UN News Centre

On the 30th of October, the First Committee of the UN General Assembly (Disarmament and International Security) approved six draft resolutions, including one on a legally binding instrument on the prevention of an arms race in outer space. During the…

The death penalty does little to deter crimes or serve victims, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on the 10th of October, calling on all countries which have not forbidden the extreme practice to urgently stop executions. “The death penalty…

Nearly a decade after the UN Human Rights Committee agreed that a Peruvian woman’s rights were violated for having been denied an abortion – and recommended that the Government compensate her – the UN human rights office announced today that…

The United Nations health agency today announced that the South-East Asia Region has completed five years without any case of wild poliovirus, a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system and for which there is still no cure. “This…

As United Nations officials gave on-site accounts of the “horrible and terrible” situation in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, from 400 critically ill people facing death without immediate medical care to a kilo of rice costing $300, the first…

A humanitarian convoy has finally reached the besieged Syrian town of Madaya with life-saving health and food supplies from the United Nations and its partners for the 42,000 desperate residents after reports of people starving to death under encirclement by…

Pressenza publishes here the statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to mark the international day of nonviolence. This year, as we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, the International Day of Nonviolence has special importance. At a…

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling for the laying down of arms and a 24-hour cease-fire on 21 September, which is observed around the world each year as the International Day of Peace. The United Nations General Assembly established the International…

28 August 2015 – For the fifth International Day against Nuclear Tests, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed voluntary moratoria on testing imposed by nuclear-armed states but stressed that these cannot substitute for a legally-binding treaty. “The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban…

A new United Nations ‘Free & Equal’ campaign video highlighting the diversity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community is being shown today on the massive screens in New York’s Times Square ahead of International Day against…