UN News - Global perspective Human stories

• Needs rise as flooding spreads in Somalia
  Deadly torrential rains and floods have affected more than two million people in several areas of Somalia, with over 100 killed and 750,000 displaced from their homes, the authorities and humanitarian partners said on Thursday in the capital, Mogadishu.  
• Civil society an ‘unwavering force’ for peace: UN official
  Civil society organizations are on the “frontlines” of peacebuilding, a senior UN official said on Thursday, as the Organization convened the inaugural dialogue with grassroots organizations aimed at building and nurturing peace initiatives on the ground.
• Russia: UN rights chief denounces outlawing of ‘the international LGBT movement’
  UN human rights chief Volker Türk has deplored the decision by Russia’s highest court to outlaw what it called “the international LGBT movement” and brand it as “extremist” - a move he feared could lead to gay and transgender rights groups there being banned outright. 
• Climate change risks upending global fight against malaria
  Climate change and its impacts, particularly extreme weather and heatwaves, pose a “substantial risk” to progress being made to fight malaria, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
• World News in Brief: New relief window in Gaza, sexual violence in Sudan, new action against chemical weapons
  A last-minute extension of the pause in fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas on Thursday offered hope that UN humanitarians and aid partners will be able to pursue their efforts to reach the enclave’s most vulnerable people.
• World AIDS Day celebrates communities working to end the disease
  The leadership of communities affected by HIV has been vital in driving progress to end the epidemic, UN health agency WHO said on the eve of World AIDS Day, observed annually on 1 December. 
• COP28 talks open in Dubai with breakthrough deal on loss and damage fund
  Delegates meeting in Dubai agreed Thursday on the operationalization of a fund that would help compensate vulnerable countries coping with loss and damage caused by climate change, a major breakthrough on the first day of this year’s UN climate conference.
• Science points to ‘climate collapse’ as UN chief calls COP28 to action
  The world is heating up at an unprecedented pace, new climate data shows, and leaders gathered for the COP28 conference which opened in Dubai on Thursday must get us out of “deep trouble”, UN chief António Guterres said.
• Stories from the UN Archive: The origin of #PalestineDay
  As the Israel-Palestine crisis continues, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was commemorated on 29 November, and has been annually since 1978.
• World News in Brief: South Sudan aid plan, rising cost of healthy eating, Europe’s diabetes burden
  Humanitarians have launched a $1.8 billion plan to support six million people in South Sudan next year, the United Nations has reported. 
• Impact of ‘failed promises’ on climate, evident in Antarctica: A UN Resident Coordinator blog
  The impact of “failed promises” to address the rapid rise in global temperatures is strikingly evident in Antarctica in the South Pole, according to the UN Resident Coordinator in Chile.
• UN affirms solidarity with the Palestinian people on International Day
  From New York to Jerusalem and beyond, United Nations offices on Wednesday commemorated the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.   
• World must not look away from humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, UN chief tells Security Council
  The UN Security Council met intensively through Wednesday morning in New York on the Middle East crisis. It was the first open meeting since the 15-member body passed a resolution in mid-November and the first featuring foreign ministers from across the region and beyond.
• Israel-Palestine crisis: Gaza City a ‘ghost town’, reports UN aid agency
  Amid hopes of a deal to extend the pause in fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reported that humanitarian assistance had reached its shelters in northern Gaza for first time since war erupted last month.
• UN and African Union sign new human rights agreement
  The United Nations and the African Union have reinforced their partnership following the conclusion of their seventh high-level dialogue in New York on Tuesday. 
• Syria: ‘A dozen different powder kegs’
  The situation in Syria remains dire, with continued fighting, and tens of thousands displaced - all exacerbating the suffering of civilians and compounded by the effects of the war in Gaza, senior UN officials said on Tuesday.
• Haiti: Gangs move into rural areas as Türk says new force ‘must be deployed’
  Gang violence in Haiti is on the rise with new alliances being forged and expansion into rural areas previously considered safe, warns a new UN report.
• Francis calls for longer-term humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza
  The brutal attack by Hamas on 7 October followed by Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza, has only highlighted the importance of a peaceful and just solution to the situation in the Middle East, the President of the UN General Assembly said on Tuesday.
• Explainer: What’s COP28 and why is it important?
  Global temperatures continue to reach record levels and, as the year draws to a close, the diplomatic heat is rising as all eyes turn to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where world leaders are meeting from 30 November to 12 December, to chart an ambitious way forward in the global fight against climate change.
• World News in Brief: Burkina Faso attack, ending AIDS, Syrian child casualties, new UN migration ambassador
  The UN human rights office, OHCHR, said it was appalled by the recent killing of dozens of civilians in the Sahel region of northern Burkina Faso.
• Gaza doctors ‘terrified’ of deadly disease outbreak as aid teams race to deliver
  As the pause in fighting in Gaza appeared to enter a fifth day on Tuesday, UN humanitarians warned that aid deliveries needed to multiply immediately to save the lives of the injured and stem the risk of a deadly disease outbreak that has left doctors “terrified”.
• Somali-born champion of refugee education wins top UNHCR award
  A former child refugee born in Somalia, who dedicated himself to changing lives through education, has been named as this year’s winner of the prestigious UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award.
• First Person: Trauma, stress and sadness take root in Gaza
  The look on people’s faces in Gaza reveals “the trauma, the stress, as if sorrow and sadness have taken root here in Gaza”, according to James Elder, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson who has joined the aid effort in the besieged enclave.
• DPR Korea: Military satellites, ‘serious risk’ to civil aviation and shipping
  The recent launch of a reconnaissance satellite by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), presents a ‘serious risk’ to international civil aviation and shipping, the Security Council heard on Monday. 
• Hopes for a sustainable planet must not ‘melt away’: Guterres
  World leaders at this week’s climate conference, COP28, must break the deadly cycle of global warming before a “deadly tipping point” is reached, said the UN chief on Monday.