Tag Archives: un

The U.N. human rights office warned Friday of “frightening and disturbing reports” about the impact of new violence in Burma’s western state of Rakhine, pointing to new attacks on Rohingya civilians by the military and an ethnic armed group fighting it. Spokesperson Liz Throssell of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights cited the burning of the …

The United States and several of its allies, including Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany and Japan, issued a joint statement on Friday calling on Taiwan to be allowed to take part in a key meeting of the World Health Organization next week. Taiwan is excluded from most international organizations because of objections by China, which considers the democratically governed island its …

The United Nations approved a resolution Thursday establishing an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs, a move vehemently opposed by Serbs who fear it will brand them all as “genocidal” supporters of the mass killing. The vote in the 193-member General Assembly was 84-19 with 68 nations abstaining, a reflection …

The United Nations has planned new routes within the Gaza Strip to transport aid from a U.S.-built floating pier after crowds of desperate Palstinians intercepted 11 trucks, causing a halt to deliveries that continued for a third day on Tuesday. The temporary pier was anchored to a Gaza beach last Thursday as Israel comes under growing global pressure to allow …

The leader of Bosnia’s Serb territory reiterated his threat to secede from the Balkan country Wednesday, a day ahead of a planned U.N. vote on establishing an annual day to commemorate the 1995 genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs. The proposed U.N. resolution sponsored by Germany and Rwanda has sparked protests and a strong lobbying campaign …

The deaths of Iran’s president and foreign minister in a helicopter crash have caused a pause in the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s talks with Tehran over improving cooperation with the agency, the watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi told Reuters on Wednesday. “They are in a mourning period which I need to respect,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Grossi said in Helsinki, …

Leaders around the Baltic Sea reacted warily Wednesday to reports that Russia could revise the borders of its territorial waters in the region, with Lithuania’s foreign minister calling it an “obvious escalation” that must be met with an “appropriately firm response.” In a draft proposal reported by some Russian media, Russia’s Defense Ministry suggests updating the coordinates used to measure …

Extreme weather attributed to the El Niño phenomenon is causing a surge in hunger in several countries, including Zambia and Afghanistan, the UN’s World Food Programme said Wednesday, and called on donors for much-needed help. El Niño is a natural, temporary and occasional warming of part of the Pacific that shifts global weather patterns, and studies say that as the …

The United Nations flag was lowered to half-staff Tuesday in honor of the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash Monday. Raisi, nicknamed the “Butcher of Tehran” for his oversight of mass executions of political prisoners in 1988, died along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other Iranian officials who were in the helicopter when it …

The U.N.’s High Representative for Disarmament Affairs on Monday cautioned all states involved in arms transfers in the context of the war in Ukraine to act responsibly in order “to prevent diversion, illicit trafficking and misuse.” Izumi Nakamitsu told the United Nations Security Council that, “over the last months, the provision of military assistance and transfers of arms and ammunition …