UN approves global conference on protecting religious sites
United NationsAP The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution Thursday 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. The resolution condemns the increasing targeting of “cultural property, including religious sites and ritual objects…by terrorist attacks and outlawed […]
UN warns 2021 shaping up to be a humanitarian catastrophe
New York, USReuters Next year is shaping up to be a humanitarian catastrophe and rich countries must not trample poor countries in a “stampede for vaccines” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, top UN officials told the 193-member UN General Assembly on Friday. World Food Programme chief David Beasley and World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom […]
Amid fight to curb coronavirus, UN urges designation of seafarers as key workers
New York, USReuters The 193-member UN General Assembly urged all countries to designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers on Tuesday after travel restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19 have left hundreds of thousands stranded at sea for months. A unanimously adopted resolution encouraged governments to ensure safe ship crew changes and […]
Nationalism “must not prevail”, Pope Francis says, addressing the United Nations
Vatican CityRNS In a video message to the United Nations, Pope Francis said the COVID-19 pandemic has put the international community at a crossroads and that it’s up to UN leaders to decide whether to choose the path of multi-lateralism and dialogue or nationalism and individualism. “We are faced, then, with a choice between two […]
World leaders to mark United Nations at 75 as pandemic challenges organisation
United NationsReuters World leaders will come together, virtually, on Monday to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, as the deadly coronavirus pandemic challenges the effectiveness and solidarity of the 193 member world body. As COVID-19, which emerged in China late last year, began to spread around the world, forcing millions of people to […]
Hit by COVID and climate change, island states battle debt crisis
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation As the coronavirus pandemic compounds worsening economic pressures from climate change impacts, small island developing nations on Monday appealed for international financial support to help them avert a looming debt crisis. Ahead of this month’s UN General Assembly, the Alliance of Small Island States has stepped up diplomatic pressure, calling on […]
UN chief to push pandemic ceasefire at world leaders meeting, but fears opportunities lost
United NationsReuters UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will use his annual address to world leaders next week to push for a global ceasefire until the end of 2020 so countries can fight the coronavirus pandemic, but he said opportunities will be lost because presidents and prime ministers are not physically in New York. Chinese President Xi […]
World leaders to send videos instead of traveling to UN in September
Reuters World leaders will send videos instead of physically gathering at the United Nations in September due to the coronavirus pandemic, the General Assembly decided on Wednesday, a move that paves the way for people wary of traveling to the United States – like North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un – to participate. The annual high-level […]
World Vision among NGO coalition calling for Australia to do more to protect child refugees
World Vision Australia is among a coalition of NGOs calling on the Australian Government to significantly increase the country’s annual humanitarian refugee intake and offer more children protection, to ban immigration detention of children and to ensure families are kept together where-ever possible. They are among a raft of demands being made ahead of a […]