Haiti starting Oct. 16 that will officially replace all UN peacekeeping activities in the country.
(SFC, 6/27/19, p.A2)
2019 Jun 28, The UN Security Council voted to beef up the mandate of the more than 16,000 peacekeeping mission in Mali to help tackle escalating violence.
(SSFC, 6/30/19, p.A4)
2019 Jun 28, A new UN report said more than 7,500 children have been killed or wounded in Yemen in the past 5½ years.
(SSFC, 6/30/19, p.A4)
2019 Jul 2, A United Nations investigator said Burmese security forces and insurgents are committing human rights violations against civilians in restive western states that may amount to fresh war crimes.
(Reuters, 7/2/19)
2019 Jul 2, The UN World Food Program (WFP) said it will triple the number of people it is providing food and cash assistance to in northeastern Congo's Ituri province, which is facing inter-ethnic violence and an Ebola epidemic.
(AP, 7/3/19)
2019 Jul 3, The UN said that conflict had intensified in a region of South Sudan since a peace deal was signed, with hundreds of civilians raped or murdered by warring factions.
(AFP, 7/3/19)
2019 Jul 4, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet reported that Venezuela's government registered nearly 5,300 killings during security operations last year linked to cases of "resistance to authority," denouncing a "shockingly high" number of extrajudicial killings.
(AP, 7/5/19)
2019 Jul 8, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that she was "deeply shocked" by conditions under which migrants and refugees are held at US detention centers, following reports of severe overcrowding and disease-ridden cells.
(AFP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The UN Global Study on Homicide 2919 said some 464,000 homicides were recorded around the world in 2017, far more than the number pf people killed in armed conflicts and terrorist attacks.
(AP, 7/8/19)
2019 Jul 8, The UN said war-battered Yemen has been hit with more than 460,000 suspected cholera cases so far this year — a sharp rise from the 380,000 cases for all of 2018.
(AP, 7/9/19)
2019 Jul 8, Twenty-two countries signed a letter to the UN Human Rights Council, calling on China to end the “mass arbitrary detention" of Uighurs and other Muslims and to allow international observers access to detention camps.
(Econ, 7/27/19, p.36)
2019 Jul 9, The UN said the battle between rival militias for the Libyan capital has killed more than 1,000 people since it began in April.
(AP, 7/9/19)
2019 Jul 10, The UN environment agency said networks and organizations representing more than 7,000 institutions of higher and further education around the world have signed a letter declaring "a climate emergency" and committing to tackle it.
(AP, 7/10/19)
2019 Jul 11, The United Nations’ top human rights body voted to launch an investigation into thousands of killings in the Philippines’ brutal war on drugs. The Human Rights Council voted 18-14 with 15 abstentions to approve the resolution.
(AP, 7/11/19)
2019 Jul 11, China attacked a statement by 22 Western countries at the UN urging it to stop holding members of its Muslim population in detention centers, calling the measure necessary for national security and accusing the countries of trampling on its sovereignty.
(AP, 7/11/19)
2019 Jul 12, The United Nations said it was "alarmed" at death sentences given by a court run by Yemen's Huthi rebels to 30 academics, trade unionists and preachers for alleged spying.
(AFP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 12, United Nations Security Council ambassadors got a firsthand look at the challenges of peace nearly three years into Colombia's historic accord with leftist rebels as they visited with Pres. Ivan Duque, politicians and former rebels at a time of mounting concern.
(AP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 12, Sweden said that it will refrain from signing a United Nations convention on nuclear weapons, with the foreign minister arguing that the treaty "in its current form is not ready".
(AP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 15, The United Nations reported that more than 821 million people suffered from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition worldwide last year. The number has risen now for the third year in a row.
(AFP, 7/15/19)
2019 Jul 17, The UN said hundreds of fighters from several militia groups in conflict-torn Central African Republic have laid down their weapons. The nation, gripped by crisis since a 2013 coup, is striving to disarm and demobilize some 14 rebel groups as part of its latest peace efforts.
(AFP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 17, The United Nations' highest court ordered Pakistan to stay the execution of Kulbhushan Jadhav, an alleged Indian spy, and undertake a full review of his case, after agreeing with India's contention the man's rights had been violated in a case that has been a source of friction between the nuclear neighbors.
(AP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 18, A new United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report said transnational crime syndicates are raking in tens of billions of dollars a year selling everything from drugs to counterfeit goods as cartels outpace law enforcement to expand their influence across Southeast Asia.
(Bloomberg, 7/18/19)
2019 Jul 25, The UN reported that nearly 700 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo were victims of summary and extrajudicial executions this year, with a third carried out by security forces.
(AFP, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 25, Diplomats said the United States has blocked an attempt to get the UN Security Council to condemn Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
(The Independent, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 29, UN envoy Ghassan Salame raised the alarm over "the increasing frequency of attacks on Mitiga", the Libyan capital's only functioning airport.
(AFP, 8/1/19)
2019 Jul 29, An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees even as the organization faced an unprecedented crisis after US funding cuts.
(AFP, 7/29/19)
2019 Jul 30, A UN report said more civilians were killed by Afghan and international coalition forces in Afghanistan in the first half of this year than by the Taliban and other militants.
(AP, 7/30/19)
2019 Jul 31, Kelly Craft (57), married to a wealthy coal magnate, won Senate confirmation to be the next US ambassador to the UN, overcoming Democratic resistance after Pres. Donald Trump tapped her for the high-profile post.
(AFP, 8/1/19)
2019 Jul, A group of hackers took advantage of a flaw in Microsoft's SharePoint software and an unknown type of malware to gain access to dozens of servers at the UN's Geneva and Vienna offices, as well as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The hack was made public in January, 2020.
(Engadget, 1/29/20)
2019 Aug 1, The UN said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has authorized an investigation into attacks on health facilities and schools in the last major rebel-held stronghold in northwest Syria, following a petition from 10 members of the UN Security Council.
(AP, 8/1/19)
2019 Aug 2, The UN said illegal coca plantations in Colombia reduced slightly in 2018 but the country remains the world's biggest producer of the primary ingredient in cocaine production.
(AFP, 8/2/19)
2019 Aug 3, The UN mission said July saw the highest number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in a single month since 2017. Preliminary findings indicated more than 1,500 civilians were killed or wounded.
(AP, 8/3/19)
2019 Aug 4, The UN World Food Program (WFP) said it reached an agreement with Yemen's rebels to resume food deliveries to rebel-controlled parts of the country after suspending the aid for over a month.
(AP, 8/4/19)
2019 Aug 5, United Nations investigators urged world leaders to impose targeted financial sanctions on companies linked to the military in Myanmar, and said foreign firms doing business with them could be complicit in international crimes. The investigators identified at least 59 foreign companies with some form of commercial ties to the Myanmar military.
(AP, 8/5/19)
2019 Aug 5, It was reported that an Associated Press investigation has found that more than a dozen UN aid workers deployed to deal with the humanitarian crisis caused by five years of civil war in Yemen are being accused of graft — joining with combatants on all sides to enrich themselves from an international outpouring of donated food, medicine, fuel and money.
(AP, 8/5/19)
2019 Aug 6, The UN's humanitarian agency said malaria has killed more than 1,800 people in Burundi this year.
(AFP, 8/6/19)
2019 Aug 7, Members of the United Nations signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation, an agreement it hopes will make it easier to settle cross-border commercial disputes and stabilize trade relationships.
(Reuters, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, It was reported that a confidential UN report reveals that North Korea has been employing a range of sophisticated cyberattacks in an effort to bankroll its development of weapons of mass destruction.
(BGR News, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 7, UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said reports suggest more than 100,000 people in Syria have been detained, abducted or gone missing during the eight-year conflict, with the government mainly responsible.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 8, A UN climate panel said in a report that divesting from fossil fuels alone won't be enough to limit warming from climate change, adding that issues including deforestation and agriculture must be addressed to drive down greenhouse gas emissions.
(ABC News, 8/8/19)
2019 Aug 8, The UN called on forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognized government and a rival administration to commit to a humanitarian truce by midnight on August 9.
(AFP, 8/9/19)
2019 Aug 9, The UN refugee agency says fighting over Libya's capital of Tripoli has displaced more than 105,000 people since April, when a Libyan commander launched an offensive to take the city from the UN-backed government.
(AP, 8/9/19)
2019 Aug 9, A new report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said increased carbon-dioxide levels lower the nutritional value of food staples like rice and wheat.
(Business Insider, 8/10/19)
2019 Aug 12, It was reported that UN experts are investigating at least 35 instances in 17 countries of North Koreans using cyberattacks to illegally raise money for weapons of mass destruction programs — and they are calling for sanctions against ships providing gasoline and diesel to the country.
(AP, 8/12/19)
2019 Aug 14, The United Nations said it was gravely concerned about reports indicating 11 civilians had been killed in an Afghan security force operation in an eastern province near the border with Pakistan. A politician in the area said government forces had attacked a student gathering over the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 14, Winifred "Winnie" Byanyima, a former Ugandan politician and the current head of the humanitarian group Oxfam International, was appointed the new executive director of the UN AIDS agency.
(AP, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 15, The United Nations said more than 37 attacks have been reported against health workers, health facilities and ambulances in Libya since the self-styled Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Hifter launched an offensive in early April to capture the capital of Tripoli.
(AP, 8/15/19)
2019 Aug 16, A group of UN human rights experts called for the immediate release of three Iranian women given long jail terms for protesting laws compelling women to wear veils.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, The UN migration agency said more than 500 migrants have lost their lives in the Americas so far this year, about a 33% increase from a year ago.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 16, The UN expert on human rights in Iran said last year saw increasing restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and continuing violations of the right to life, liberty and a fair trial in the Islamic Republic, including 253 reported executions of adults and children.
(AP, 8/16/19)
2019 Aug 18, The UN mission in Libya condemned airstrikes by the self-styled Libyan National Army on a militia-run airport west of, Tripoli, saying the facility had no military targets.
(AP, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 20, Officials from the UN refugee agency and Bangladesh's government say few Muslim Rohingya refugees have responded to plans for their repatriation to Myanmar, and all who did say they don't want to go back.
(AP, 8/20/19)
2019 Aug 21, The UN World Health Organization said the levels of microplastics in drinking water don't appear to be risky, but that research has been spotty and more is needed into their effects on the environment and health.
(AP, 8/22/19)
2019 Aug 22, The UN Security Council held an open meeting at Russia's request on a US missile test that would have been banned under a treaty that both Washington and Moscow abandoned earlier this month.
(AP, 8/21/19)
2019 Aug 22, Paris and the UN called for the protection of the fire-plagued Amazon rainforest as Brazil's right-wing president accused his French counterpart of having a "colonialist mentality" over the issue.
(AFP, 8/22/19)
2019 Aug 22, A UN report charged that sexual violence carried out by Myanmar's security forces against the country's Muslim Rohingya minority was so widespread and severe that it demonstrates intent to commit genocide as well as warrants prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
(AP, 8/22/19)
2019 Aug 23, UN special rapporteur Philip Alston challenged Malaysia's claim to have nearly ended poverty, saying there was "significant poverty" with an estimated one in six people in the Southeast Asian country considered poor.
(AP, 8/23/19)
2019 Aug 23, UNICEF said more than 9,000 schools have closed and more than 1.9 million children in West and Central Africa have been forced out of school because of increasing violence in the region and attacks specifically targeting education facilities.
(AP, 8/23/19)
2019 Aug 26, US Pres. Donald Trump failed to attend a meeting about climate change and biodiversity attended by other world leaders at the G7. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the world faces "a dramatic climate emergency." He urged leaders at a Sept. 23 summit in New York to agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than they promised in the 2015 Paris climate accord. Guterres said that Greenland's ice cap was melting "dramatically" and that 2015 through 2019 were "the five hottest years on record".
(AP, 8/26/19)
2019 Aug 27, The UN refugee agency spokesman said at least 40 people are feared dead or missing after the latest wreck of a boat carrying migrants bound for Europe off the coast of Libya. 65 migrants, mostly from Sudan, were rescued.
(Reuters, 8/27/19)(SFC, 8/28/19, p.A4)
2019 Aug 27, Tanzanian authorities said they had reached an agreement with Burundi to send all Burundian refugees back home from October 1. The UN refugee agency urged the two governments not to forcibly repatriate Burundian refugees sheltering in Tanzania.
(AP, 8/28/19)
2019 Aug 28, A UN commission (CICIG) that spent the last 12 years probing graft in Guatemala described the country as "captured" by corruption in its final report, days before it is set to wrap up operations after President Jimmy Morales refused to renew its mandate.
(AP, 8/28/19)
2019 Aug 29, The World Health Organization said there has been a "dramatic resurgence" of measles in Europe, in part fueled by vaccine refusals, with nearly 90,000 people sickened by the virus in the first half of 2019.
(AP, 8/29/19)
2019 Sep 3, A report the UN trade agency UNCTAD said leaving the European Union without a trade deal would cost Britain at least $16 billion in lost exports, and would probably cost far more after indirect effects are taken into account.
(Reuters, 9/3/19)
2019 Sep 4, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro accused Chile's former leader Michelle Bachelet, now the UN human rights chief, of meddling in his country's affairs after she criticized a rise police violence and an erosion of democracy.
(Reuters, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 4, North Korea told the United Nations to cut the number of international staff it deploys in the country because the world body's programs have failed "due to the politicization of UN assistance by hostile forces".
(Reuters, 9/4/19)
2019 Sep 5, A UN report said North Korea is pressing ahead with its nuclear weapons program while evading sanctions.
(AFP, 9/6/19)
2019 Sep 5, Diplomats said the US has blocked the UN Security Council from issuing a statement following the recent exchange of cross-border fire between the militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Israeli forces in Israel. The initial draft of the French-proposed council statement would have condemned "all violations of the Blue Line," which is the UN-drawn dividing line between the two countries.
(AP, 9/6/19)
2019 Sep 5, It was reported that the UN agencies for health and children have launched a diphtheria vaccination campaign in war-torn Yemen targeting over 2.8 million children between the ages of six weeks and 15 years. A UN spokesman said that over 4,000 Yemenis have gotten diphtheria since 2017 and more than 200 have died.
(AP, 9/5/19)
2019 Sep 5, A UN source said at least 66 civilians were kidnapped in July in southeastern Niger near the border with Nigeria where the jihadist group Boko Haram is active.
(AP, 9/5/19)
2019 Sep 6, It was reported that Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification warned (during UN talks on the issue in New Delhi this week) that vast swathes of land, from Africa to the Middle East, are being left useless by climate shifts and human pressures such as deforestation, mining and farming, threatening to hike migration and conflict.
(Reuters, 9/6/19)
2019 Sep 6, The UN said it had sent aid to thousands of displaced Syrians living in an isolated desert camp near the Jordanian border, the first such delivery since February.
(AFP, 9/6/19)
2019 Sep 7, The UN said flooding triggered by heavy rains in Sudan have killed a total of 78 people across the country in the past two months.
(AP, 9/7/19)
2019 Sep 9, The United Nations' atomic watchdog (IAEA) confirmed that Iran is preparing to use more advanced centrifuges, another breach of limits set in the country's unraveling nuclear deal with major powers.
(AP, 9/9/19)
2019 Sep 9, The UN human rights chief said that extrajudicial killings appeared to be continuing in Venezuela and the Special Action Forces (FAES) presumed to be responsible had received support from the highest levels of government.
(Reuters, 9/9/19)
2019 Sep 12, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to ease the arms embargo on the Central African Republic's government following its signing of a peace agreement with 14 armed groups in February and progress in reforming its security sector.
(AP, 9/12/19)
2019 Sep 12, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution renewing its mission in Libya for another year and pledging to support struggling efforts to build a ceasefire in the war-torn country.
(AFP, 9/12/19)
2019 Sep 13, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres selected a Nigerian general to lead a UN investigation into attacks on hospitals and other civilian sites in Syria's last opposition stronghold in the northwest amid protests that its findings will be kept secret.
(AP, 9/13/19)
2019 Sep 16, A UN-backed court based in the Netherlands unveiled new charges, including terrorism and intentional homicide, against a Hezbollah fighter who also is accused of assassinating former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced that a judge has confirmed a new five-count indictment accusing Salim Jamil Ayyash of three bombings targeting Lebanese politicians in 2004 and 2005.
(AP, 9/16/19)
2019 Sep 16, A special UN fact-finding mission has urged that Myanmar be held responsible in international legal forums for alleged genocide against its Muslim Rohingya minority.
(AP, 9/16/19)
2019 Sep 16, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock said Saudi Arabia plans to pay $500 million next week of a pledge it made in February to help fund a humanitarian response in Yemen, which the world body has described as the world's worst aid crisis.
(Reuters, 9/16/19)
2019 Sep 17, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a compromise resolution extending the UN political mission in Afghanistan. It dropped a Chinese demand to include a reference to China's $1 trillion "belt and road" initiative but stressed the need for regional connectivity.
(AP, 9/17/19)
2019 Sep 19, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said one-quarter of UN member states have carried out suspected reprisals against activists who cooperate with the world body on human rights issues.
(Reuters, 9/19/19)
2019 Sep 19, The UN said North Korea's crop production this year is expected to drop to its lowest level in five years, bringing serious shortages for 40% of the population, as a dry spell and poor irrigation hit an economy already reeling from sanctions over its weapons programs.
(Reuters, 9/19/19)
2019 Sep 19, The US announced that it is expelling two Cuban diplomats and restricting travel of members of Cuba's permanent mission to the United Nations as leaders gathered from around the world for the annual UN General Assembly.
(AP, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 20, The UN's humanitarian agency said that two of Sudan's southeastern provinces have reported 124 suspected cholera cases with seven deaths.
(AP, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 21, Youth leaders gathered at the U&N to demand radical moves to fight climate change.
(AP, 9/21/19)
2019 Sep 22, The UN said Gabon will become the first African country paid with international funds to preserve its forests in an effort to fight climate change.
(AFP, 9/22/10)
2019 Sep 23, At the UN world leader after world leader said that they will do more to prevent a warming world from reaching even more dangerous levels, but as they made their pledges, they conceded it was not enough.
(AP, 9/23/19)
2019 Sep 23, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the creation of a committee on Syria that will include government and opposition representatives to draft a post-war constitution.
(AFP, 9/23/19)
2019 Sep 23, Two dozen mainly European countries voiced concern at alleged torture, unlawful detentions and unfair trials of critics, including women activists and journalists, in Saudi Arabia. This was the second joint statement criticizing the kingdom read out at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in six months.
(AP, 9/23/19)
2019 Sep 24, US Pres. Donald Trump addressed the UN and used his speech to single out Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela for criticism at the UN General Assembly. Trump delivered a roaring defense of nationalism and American sovereignty even as he tried to rally a multinational response to Iran's escalating aggression. In remarks to reporters Trump said he held up aid to Ukraine to fight corruption and urge European nations to share in helping out Ukraine.
(AP, 9/24/19)
2019 Sep 24, Far-right Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro blamed the international media and environmental organizations for spreading “lies" about the fires that are ravaging the Amazon rainforest during a nationalist speech that opened the 2019 United Nations General Assembly.
(Huffpost, 9/24/19)
2019 Sep 24, The United Nations warned that air pollution from Indonesian forest fires is putting nearly 10 million children at risk. Scientists said the blazes were releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases.
(AFP, 9/24/19)
2019 Sep 25, The UN agency coordinating postal systems worldwide reached a compromise to reform its fee structure, proposed by the United States, that would avert the Trump administration leaving the global network.
(Reuters, 9/25/19)
2019 Sep 26, The UN International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran has committed a further breach of its nuclear deal with major powers by enriching uranium with advanced centrifuges, and plans to install more of those advanced machines than previously announced.
(Reuters, 9/26/19)
2019 Sep 26, Sierra Leone Pres. Julius Maada Bio called for "urgent and imperative" reform of the UN Security Council to give more representation and "an equal say" to Africa in international decision making.
(AP, 9/26/19)
2019 Sep 27, The UN Human Rights Council agreed to set up an international fact-finding mission to document violations in Venezuela, including torture and thousands of summary executions.
(Reuters, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 27, It was reported that the UN has suspended Sri Lankan troops from peacekeeping duties after Colombo ignored repeated warnings and appointed a general accused of war crimes to head its army. Major General Shavendra Silva was promoted last month despite the allegations against him. Some 490 Sri Lankan troops are currently deployed for peacekeeping operations in Mali, Lebanon and Sudan.
(AFP, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 27, The UN said worsening violence has doubled the number of people displaced from northwest Nigeria to some 40,000 over the past four months.
(Reuters, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 27, A UN human rights envoy said Zimbabwe's political and economic environment is deteriorating, causing anxiety as hopes fade for a long-awaited improvement in people's living conditions.
(Reuters, 9/27/19)
2019 Oct 2, It was reported that the United States is withholding its dues to the UN's aviation agency, arguing the body needs to move quickly with reforms like expanding public access to documents and giving greater protections to whistleblowers.
(Reuters, 10/2/19)
2019 Oct 3, A UN report said deteriorating security across Afghanistan in the past four years led to over 14,000 “grave violations" against children, including nearly 3,500 youngsters killed and over 9,000 injured.
(AP, 10/3/19)
2019 Oct 4, A panel of experts at the UN labor agency is calling on Venezuelan authorities to halt violence, threats and other forms of “aggression" against workers and employers who oppose President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
(AP, 10/4/19)
2019 Oct 9, A UN report released today criticized American airstrikes earlier this year against alleged drug facilities in Afghanistan, saying they were unlawful and caused significant civilian casualties. The raids killed at least 30 civilians and may have left dozens more dead.
(AP, 10/9/19)(The Telegraph, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 9, A United Nations Development Program report said "If fighting continues through 2022, Yemen will rank the poorest country in the world, with 79 percent of the population living under the poverty line and 65 percent classified as extremely poor".
(AFP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 9, UNICEF, the UN children's agency, said more than 4,000 people have died in Congo this year in the world's largest measles outbreak. More than 200,000 measles cases have been reported across Congo since January.
(AP, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 10, A UN photo showed eight North Korean vessels, several carrying illicit coal shipments, anchored in Chinese waters off the port of Ningbo-Zhoushan. The photo was made public on April 17, 2020.
(Reuters, 4/18/20)
2019 Oct 11, World Health Organization (WHO) experts said measles is staging a devastating comeback in epidemics across the world as the virus exploits dangerous gaps in vaccination coverage.
(Reuters, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 11, Today marked the eighth annual International Day of the Girl, a UN observance that focuses attention and resources on the fight for girls’ rights and empowerment.
(https://unausa.org/event/international-day-of-the-girl/)
2019 Oct 15, The UN said Turkey could be deemed responsible for summary executions by an affiliated armed group of captured Kurdish fighters and a politician, acts that may amount to war crimes.
(Reuters, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 15, The UN Security Council ended 15 years of peacekeeping operations in Haiti, voicing regret that the country is still saddled with huge economic, political and social woes.
(AFP, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 17, A new UN report said an "unprecedented" number of civilians were killed or wounded in Afghanistan from July to September this year.
(AFP, 10/17/19)
2019 Oct 17, Venezuela won a contested election for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council despite a campaign by over 50 organizations and many countries opposed to Nicolas Maduro's government and its rights record. The 193-member world body elected 14 members to the 47-member Human Rights Council for three-year terms starting Jan. 1. Under its rules, seats are allocated to regions to ensure geographical representation.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 18, The UN condemned Egypt over the recent arrests of prominent activists and demanded that Cairo probe allegations that they were tortured by the security services while in custody.
(AFP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 18, The United States said it has paid the United Nations $180 million toward its annual dues and expects to make another payment of $96 million within the next few weeks, which should help ease the UN's worst cash crisis in nearly a decade.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 22, An independent UN investigator on human rights said food insecurity in North Korea "is at an alarming level," with nearly half the population — 11 million people — undernourished.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, The UN said four joint observation posts manned by both forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognized government and the country's Houthi rebels have been established in the key port city of Hodeida.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 22, Sadako Ogata (b.1927), leader of the UN refugee agency from 1991-2000, died. She was one of the first Japanese to hold a top job at an international organization.
(AP, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 23, Michael Lynk, the UN independent expert on human rights in the Palestinian territories, called for an international ban on all products made in Israeli settlements as a step to potentially end Israel's 52-year "illegal occupation".
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 24, An independent UN human rights expert said Iran executed seven child offenders last year and two so far this year even though human rights law prohibits the death penalty for anyone under age 18. Javaid Rehman said he has "credible information" that there are at least 90 child offenders currently on death row in Iran.
(AP, 10/24/19)
2019 Oct 24, The United Nations said it would send a special mission to investigate human rights abuses in Chile, where a general strike went into its second day following a week of street protests that left 19 dead.
(AFP, 10/25/19)
2019 Oct 24, The Turkish and Syrian ambassadors clashed at their first UN Security Council encounter since Turkey launched a cross-border offensive earlier this month following the withdrawal of US forces.
(AP, 10/25/19)
2019 Oct 29, China and the West clashed at the UN human rights committee over claims that Beijing systematically oppresses ethnic minority Muslims in far western Xinjiang province. The United States and 22 other countries at the United Nations pushed China to stop detaining ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims, prompting China's UN envoy to warn it was not "helpful" for trade talks between Beijing and Washington.
(AP, 10/30/19)(Reuters, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 30, Michel Kafando, the UN envoy to Burundi, announced that he planned to step down from the post he has held for two years, amid concerns over the impartiality of elections set for 2020.
(AFP, 10/30/19)
2019 Oct 30, The UN humanitarian office said that humanitarian groups are "relieved" that Nigeria's has suspended the ban on Mercy Corps and Action Against Hunger.
(AP, 10/31/19)
2019 Oct 31, Three United Nations agencies warned that record 45 million people across southern Africa face severe food shortages in the next six months, with around a quarter of them currently enduring drought-induced "crisis" food insecurity.
(Reuters, 10/31/19)
2019 Oct 31, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to keep the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur for another year in hopes the new civilian-led transitional government can restore peace.
(AP, 10/31/19)
2019 Nov 1, The UN said Spain will host the COP25 climate summit in December, after Chile abandoned plans to hold it due to deadly anti-government protests.
(AFP, 11/1/19)
2019 Nov 3, Speaking in Thailand at a meeting of ASEAN leaders UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern over the plight of the 730,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state, calling on Myanmar's government to take responsibility by dealing with the "root causes" of their flight to Bangladesh and working toward their safe repatriation.
(AP, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 3, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees reached an agreement with its employees in Jordan to end a strike launched earlier today.
(AP, 11/4/19)
2019 Nov 4, The United States formally notified the UN that it was withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, making the world's largest economy the sole outlier from the agreement.
(AFP, 11/5/19)
2019 Nov 6, The UN said Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner general of the agency known as UNRWA, has been placed on administrative leave as an internal probe into alleged mismanagement at the organization proceeds. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees was set up in the years after more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their lands during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.
(AFP, 11/6/19)
2019 Nov 7, The UN General Assembly voted 187-3 to condemn the American economic embargo of Cuba for the 28th year, rejecting US criticism of human rights violations there and criticizing the Trump administration's increasingly tough enforcement measures.
(AP, 11/7/19)
2019 Nov 8, The United Nations' highest court ruled that it has jurisdiction in a case brought by Ukraine that alleges Russia breached treaties on terrorist financing and racial discrimination following its annexation of Crimea by arming rebels in eastern Ukraine and reining in the rights of ethnic Tartars and other minorities.
(AP, 11/8/19)
2019 Nov 11, A report by UN experts said Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have repeatedly violated an arms embargo on Libya and it is "highly probable" that a foreign attack aircraft is responsible for a deadly strike on a migrant detention center. The report also accused Sudan and the head of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known by his nickname Hemeti, of violating UN sanctions by deploying 1,000 Sudanese troops to Libya.
(Reuters, 11/11/19)
2019 Nov 12, A panel of experts' report to the UN Security Council said a significant escalation of US airstrikes targeting al-Shabab militants and leaders has kept the al-Qaida-linked group "off-balance" but has had "little effect on its ability to launch regular asymmetric attacks throughout Somalia".
(AP, 11/13/19)
2019 Nov 13, The UN refugee agency said nations in Latin America and the Caribbean will need $1.35 billion to respond to the massive exodus of Venezuelans. An estimated 4.6 million Venezuelans have now fled their crisis-torn country.
(AP, 11/13/19)
2019 Nov 14, A key UN committee approved a resolution condemning North Korea’s widespread human rights violations which may amount to crimes against humanity — a decision denounced by the country’s UN mission as “politically motivated" and based on “fabrications".
(AP, 11/14/19)
2019 Nov 15, The United Nations Security Council extended the UN's peacekeeping mission in the violence-plagued Central African Republic for another year.
(AFP, 11/15/19)
2019 Nov 15, The UN Security Council extended an arms embargo on Somalia and a ban on trade in charcoal, a key source of funds for al-Shabab extremists — and it imposed a new ban on ingredients for explosive devices the group is increasingly using.
(AP, 11/16/19)
2019 Nov 16, Iran informed the UN IAEA that its stock of heavy water, a moderator used in a type of reactor it is developing, had exceeded 130 metric tons.
(Reuters, 11/18/19)
2019 Nov 18, A UN nuclear watchdog IAEA report showed that Iran has breached another limit of its nuclear deal with major powers by accumulating slightly more than 130 tons of heavy water, a substance used in a type of reactor it is developing.
(AP, 11/18/19)
2019 Nov 18, Adela Raz, Afghanistan’s first female ambassador to the UN, launched a UN group to protect the rights Afghan women gained after the Taliban was ousted from power 18 years ago, amid fresh efforts to rekindle talks with the fundamentalist group to end the country’s long-running war.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 18, An independent expert working with the UN human rights office estimated that over 100,000 children are being held in migration-related detention in the United States. The 100,000 figure was drawn from a UN refugee agency report citing data from 2015, the latest figure his team could find. New US government data released this month found 69,550 migrant children have been held in US government custody over the past year.
(AP, 11/18/19) (AP, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 18, The head of a UN treaty said a rare species of porpoise is facing imminent extinction as fishing vessels appear to be flouting an international ban on them entering its last sanctuary, off the coast of Mexico.
(Reuters, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 19, The United Nations voiced alarm at reports dozens may have been killed in Iranian demonstrations, as the Islamic republic said it will unblock the internet only once calm has been restored.
(AFP, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 19, The UN and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory remain in breach of international law, rejecting the Trump administration's position accepting them.
(Reuters, 11/19/19)
2019 Nov 25, Today marked International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Tens of thousands of women marched as the UN women's agency kicked off 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
(Reuters, 11/25/19)(SFC, 11/27/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 1, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the world must stop a "war against nature" and find more political will to combat climate change. Guterres also said Bank of England Governor Mark Carney (54) will lead a push by the United Nations to make the finance sector take proper account of the risks posed by climate change.
(Reuters, 12/1/19)(AP, 12/1/19)
2019 Dec 2, The UN opened a two-week climate summit in Madrid. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that governments risked sleepwalking past a point of no return.
(Reuters, 12/2/19)
2019 Dec 3, Agnes Callamard, the UN rapporteur for extrajudicial executions, said the world has not done enough to ensure justice is done over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 12/3/19)
2019 Dec 3, The UN said this decade is set to be the hottest in history in an annual assessment outlining the ways in which climate change is outpacing humanity's ability to adapt to it. Man-made emissions from burning fossil fuels, building infrastructure, growing crops and transporting goods mean 2019 is set to break the record for atmospheric carbon concentrations, locking in further warming. Oceans, which absorb 90 percent of the excess heat produced by greenhouse gases, are now at their highest recorded temperatures.
(AFP, 12/3/19)
2019 Dec 3, The United Nations said about half of Zimbabwe’s population faces severe hunger amid a devastating drought and economic collapse.
(AP, 12/3/19)
2019 Dec 4, It was reported that the United Nations human rights office is urging Tanzania to reconsider its decision barring individuals and non-governmental groups from filing cases against it at the African Court on Human and People’s Rights. The continental court is based in the East African nation.
(AP, 12/4/19)
2019 Dec 6, The Republic of Djibouti announced, in New York, that it is starting its official campaign for election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
(PRNewswire, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 9, The UN's general assembly passed a resolution condemning Russia's occupation of Crimea and the city of Sebastopol and urging the withdrawal of its military forces "without delay".
(The Telegraph, 12/9/19)
2019 Dec 9, The UN released $2.6 million in emergency aid to combat the measles epidemic in Samoa as the death toll reached 70.
(AP, 12/10/19)
2019 Dec 10, UN experts said the interference of Chadian and Sudanese fighters in Libya is “a direct threat" to the security and stability of the war-torn country, which a leader of the Islamic State extremist group has declared “one of the main axes" of its future operations.
(AP, 12/10/19)
2019 Dec 10, The Greek government said it has lodged objections to the United Nations over an accord between Libya and Turkey mapping out maritime boundaries as a violation of international law.
(Reuters, 12/10/19)
2019 Dec 10, The United States held back a UN Security Council meeting to discuss North Korea’s human rights abuses, after Pyongyang warned it would be a “serious provocation".
(The Independent, 12/11/19)
2019 Dec 11, Europe sought to bolster the world's faltering battle against climate change with its "Green Deal" to slash fossil fuel dependence, while teen activist Greta Thunberg rebuked global leaders for dragging their feet.
(Reuters, 12/11/19)
2019 Dec 11, In Spain dozens of young campaigners and indigenous rights activists were thrown out of United Nations climate talks after staging a protest demanding that nations commit to act now to avert catastrophic climate change.
(AFP, 12/11/19)
2019 Dec 12, The United Nations warned that famine threatens the lives of up to 5.5 million people in South Sudan, where droughts and flooding have destroyed crops and livestock, compounding "intense political instability".
(Reuters, 12/12/19)
2019 Dec 13, A famous Belgian carnival was removed from the UN's cultural heritage list following complaints that its most recent edition contained blatant displays of anti-Semitism. The Aalst carnival was taken off UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list during a meeting in Bogota, Colombia, becoming the first cultural tradition stricken from the UN's global inventory of cultural practices.
(AP, 12/13/19)
2019 Dec 13, The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that despite some improvements, Greece was still in violation of certain international obligations in how and where people are imprisoned.
(AP, 12/13/19)
2019 Dec 13, A UN human rights report accused Chilean security forces of serious human rights violations against protesters over the past two months, including deaths, torture, sexual abuse and the use of excessive force.
(AP, 12/13/19)
2019 Dec 13, The United Nations extended the work of its Palestinian refugee agency for another three years, despite fierce opposition from the United States and Israel.
(AFP, 12/13/19)
2019 Dec 15, The UN Secretary General said global efforts to tackle climate change have stalled due to a lack of ambition, as the COP25 conference in Madrid drew to a close with a watered-down agreement. Brazil, Australia and the United States were singled out for their refusal to compromise on their own emissions targets.
(AP, 12/15/19)
2019 Dec 16, The United Nations' AIDS agency fired two staffers for financial and sexual misconduct, including whistleblower Martina Brostrom, whose allegations of being sexually assaulted sparked months of turmoil at the organization.
(AP, 12/16/19)
2019 Dec 17, The UN urged governments, businesses and others to “reboot" the world's response to refugees as the number of people fleeing their homes rises along with hostility to migrants.
(AP, 12/17/19)
2019 Dec 18, The UN General Assembly called on the US, which hosts the organization's headquarters, to lift restrictions on Iranian diplomats. The resolution also condemned the denial of visas to Russian diplomats.
(AFP, 12/18/19)
2019 Dec 18, To celebrate International Migrants Day, the United Nations rolled out the #WeTogether hashtag on social media to draw attention to the struggles of 272 million migrants. The Trump administration, meanwhile, spent the day unveiling proposals to tighten eligibility requirements for US asylum seekers.
(The Week, 12/18/19)
2019 Dec 20, A group of independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council called for Iran to release all people detained during recent unrest. They said they are “shocked" by reports that suggest prisoners are being tortured or otherwise abused.
(AP, 12/20/19)
2019 Dec 24, The UN said a dozen humanitarian organizations in war-torn southern Yemen have suspended their operations following a string of targeted attacks. Yemen's rebel-led health ministry announced that severe outbreaks of swine flu and dengue fever have killed close to 200 people since October.
(AP, 12/24/19)
2019 Dec 26, The UN reported that more than 100,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured over the past decade, as it renewed calls to end the bloody 18-year conflict.
(AFP, 12/26/19)
2019 Dec 27, The UN General Assembly approved a Russian-led resolution that will start the process of drafting a new international treaty to combat cybercrime over objections from the European Union, the United States and other countries.
(AP, 12/27/19)(AFP, 12/28/19)
2019 Dec 27, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution strongly condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention.
(AP, 12/28/19)
2020 Jan 1, United Nations shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO) banned ships from using fuels with a sulphur content above 0.5%, compared with 3.5% previously, in the biggest shake up for the oil and shipping industries in decades.
(Reuters, 1/22/20)
2020 Jan 7, Iran's foreign minister said he has been informed by UN chief Antonio Guterres that Washington has denied him a visa for a trip to UN headquarters in New York.
(AFP, 1/7/20)
2020 Jan 10, The United Nations said seven countries -- Lebanon, Yemen, Venezuela, Central African Republic, Gambia, Lesotho and Tonga -- have fallen behind in their financial contributions and would not be able to in the 74th session of the General Assembly.
(AFP, 1/11/20)
2020 Jan 11, Lebanon said it "regrets" being among seven countries stripped by the United Nations of voting privileges in the General Assembly for failing to pay their dues.
(AFP, 1/11/20)
2020 Jan 14, It was reported that UN sanctions experts are warning people not to attend a cryptocurrency conference in North Korea in February, flagging it as a likely sanctions violation, according to a confidential report due to be submitted to the UN Security Council later this month.
(Reuters, 1/14/20)
2020 Jan 15, Four coastal Louisiana tribes and one in Alaska that say the US government violated their human rights by failing to take action on climate change have submitted a formal complaint to the United Nations in Switzerland.
(AP, 1/17/20)
2020 Jan 21, The UN said rising numbers of children in Guatemala are going hungry as drought linked to climate change reduces food harvests, fueling child malnutrition rates.
(Reuters, 1/21/20)
2020 Jan 21, A UN human rights panel ruled for the first time that people fleeing the effects of climate change may be entitled to claim asylum, even as it dismissed an individual plaintiff's case against his deportation from New Zealand.
(AP, 1/21/20)
2020 Jan 21, A UN-backed Conference on Disarmament opened in Geneva. The United States urged China to join trilateral nuclear arms talks with Moscow, calling Beijing's secrecy around growing stockpiles a "serious threat to strategic stability".
(Reuters, 1/21/20)
2020 Jan 24, UN deputy chief Amina Mohammed said there is an “alarming" crisis in education, pointing to the 258 million children under the age of 17 who are not going to school — and only 49 percent completing secondary education.
(AP, 1/25/20)
2020 Jan 26, In Libya fighting erupted as the country's east-based forces advanced toward the strategic western city of Misrata. The UN mission to Libya slammed ongoing violations of a UN Security Council arms embargo, despite commitments made a week ago at an international summit in Berlin. It said numerous flights had landed in Libyan airports over the last 10 days, providing both sides with "advanced weapons, armored vehicles, advisers and fighters".
(AP, 1/26/20)(AFP, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 28, The UN's WHO said China has agreed that the World Health Organization can send international experts there "as soon as possible" to increase understanding of a new coronavirus and guide the global response to the outbreak.
(Reuters, 1/28/20)
2020 Jan 28, The UN reported that hundreds of children in the Sahel were killed, maimed or forcibly separated from their parents last year as the jihadist conflict continued to rage across the region.
(AFP, 1/28/20)
2020 Jan 28, The UN refugee agency reported that tribal clashes in Sudan’s West Darfur province forced more than 11,000 people to flee into neighboring Chad over the past month.
(AP, 1/28/20)
2020 Jan 28, The UN food agency said that one of its warehouses in the Houthi-controlled part of Yemen had been looted. WFP said 127.5 tons (over 115,000 kg) of aid were stolen in the northern province of Hajja.
(AP, 1/28/20)
2020 Jan 29, UNICEF said a six-ton shipment of respiratory masks and protective suits for health care workers landed in China today for distribution in Wuhan, the epicenter of a spreading coronavirus outbreak.
(Reuters, 1/29/20)
2020 Jan 29, Bangladesh officials said authorities in partnership with the United Nations will expand educational programs for hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya children living in refugee camps who are currently receiving only basic lessons.
(AP, 1/29/20)
2020 Jan 30, The UN's refugee agency in Libya announced it is suspending its operations at a jam-packed migrant facility over safety concerns as deadly fighting near the capital intensifies.
(AP, 1/30/20)
2020 Jan 30, The UN said the worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years needs some $76 million to help control and the money is “required by, actually, now".
(AP, 1/30/20)
2020 Jan 30, The UN Security Council called for an immediate end to a “significant" escalation in fighting in Yemen between Houthi Shiite rebels and the Saudi-led military coalition supporting the government.
(AP, 1/30/20)
2020 Jan 31, The UN Security Council approved a slight relaxation of the arms embargo on the Central African Republic, an issue that has been a source of friction between France and Russia. It allows the CAR to acquire military vehicles mounted with up to 14.5mm weapons, provided the United Nations is notified ahead of time.
(AFP, 2/1/20)
2020 Jan 31, A UN report said Yemen's Huthi rebels are in possession of new weapons similar to those produced in Iran in potential violation of a UN arms embargo.
(AFP, 1/31/20)
2020 Feb 4, PM Boris Johnson formally launched the UN COP26 process in London with a pledge to bring forward the UK’s target to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035, in a bid to cut greenhouse gas pollution. COP26 is the abbreviated name of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP26 will be held in Glasgow in November.
(Bloomberg, 2/4/20)(AFP, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 5, Organizers said Italian fashion house Prada is helping to fund a United Nations program that will enlist high school students from 10 cities to spread awareness about how humans impact the world's oceans.
(AP, 2/5/20)
2020 Feb 7, The UN said people are fleeing a surge of attacks in northern Mozambique where witnesses have described beheadings, mass kidnappings and villages burned to the ground.
(Reuters, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 7, A UN poverty expert said Spain is depriving its poor of basic rights, even as its businesses recover from the economic crisis.
(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 7, Tunisia fired Moncef Baati, its ambassador to the UN, accusing him of failing to consult the foreign ministry on key issues that diplomatic sources said included Washington's controversial Middle East peace plan.
(AFP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 10, The United Nations said it is to test drones equipped with mapping sensors and atomizers to spray pesticides in parts of east Africa battling an invasion of desert locusts that are ravaging crops and exacerbating a hunger crisis.
(Reuters, 2/10/20)
2020 Feb 10, A confidential United Nations report disclosed that. North Korea stepped up its exports of illegal coal shipments in 2019, with most of those deliveries headed for China.
(Bloomberg, 2/10/20)
2020 Feb 11, The UN's World Health Organization convened outside experts to fast-track promising tests, drugs and vaccines to help slow the outbreak of a new virus that emerged in China that has killed more than 1,000 people and spread to two dozen other countries. The coronavirus is now called COVID-19.
(AP, 2/11/20)(ABC News, 2/11/20)
2020 Feb 12, The UN human rights office issued a report on companies it said have business ties to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a long-delayed move likely to draw the ire of Israel and its main ally the United States. It said 94 of the companies were domiciled in Israel and 18 in six other states.
(Reuters, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, The UN Security Council endorsed a 55-point road map for ending the war in Libya and condemned the recent increase in violence in the oil-rich North African country.
(AP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 16, The UN said Yemen’s warring sides have agreed to implement a long-delayed and major prisoner swap, in a sign that talks to end the disastrous war between the country's internationally recognized government and its Houthi rebels could be making progress.
(AP, 2/15/20)
2020 Feb 16, Germany and the UN, which co-hosted a Jan. 19 Berlin summit, gathered foreign ministers and other officials from a dozen countries on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to try to bolster a drive to cut off outside military support for Libya's warring parties.
(AP, 2/16/20)
2020 Feb 18, The UN issued a scathing report that accused Haitian police of not protecting an impoverished neighborhood from corrupt officers and gang leaders they say shot at people and set fire to homes and cars in a recent three-day attack.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 18, It was reported that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have blocked half of the United Nations’ aid delivery programs in the war-torn country — a strong-arm tactic to force the agency to give them greater control over the massive humanitarian campaign, along with a cut of billions of dollars in foreign assistance.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 19, A UN-backed report said children and adolescents are being bombarded with ads on social media promoting harmful products from fast food to tobacco and alcohol.
(Reuters, 2/19/20)
2020 Feb 20, The UN envoy for Haiti said the political impasse that has paralyzed Haiti is sending its economy deeper into recession, with 4.6 million people needing humanitarian aid with no immediate end in sight.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, The UN migration agency said a rubber dinghy packed with 91 migrants that set out from Libyan shores in hopes of reaching Europe has apparently gone missing in the Mediterranean.
(AP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, A UN rights probe said South Sudan's government forces and other armed groups have "deliberately starved" civilians by denying aid access and displacing communities.
(AFP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 20, The UN said estimated 170,000 of the 900,000 civilians forced from their homes in a massive wave of displacement in northwestern Syria are living out in the open.
(AFP, 2/20/20)
2020 Feb 24, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a “call to action" to countries, businesses and all people to help renew and revive human rights across the globe, laying out a seven-point plan amid concerns about climate change, conflict and repression.
(AP, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, The UN mission in Libya said that the country’s warring sides had agreed to turn a shaky cease-fire into a formal deal, stirring modest hopes after weeks of sporadic violence that derailed negotiations.
(AP, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 25, The UN Security Council renewed its sanctions regime on Yemen for another year, after tense negotiations between Britain and Russia, which threatened to veto any mention, even implicit, of Iran.
(AFP, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 25, In Mali three Irish soldiers were injured in a roadside bomb attack on a multinational convoy of UN peacekeepers about 80 km (50 miles) northeast of the city of Gao.
(AP, 2/26/20)
2020 Mar 2, Investigators for the UN-backed Human Rights Council said that they had found evidence of war crimes in Syria committed by nearly all sides in the conflict during the second half of last year and into January.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 2, The United Nation's refugee agency said that Greece had no right to stop accepting asylum applications as Athens struggled with a sudden increase of arrivals at its border of Middle East refugees and migrants from Turkey.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 3, UN watchdog IAEA, policing Iran's nuclear deal with major powers, admonished Tehran for failing to provide access to two undeclared locations or fully answer its questions about past activities there and at a previously known site.
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 3, The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the last patient being treated for Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo was discharged today, bringing the 19-month-old outbreak closer than ever to an end.
(Reuters, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 5, A new UN study said nearly 90 percent of the world's population holds some prejudice against women.
(AFP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 5, The UN said a British UN employee is one of the four people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Senegal.
(AFP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 5, In Peru Javier Perez de Cuellar (100), former UN secretary general (1981-1991) known for his peace-making efforts including brokering a ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war, died.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 9, The UN adopted a stripped-down political declaration on women's rights that seeks to preserve gains under threat but does not advocate new ways to ensure progress toward equality. The adopted text follows the main lines of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995, which sought to promote women's emancipation and advancement around the world.
(AFP, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 10, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that “apparently systematic" human rights violations in North Korean detention centers, including sexual violence against women and girls, could amount to crimes against humanity.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 10, Petteri Taalas, the head of the UN weather agency, said last year was the second warmest on record, the past decade was the hottest in human history and January was the warmest January since 1850.
(AP, 3/10/20)
2020 Mar 12, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, welcoming “encouraging developments" toward peace and a reduction in political violence by the warring parties after six years of civil war.
(AP, 3/12/20)
2020 Mar 13, A UN report said allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in UN peacekeeping and political missions rose significantly in 2019, with allegations against civilian personnel nearly doubling.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 17, The United Nations and nine countries called on Libya's warring parties to cease hostilities to allow health authorities to fight against the new coronavirus.
(AFP, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 17, The UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration announced a temporary pause in refugee resettlement to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. That led the US to pause its admissions until at least April 6.
(The Week, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 19, African finance ministers held a virtual conference to discuss how to deal with the social and economic impacts of the pandemic on African nations. Days later a statement by the UN Economic Commission for Africa said they called for a $100 billion stimulus package, including a suspension of debt service payments, to help the continent combat coronavirus.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 20, Experts at the UN declared Finland to be the world's happiest nation for the third year running. The US fell to No. 18.
(AFP, 3/20/20) (NY Times, 3/20/20)
2020 Mar 23, Norway's foreign ministry said the UN will create a fund to support the treatment of coronavirus patients worldwide. Almost 340,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and more than 14,500 have died.
(AP, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 24, The UN top envoy for Syria called for a nationwide ceasefire to allow for a better response to the threat of the novel coronavirus. The government in Damascus has so far only reported one case of COVID-19.
(AFP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, Forces from Yemen's Houthi movement blocked a UN-chartered ship carrying representatives of the internationally recognized government from leaving Hodeidah port. The UN has been holding meetings between the warring parties on board the ship for months.
(Reuters, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 30, UN members voted by e-mail to keep troops in Sudan’s restive Darfur region until the end of May and maintain the UN political mission in Somalia until June 30.
(AP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, UN members extended the mandate of the UN panel of experts monitoring sanctions against North Korea until April 30, 2021, and stressed the importance of supporting the UN's far-flung peacekeeping operations.
(AP, 3/30/20)
2020 Apr 2, The UN General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution recognizing “the unprecedented effects" of the coronavirus pandemic and calling for “intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat" the COVID-19 disease.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 2, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations is facing a cash crisis because of non-payment of dues by member states, which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Guterres said the UN ended 2019 with arrears of $711 million.
(AP, 4/2/20)
2020 Apr 5, The United Nations urged governments around the world to fight the rise in domestic violence as abuse soared since stay-at-home orders have been imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
(The Week, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 7, The UN patent agency said China was the biggest source of applications for international patents in the world last year, pushing the United States out of the top spot it has held since the global system was set up more than 40 years ago.
(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 8, In Geneva WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus vocally defended himself and the UN health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. He accused Taiwan’s foreign ministry of being linked to a months-long campaign against him. Taiwan has reported just 379 cases and five deaths.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 8, A plane carrying 90 tons of UN health, water and sanitation aid arrived in Venezuela to help the cash-strapped country fight the coronavirus pandemic.
(AFP, 4/8/20)
2020 Apr 10, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned of an increasing number of new locust swarms forming in Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Somalia. The UN has raised its aid appeal from $76 million to $153 million, saying immediate action is needed before more rainfall fuels further growth in locust numbers.
(AP, 4/10/20)
2020 Apr 10, The UN special envoy for Yemen gave the warring parties in the Arab world’s poorest country revised proposals for a nationwide cease-fire and the urgent resumption of peace talks.
(AP, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 13, The UN said swarms of locusts in Ethiopia have damaged 200,000 hectares (half a million acres) of cropland and driven around a million people to require emergency food aid. Billions of desert locusts have already chomped their way through much of East Africa, including Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.
(AFP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, Sudan inked a deal with the United Nations World Food Program to import wheat, state media reported, more than a year after the country was rocked by protests sparked by bread price hikes. 10 more cases of the coronavirus were discovered in Khartoum.
(AFP, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 13, The United Nations released $2.5 million from its emergency humanitarian fund to help thousands of people in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu affected by Cyclone Harold and offered support to other hard-hit countries.
(AP, 4/14/20)
2020 Apr 15, The UN said some 74 million people in the water-scarce Arab region are at greater risk of catching the novel coronavirus because they lack a sink or soap at home.
(AFP, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 16, The UN warned that hundreds of thousands of children could die this year due to the global economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and tens of millions more could fall into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 20, UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, appealed for an additional $92.4 million to help fight the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa, a conflict-battered region with the highest number of children in need anywhere.
(AP, 4/20/20)
2020 Apr 22, The UN urged the world to fight climate change with the same determination as it is showing in the battle against COVID-19.
(AFP, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 22, The UN in a report said there was evidence of rising violence against women in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, and a doubling in the number of femicides in Argentina during the coronavirus-related quarantine.
(NBC News, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 24, The UN launched an international push for a vaccine to defeat the pandemic. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a virtual briefing asked for international organizations, world leaders and the private sector to join the effort. Notably absent were the leaders of China, where the virus first emerged late last year, and the United States.
(AFP, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 27, The UN human rights office voiced concern about more than a dozen countries that have declared states of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic where police have arrested or detained hundreds of thousands of people and killed others.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 Apr 29, A UN human rights expert said that Myanmar might be committing more war crimes against its ethnic minority populations.
(The Week, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 29, The UN said more than 40 cases of COVID-19 and at least three deaths have been reported in Syria.
(AP, 4/30/20)
2020 Apr 30, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said 16 armed groups have responded positively to his appeal for a global cease-fire to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 5/1/20)
2020 Apr 30, It was reported that Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has donated a $100,000 prize she won from a Danish foundation to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) for use against the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AFP, 4/30/20)
2020 May 4, The UN migration agency said at least 78 migrants fleeing war-torn Libya for Europe remain stuck at sea without a designated port to dock.
(AP, 5/4/20)
2020 May 5, The UN children's agency said that an estimated 46 million people - 19 million of them children - fled violence and conflict last year but remained in their home country, and millions more were displaced by disasters.
(AP, 5/5/20)
2020 May 7, A leaked UN report said hundreds of mercenaries from Russia's shadowy Wagner Group are operating in Libya.
(BBC, 5/7/20)
2020 May 7, The United Nations issued a new appeal for £3.8 billion in funding to "protect millions of lives and stem the spread of coronavirus in fragile countries."
(The Telegraph, 5/7/20)
2020 May 8, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) launched an emergency coronavirus appeal, saying Palestinians across the Middle East were suffering a devastating socio-economic impact.
(AFP, 5/8/20)
2020 May 8, The US blocked a vote on a UN security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic, because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization.
(The Guardian, 5/9/20)
2020 May 12, The UN said COVID-19 has been confirmed in a crowded civilian protection camp in Juba, South Sudan's capital.
(AP, 5/12/20)
2020 May 12, The United Nations refugee agency said violence in northwest Nigeria has forced about 23,000 refugees to flee to Niger since April and raised concerns about the deteriorating security situation.
(Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020 May 13, The UN forecast that the COVID-19 pandemic will shrink the world economy by 3.2% this year, the sharpest contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
(SFC, 5/14/20, p.C6)
2020 May 13, A World Health Organization report into Italy's coronavirus response was posted after it had received necessary approvals within the UN system. It was written by Francesco Zambon, WHO's chief field coordinator for Italy and its regions, and a team of WHO public health experts and consultants. The WHO later said it was withdrawn because of “factual inaccuracies" that it has not detailed and denied that it received any pressure from the Italian government to remove it.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 May 14, China’s UN Mission said its acting deputy ambassador, Yao Shaojun, called the United States “the largest debtor," saying it owed about $1.16 billion to the regular UN budget and $1.3 billion to the peacekeeping budget.
(AP, 5/15/20)
2020 May 18, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said narcotics police in Myanmar have seized a large amount of liquid fentanyl, providing the first evidence that the synthetic opioid is being produced in quantity in Southeast Asia’s infamous Golden Triangle region. The raids were carried out between Feb. 20 and April 9 in Kutkhai township of Shan state.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 18, The UN said flooding in central Somalia has affected nearly 1 million people, displacing about 400,000 people. At least 24 people have died in the flash floods that hit Beledweyne and Jowhar, two agricultural centers in Somalia's central area.
(AP, 5/18/20)
2020 May 21, The UN launched a new initiative to sign up millions of “digital first responders" around the world to counter misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and spread fact-based information and advice to their networks of family, friends and followers.
(AP, 5/22/20)
2020 May 27, The UN World Food Program warned that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, Human Rights Watch called on the UN’s top human rights body to launch an independent investigation into the Philippine government’s drug war that has left thousands dead, pointing in particular to its harmful effects on children.
(AP, 5/27/20)
2020 May 27, The United States and China clashed over Hong Kong at the UN after Beijing opposed a request by Washington for the Security Council to meet over China's plan to impose new national security legislation on the territory.
(Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020 May 28, In Mali Lieut. Col. Carlos Moisés Guillén Alfaro (46), a pilot with the El Salvadoran air force, became the first UN peacekeeper to officially die of COVID-19.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 May 29, The UN Security Council approved a resolution extending for a year an arms embargo on South Sudan and a travel ban and financial sanctions for targeted individuals, with Russia, China and South Africa abstaining.
(AP, 5/30/20)
2020 May 29, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the deaths of the first two UN peacekeepers from COVID-19. He made the announcement at a ceremony marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, saying both peacekeepers, who died over the last 24 hours, were serving in Mali.
(AP, 5/30/20)
2020 May 29, Lebanon’s government agreed to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel for another year.
(AP, 5/29/20)
2020 Jun 2, The United Nations' Libya mission (UNSMIL) said the country's warring parties had agreed to restart talks aimed at reaching a lasting ceasefire, after a three-month suspension.
(AFP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, The UN raised only around half the required $2.41 billion in humanitarian aid for Yemen, ravaged by war and coronavirus, at a donor conference co-hosted by Saudi Arabia in the sixth year of its military intervention.
(AFP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 3, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted two resolutions to create a mission in Sudan to support the country's political transition and extend the mandate of peacekeepers in Darfur.
(AFP, 6/3/20)
2020 Jun 4, The UN human rights office called on the Philippine government in a new report to end all violence targeting suspected drug offenders and to disband private and state-backed paramilitary groups.
(AP, 6/4/20)
2020 Jun 5, The UN called on Congolese authorities to establish state authority in conflict regions by increasing the presence of security forces and ensuring civilian protection. Various conflicts involving armed groups and government forces in Congo have killed more than 1,300 civilians in the past eight months and violence has surged in recent weeks in eastern provinces.
(AP, 6/5/20)
2020 Jun 5, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the arms embargo on Libya for a year.
(SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 8, UN General Assembly Pres. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said that world leaders will not be coming to New York for their annual gathering in late September for the first time in the 75-year history of the United Nations because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 6/8/20)
2020 Jun 8, The UN held its first virtual World Oceans Day event, partnering with nonprofit Oceanic Global as a production partner, making the live event free to attend globally.
(https://www.un.org/en/observances/oceans-day)
2020 Jun 10, Dozens of Sudanese protesters rallied in Khartoum against a newly formed United Nations mission mandated to support a political transition following last year's ouster of President Omar al-Bashir.
(AFP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 11, The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said international trade is set to plunge by 27% in the second quarter and by 20% for the year, as major sectors including the automotive and energy industries collapse from the effects the pandemic.
(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, The UN refugee agency announced that more than 94,000 people have been displaced and forced to flee their homes in several parts of Yemen since January.
(AP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 11, The United Nations voiced "horror" after reports that eight mass graves had been discovered in an area recently seized by Libya's unity government after forces loyal to eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar withdrew.
(AFP, 6/11/20)
2020 Jun 15, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s government off a global blacklist of parties whose actions have harmed children in conflict, a move that drew immediate protests from human rights groups.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 17, The UN General Assembly held council elections. India and Mexico were chosen as non-permanent members of the Security Council alongside Norway and Ireland, while Djibouti and Kenya - both of which failed to receive the two-thirds vote majority required to win - will go to a second round of voting on June 18.
(AP, 6/17/20)(The Telegraph, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, Kenya defeated Djibouti for an African seat on the UN Security Council in a second round of voting held under dramatically different procedures because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, The UN reported that DR Congo's military is receiving weapons and training from multiple countries without notifying the United Nations as required by a 2004 resolution. Experts pointed to instructors and equipment from Albania, Romania, Turkey, South Africa, Israel, China, Iran, the United Kingdom, North Korea, Sudan and the United States, among others.
(AP, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 19, The United Nations Human Rights Council condemned discriminatory and violent policing that led to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month and ordered a report be drawn up on "systemic racism" against people of African descent. The Trump administration quit the forum two years ago alleging anti-Israeli bias.
(Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, The board of the United Nations' atomic watchdog agency adopted a resolution calling for Iran to provide inspectors access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material. Russia and China voted against the IAEA resolution.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, UN experts reported that armed groups, criminal networks and some law enforcement agents in Congo are reaping vast sums of money from illegally exploiting gold and other natural resources and smuggling them to Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 19, The UN Human Rights Council condemned what it called serious human rights violations in Nicaragua and urged President Daniel Ortega to cease such tactics.
(AP, 6/19/20)
2020 Jun 21, The UN released a special report expressing concerns over what it called recent “deliberate attacks" against health care workers and facilities in Afghanistan during the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 6/21/20)
2020 Jun 22, The UN says the coronavirus outbreak in South Sudan is growing rapidly, with nearly 1,900 cases, including more than 50 health workers infected, more than 30 deaths and no way to know the true number of infections.
(AP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 22, Venezuela accused the US of blocking its ability to pay over $21 million in dues to the UN causing the loss of its voting rights in the General Assembly.
(AP, 6/22/20)
2020 Jun 23, International donors pledged over $130 million to the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees, an amount the organization's head says is encouraging but not enough to keep operations running through the end of the year.
(AP, 6/23/20)
2020 Jun 24, The United Nations and the Arab League joined in calling for Israel to abandon its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
(AFP, 6/24/20)
2020 Jun 25, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned that without massive financial support, Yemen will “fall off the cliff," with many more people starving to death, succumbing to COVID-19, dying of cholera and watching their children die because they haven’t been immunized for killer diseases.
(AP, 6/25/20)
2020 Jun 25, The UN said the abandoned FSO Safer oil tanker moored off the coast of Yemen loaded with more than 1 million barrels of crude oil is at risk of rupture or exploding, causing massive environmental damage to Red Sea marine life, desalination factories and international shipping routes. The ship has been in the hands of the Houthis since 2015.
(AP, 6/25/20)(Econ., 10/3/20, p.39)
2020 Jun 26, The UN children’s agency warned that millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across war-torn Yemen amid a "huge" drop in humanitarian aid funding.
(AP, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, An unusually large group of independent UN human rights experts urged the international community to “take all appropriate measures" to monitor China and “act collectively and decisively" to ensure its government respects human rights.
(AP, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that 580 civilians have been killed in central Mali this year amid worsening inter-communal violence, faulting security forces for rights violations and saying radical groups like the regional wings of al-Qaida and Islamic State are fanning and exploiting it.
(AP, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 28, The UN called for "urgent measures to spare civilians" in Myanmar's conflict-wracked northwest, saying fighting has intensified between the army and insurgents.
(AFP, 6/28/20)
2020 Jun 29, The UN World Food Program said millions of people have been pushed into hunger by the coronavirus pandemic, as it appealed for nearly $5 billion to help feed the growing numbers in poor and middle-income countries.
(AP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 29, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in Mali for a year and called for a long-term and detailed plan for it to hand over security responsibilities and leave the West African nation.
(AP, 6/29/20)
2020 Jun 30, The UN said more than one million people have been forced to flee their homes in the violence-ravaged eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the start of the year.
(AP, 6/30/20)
2020 Jun 30, The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) released its annual report. It said more than 140 million females are considered missing today because of a preference for sons over daughters and extreme neglect of young girls. The report also said child marriages occur 33,000 times a day, despite being almost universally banned.
(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A4)
2020 Jun 30, It was reported that politicians around the world have called for a UN probe into a Chinese government birth control campaign targeting largely Muslim minorities in the far western region of Xinjiang, even as Beijing said it treats all ethnicities equally under the law. The forced abortions and sterilization on Uighur women reportedly caused birth rates to plunge 24% in Xinjiang last year.
(AP, 6/30/20)(Econ., 7/4/20, p.36)
2020 Jun 30, EU and UN officials announced that EU institutions would donate 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion) for this year and next to help Syrians who fled their homeland and those who are still there.
(AP, 6/30/20)
2020 Jul 1, The UN Security Council demanded an “immediate cessation of hostilities" in key conflicts including Syria, Yemen, Libya, South Sudan and Congo to tackle COVID-19 in its first resolution on the new coronavirus.
(AP, 7/1/20)
2020 Jul 2, A UN annual report said the world's mountain of discarded flat-screen TVs, cellphones and other electronic goods grew to a record high last year.
(AP, 7/2/20)
2020 Jul 2, A UN report said there have been at least 1,324 additional violent deaths carried out in Venezuela by Pres. Maduro’s hit squads during “security operations" between Jan. 1 and May 31, 2020.
(Miami Herald, 7/17/20)
2020 Jul 6, The UN warned that COVID-19 could cause an additional half a million AIDS deaths if treatment is disrupted long term. The UN also said the pandemic was jeopardizing years of progress against HIV.
(AFP, 7/6/20)
2020 Jul 7, The United Nations expert on extrajudicial killings concluded that the US drone strike that killed Iran's top general Qasem Soleimani was "unlawful." Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, concluded it was an "arbitrary killing" that violated the UN charter.
(AFP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 7, The US State Department and the UN said that the Trump administration had formally notified the UN that the United States would leave the WHO next year.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 7, China and Russia vetoed a UN resolution that would maintain two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest for a year. Russia immediately circulated a draft Security Council resolution that would authorize the delivery of aid through a single crossing point from Turkey for six months.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 8, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council that the conflict in Libya has entered a new phase "with foreign interference reaching unprecedented levels".
(Reuters, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The UN warned that lives are at risk as the new coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in the trafficking of substandard masks, sanitizers and other medical products.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, A Russian bid to get the United Nations to reduce cross-border humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria was voted down by the Security Council. Authorization for aid, which comes through two crossing points on the Turkish border, expires on July 10.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, The WHO said Sri Lanka and Maldives have become the first two countries in the World Health Organization's South-East Asia region to eliminate both measles and rubella ahead of a 2023 target.
(AP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 8, Yemen's UN humanitarian coordinator said the country is once again on the brink of famine as donor funds that averted catastrophe just 18 months ago have dried up.
(AFP, 7/8/20)
2020 Jul 10, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned that Lebanon's economic crisis is getting out of hand, calling for urgent internal reforms coupled with international support to prevent further mayhem.
(AFP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed that the illegal global ivory trade has decreased, but trafficking of pangolins is on the rise.
(AP, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 11, Russia scored a victory for its ally Syria by forcing the Security Council to limit humanitarian aid deliveries to the country’s mainly rebel-held northwest to just one crossing point from Turkey, a move that Western nations say will cut a lifeline for 1.3 million people.
(AP, 7/11/20)
2020 Jul 13, The United Nations said the ranks of the world’s hungry grew by 10 million last year and warns that the coronavirus pandemic could push as many as 130 million more people into chronic hunger this year.
(AP, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 13, The UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi urged the East African country's new government to "break the cycle of violence" and start cooperating with the United Nations.
(AFP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 14, The UN's top court (ICJ) backed Qatar in a bitter row with four Middle East nations that imposed an air blockade against Doha after accusing it of backing radical Islamists and Iran. The acrimonious standoff erupted three years ago pitting Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Qatar.
(AFP, 7/14/20)
2020 Jul 15, The United Nations Security Council heard that up to 1.1 million barrels of oil could spill into the Red Sea causing a disaster four times worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. The Yemeni-government owned tanker, FSO Safer, started taking on water in May.
(NBC News, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 15, It was reported that the United Nations has asked the Nicolas Maduro regime to dismantle criminal gangs running gold mines in Venezuela's Amazon region. Nearly 150 people are reported to have died in or around the gold mines from March 2016 to 2020. Venezuelan human rights and environmental groups have said that legal and illegal mining are rapidly decimating Venezuela's Amazon. A UN report on Venezuela cited documented cases of executions, torture and forced disappearances. Among the atrocities cited is the execution of 38 young men by Pres. Nicolas Maduro’s hit squads.
(The Independent, 7/15/20)(AP, 7/18/20)
2020 Jul 22, UN agencies warned that food shortages will rise sharply in parts of war-torn Yemen in the next six months, mainly because of the overall economic decline and the pandemic that has ripped through the Arab world’s poorest country.
(AP, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 24, The UN weather agency warned that average temperatures in Siberia were 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) above average last month, a spate of exceptional heat that has fanned devastating fires in the Arctic Circle and contributed to a rapid depletion in ice sea off Russia's Arctic coast.
(AP, 7/24/20)
2020 Jul 26, A UN report, released earlier this week, says more than 6,000 Pakistani insurgents are hiding in Afghanistan, most belonging to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban group responsible for attacking Pakistani military and civilian targets.
(AP, 7/26/20)
2020 Jul 28, The UN human rights office reported that scores of North Korean women who had traveled abroad in a desperate search for work were abused by security officials and police through beatings, detention in unsanitary conditions, undernourishment and invasive body searches after being sent back home. The women spoke to UN human rights officials after eventually fleeing North Korea following their detention.
(AP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 28, The UN said that the unprecedented social and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic will see nearly seven million more children experience stunting as a result of malnutrition.
(AFP, 7/28/20)
2020 Jul 29, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said coca cultivation jumped 10% in Bolivia in 2019, the final year of President Evo Morales' government, partly because of reduced eradication efforts amid rising social and political conflicts.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Jul 29, The UN said more than 100 civilians including women and children were killed by ground fighting, explosive remnants and airstrikes in Libya between April and June, an increase of 65% from the first three months of the year.
(AP, 7/29/20)
2020 Aug 3, A confidential new UN report warned that several countries believe North Korea has likely developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its nuclear devices.
(The Telegraph, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 3, The World Health Organization said an advance team looking into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak has concluded its mission in China, and the UN health agency is preparing the deployment of a larger group of experts to the suspected outbreak zone.
(AP, 8/3/20)
2020 Aug 4, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the coronavirus pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education in history, with schools closed in more than 160 countries in mid-July, affecting over 1 billion students.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 4, The UN International Labor Organization welcomed a global agreement to combat the worst forms of child labor as the first time all of its member states have ratified a convention — in a process that lasted 21 years.
(AP, 8/4/20)
2020 Aug 5, The UN reported that more than 1,300 people were killed in the first half of 2020 by armed groups in DR Congo, three times more than in the same period in 2019.
(AFP, 8/5/20)
2020 Aug 6, The UN said seasonal torrential rains have wreaked havoc on houses and infrastructure across Sudan, affecting more than 50,000 people.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 6, The UN said almost 150 people were extrajudicially killed by Malian and Burkinabe security forces in Mali between April and June. The quarterly MINUSMA report also found 50 extrajudicial killings in late May by Burkina Faso troops in the village of Boulkessi, and settlements close to the nation's Mali border. More than 1,700 people were killed by armed groups in the first half of this year, up from about 300 in the whole of 2018.
(AFP, 8/6/20)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.38)
2020 Aug 11, A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the World Food Program would be sending 50,000 tons of wheat flour to Beirut to stabilize Lebanon's wheat supply.
(Reuters, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 11, The UN reported at least 81 people were killed and dozens injured during weekend clashes between South Sudan’s army and armed civilians in north-central Tonj.
(AP, 8/11/20)(SFC, 8/12/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 12, UNICEF USA announced its first major program supporting children in the United States. The agency will be investing $1 million this year on an initiative to help US cities become more child-friendly.
(AP, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 13, The UN reported that at least eight children under the age of five have died in recent days from health problems linked to the dire conditions in a camp in northern Syria housing tens of thousands of female supporters of the Islamic State group and their children.
(AP, 8/13/20)
2020 Aug 14, The UN Security Council voted to reject the United States' effort to extend a global arms embargo on Iran.
(The Week, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 14, The UN launched an appeal to raise $565 million to help Lebanon recover from this month's devastating port blast that killed 171 people.
(AFP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 20, The Trump administration submitted a letter to the United Nations Security Council accusing Iran of failing to comply with its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and calling for restoring UN sanctions against Tehran, including an arms embargo.
(The Week, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 21, It was reported that Iran has offered to allow UN nuclear inspectors to visit two controversial nuclear sites as part of its diplomatic charm offensive to have the international arms embargo against Tehran lifted.
(The Telegraph, 8/21/20)
2020 Aug 28, The UN rights chief called on the Democratic Republic of Congo to swiftly investigate death threats against Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege and bring those responsible to justice. Death threats were made in July after he had sent out a tweet condemning the massacre of 18 people in South Kivu, the strife-torn province in eastern DR Congo where he has his clinic. Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his work against sexual violence in war.
(AFP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the United Nations and its 193 member nations to step up action to increase the number of women in military and civilian positions at all levels in the UN’s far-flung peacekeeping operations.
(AP, 8/28/20)
2020 Aug 28, The UN Scurity Council unanimously approved a resoslution cutting the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) from 15,000 to 13,000 and expanded its mandate to address US and Israeli concerns about activities of the militant group Hezbollah.
(SSFC, 8/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 29, The United Nations voiced alarm over what it called “a dramatic turn of events" in Libya's civil war, after a power struggle between leaders of the Tripoli-based government surfaced in the wake of anti-corruption protests.
(AP, 8/29/20)
2020 Aug 30, The UN International Labor Organization said new labor rules in the energy-rich nation of Qatar “effectively dismantles" the country's long-criticized “kafala" employment system. As of now, migrant workers can change jobs before the end of their contracts without obtaining the permission of their current employers. The ILO also said Qatar also has adopted a minimum monthly wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275) for workers, which will take effect some six months after the law is published in the country's official gazette.
(AP, 8/30/20)
2020 Aug 31, The WHO warned that the risk of further spread of the vaccine-derived polio across central Africa and the Horn of Africa was “high," noting the large-scale population movements in the region. A new polio outbreak in Sudan is linked to an ongoing vaccine-sparked epidemic in Chad. More than a dozen African countries are currently battling outbreaks of polio caused by the virus, including Angola, Congo, Nigeria and Zambia. Last week the UN health agency declared the African continent free of the wild polio virus.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 2, The United States said that it will not pay some $80 million it currently owes to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) and will instead redirect the money to help pay its United Nations bill in New York. The United States currently owes the WHO some $18 million for financial year 2019 and $62 million for financial year 2020.
(Reuters, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 4, The UN said locusts are threatening another part of Africa, with up to 7 million people in the southern region facing further food insecurity. The outbreaks of African migratory locusts in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe are not related to the huge outbreak of billions of desert locusts that has affected East Africa for months.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it has begun withdrawing troops from various camps around the country where tens of thousands of civilians sought protection during its civil war.
(AFP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Seven human rights experts affiliated with the UN raised concerns over Hong Kong’s new national security law in a letter addressed to Chinese authorities, saying the legislation limits certain fundamental freedoms.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition challenger in Belarus’ disputed presidential election, spoke to the UN Security Council and urged the international community to impose sanctions on “the individuals that committed electoral violations and crimes against humanity" and take other measures to stop the violence against protesters.
(AP, 9/5/20)
2020 Sep 4, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that there is a risk of famine and widespread food insecurity in four countries affected by conflict — Congo, Yemen, northeast Nigeria and South Sudan — and that the lives of millions of people are in danger.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 4, The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan said it has begun withdrawing its troops and police from the civilian protection camps that began as a frantic experiment in the heat of civil war and still shelter more than 180,000 people two years after the conflict ended.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 8, The UN refugee agency said it has confirmed two coronavirus cases in the Azraq camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan.
(AP, 9/8/20)
2020 Sep 9, A new UN report said the world is getting closer to passing a temperature limit set by global leaders five years ago and may exceed it in the next decade or so.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, United Nations peacekeepers returned to provide protection for a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Congolese Dr. Denis Mukwege, who has faced death threats, after alarmed supporters urged the UN to reinstate the security following months without it.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 9, It was reported that UN-backed experts have found evidence that rebels in Yemen recruited nearly three dozen teenage girls — some said to be survivors of sexual violence — as spies, medics, guards and members of an all-female force.
(AP, 9/9/20)
2020 Sep 11, The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a wide-ranging resolution on tackling the coronavirus pandemic over objections from the United States and Israel, which protested a successful last-minute Cuban amendment that strongly urged countries to oppose any unilateral economic, financial or trade sanctions.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 15, Volkan Bozkir, Turkish diplomat and the new president of the UN General Assembly warned that unilateralism will only strengthen the COVID-19 pandemic and called for a new commitment to global cooperation, including on the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, The UN said countries are set to miss all of the targets they set themselves a decade ago to preserve nature and save Earth's vital biodiversity.
(AFP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, UN-backed investigators pointed to signs that Syria’s government continues to perpetrate rape, torture and murder as the country’s nine-year conflict grinds on, while citing possible war crimes by a Turkey-backed coalition of rebel groups and calling on Ankara to do more to help prevent them.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 16, The UN children's agency UNICEF has called on the Nigerian authorities to urgently review an Islamic court's decision to sentence a 13-year-old boy to 10 years in prison for blasphemy. The boy was convicted in August of making uncomplimentary remarks about God during an argument with a friend in northern Kano state.
(BBC, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it is experiencing a financial crisis that could force it to halt some services to an already impoverished population of more than 5 million people.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 16, Independent experts for the UN’s top human rights body accused the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of crimes against humanity, highlighting grisly cases of torture and killings allegedly carried out by security forces who used techniques like electric shocks, genital mutilation and asphyxiation.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Sep 17, UN food chief David Beasley called on the world's billionaires to step up to help save some 30 million people he said are at risk of dying if they don't receive help from the World Food Program.
(Reuters, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 18, The UN Human Rights Council agreed to a resolution submitted by the European Union to launch closer UN monitoring of alleged rights violations in Belarus, despite multiple attempts by Russia to water it down.
(Reuters, 9/18/20)
2020 Sep 19, US President Donald Trump's administration declared all United Nations sanctions on Tehran had been restored.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 20, The Iranian rial fell to a record low against the US dollar on the unofficial market, a day after the US President Donald Trump's administration declared all United Nations sanctions on Tehran had been restored. Major powers dismissed a unilateral US declaration that UN sanctions on Tehran were back in force.
(Reuters, 9/20/20)(AFP, 9/20/20)
2020 Sep 21, The UN week opened with a celebration of the global body's 75th birthday in the form of a virtual summit where Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded -- in person -- for more multilateral diplomacy.
(AFP, 9/21/20)
2020 Sep 22, US President Donald Trump demanded that the United Nations hold China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic as he defended his own handling of COVID-19 in America where the death toll is nearing 200,000.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 22, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro defended his administration’s record protecting the Amazon rainforest, telling the United Nations’ virtual meeting of global leaders that his country has been wrongly portrayed as an environmental villain.
(AP, 9/22/20)
2020 Sep 23, The UN said that critical aid had been cut at 300 health centers across war-ravaged Yemen due to a lack of funding, with lifesaving food handouts also reduced.
(AFP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman (84) made a rare address to the UN General Assembly, using the moment to highlight the foundational notions of his regime — his steadfast commitment to the Palestinians, his stature as custodian of Islam’s holiest sites and his assertion that Iran is responsible for much of the region’s instability.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 23, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro blasted United States sanctions in his address to the UN General Assembly, while avoiding any mention of a report accusing his government of crimes against humanity.
(AP, 9/23/20)
2020 Sep 24, A UN migration official said the number of migrants and refugees who are sleeping rough in Bosnia keeps rising because of the persistent refusal by authorities at different levels of government in the country to coordinate their work and embrace “rational" solutions.
(AP, 9/24/20)
2020 Sep 25, UN diplomats said Russia and China have blocked the official release of a report by UN experts on Libya that accused its warring parties and their international backers -- including Russia -- of violating a UN arms embargo on the conflict-wracked country.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 29, The UN General Assemble concluded with a parade of divisive grievances that echoed when the final gavel fell. Assembly President Volkan Bozkir ended the six-day meeting on an upbeat note, returning to the need for multilateralism and unity.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 30, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it is time for countries to start using money from their national COVID-19 recovery and response plans to help fund the World Health Organization's global vaccine plan.
(Reuters, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 30, The UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said it has inspected the second of two suspected former secret atomic sites in Iran, as agreed with Tehran last month in a deal that ended a standoff over access.
(Reuters, 9/30/20)
2020 Oct 1, UN shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO) said its website and intranet had been disabled by a sophisticated cyber attack and its IT specialists had shut down key systems to prevent further damage.
(Reuters, 10/1/20)
2020 Oct 1, Britain, France, Germany, Estonia and Belgium wrote in a letter to the United Nations Security Council that the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny "constitutes a threat to international peace and security."
(Reuters, 10/1/20)
2020 Oct 2, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing member nations to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya suspected of smuggling migrants or engaging in human trafficking from the north African nation for another year.
(AP, 10/2/20)
2020 Oct 6, The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean must continue to ratchet up stimulus to beat back the devastating economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 10/6/20)
2020 Oct 6, UN figures showed that the number of people hit by seasonal flooding in East Africa has increased more than five fold in four years. Nearly every state in Sudan has experienced heavy flooding and in neighboring South Sudan, 800,000 people have been affected with 368,000 people forced from their homes.
(BBC, 10/6/20)
2020 Oct 9, The World Food Program, a United Nations agency, won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger amid the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 11, Today is the International Day of the Girl Child. In 2011 the UN declared Oct. 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child to promote girls’ rights and address the challenges girls face around the world.
(AP, 10/11/20)
2020 Oct 13, China was reelected to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), alongside Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Nepal. Saudi Arabia was the only country up for election that failed to be elected, mustering only 90 votes. Fifteen positions were up for grabs on the 47-seat body.
(AFP, 10/14/20)
2020 Oct 15, United Nations humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council that aid agencies had just 42 percent of their programs funded in Yemen, meaning key services were being axed.
(The Telegraph, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 18, Iran said a 2007 UN embargo on arms sales to and from the Islamic republic expired today in line with a 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers from which Washington has withdrawn. Washington argued that arms sales to Iran would still violate UN resolutions and threatened sanctions on anyone making such sales. Restrictions on the development of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles will remain in place until 2023.
(AP, 10/18/20)(Econ., 10/17/20, p.41)
2020 Oct 19, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that Kim Sledge of the band Sister Sledge will donate proceeds from a cover of the band's classic song "We Are Family" to the World Health Organization Foundation.
(Reuters, 10/19/20)
2020 Oct 20, Denmark in partnership with Germany, the European Union and the UN hosted a conference on the Sahel in a bid to instill a more acute sense of urgency. International donors agreed to give $1.7 billion in humanitarian aid to the central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger), after the United Nations said the northern African region plagued by violence and climate change was at "breaking point".
(AFP, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 23, Libya's two warring factions signed a "permanent" ceasefire agreement in Geneva after five days of talks at the UN, which hailed the deal as a historic moment following years of turmoil and bloodshed. The UN said all mercenaries and foreign fighters are supposed to depart from Libya within three months of the signing of the nationwide ceasefire.
(AFP, 10/23/20)(Reuters, 10/23/20)
2020 Oct 24, The UN turned 75. It officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, when the UN Charter, agreed four months earlier, came into force.
(AFP, 10/24/20)
2020 Oct 24, The United Nations announced that 50 countries have ratified a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons triggering its entry into force in 90 days, a move hailed by anti-nuclear activists but strongly opposed by the United States and the other major nuclear powers.
(AP, 10/24/20)
2020 Oct 27, The United Nations canceled all in-person meetings for this week after a UN member nation reported five cases of COVID-19 among its staff.
(AP, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 27, Inspectors from the UN's atomic watchdog have confirmed Iran has started building an underground centrifuge assembly plant after its previous one exploded in what Tehran called a sabotage attack over the summer.
(AP, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct, Thirty-nine UN members signed a statement condemning the horrors in China Xinjiang province. This was up from 23 who so a year earlier.
(Econ., 12/19/20, p.76)
2020 Nov 2, At a UN plenary meeting on the ICC 71 nations voiced strong opposition to what they consider threats to the International Criminal Court and decried sanctions on its top officials, issuing a statement that did not name any country but was clearly aimed at the US.
(AP, 11/2/20)
2020 Nov 9, The United Nations opened talks on Libya's future in Tunisia aimed at ending nearly a decade of chaos and bloodshed by arranging elections, but obstacles remain despite progress in cementing last month's ceasefire.
(Reuters, 11/9/20)
2020 Nov 9, The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees announced that it has run out of money to pay the salaries of its staff across the Middle East, after two years of funding cuts by the United States and some other donors.
(Reuters, 11/9/20)
2020 Nov 9, The United States faced its first review in five years at the UN’s main human rights body, with the detentions of migrant children and the killings of unarmed Black people during the Trump administration’s tenure among issues high on minds.
(AP, 11/9/20)
2020 Nov 10, The UN called on Mozambique to investigate reports that militants had massacred villagers and beheaded women and children in a restive northern region.
(Reuters, 11/11/20)
2020 Nov 11, A report by the UN atomic watchdog (IAEA) said Iran has installed a first cascade of advanced centrifuges in the underground Natanz uranium enrichment plant that its deal with major powers says can only be used for first-generation IR-1 machines.
(AP, 11/11/20)
2020 Nov 12, The UN Security Council voted to prevent the sale or shipment to Somalia of components of improvised explosive devices if there is “significant risk" they may be used to manufacture the often deadly devices that are increasingly being used in attacks by al-Shabab extremists.
(AP, 11/12/20)
2020 Nov 16, The UN refugee agency said Ethiopia’s growing conflict has resulted in more than 25,300 refugees fleeing the Tigray region into Sudan.
(AP, 11/16/20)
2020 Nov 17, The UN said that thousands of people were fleeing northern Ethiopia's conflict-torn Tigray region and the border area with Sudan now faced a full-blown refugee emergency.
(AFP, 11/17/20)
2020 Nov 18, The United Nations humanitarian office said it is releasing $100 million in emergency funding to seven countries at risk of famine in Africa and the Middle East amid conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic. A statement overnight said $80 million of the money will go to Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. Another $20 million has been set aside for "anticipatory action to fight hunger in Ethiopia.
(AP, 11/18/20)
2020 Nov 20, It was reported that Burundi is no longer welcoming the UN special envoy to the East African nation, asserting that peace has been achieved after a deadly political crisis. The office had opened in 2016 in the wake of deadly political unrest around former President Pierre Nkurunziza’s ultimately successful decision to pursue another term.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, The United Nations refugee agency said about 32,000 people have fled Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region into neighboring Sudan, and it is preparing to take in up to 200,000 in the next six months if necessary.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 23, The United Nations weather agency said a slowdown in industrial activity linked to the coronavirus pandemic has cut emissions of pollutants and heat-trapping greenhouse gases, but hasn't reduced their record levels in the atmosphere.
(AP, 11/23/20)
2020 Nov 25, A UN report said Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and sent poverty and unemployment skyrocketing.
(AP, 11/25/20)
2020 Nov 26, United Nations experts said police and border guards must combat racial profiling and ensure that their use of "big data" collected via artificial intelligence does not reinforce biases against minorities.
(Reuters, 11/26/20)
2020 Dec 1, UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, said thousands of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia's conflict-hit northern region of Tigray have run out of food.
(BBC, 12/1/20)
2020 Dec 1, In her World AIDS Day message, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima lamented the fact that more than 12 million people are still waiting to get on HIV treatment, while 1.7 million people were infected with HIV in 2019 because of lack of access.
(AP, 12/1/20)
2020 Dec 1, The 193-member UN General Assembly urged all countries to designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers after travel restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19 have left hundreds of thousands stranded at sea for months.
(Reuters, 12/1/20)
2020 Dec 1, The UN children’s agency said at least 11 children, including a 1-month-old, were killed in Yemen in two separate attacks in the past three days.
(AP, 12/1/20)
2020 Dec 2, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered another urgent appeal to curb climate change highlighting new reports of 2020's record-breaking weather and growing fossil fuel extractions that trigger global warming.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 2, Officials said that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees paid the salaries of 30,000 Palestinian staff across the Middle East for last month, but a funding shortfall may still hinder payment in December.
(Reuters, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 2, The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted to remove cannabis and cannabis resin from a category of the world's most dangerous drugs, which could impact the global medical marijuana industry.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 2, The top UN official for Libya said there are at least 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in the war-torn nation, and warned of a “serious crisis" as weapons continue pouring into the North African country.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 2, The International Union for Conservation of Nature said climate change is increasingly damaging the UN’s most cherished heritage sites, reporting that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and dozens of other natural wonders are facing severe threats.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 2, Ethiopia and the UN agreed to allow aid into the country's conflict-torn Tigray region.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 3, UN agencies warned that the window to prevent a famine in war-torn Yemen is narrowing, with a new study showing that millions of people in the country will face some form of food crisis next year.
(AP, 12/3/20)
2020 Dec 4, The UN refugee agency said Rohingya refugees must be able to make free and informed decisions about relocating to Bangladesh's Bhashan Char island, as naval vessels began carrying some 1,600 towards the remote site.
(Reuters, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 4, The UN said continued fighting in many parts of Ethiopia's Tigray region is hindering efforts to deliver aid.
(BBC, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 4, The UN World Food Program (WFP) said Southern Madagascar is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster.
(AP, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 6, Ethiopian troops shot at and detained UN staff after they drove through check-points in the conflict-hit northern Tigray region. The UN team had reportedly ignored instructions not to be in the area.
(BBC, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 7, Two UN agencies said that the removal of subsidies in Lebanon without guarantees to protect the vulnerable would amount to a social catastrophe.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 7, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution urging Russia to immediately withdraw all its military forces from Crimea “and end its temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine without delay." The vote was 63-17 with 62 abstentions, close to the vote on a similar resolution adopted last year.
(AP, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 8, The UN said over 50 donors pledged $370 million to the UN fund to finance humanitarian emergencies caused by conflict, climate change, natural disasters, the coronavirus pandemic and gender-based violence.
(AP, 12/8/20)
2020 Dec 9, The UN hit out at violence that erupted in DR Congo's parliament, pitting backers of President Felix Tshisekedi against supporters of his predecessor Joseph Kabila.
(AFP, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 9, A UN report showed that greenhouse gas emissions reached a new high last year, putting the world on track for an average temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius.
(Reuters, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 10, In Thailand pro-democracy demonstrators in Bangkok marked UN Human Rights Day with rallies calling for the abolition of Thailand’s strict royal defamation law, which was recently revived to prosecute more than 20 of the protest movement’s leaders.
(AP, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 11, A UN-backed tribunal sentenced fugitive Hezbollah member, Salim Ayyash, to five concurrent terms of life imprisonment in absentia over his involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 12/11/20)
2020 Dec 12, United Nations' Climate Ambition Summit was held on the fifth anniversary of the international Paris climate. At the virtual gathering UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said world leaders should declare states of "climate emergency" in their countries to spur action to avoid catastrophic global warming.
(Reuters, 12/12/20)
2020 Dec 16, The UN has warned that about 2.3 million children in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region are cut off from humanitarian assistance as violence continues.
(BBC, 12/16/20)
2020 Dec 17, The UN announced a $35.6 million emergency aid package for civilians caught up in fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray region.
(AP, 12/17/20)
2020 Dec 17, It was reported that the UN has reached an agreement with the Taliban leadership to set up thousands of schools inside Afghanistan's insurgent-controlled territory.
(The Telegraph, 12/17/20)
2020 Dec 17, NASA and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) pledging cooperation in areas of science and technology to support the peaceful use of outer space.
(PR Newswire, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 18, The United Nations’ highest court (ICJ) ruled that it will intervene to settle a decades-old border dispute between South American neighbors Guyana and Venezuela.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 18, The UN said it had deployed peacekeeping forces to the Central African Rep.
(BBC, 12/20/20)
2020 Dec 18, Officials said the World Health Organization program to help get COVID-19 vaccines to all countries in need has access to nearly 2 billion doses of “promising" vaccine candidates. WHO's partners in COVAX, a UN-backed program, include the Gavi vaccine alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 22, The United Nations appealed for $156 million to help the tens of thousands of refugees who have fled fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray, again requesting full humanitarian access to the conflict-hit northern region.
(AFP, 12/22/20)
2020 Dec 22, UN Security Council members decided to end the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan’s western Darfur region when the mission's mandate runs out on Dec. 31, after pressure from the country's transitional government, Russia and African nations.
(AP, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 23, The UN said that Bambari, the Central African Republic's fourth-largest town, which was seized by rebels a day earlier ahead of elections this weekend, is in the hands of United Nations peacekeepers and national security forces.
(AP, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 25, In the Central African Rep. three UN peacekeepers from Burundi were killed and two others wounded in attacks by armed combatants. The Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), an alliance of the country's most powerful rebel groups, said that it had called off a three-day ceasefire due to attacks by government forces.
(AP, 12/26/20)(BBC, 12/26/20)
2020 Dec 30, UN human rights experts said US President Donald Trump's pardon of four American men convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007 violated US obligations under international law.
(Reuters, 12/30/20)
2020 Dec 31, The UN General Assembly closed the year by approving the $3.231 billion budget for 2021. Only Israel and the US voted against it citing disagreements on Israel and Iran.
(The Telegraph, 12/31/20)
2021 Jan 1, The 47-member UN Human Rights Council now included China and Russia.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.76)
2021 Jan 2, Brian Urquhart (101), a troubleshooting British diplomat who joined the UN at its birth in 1945, died at his home in Tyringham, Mass. He was best known for creating and directing the UN’s peacekeeping operations in conflict-filled areas around the world.
(AP, 1/3/21)
2021 Jan 8, The United Nations said it fears “massive community transmission" of COVID-19 in Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region, fueled by displacement and the collapse of health services, as humanitarian workers finally begin to access the region two months after fighting began. A UN report said fighting is still going on in several parts of the northern Tigray region and almost 2.3 million people, or nearly half of the population, need aid.
(AP, 1/8/21)(Reuters, 1/8/21)
2021 Jan 14, The United Nations' atomic watchdog agency confirmed that Iran has informed it the country has begun installing equipment for the production of uranium metal, which would be another violation of the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
(AP, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 14, The UN Environment Program (UNEP) said half of the world's climate change financing should go to helping poorer nations adapt to the effects of global warming, such as droughts, rising seas and floods.
(AP, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 14, The UN chief and top officials urged the United States to reverse its decision to declare Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels a terrorist group to prevent massive famine and death in the conflict-torn Arab nation — but the Trump administration in its final days stood by its action.
(AP, 1/14/21)
2021 Jan 20, United Nations agencies warned that more than 350 million people in the Asia-Pacific region are going hungry as the coronavirus pandemic destroys jobs and pushes food prices higher.
(AP, 1/20/21)
2021 Jan 20, The World Health Organization said that three COVID-19 vaccines were in the late stages of review for possible emergency use listing, in addition to the one made by Pfizer and BioNTech already approved. The WHO said shots from Moderna, AstraZeneca and China's Sinopharm and Sinovac could win emergency go-ahead in coming weeks or months.
(Reuters, 1/20/21)
2021 Jan 21, The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning damage and destruction of religious sites and asking the secretary-general to convene a global conference to spearhead public support for safeguarding places of religious heritage.
(AP, 1/21/21)
2021 Jan 21, The UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict said “serious allegations of sexual violence" have emerged in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, while women and girls face shortages of rape kits and HIV drugs amid restrictions on humanitarian access.
(AP, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 22, The first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons entered into force, hailed as a historic step to rid the world of its deadliest weapons but strongly opposed by the world's nuclear-armed nations. The treaty, approved in 2017, received its 50th ratification on Oct. 24, 2020, triggering a 90-day period before its entry into force on Jan. 22. None of the nine countries known or believed to possess nuclear weapons — the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel — supported it and neither did the 30-nation NATO alliance.
(AP, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 23, The UN refugee agency said tribal clashes in Sudan’s Darfur region have killed at least 250 people and displaced more than 100,000 people since erupting earlier this month.
(AP, 1/23/21)
2021 Jan 24, The United Nations launched "Reset Earth," an animated film and game aimed at engaging Gen Z teenagers on the importance of protecting the ozone layer.
(AP, 1/24/21)
2021 Jan 25, A group of UN experts criticized Sri Lanka's requirement that those who die of COVID-19 be cremated, even it goes against a family's religious beliefs.
(AP, 1/26/21)
2021 Jan 26, UN experts said economic profiteering is fueling the catastrophe in Yemen, where a six-year war has involved attacks on civilians, forced disappearances and other violations of human rights and international law.
(AP, 1/26/21)
2021 Jan 27, The UN appealed for $100 million to help it boost support for refugees fleeing escalating conflicts and crises in Africa who embark on risky migration routes to Europe.
(AFP, 1/27/21)
2021 Jan 27, A UN Human Rights Committee said Italy failed to protect the “right to life" of over 200 migrants who died in October, 2013, when the boat they were on sank in the Mediterranean Sea. The committee called on Italian authorities to “proceed with an independent and timely investigation and to prosecute those responsible" for the deaths.
(AP, 1/27/21)
2021 Jan 28, The maritime law tribunal of the UN ruled that Britain has no sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and criticized London for its failure to hand the territory back to Mauritius. The decision confirmed a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a vote in the UN General Assembly. The ruling should enable Mauritius to start settling its new maritime borders.
(BBC, 1/28/21)
2021 Jan 29, The UN counterterrorism chief urged countries to repatriate the 27,000 children stranded in a massive camp in northeastern Syria, many of them sons and daughters of Islamic State extremists who once controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
(AP, 1/29/21)
2021 Feb 1, The UN said violence-torn Central African Republic is facing an increasingly dire humanitarian situation with high insecurity on the main supply route from Cameroon blocking humanitarian deliveries and prices for basic food prices soaring.
(AP, 2/1/21)
2021 Feb 2, The WHO said that breast cancer has overtaken lung cancer as the most common form of the disease, accounting for nearly 12% of new cases each year worldwide.
(Reuters, 2/2/21)
2021 Feb 3, A new UN report said nearly a third of all detainees held in Afghan detention centers say they have suffered some form of torture or ill-treatment.
(AP, 2/3/21)
2021 Feb 3, COVAX, a UN-backed program to deploy COVID-19 vaccines to the neediest people worldwide, especially in poor countries, announced plans for an initial distribution of 100 million doses by the end of March and 200 million more by July.
(AP, 2/3/21)
2021 Feb 3, The United Nations humanitarian chief privately told the UN Security Council that Ethiopia may not have control of up to 40% of the territory in its embattled Tigray region and does not have full command of forces from neighboring Eritrea operating there.
(AP, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 3, The United Nations’ highest court ruled that it can hear a case brought by Iran against the United States. It seeks to end sanctions the administration of former President Donald Trump re-imposed in 2018 after pulling out of an international deal aimed at curtailing Tehran’s nuclear program.
(AP, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 4, The United Nations Security Council "expressed deep concern at the declaration of the state of emergency imposed in Myanmar by the military" and called for the immediate release of Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others who have been detained.
(Reuters, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 5, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reappointed former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as his special envoy on climate ambition and solutions "to mobilize stronger and more ambitious climate action" ahead of a global summit in November.
(Reuters, 2/5/21)
2021 Feb 5, The UN migration agency said over 800 hundred Europe-bound migrants were intercepted in the Mediterranean sea off Libya's coasts and taken into detention over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 2/5/21)
2021 Feb 5, The United Nations kicked off the selection of its next secretary-general, asking the 193 UN member states to submit candidates to be the world organization’s chief diplomat and operating officer.
(AP, 2/5/21)
2021 Feb 8, United Nations data showed food prices hit six-year highs in January after rising for eight consecutive months.
(Reuters, 2/8/21)
2021 Feb 8, UN agencies received approval from Ethiopia’s government to send 25 more staff members to embattled Tigray, a region where the United Nations says hunger is growing and much of the area has been inaccessible to humanitarian workers.
(AP, 2/8/21)
2021 Feb 8, A United Nations panel reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has relied on government hackers to upgrade his country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
(AP, 2/9/21)
2021 Feb 9, A World Health Organization expert said the coronavirus is unlikely to have leaked from a Chinese lab and most probably jumped to humans via an intermediary species.
(AP, 2/9/21)
2021 Feb 9, It was reported that a preliminary UN inquiry into the theft of $281 million worth of assets from a cryptocurrency exchange last September "strongly suggests" links to North Korea. Industry analysts pointed to Seychelles-based KuCoin as the victim of one of the largest reported digital currency heists.
(Reuters, 2/9/21)
2021 Feb 10, A UN report said that a recovery in global trade is expected to slow again in the first quarter of 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic keeps disrupting the travel industry after world trade contracted 9% in 2020.
(Reuters, 2/10/21)
2021 Feb 10, The UN counter-terrorism chief urged the repatriation of tens of thousands of women and children suspected of links to the Islamic State extremist group, warning that many are being radicalized in deteriorating detention camps in Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 2/11/21)
2021 Feb 10, In central Mali an attack on a UN base in Kerena injured at least 20 peacekeepers.
(AP, 2/10/21)
2021 Feb 12, The 47-member UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi and other officials from detention and refrain from using violence on protesters. The UN human rights office said more than 350 people, including officials, activists and monks, have been arrested in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 coup.
(AP, 2/13/21)
2021 Feb 12, Four UN agencies said more than 2 million Yemeni children under the age of 5 are expected to endure acute malnutrition in 2021.
(AP, 2/12/21)
2021 Feb 16, The UN announced it is releasing $15 million from its emergency relief fund to help Guinea and Congo combat new outbreaks of Ebola.
(AP, 2/16/21)
2021 Feb 19, The UN Security Council gave a green light to keep the UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri operating and funded for at least this year.
(AP, 2/19/21)
2021 Feb 19, A UN commission announced that the scale of violence in South Sudan is “a lot worse" than during the country’s five-year civil war.
(AP, 2/19/21)
2021 Feb 23, The annual UN report on the human rights situation in Colombia found that violence is “intensifying" in some rural areas where state presence is weak and armed groups are fighting for territorial control following the 2016 demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group.
(AP, 2/23/21)
2021 Feb 23, The UN refugee agency said at least 7,000 people who fled escalating ethnic violence in western Ethiopia have sought asylum in neighboring Sudan.
(AP, 2/23/21)
2021 Feb 25, The UN Secretary General extended the UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former PM Rafik Hariri for two years and reaffirmed the UN commitment to support its work in bringing to justice those responsible for major crimes.
(AP, 2/26/21)
2021 Feb 25, The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on a top police security official in Sanaa, which is controlled by Houthi rebels, citing his prominent role in intimidations, systematic arrests, detentions, torture, sexual violence "and rape against politically active women".
(AP, 2/26/21)
2021 Feb 26, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet cited the need for an “independent and comprehensive assessment" of the rights situation in China’s Xinjiang region, while emphasizing that activists, lawyers and rights defenders face unfair charges, detention and trials in China.
(AP, 2/26/21)
2021 Feb 26, United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, in rare public comments on Saudi Arabia, said that people were unlawfully held in the kingdom and urged it to uphold freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly.
(Reuters, 2/26/21)
2021 Feb 26, Agnes Callamard, the UN human rights expert who led a UN investigation into the 2018 death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, called on the United States to take the lead in ensuring justice is served for his murder.
(Reuters, 2/26/21)
2021 Feb 27, Pro-independence rebels fighting Morocco for Western Sahara said the UN was responsible for "political deadlock" over the disputed territory, on the 45th anniversary of their unilateral declaration of independence.
(AFP, 2/27/21)
2021 Feb 28, A UN humanitarian agency warned that more than 16 million people in Yemen would go hungry this year, with already some half a million people in the war-torn country living in famine-like conditions.
(AP, 2/28/21)
2021 Mar 1, Two top UN human rights experts urged an international probe into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and called for his immediate release from prison.
(AP, 3/1/21)
2021 Mar 1, A UN commissioned report said tens of thousands of civilians in Syria were “arbitrarily detained" in enforced disappearances during the country's 10-year conflict.
(AP, 3/1/21)
2021 Mar 1, The UN launched an appeal for countries to fund its response to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where more than six years of war has created the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
(AP, 3/1/21)
2021 Mar 2, The United Nations launched an appeal for $266 million (221 million euros) to help feed more than three million refugees and asylum seekers across East Africa, suffering extra hardship because of the coronavirus pandemic. A funding shortfall has led the WFP to slash its monthly assistance for refugees in Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda.
(AFP, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 2, Aid organizations working in Yemen said their programs will be severely cut after a UN appeal for aid to the world’s worst humanitarian disaster fell well short of its goal. Despite repeated warnings that a large-scale famine is looming, the amount raised a day earlier was about $1.7 billion.
(AP, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 2, Myanmar's ambassador to the United Nations in New York formally staked his claim as the country's legitimate representative in letters to the UN General Assembly president and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
(Reuters, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 3, Tin Maung Naing, Myanmar's deputy UN ambassador, resigned. He was assigned by the military to head the country’s mission to the United Nations after the ambassador strongly opposed their recent coup.
(AP, 3/3/21)
2021 Mar 4, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned that “a campaign of destruction" is taking place in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray province, saying at least 4.5 million people need assistance and demanding that forces from neighboring Eritrea accused of committing atrocities in Tigray leave Ethiopia.
(AP, 3/4/21)
2021 Mar 4, The head of the UN atomic watchdog (IAEA) said Iran has agreed to sit down with international technical experts investigating the discovery of uranium particles at three former undeclared sites in the country.
(AP, 3/4/21)
2021 Mar 4, A UN report estimated that 17% of the food produced globally each year is wasted. That amounts to 931 million metric tons (1.03 billion tons) of food.
(AP, 3/4/21)
2021 Mar 5, An attempt to get UN Security Council approval for a statement calling for an end to violence in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region and to spotlight the millions in need of humanitarian assistance was dropped late today after objections from India, Russia and especially China.
(AP, 3/5/21)
2021 Mar 5, The UN special envoy for Myanmar called for urgent Security Council action to reverse Myanmar’s military coup, saying about 50 peaceful protesters were killed in the military’s worst crackdowns this week and scores more were seriously injured.
(AP, 3/5/21)
2021 Mar 9, The UN WHO and its partners reported in a new study that nearly one in three women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes.
(AP, 3/9/21)
2021 Mar 10, The UN Security Council agreed on a statement that condemns violence against Myanmar protesters and urges military restraint, but dropped language condemning the army takeover as a coup and threatening possible further action due to opposition by China, Russia, India and Vietnam.
(Reuters, 3/10/21)
2021 Mar 10, The UN children’s agency said Syria’s 10-year-long civil war has killed or wounded almost 12,000 children and left millions out of school in what could have repercussions for years to come in the country.
(AP, 3/10/21)
2021 Mar 12, The UN Security Council approved an increase of nearly 3,700 military and police to the UN peacekeeping force in Central African Republic to help reverse the deteriorating security situation in the conflict-torn nation where violence has increased since last December’s presidential election.
(AP, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 12, The UN Security Council urged countries with troops and mercenaries in Libya to withdraw them “without delay" as demanded in the cease-fire agreement between the country’s warring parties.
(AP, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 12, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the almost 20,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.
(SSFC, 3/14/21, p.A7)
2021 Mar 12, The WHO granted an emergency use listing for the coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson.
(SFC, 3/13/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 12, The US condemned China's treatment of Uighurs and other minorities at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, citing "crimes against humanity and genocide" in the province of Xinjiang.
(Reuters, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 14, The United Nations says more than 80% of Syrians now live in poverty, and 60% are at risk of hunger. The currency has crashed, now at 4,000 Syrian pounds to the dollar on the black market, compared to 700 a year ago and 47 at the beginning of the conflict in 2011.
(AP, 3/14/21)
2021 Mar 17, The United Nations' nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said it has confirmed that Iran has begun operating a cascade of advanced centrifuges at an underground site.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A UN spokesman said human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has agreed to Ethiopia's request for a joint investigation into the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in the country's northern Tigray region.
(AFP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A UN team of investigators on Myanmar appealed for people to collect and preserve documentary evidence of crimes ordered by the military since a Feb. 1 coup, in order to build future cases against its leaders.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 17, A World Health Organization (WHO) vaccine safety panel said that it considers that the benefits of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that vaccinations continue.
(Reuters, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 18, A UN report, released this week, sketched a grim picture of conflict-wrecked Libya, accusing several foreign governments of turning the oil-rich country into a stage to play out rivalries and ignoring UN sanctions and a decade-long arms embargo.
(AP, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 18, President Joe Biden met virtually with the UN Security Council and reaffirmed his determination to restore America’s global leadership and re-engage with global institutions including the United Nations.
(AP, 3/18/21)
2021 Mar 19, A UN spokesman said the world body in North Korea has been left with no international staff, who are now working remotely.
(AP, 3/19/21)
2021 Mar 20, The UN children’s agency said a surge of fighting in war-torn Yemen has been particularly brutal for children this month, with at least eight killed and 33 wounded.
(AP, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 21, The UN marked International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
(AP, 3/21/21)
2021 Mar 23, The United Nations, United States, Russia and the European Union met virtually to discuss relaunching their long-stalled effort to get Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a two-state solution to their decades-old conflict.
(AP, 3/23/21)
2021 Mar 23, The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling on the office of the UN human rights chief to step up its monitoring of the situation in Sri Lanka regarding all alleged crimes linked to rights violations.
(AP, 3/23/21)
2021 Mar 23, The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling on the office of the UN human rights chief to urge Israel's government to ensure that Palestinian areas have “non-discriminatory" access to COVID-19 vaccines.
(AP, 3/23/21)
2021 Mar 24, The UN Security Council criticized “the protracted political, constitutional, humanitarian and security crises in Haiti" and again urged the government to hold long-delayed legislative elections and prepare for presidential elections this year.
(AP, 3/24/21)
2021 Mar 25, The United Nations and an Ethiopian rights agency said they had agreed to carry out a joint investigation into abuses in the embattled region of Tigray, where fighting persists as government troops hunt down the region's fugitive leaders.
(AP, 3/25/21)
2021 Mar 26, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of UN experts monitoring sanctions against North Korea hours after members met to discuss Pyongyang’s latest test firings of banned ballistic missiles.
(AP, 3/26/21)
2021 Mar 28, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations is holding "serious negotiations" with China for unfettered access to the Xinjiang region to verify reports that Muslim Uighurs are being persecuted.
(Reuters, 3/28/21)
2021 Mar 29, A joint WHO-China study concluded that it is "extremely unlikely" that the coronavirus pandemic started with a leak from a Chinese lab and that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario.
(AP, 3/29/21)
2021 Mar 29, A United Nations working group said scores of Chinese and foreign companies producing "well-known global brands" may be involved in human trafficking, forced labor and other human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region.
(South China Morning Post, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 29, The UN child welfare agency said that the number of child migrants passing through the perilous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama has risen dramatically.
(AP, 3/29/21)
2021 Mar 29, The UN panel of experts monitoring sanctions against Yemen pulled back from its claims of corruption and money laundering by the government, central bank and a UAE-based holding corporation, saying a preliminary review of new information has found no evidence.
(AP, 3/29/21)
2021 Mar 30, The EU and UN hosted dozens of nations and international organizations in virtual talks to help tackle the humanitarian crisis deepening in Syria and neighboring countries as the civil war there entered its 11th year without a political solution in sight.
(AP, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 30, The WHO and more than 20 heads of government and global agencies called for an international treaty for pandemic preparedness that they say will protect future generations.
(AP, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 31, The UN's sexual and reproductive health agency pushed international allies to provide $26.7 million in funding that would go toward "life-saving sexual and reproductive services and a multi-sectoral response to gender-based violence" in Venezuela.
(Axios, 3/31/21)
2021 Mar 31, The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended against using generic anti-parasite drug ivermectin in patients with COVID-19 except for clinical trials, because of a lack of data demonstrating its benefits.
(Reuters, 3/31/21)
2021 Mar 31, The UN special envoy for Myanmar warned that the country faces the possibility of civil war “at an unprecedented scale" and urged the UN Security Council to consider “potentially significant action" to reverse the Feb. 1 military coup and restore democracy.
(AP, 3/31/21)
2021 Apr 1, The UN Security Council late today strongly condemned the use of violence against peaceful protesters in Myanmar.
(AP, 4/2/21)
2021 Apr 2, A fierce attack on a UN peacekeeping base in northern Mali killed four peacekeepers from Chad and at least 23 attackers, and injured another 34 peacekeepers.
(https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/04/1088982)
2021 Apr 5, The UN mission in Bosnia called for urgent action to stop violent pushbacks and collective expulsions of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants along the Croatian border following an incident last week involving 50 “visibly exhausted" men. The men said they had their cellphones, money and belongings taken away when they tried to cross the border and that they were beaten with sticks back into Bosnia.
(AP, 4/5/21)
2021 Apr 6, The UN said at least 56 people have been killed in four days of violence in Sudan's West Darfur region. Gunfire was reported in the city of El Geneina as people fled into Chad.
(AFP, 4/6/21)
2021 Apr 6, Two UN agencies warned that over 27 million people in Congo are suffering from acute hunger, a record high representing almost one-third of the conflict-wracked African nation’s estimated population of 87 million.
(AP, 4/6/21)
2021 Apr 6, The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it plans to reduce troop numbers by seven percent this year, due to a drop in violence in the conflict-torn country.
(AP, 4/6/21)
2021 Apr 8, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the use of improvised explosive devices is increasing as conflicts become more urbanized and armed groups proliferate, and he urged nations to work together to curb the threat from those weapons as well as land mines and other remnants of war.
(AP, 4/8/21)
2021 Apr 9, Ousted Myanmar lawmakers urged the UN Security Council to take action against the military over a Feb. 1 coup as an independent think tank warned the 15 council members that the Asian state was on the brink of collapse. The US ambassador to the UN urged the international community to take “concrete action" against the military in Myanmar including an arms embargo and sanctions against its holding companies and those who profit from them.
(Reuters, 4/9/21)(AP, 4/9/21)
2021 Apr 12, UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez said in a report that the COVID-19 pandemic led to a spike in gender-based violence last year and combatants continued to use sexual violence “as a cruel tactic of war" and political repression. The report focused on 18 countries and listed 52 parties “credibly suspected" of responsibility “for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence".
(AP, 4/12/21)
2021 Apr 13, The United Nations' health agency urged countries to suspend the sale of live animals captured from the wild in food markets. The World Health Organization recommended it as an emergency measure, saying wild animals are a leading source of emerging infectious diseases like the coronavirus.
(CBS News, 4/13/21)
2021 Apr 13, The UN World Food Program said almost one million people are facing severe hunger in northern Mozambique where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee a jihadist insurgency.
(AP, 4/13/21)
2021 Apr 13, Russia unsuccessfully tried for the first time to prevent Kosovo’s representative from speaking at the UN Security Council with the country’s flag in the background, saying the majority of council members don’t recognize its independence from Serbia.
(AP, 4/13/21)
2021 Apr 14, A UN report said nearly half of women in 57 developing countries are denied the right to decide whether to have sex with their partners, use contraception or seek health care.
(AP, 4/14/21)
2021 Apr 15, The UN humanitarian chief warned that the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen is getting even worse with the COVID-19 pandemic “roaring back" in recent weeks as the Arab world’s poorest country faces a large-scale famine.
(AP, 4/15/21)
2021 Apr 16, UN agencies said that tens of thousands of Nigerians are fleeing deadly attacks by armed groups and the continuing clashes between the rebels and national forces in the country's troubled northeastern Borno state. Up to 65,000 people were on the move.
(AP, 4/16/21)
2021 Apr 16, The UN Security Council unanimously approved Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ recent proposal for up to 60 monitors to join an existing political mission in Libya.
(AP, 4/16/21)
2021 Apr 19, A UN report said 2020 was one of the three hottest years on record, marked by wildfires, droughts, floods and melting glaciers. 2020 was ranked alongside 2016 and 2019 despite cooling La Niña conditions.
(Reuters, 4/19/21)
2021 Apr 19, The food assistance agency of the United Nations announced that it will begin operations in Venezuela after reaching an agreement with the nation’s government.
(AP, 4/19/21)
2021 Apr 20, The UN announced that it is seeking $29.2 million to help St. Vincent recover from ongoing volcanic eruptions.
(AP, 4/20/21)
2021 Apr 22, The United Nations said food insecurity is rising sharply in Myanmar in the wake of the military coup and deepening financial crisis with millions more people expected to go hungry in coming months.
(Reuters, 4/22/21)
2021 Apr 26, UN experts, in an 81-page report, warned that political, military and ethnic divisions in South Sudan are widening, leading to multiple violent incidents between the main signatories to last year’s cease-fire, the possibility of renewed war, and nearly 100,000 people facing “famine-like conditions".
(AP, 4/26/21)
2021 Apr 27, The UN Security Council demanded that all combatants protect schools, hospitals, power grids, water supplies and other infrastructure, unanimously adopting a resolution that focused for the first time on the destruction of critical civilian requirements in conflicts from Syria and Afghanistan to South Sudan and Ukraine.
(AP, 4/27/21)
2021 Apr 27, The United Nations and NGOs said that a record 29 million people need humanitarian assistance in the Sahel, noting "unparalleled" insecurity and hunger across six countries in the war-torn African region.
(AFP, 4/27/21)
2021 Apr 28, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution expressing solidarity and support for St. Vincent and urging continued financial help for the eastern Caribbean island as it deals with volcanic eruptions.
(AP, 4/28/21)
2021 Apr 29, The UN World Food Program (WFP) warned that persistent drought in southern Madagascar has left hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine and stoked acute malnutrition among children.
(AP, 4/29/21)
2021 Apr 29, The UN Security Council held an informal meeting focusing on the repatriation of more than 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries from Libya.
(AP, 4/29/21)
2021 Apr 30, The UN said more than 700 people have been arrested in Chad following this week's demonstrations against the new military government led by the son of slain Pres. Idriss Deby Itno.
(SFC, 5/1/21, p.A3)
2021 Apr 30, The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that armed conflict and insecurity in large areas of Myanmar are impeding its operations there. A UN report said political turmoil and disruptions following the coup in Myanmar could undo years of progress and double the number of its people living in poverty to nearly half the population.
(AP, 4/30/21)
2021 Apr 30, The UN Security Council again demanded the restoration of democracy in Myanmar and the release of all detainees including Aung San Suu Kyi and strongly backed calls by Southeast Asian nations for an immediate cessation of violence and talks as a first step toward a solution following the Feb. 1 military coup.
(AP, 5/1/21)
2021 May 5, More than 200 global organizations urged the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar, saying the time for statements has passed and immediate action is needed to help protect peaceful protesters against military rule and other opponents of the junta.
(AP, 5/5/21)
2021 May 6, The UN said industry could cheaply and easily slash humanity's methane emissions by at least 30 percent in a decade, adding that such cuts would slow global warming and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths.
(AFP, 5/6/21)
2021 May 6, The UN announced it has released $65 million for humanitarian aid in Ethiopia, including $40 million for the Tigray region where a military operation launched in November has escalated into a war in which widespread atrocities are reported and thousands have been killed.
(AP, 5/6/21)
2021 May 6, The UN disarmament chief reported the discovery of an undeclared chemical warfare agent at a Syrian site to a Security Council meeting where the US and its Western allies clashed with Russia over international findings that Syria has used chemical weapons.
(AP, 5/6/21)
2021 May 7, The World Health Organization gave emergency use authorization to a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China's Sinopharm, potentially paving the way for millions of the doses to reach needy countries through a UN-backed program rolling out coronavirus vaccines.
(AP, 5/7/21)
2021 May 10, The head of a UN team investigating atrocities in Iraq announced it has found “clear and compelling evidence" that Islamic State extremists committed genocide against the Yazidi minority in 2014 and said the militant group successfully developed chemical weapons and used mustard gas.
(AP, 5/10/21)
2021 May 11, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the nearly 3,700-strong peacekeeping force in the disputed Abyei region on the Sudan-South Sudan border until Nov. 15.
(AP, 5/11/21)
2021 May 12, The UN's atomic watchdog (IAEA) said Iran has enriched uranium to slightly higher purity than previously thought due to “fluctuations" in the process.
(AP, 5/12/21)
2021 May 12, The UN Security Council called for an immediate halt to fighting in Yemen, saying that only a lasting cease-fire and political settlement can end the six-year conflict in the Arab world's poorest nation and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 5/12/21)
2021 May 12, Human rights groups and Western nations met and demanded unfettered access for UN human rights experts to China's Xinjiang region. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned China for “crimes against humanity and genocide against Muslim Uyghurs" during the release of an annual report on international religious freedom.
(AP, 5/13/21)
2021 May 14, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said foreign fighters and mercenaries remain in Libya in violation of last October’s cease-fire agreement and called for their withdrawal and an end to violations of the U.N. arms embargo.
(AP, 5/14/21)
2021 May 14, The regional UN humanitarian coordinator said more than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza have fled their homes since fighting began earlier this week.
(AP, 5/14/21)
2021 May 16, International pressure to bring an end to the raging conflict between Israel and Hamas militants mounted, even as local health officials said an Israeli airstrike in Gaza overnight killed at least 33 people, the single deadliest attack of the current hostilities. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to fighting.
(NY Times, 5/16/21)(Reuters, 5/16/21)(BBC, 5/16/21)
2021 May 18, Chad’s deputy foreign minister warned the UN Security Council that mercenaries and foreign fighters from Libya are crossing into the Sahel, threatening to undermine gains in fighting terrorism by five West African nations and plunge the region into violence that will be difficult to control.
(AP, 5/18/21)
2021 May 18, France's presidency called for a resolution at the United Nations Security Council to stop the fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
(Reuters, 5/18/21)
2021 May 19, A United Nations report said roughly a sixth of the planet’s land and freshwater area now lies within protected or conservation areas.
(AP, 5/19/21)
2021 May 19, The United States said it opposes a proposed UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, reiterating that it could interfere with the Biden administration’s efforts to end the hostilities.
(AP, 5/19/21)
2021 May 20, The World Health Organization's regional director said COVID-19 vaccines currently being deployed in the fight against the pandemic in Europe appear able to protect against all variants that are circulating and causing concern.
(Reuters, 5/20/21)
2021 May 21, The UN humanitarian agency urged heavy punishments for aid workers and others who committed sex abuses during the Ebola epidemic in eastern Congo, saying it has launched a hotline to receive complaints from victims.
(AP, 5/21/21)
2021 May 21, The WHO said official tolls showing the number of deaths directly or indirectly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to be a "significant undercount." 6-8 million people may have died so far.
(Reuters, 5/21/21)
2021 May 25, Belarus’ isolation deepened as commercial planes avoided its airspace, the European Union worked up new sanctions, and a senior UN official said he was concerned for the welfare of Raman Pratasevich, the opposition journalist arrested in Minsk after his plane was diverted there. The UN human rights watchdog demanded that Belarus release Protasevich.
(AP, 5/25/21)(Reuters, 5/25/21)
2021 May 27, The UN launched an emergency appeal for $95 million for Gaza for the next three months to meet immediate humanitarian needs and repairs to key facilities destroyed or damaged during the recent conflict between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers.
(AP, 5/27/21)
2021 May 27, The United Nations Human Rights Council agreed to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate possible "violations of international humanitarian law" during the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas.
(Axios, 5/27/21)
2021 May 27, Russia said it has signed an agreement to supply the UN children's fund UNICEF with enough doses of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for 110 million people.
(Reuters, 5/27/21)
2021 May 30, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for investigations into the deaths of anti-government protesters in Cali, Colombia, following violent clashes between protesters and the military.
(AP, 5/30/21)
2021 May 31, UNICEF said a severe acute childhood malnutrition is expected to more than double this year in Haiti as the country struggles with the coronavirus pandemic, a spike in violence and dwindling resources.
(AP, 5/31/21)
2021 May 31, The UN children agency said that the bodies of three children, who apparently were among Europe-bound migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, washed ashore last week in the North African country.
(AP, 5/31/21)
2021 Jun 1, The UN said more than 90 percent of people in Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region need emergency food aid, as it appealed for over $200 million to scale up its response.
(AP, 6/1/21)
2021 Jun 1, The UN Foundation announced today that top global brands H&M and Banana Republic are once again partnering with UN Free & Equal for Pride Month this June to raise awareness and funds in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) equality worldwide.
(PR Newswire, 6/1/21)
2021 Jun 2, The UN said Iran and the Central African Republic are in arrears on paying their dues to the UN operating budget and will lose their voting rights in the 193-member General Assembly.
(AP, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 2, A UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri said it is facing a severe funding crisis and will not be able to operate beyond July without immediate assistance.
(AP, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 2, It was reported that Russia has administered at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to more than 18 million people, around 12% of the population.
(Reuters, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 2, Siam Bioscience and AstraZeneca said they would soon provide Thailand with 1.8 million doses of locally manufactured COVID-19 vaccine, the first of multiple batches this month, just days away from the launch of the country's vaccination drive.
(Reuters, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 3, The head of the international chemical weapons watchdog told the UN Security Council that its experts have investigated 77 allegations against Syria, and concluded that in 17 cases chemical weapons were likely or definitely used.
(AP, 6/3/21)
2021 Jun 7, The UN Security Council strongly condemned violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Central African Republic and warned that attacks on United Nations peacekeepers there may constitute war crimes.
(AP, 6/7/21)
2021 Jun 7, Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives won election as the next president of the UN General Assembly.
(AP, 6/8/21)
2021 Jun 8, The UN Security Council gave its unanimous backing to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a second term.
(AP, 6/8/21)
2021 Jun 8, UN appeals judges upheld the conviction of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic (79) for genocide and other offenses during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war and confirmed his life sentence.
(AP, 6/8/21)
2021 Jun 8, The UN General Assembly approved a declaration calling for urgent action to end AIDS by 2030, noting “with alarm" that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequalities and pushed access to AIDS medicines, treatments and diagnosis further off track.
(AP, 6/8/21)
2021 Jun 9, A UN expert said at least one-quarter of the people in Myanmar's smallest state have been forced to flee their homes because of combat with the military junta that seized power in February. He called for international pressure on the junta to deprive it of the resources.
(AP, 6/9/21)
2021 Jun 9, A report released by the International Labour Organization and the UN Children’s Fund said the number of children in child labor has risen to 160 million globally, an uptick of 8.4 million over the past four years.
(Axios, 6/9/21)
2021 Jun 9, A UN official said that a high-level UN-led committee that focuses on rapid responses to humanitarian crises estimates that some 350,000 people in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region are facing famine conditions.
(AP, 6/9/21)
2021 Jun 10, The UN Food Agency said food imports costs across the world are expected to surge to record levels this year, piling pressure on many of the poorest countries whose economies have already been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reuters, 6/10/21)
2021 Jun 11, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said there is famine in northern Ethiopia after the release of a UN-backed analysis of the situation.
(BBC, 6/11/21)
2021 Jun 11, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned of a military buildup in parts of Myanmar and rising violence, with the army using heavy weapons against armed groups as well as civilian targets, including Christian churches.
(AP, 6/11/21)
2021 Jun 11, Iran regained its UN General Assembly vote after it made a minimum dues payment, while denouncing the United States for sanctions that had blocked billions in funds.
(Axios, 6/11/21)
2021 Jun 11, The UN elected five countries to join the powerful 15-member UN Security Council with no suspense because all were unopposed -- Brazil, the UAE, Albania, Ghana and Gabon.
(AP, 6/11/21)
2021 Jun 11, The UN General Assembly approved the nomination of Costa Rican economist Rebecca Grynspan to head the UN agency promoting trade and development, the first woman and Central American to lead the Geneva-based organization.
(AP, 6/11/21)
2021 Jun 15, A UNICEF report said escalating gang violence has pushed nearly 8,500 women and children from their homes in Haiti’s capital in the past two weeks.
(AP, 6/15/21)
2021 Jun 18, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was appointed for a second-five year-term by the 193-member UN General Assembly.
(Reuters, 6/18/21)
2021 Jun 18, The World Health Organization's chief scientist said the Delta variant of COVID-19, first identified in India, is becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease.
(Reuters, 6/18/21)
2021 Jun 22, The UN World Food Program (WFP) warned that some 41 million people worldwide are at imminent risk of famine.
(Reuters, 6/22/21)
2021 Jun 22, The United Nations said the Great Barrier Reef has suffered such extensive damage that it should be listed as "in danger." The warning prompted an immediate rejection from the Australian government.
(CBS News, 6/22/21)
2021 Jun 22, A UN human rights expert said Eritrea now has "effective control" of parts of Ethiopia's Tigray region. Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker called for troops to withdraw and for a prompt investigation into abuses, including the abduction of refugees.
(AP, 6/22/21)
2021 Jun 22, Germany and the UN brought together representatives of Libya with powers that have interests in the country at a conference which aims for progress toward securing elections in the North African nation and the removal of foreign fighters.
(Reuters, 6/22/21)(AP, 6/23/21)
2021 Jun 23, The UN General Assembly, for the 29th time, voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution that calls for the US to lift its embargo against Cuba. This time the pleading focused on the devastating impact of the economic blockade during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(AP, 6/23/21)
2021 Jun 24, Morocco and the United Nations inaugurated a UN office in Rabat for counter-terrorism and training in Africa, that's seeing increasing extremist violence.
(AP, 6/24/21)
2021 Jun 24, The United Nations accused Israel of flagrantly violating international law by expanding settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, saying settlements are illegal and urging the country’s new government to halt their enlargement immediately.
(AP, 6/24/21)
2021 Jun 26, The UN World Food Program said southern Madagascar is in the throes of back-to-back droughts that are pushing 400,000 people toward starvation, and have already caused deaths from severe hunger.
(AP, 6/26/21)
2021 Jun 28, A UN envoy said shipments of Qatari-funded fuel into the Gaza Strip will resume for the first time since last month's 11-day war between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas ruler.
(AP, 6/28/21)
2021 Jun 29, The UN Security Council held its first formal public meeting on cybersecurity, addressing the growing threat of hacks to countries' key infrastructure.
(AFP, 6/29/21)
2021 Jun 30, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to US President Joe Biden's administration to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal aimed at stopping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
(Reuters, 6/30/21)
2021 Jun 30, A UN court convicted Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, former allies of late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, of aiding and abetting crimes committed by Serb paramilitaries in a Bosnian town in 1992. Each was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. The judgment can be appealed.
(AP, 6/30/21)
2021 Jul 1, The food assistance agency of the UN announced that its first shipments of supplies for vulnerable Venezuelan school children have arrived in the troubled South American country.
(AP, 7/1/21)
2021 Jul 2, UN-sponsored talks aimed at paving the way for elections in Libya in late December failed to find common ground after weeklong talks near Geneva.
(Reuters, 7/2/21)
2021 Jul 2, A UN human rights agency in a report released today said prisoners taken in the years-long conflict in eastern Ukraine have experienced systematic torture, sexual violence and other abuses.
(AP, 7/2/21)
2021 Jul 3, UN officials recent fighting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia has resulted in a famine that is now affecting more than 400,000 people.
(AP, 7/3/21)
2021 Jul 5, A UN report said Venezuelan security forces carried out fewer extra-judicial killings in the 12 months through April, but it accuses them of a continued pattern of torture or cruel treatment of individuals as well as enforced disappearances and incommunicado detentions.
(AP, 7/5/21)
2021 Jul 6, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet praised the “incredible resilience" of Myanmar’s people in helping each other in the wake of a military takeover and violent crackdown, while calling on the international community to keep up pressure on the junta to halt violence and restore democracy.
(AP, 7/6/21)
2021 Jul 6, The United Nation’s top nuclear watchdog announced that Iran has taken steps to enrich uranium metal to a 20 percent purity and manufacture nuclear reactor fuel.
(AP, 7/6/21)
2021 Jul 7, Haiti requested the United Nations send troops to help secure the country. Before being assassinated President Jovenel Moise had been working on a list of powerful politicians and businesspeople involved in Haiti’s drug trade, with the intention of handing over the dossier to the American government, according to four senior Haitian advisers and officials tasked with drafting the document.
(AP, 7/9/21)(NY Times, 12/12/21)
2021 Jul 8, The United Nations' nuclear watchdog said it reached an agreement with Japan on helping monitor and review the release of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean.
(AP, 7/8/21)
2021 Jul 9, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution extending the delivery of humanitarian aid for a year from Turkey to rebel-held northwest Syria, where the UN says 3.4 million people are in desperate need of food and other assistance.
(AP, 7/9/21)
2021 Jul 12, A UN report said world hunger and malnutrition levels worsened dramatically last year, with most of the increase likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reuters, 7/12/21)
2021 Jul 14, The UN migration agency said the number of migrants and refugees who died while attempting to reach Europe on sea crossings more than doubled so far this year compared to the first six months of 2020. At least 1,146 people perished between January and June.
(AP, 7/14/21)
2021 Jul 20, Myanmar’s military rulers again sought to replace the country’s ambassador to the United Nations, who opposed their Feb. 1 ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and takeover of the government.
(AP, 7/20/21)
2021 Jul 23, The UN General Assembly approved its first-ever resolution on vision, calling on its 193 member nations to ensure access to eye care for everyone in their countries which would contribute to a global effort to help at least 1.1 billion people with vision impairment who currently lack eye services by 2030.
(AP, 7/23/21)
2021 Jul 23, The UN Security Council condemned the decision by Turkey and Turkish Cypriots to reopen a residential section of an abandoned suburb and called for “the immediate reversal" of this unilateral action, warning that it could raise tensions on the divided Mediterranean island.
(AP, 7/23/21)
2021 Jul 26, A UN report said more women and children were killed and wounded in Afghanistan in the first half of 2021 than in the first six months of any year since the United Nations began systematically keeping count in 2009.
(AP, 7/26/21)
2021 Jul 26, In northern Mali five UN peacekeepers were injured in an attack using an improvised explosive device.
(AP, 7/26/21)
2021 Jul 27, A UN panel paid out $600 million to Kuwait's national oil company as compensation for Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait three decades ago. The corporation is the sole remaining claimant and can expect to receive a further $1.1 billion. Under a 1991 UN Security Council resolution, Iraq set aside a percentage of proceeds from its oil exports for the compensation fund.
(AP, 7/27/21)
2021 Jul 27, The head of the UN World Food Program says the agency will “run out of food" in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region on July 30, while hundreds of thousands of people there face the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade.
(AP, 7/27/21)
2021 Jul 29, The UN Security Council extended the arms embargo against the Central African Republic for a year despite an appeal from China to lift it, saying the government hasn’t met UN benchmarks including ensuring the protection and control of all weapons.
(AP, 7/30/21)
2021 Aug 2, The UN General Assembly approved a resolution establishing a Permanent Forum of People of African Descent to provide expert advice on addressing the challenges of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance.
(AP, 8/2/21)
2021 Aug 2, The UN called the Myanmar military’s election delay and extension of the state of emergency a move in the wrong direction from international calls for the restoration of democracy.
(AP, 8/2/21)
2021 Aug 3, The UN Security Council condemned deliberate attacks on civilians in Afghanistan and all instances of terrorism “in the strongest terms," while declaring its opposition to restoration of rule by the Taliban.
(AP, 8/3/21)
2021 Aug 3, The UN humanitarian chief warned Ethiopian authorities that blanket accusations against aid workers in the country’s embattled Tigray region and elsewhere are “dangerous" and must stop. Two international aid groups said that the Ethiopian government had suspended part or all of their operations.
(AP, 8/3/21)
2021 Aug 3, The UN said Rwanda has sent 300 troops to reinforce UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, where they will help protect a key highway supplying the capital. Another 150 troops will arrive by the end of the year. A UN Security Council resolution in March planned to beef up the MINUSCA force in the CAR by around 3,000 men.
(AFP, 8/4/21)
2021 Aug 6, The UN envoy for Afghanistan urged the Security Council to demand that the Taliban immediately stop attacking cities in their offensive to take more territory as American and NATO troops pull out of the country.
(AP, 8/6/21)
2021 Aug 9, The UN panel on climate change sounded a dire warning, saying the world is dangerously close to runaway warming – and that humans are "unequivocally" to blame.
(Reuters, 8/9/21)
2021 Aug 11, UN agencies voiced concern as Central American migrants are being expelled by the United States and flown deep into Mexico for deportation to their homelands. Guatemala was not participating in the joint campaign.
(AP, 8/11/21)
2021 Aug 13, The UN refugee agency's representative for the Baltic region said that while the “emergency phase" of the mass arrivals seems to be over, Lithuania must now focus on the wellbeing of the people held in immigration detention centers and on assessing their claims for international protection. So far this year, more than 4,000 asylum-seekers from 40 countries, most of them Iraqi, have illegally crossed from Belarus into Lithuania.
(AP, 8/14/21)
2021 Aug 15, The UN refugee agency said more than 550,000 people in Afghanistan have fled their homes due to the conflict since the start of this year.
(AP, 8/15/21)
2021 Aug 17, The United Nation’s atomic watchdog (IAEA) said Iran continues to produce uranium metal, which can be used in the creation of nuclear bombs.
(AP, 8/17/21)
2021 Aug 25, UN World Food Program said Madagascar is on the brink of experiencing the world's first "climate change famine".
(BBC, 8/25/21)
2021 Aug 25, It was reported that the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a UN agency in charge of the world's postal policies, has voted to block the use of UK stamps from the Chagos Islands. All post to and from the remote archipelago must now bear stamps from Mauritius.
(BBC, 8/25/21)
2021 Aug 27, The 15-member UN Security Council condemned a deadly attack at Kabul's airport in Afghanistan as "especially abhorrent" for targeting civilians trying to flee the country after the Taliban came to power and people helping with the evacuation. UN officials appealed for $800 million to fill a chronic funding gap for Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 8/27/21)
2021 Aug 27, The UN atomic watchdog IAEA reported that North Korea appears to have restarted a nuclear reactor that is widely believed to have produced plutonium for nuclear weapons.
(Reuters, 8/29/21)
2021 Sep 8, A United Nations panel said that at least 18,000 Yemeni civilians have been killed or wounded by airstrikes since the country’s war escalated in 2015.
(AP, 9/8/21)
2021 Sep 10, The UN rights office said that the Taliban response to peaceful marches in Afghanistan has been increasingly violent, with authorities using live ammunition, batons and whips and causing the deaths of at least four protesters. The United Nations' educational organization warned about risks to access to education, especially for girls and women.
(Reuters, 9/10/21)(AP, 9/10/21)
2021 Sep 12, Iran said it will is to allow the UN nuclear watchdog to service monitoring cameras at Iranian nuclear sites following talks with IAEA head Rafael Grossi. Iran agreed to allow international inspectors to install new memory cards into surveillance cameras at its sensitive nuclear sites and to continue filming there.
(Reuters, 9/12/21)(AP, 9/12/21)
2021 Sep 13, United Nations' human rights chief Michelle Bachelet criticized the Taliban's human rights record since seizing power in Afghanistan, noting that stated commitments did not match realities on the ground such as the status of women.
(Reuters, 9/13/21)
2021 Sep 15, Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for a moratorium on the use of artificial intelligence technology that poses a serious risk to human rights and said that countries should expressly ban AI applications which don’t comply with international human rights law.
(AP, 9/15/21)
2021 Sep 15, The United Nations said it has sent home all 450 Gabonese troops from its peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic and opened an investigation after allegations of the sexual abuse of five girls.
(Reuters, 9/15/21)
2021 Sep 17, A UN report said global goals tackling poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change face a $100 trillion funding shortfall and are likely to be missed unless 10% of global economic output is directed to the UN targets every year to 2030.
(Reuters, 9/17/21)
2021 Sep 17, The United Nations Security Council authorized a six-month extension of the UN's political mission in Afghanistan. The Council also unanimously approved a resolution saying that Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers need to establish an inclusive government that has “the full, equal and meaningful participation of women" and upholds human rights.
(AP, 9/17/21)
2021 Sep 17, A UN report said the global average temperature will rise 2.7 degrees Celsius by century’s end even if all countries meet their promised emissions cuts, a rise that is likely to worsen extreme wildfires, droughts and floods.
(NY Times, 9/17/21)
2021 Sep 20, The UN cultural body UNESCO announced that the US will formally return an illegally imported 3,500-year-old tablet recounting the epic of Gilgamesh to Iraq on Sept. 23.
(AFP, 9/20/21)
2021 Sep 21, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reprimanded the world for the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, describing it as an "obscenity" and giving the globe an "F in Ethics".
(AP, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, A UN spokesman said Afghanistan's Taliban are challenging the credentials of their country's former UN ambassador and want to speak at the General Assembly’s high-level meeting of world leaders this week.
(AFP, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, US President Joe Biden told the United Nations General Assembly he would work with Congress to double funds by 2024 for helping developing nations deal with climate change to $11.4 billion per year.
(Reuters, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro issued a defense of his administration at the UN General Assembly, rebuffing criticism of its handling of the pandemic and touting recent data indicating less Amazon deforestation. Bolsonaro also flouted the requirement for all attendees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
(AP, 9/21/21)
2021 Sep 21, Brazil's health minister tested positive for the coronavirus in New York after President Jair Bolsonaro spoke at the UN General Assembly. Marcelo Quiroga got his first shot of coronavirus vaccine in January.
(AP, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 21, President Xi Jinping of China told the UN General Assembly that his country would stop promoting the growth of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel overseas, in a major step to address climate change: China, he said, “will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad".
(NY Times, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 22, The UN General Assembly pledged to redouble efforts to combat racism around the world, commemorating a landmark but contentious 2001 anti-racism conference by holding an anniversary meeting once again riven with divisions.
(AP, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 22, David Beasley, the head of the UN food agency, warned that 16 million people in Yemen “are marching towards starvation" and says food rations for millions in the war-torn nation will be cut in October unless new funding arrives.
(AP, 9/22/21)
2021 Sep 22, Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo requested UN support to address the flood of migrants passing through his nation.
(AP, 9/23/21)
2021 Sep 23, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urged nations to revamp their food priorities, saying the world needed food systems that safeguard the environment.
(AFP, 9/23/21)
2021 Sep 24, The UN reported that at least 350,209 people have been killed in the decade-old war in Syria, in its first report since 2014 on the death toll, adding that the tally was an "undercount".
(Reuters, 9/24/21)
2021 Sep 24, India and Pakistan clashed at the UN as Pakistani PM Imran Khan accused the rival of a "reign of terror" on Muslims, drawing a stern rebuke. Khan's address was delivered by video due to Covid precautions.
(Reuters, 9/25/21)
2021 Sep 24, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (85) accused Israel of destroying the two-state solution with actions he said could lead Palestinians to demand equal rights within one binational state comprising Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Abbas gave Israel one year to end its occupation of territories that it wants for a future state as he addressed the UN General Assembly via video link from the West Bank.
(Reuters, 9/24/21)(SFC, 9/25/21, p.A4)
2021 Sep 28, Iran rejected a US call to grant UN inspectors access to a nuclear site, saying Washington was not qualified to demand inspections without condemning a sabotage attack on the facility.
(Reuters, 9/28/21)
2021 Sep 29, UN agencies warned that more than 1 million Syrian refugees in crisis-hit Lebanon are experiencing deteriorating conditions that have left nine out of ten of them in extreme poverty.
(AP, 9/29/21)
2021 Sep 30, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN political mission in Libya until after the country's critical presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for late December.
(AP, 9/30/21)
2021 Sep 30, Ethiopia said it is expelling seven senior United Nations officials, two days after a senior UN official said hundreds of thousands of people in the northern region of Tigray were likely experiencing famine.
(Reuters, 9/30/21)
2021 Oct 1, The UN agency helping Palestinian refugees said it is facing an “existential" budget crisis and appealing for urgent funding of $120 million to keep essential education, healthcare and other services running.
(AP, 10/2/21)
2021 Oct 4, A UN investigation revealed that war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the use of child soldiers, have been committed in Libya since 2016.
(AP, 10/4/21)
2021 Oct 6, The UN cultural agency said India's school closures and its children's lack of smartphone and internet facilities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened an educational divide.
(Reuters, 10/6/21)
2021 Oct 6, United Nations veteran diplomat Staffan de Mistura was named as the organization's envoy to the Western Sahara conflict, nearly two and a half years after the post had become vacant as a dozen other candidates were rejected by either Morocco or the Polisario Front rebel movement.
(AP, 10/7/21)
2021 Oct 2, Kosovo's border crossing with Serbia was reopened as Serbs removed trucks and cars and NATO troops moved in under a European Union-mediated deal to end a dispute between the neighboring countries over car license plates.
(Reuters, 10/2/21)
2021 Oct 7, The UN Human Rights Council agreed to appoint a special rapporteur on Afghanistan to probe violations carried out by the Taliban and other parties to the conflict there.
(Reuters, 10/7/21)
2021 Oct 7, The United Nations Human Rights Council narrowly agreed to end the mandate of its independent investigators who have found that all sides in Yemen's conflict have committed acts that may amount to war crimes. The UN migration agency said fighting over the key Yemeni city of Marib has displaced around 10,000 people in the past month.
(Reuters, 10/7/21)(AP, 10/7/21)
2021 Oct 7, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for $8 billion to help equitably vaccinate 40% of people in all countries by the end of the year, as the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a plan that aims to inoculate 70% of the world by mid-2022.
(Reuters, 10/7/21)
2021 Oct 8, The UN Human Rights Council recognized access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right, formally adding its weight to the global fight against climate change and its devastating consequences.
(Reuters, 10/8/21)
2021 Oct 9, UN officials signed a deal with Bangladesh to help provide basic services to thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees who have been moved to camps on a remote island in the Bay of Bengal.
(Reuters, 10/9/21)
2021 Oct 11, The UN refugee agency said it had recovered the bodies of 15 migrants and 177 survivors from two coastguard boats returning to Libya people who had sought to cross the Mediterranean.
(Reuters, 10/11/21)
2021 Oct 11, The UN children's agency UNICEF said some 19,000 migrant children have crossed the dangerous Darien Gap on the border between Panama and Colombia so far this year. At least five children have been found dead in the jungle.
(Reuters, 10/11/21)
2021 Oct 12, The top UN top court (ICJ) ruled largely in favor of Somalia in its dispute with Kenya, setting a sea boundary in part of the Indian Ocean believed to be rich in oil and gas.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Russia hit another record of daily coronavirus deaths as the country struggled with a rapid surge of infections and lagging vaccination rates, but authorities have been adamant that there would be no new national lockdown.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 13, A UN investigator said North Koreans living under strict pandemic restrictions are facing a growing food crisis and the most vulnerable children and elderly people in the isolated Asian nation are at risk of starvation.
(AP, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 14, The UN General Assembly elected the United States to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, more than three years after the Trump administration quit the 47-member body over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform.
(Reuters, 10/14/21)
2021 Oct 14, The UN said that the deteriorating security situation in Colombia represents a "considerable challenge" to the country's 2016 peace accords.
(AP, 10/14/21)
2021 Oct 15, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN political mission in Haiti for nine months.
(AP, 10/15/21)
2021 Oct 19, The UN children's agency UNICEF said ten thousand Yemeni children have been killed or maimed since a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthi group ousted the government.
(Reuters, 10/19/21)
2021 Oct 21, United Nations human rights experts urged Pakistan to release Stephen Masih, a Christian man, who was detained two years ago for insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad and is believed to be mentally ill.
(AP, 10/21/21)
2021 Oct 25, The United Nations said greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record last year and the world is "way off track" on capping rising temperatures, showing the task facing climate talks in Glasgow aimed at averting dangerous levels of warming.
(Reuters, 10/25/21)
2021 Oct 24, The UN children's agency UNICEF said fuel shortages in Haiti are putting the lives of hundreds of women and children at risk as hospitals run low on supplies for electricity.
(Reuters, 10/24/21)
2021 Oct 26, A UN report said current commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions put the planet on track for an average 2.7 degrees Celsius temperature rise this century.
(Reuters, 10/26/21)
(AP, 10/26/21)
2021 Oct 29, The UN Security Council extended the UN peacekeeping mission in the disputed Western Sahara for a year, expressing concern at the breakdown of the 1991 cease-fire between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front and calling for a revival of UN-led negotiations.
(AP, 10/29/21)
2021 Oct 31, The UN climate summit in Glasgow opened with appeals for action and prayers, kicking off two weeks of intense diplomatic negotiations by almost 200 countries on how to tackle the common challenge of intensifying global warming.
(AP, 10/31/21)
2021 Oct 31, Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, said he will sell $6 billion worth of Tesla stock and donate the proceeds to the United Nations’ food agency if it could show how the money would solve world hunger.
(AP, 11/1/21)
2021 Nov 2, The United Nations mission in Central African Republic accused the country's presidential guard of opening fire on unarmed Egyptian peacekeepers and wounding 10 of them, but the government said the accusation was inaccurate. In an attempt to leave the area a bus transporting the Egyptian unit struck and killed a woman.
(Reuters, 11/2/21)
2021 Nov 3, The United Nations children's agency said it was planning to set up a system to directly fund Afghan teachers, after the international community placed a freeze on funding to the Taliban-led administration.
(AP, 11/3/21)
2021 Nov 4, The UN food agency said world food prices rose for a third straight month in October to reach a fresh 10-year peak, led again by increases in cereals and vegetable oils.
(Reuters, 11/4/21)
2021 Nov 5, The UN's theme today in Glasgow was youth involvement, with leaders talking about how important young people are in the battle to keep the world from getting too hot and wild from extreme weather. Mostly young activists carried banners with slogans such as “I have to clear up my mess, why don’t you clear up yours?" and “Stop climate crimes".
(Reuters, 11/5/21)
2021 Nov 5, The United Nations' top human rights official condemned actions by military leaders following a coup in Sudan and said that excessive use of force by security forces had left at least 13 people dead and more than 300 injured.
(Reuters, 11/5/21)
2021 Nov 8, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths urged Myanmar’s military leaders to provide unimpeded access to the more than 3 million people in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance since government forces seized power on Feb. 1.
(AP, 11/8/21)
2021 Nov 9, A UN spokesperson said at least 16 United Nations staff and dependents have been detained in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, amid reports of widespread arrests of ethnic Tigrayans.
(Reuters, 11/9/21)
2021 Nov 10, The United Nations said it has paid nearly $8 million in salaries to some 23,500 health workers across Afghanistan over the past month, bypassing the Taliban-run health ministry in a test case to inject much needed liquidity into a dire Afghan economy.
(Reuters, 11/10/21)
2021 Nov 10, The United Nations Security Council issued a press statement expressing “deep concern" about ongoing violence in Myanmar, whose military-installed government is using force against opponents.
(AP, 11/11/21)
2021 Nov 10, The UN Security Council slapped sanctions on three Houthi rebels linked to cross-border attacks from Yemen into Saudi Arabia and to fighting in the government’s last stronghold in the country’s north.
(AP, 11/11/21)
2021 Nov 11, The UN refugee agency said that the number of people around the world forced to abandon their homes likely increased to more than 84 million in the first half of this year, an increase fueled in particular by conflicts in Africa.
(AP, 11/11/21)
2021 Nov 12, The UN Security Council extended the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic at a meeting that saw Russia and the West clash over Russia’s military presence in the conflict-wracked nation.
(AP, 11/12/21)
2021 Nov 15, The United Nations announced it will provide $40 million in emergency funding for conflict-wracked northern Ethiopia and drought-affected southern areas, and welcomed the release of 34 truck drivers waiting to deliver aid to war-torn Tigray.
(AP, 11/15/21)
2021 Nov 17, The UN's nuclear watchdog IAEA reported that Iran has again boosted its stock of highly enriched uranium.
(AP, 11/17/21)
2021 Nov 19, World Toilet Day. The UN started World Toilet Day in 2012, and this year's campaign is designed to raise awareness of the 3.6 billion people — roughly half of the world's population — living without access to safe sanitary systems.
(Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn., 11/19/21)
2021 Nov 19, The UN said Somalia's "rapidly worsening" drought has left more than two million people facing severe food and water shortages.
(AP, 11/19/21)
2021 Nov 22, The United Nations pushed for urgent action to prop up Afghanistan's banks, warning that a spike in people unable to repay loans, lower deposits and a cash liquidity crunch could cause the financial system to collapse within months.
(Reuters, 11/22/21)
2021 Nov 23, It was reported that whistleblower Emma Reilly, who warned her bosses at the UN Human Rights office that China was getting information on dissidents coming to speak at the world body, has been fired. Reilly was dismissed within 24 hours of her giving an interview to the leading French newspaper Le Monde. It washer case that alerted many to the growing influence of China within the UN system.
(Fox News, 11/23/21)
2021 Nov 23, The World Health Organization and the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool said the Spanish National Research Council had signed a licensing agreement for its COVID-19 antibody test. It is the first time any manufacturer has allowed its coronavirus test to be included in a technology pool set up by WHO.
(AP, 11/23/21)
2021 Nov 24, The UN said a convoy of about 40 trucks carrying relief supplies, including food, had left for Tigray from neighboring Afar. The UN estimates 100 trucks should be entering Tigray each day to meet humanitarian needs.
(Reuters, 11/25/21)
2021 Nov 26, The United Nations' committee against enforced disappearances expressed concern that the Mexican government has not adopted its recommendations aimed at preventing disappearances in the Latin American country.
(Reuters, 11/26/21)
2021 Dec 1, The UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said Iran has started the process of enriching uranium to 20% purity with advanced centrifuges at its Fordow facility buried inside a mountain.
(Reuters, 12/1/21)
2021 Dec 1, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said UN flights between Tigray’s capital Mekelle and Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa had also restarted. 157 trucks with food and humanitarian aid arrived in Tigray’s capital for the first time in more than six weeks and another aid convoy was moving.
(AP, 12/1/21)
2021 Dec 3, The United Nations Development Program said it aims to almost triple its plastic waste management to 100 cities in India by 2024. India generates about 3.4 million tons of plastic waste annually.
(Reuters, 12/3/21)
2021 Dec 3, A UN expert said contemporary forms of slavery exist in Sri Lanka, with vulnerable groups such as children, women, ethnic minorities and older people particularly affected.
(AP, 12/3/21)
2021 Dec 3, The UN Security Council voted unanimously o allow international naval forces to continue using all necessary means to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia — but only for the next three months because the Somali government says there has been no piracy incident for over four years and it’s time to end the operation.
(AP, 12/3/21)
2021 Dec 8, In central Mali an explosion killed seven United Nations peacekeepers and seriously wounded three others.
(Reuters, 12/9/21)
2021 Dec 13, It was reported that Burundi’s government has signaled that it won’t allow a recently appointed UN special rapporteur on human rights into the East African nation.
(AP, 12/13/21)
2021 Dec 14, The UN said more than 100 former Afghan national security forces and others have been killed since the Taliban takeover in August, most at the hands of the hardline Islamist group which is recruiting boy soldiers and quashing women's rights. The WFP said almost all Afghans do not have enough to eat.
(Reuters, 12/14/21)
2021 Dec 14, The UN weather agency said it has certified a 38-degree Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) reading in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk on June 20, 2020, as the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic.
(AP, 12/14/21)
2021 Dec 15, Iran and a UN watchdog said they have reached agreement on replacing cameras at a nuclear complex, as Western powers warn time is running out to revive a deal on Tehran's atomic program.
(AFP, 12/15/21)
2021 Dec 15, The UN migration agency said it has launched a coronavirus vaccination campaign for stranded migrants in war-torn Yemen.
(AP, 12/15/21)
2021 Dec 15, Ghulam Isaczai, the former Afghan government’s ambassador to the United Nations, resigned after the country’s current Taliban rulers sought to replace him with their own envoy. Taliban leaders have been trying to put their own representative, Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, in their country’s seat at the UN.
(AP, 12/17/21)
2021 Dec 16, The United Nations cultural agency placed a traditional Haitian soup, widely seen as a symbol of the nation's independence, on its prized intangible cultural heritage list.
(AP, 12/16/21)
2021 Dec 19, United Nations human rights envoy Tom Andrews warned that a decision by Bangladesh to close schools for Rohingya refugees risks leaving a generation of children "practically uneducated".
(AP, 12/19/21)
2021 Dec 21, The United Nations Human Rights Office said that it had received 13 allegations of rape and gang rape by security forces during protests in Sudan on Dec. 19. Opposition medics reported a second person killed.
(Reuters, 12/21/21)
2021 Dec 21, The UN Human Rights office urged Belarus and Poland to "ensure that refugees' and migrants' human rights are at the center of their actions". Refugees were being back and forth across their border and left with little if any food, clean water or shelter.
(Reuters, 12/21/21)
2021 Dec 22, The United States formally exempted US and UN officials doing official business with the Taliban from US sanctions, clearing the way for proposed UN payments next year of some $6 million to the Islamists for security.
(Reuters, 12/22/21)
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