Israel strongly rejected accusations by South Africa of genocidal intent against Palestinians on Friday at the United Nations’ highest court, insisting that it was engaged “in a war it did not start and did not want” in Gaza.

With the annual average global temperature fast approaching the critical threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, last year officially smashed the global temperature record, the UN weather agency (WMO) confirmed on Friday.

As the Gaza conflict approaches the 100-day mark, an immediate ceasefire is “more urgent than ever”, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Friday. 

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday declared Cabo Verde free of malaria, hailing it as the latest success in the global fight against the disease.

The public health risk from COVID-19 remains high, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday.

The UN Security Council met on Friday for briefings on the worsening situation across the Middle East, looking first at threats of forced displacement from Gaza and then the escalating conflict in and around the Red Sea – all as the war in Gaza approac...

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged countries to avoid an escalation in the situation in the Red Sea, where Houthi rebels in Yemen have been attacking commercial vessels amid the ongoing war in Gaza. 

One of the legends of UN history is a tale that spread across the world and the decades. Did then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev remove his shoe and bang it on a desk in the UN General Assembly Hall in 1960?

Recurring denials and severe access constraints continue to paralyze aid teams trying to respond to the immense needs in northern Gaza, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, has warned. 

West Africa has seen shifting political sands throw up contrasting challenges over the past six months, revealing a stark contrast in the region’s journey towards democracy, the UN envoy for the region said on Thursday.

South Africa has set out its case accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention, pointing to the current situation in the bombarded, besieged Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians.

The UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Thursday that it is “deeply concerned” over a recent spate of arbitrary arrests and detentions of women and girls by Taliban officials for alleged non-compliance with the Islamic dress code.

Russian strikes have continued to “wreak havoc” on Ukrainian cities, causing death and destruction and leaving millions of civilians without access to vital services, the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) said on Thursday.

Recent developments in Colombia have highlighted the need to move forward in implementing the 2016 peace agreement signed by the Government and the FARC-EP militia group, UN Special Representative Carlos Ruiz Massieu told the Security Council on Thursd...

South Africa addressed the UN's highest court on Thursday in a bid to end the mass killing of civilians in Gaza, accusing Israel of carrying out genocide against Palestinians there – a claim that Israel has strongly denied as "baseless".

The profile of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was raised in January, following South Africa’s decision to bring proceedings against Israel for violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention. Here is a primer on the ICJ, and what it d...

Repeated refusals by Israeli authorities to allow UN aid teams to deliver desperately needed humanitarian relief inside Gaza have effectively cut off five hospitals in the north from access to “lifesaving medical supplies and equipment”, the UN aid coo...

Global unemployment is expected to rise this year, with growing inequality and stagnant productivity also a cause for concern on the economic horizon, the UN labour agency ILO said on Wednesday.

The new year has brought no respite to Ukraine, with recent weeks seeing some of the worst attacks of the nearly three-year war, the UN political affairs chief told the Security Council on Wednesday. 

The UN remains concerned about the fate of personnel travelling on one of its helicopters in Somalia that reportedly was seized on Wednesday by al-Shabaab militants, though no details were provided. 

The UN Security Council on Wednesday passed a resolution condemning “in the strongest terms” the multiple attacks by Houthi rebels off the coast of Yemen which have disrupted global trade and raised fears of further spillover from the war in Gaza.

With no let-up in fighting across Gaza, the UN health agency pleaded on Tuesday for better access across the enclave, where relief is arriving “too little...too late” to help civilians caught up in the ongoing conflict. 

The immediate priority in Gaza must be saving civilian lives said the President of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, as Member States gathered to debate the use of the veto by the United States in the Security Council last month. 

The European climate agency on Tuesday reported that record global heat last year showed an overall increase of 1.48°C above pre-industrial levels – just a fraction below the 1.5-degree threshold laid out by the historic Paris Agreement on climate chan...

On day 93 of the war in Gaza, amid reports of relentless and heavy Israeli bombardment, UN humanitarians issued new reports of “significant casualties, particularly among women and children” and pleaded for overwhelmed medical teams to be allowed to co...

The UN human rights chief on Monday called on the newly elected Government of Bangladesh to take steps to renew the country’s commitment to democracy and human rights.

Shiraz, a 23-year-old trans woman from Alexandria, Egypt, attempted suicide when she was not accepted by her family. Today, with support from the UN migration agency (IOM), she sees a brighter future in her new home in Izmir, Türkiye.

The UN’s relief chief on Friday warned that “Gaza has simply become uninhabitable” and demanded Israeli forces and Palestinian militants start meeting their obligations under international law to protect civilian lives.

Hospitals and other vital medical infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank have been attacked nearly 600 times since war erupted in the enclave in response to the Hamas-led terror attack in southern Israel, the UN health agency said on Friday.

Amid reports of continued Israeli airstrikes overnight in southern and central Gaza and more rocket fire into Israel from the enclave, UN teams said on Thursday they have been unable to deliver urgently needed aid to civilians beyond central areas and ...

In Ukraine, there was no respite from war over the holiday period, neither for the country’s citizens, nor the UN workers attempting to deliver aid and support, a senior official for the UN migration agency (IOM) told UN News.

The UN’s World Economic Situation and Prospects report for 2024 projects a slowdown in global growth from an estimated 2.7 per cent in 2023 to 2.4 per cent in 2024.

Music legend Stevie Wonder had a strong and powerful message marking the 10th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the UN back in 2016: “We need to have equal access to education and to knowledge and information,”...

The international community must take “decisive and immediate action” to bring nearly nine months of brutal civil war in Sudan to an end and boost humanitarian relief, the UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday.

Continuing airstrikes were reported across Gaza on Wednesday and “intense ground battles” between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters in refugee camps in central areas that have reportedly left many dead.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday strongly condemned an attack in Iran which has reportedly killed more than 80 people taking part in a commemoration for a former top military general in the eastern city of Kerman.

Two children have reportedly been killed and at least 15 injured in a wave of deadly new year attacks across Ukraine, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative said on Wednesday.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday held its first open meeting on the continuing attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, which are becoming an increasing threat to global trade and the stability of the entire region as the intense fighting between I...