Category: UN News

The UN and its humanitarian partners are stepping up efforts to assist more than 150,000 people who have been impacted by fighting across the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, where Government forces recently announced they had regained full control after months of Russian occupation.

Faced with the “inability” of Western countries to negotiate and the Ukrainian Government’s “war against its own people” in the east, Russia had “no choice” but to launch what the Government refers to as its special military operation, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the UN General Assembly on Saturday.

UN-appointed independent human rights experts on Friday called on Irish authorities to provide adequate redress for victims of racial discrimination and system racism in Irish childcare institutions, stretching over more than 50 years.

Micheál Martin, the head of the Irish Government, used his General Assembly speech on Thursday to express his frustration at the “Security Council’s failure to act” in tackling a range of peace and security issues.

Refugees from Ukraine are eager to work in their host countries but need additional support to do so, and to ensure their inclusion in the communities where they are staying, according to a new survey published on Friday by UN refugee agency, UNHCR. 

Almost seven months to the day since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, UN-appointed independent human rights investigators said that war crimes have indeed been committed in the conflict.

Addressing the General Assembly for the final time before leaving office, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on Friday relayed some hard truths about what he saw as shortcomings leading to the “gradual loss of credibility of the United Nations” and called for Member States to generate the political will to reform and modernize the Organization.

Collectively, “we must address…the fundamental imbalances in the world we share,” Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said on Thursday, calling for global “climate solidarity” to support vulnerable countries that have suffered “loss and damage” from climate change.

With the war in Ukraine showing no signs of letting up, countries must increase efforts to prevent further escalation and end the fighting, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told Foreign Ministers meeting in the Security Council on Thursday. 

With a full-scale war of aggression under way in Europe, the General Assembly was meeting this year “in a new geopolitical era that demands those who believe in the principles of the United Nations to stand up,” according to Elizabeth Truss, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.