United Nations Radio

There has been progress in the provision of water, sanitation and hygiene to people around the world, but challenges still remain, particularly in rural areas. That's according to the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2014 report released on Wednesday. The report, which is published twice a year, presents data from [...]

An unconditional humanitarian truce in Benghazi, Libya has been agreed to on Wednesday until 7pm local time. The agreement to end hostilities for a period of 12 hours was facilitated by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). Since May, nearly 400,000 people have been displaced in the North African country as fighting continues [...]

The number of foreign terrorist fighters in the Syria and Iraq conflict has grown to more than 15,000. Briefing the Security Council on Wednesday, the UN Secretary-General said the fighters come from over 80 countries. Groups such as the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, and the Al-Nusra Front continue to terrorise communities in the [...]

Global efforts to provide improved water and sanitation for all people are gaining momentum, but serious gaps in funding continue to hamper progress, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). The biennial Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water report presents data from 94 countries. It shows that two billion [...]

A groundbreaking resolution which calls for the prosecution of leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for human rights abuses has been passed at the United Nations. It's the first time the UN General Assembly's human rights committee has voted to recommend the prosecution of senior North Koreans in the International Criminal Court, [...]

Twenty-two years ago, the international community did not anticipate many of the world's malnutrition challenges, a UN conference on nutrition has heard. More than 150 governments answered the call made by the UN Food Agency (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to attend the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), opening on Wednesday. In [...]

Insecurity is on the march again in the vast Sahel region and any hopes for an improvement in the outlook for millions of vulnerable people there have evaporated. That's the assessment of the UN's chief humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel, Robert Piper. He said regional players need to confront the security challenge there or else [...]

Concern has been raised by United Nations human rights experts over the potential imminent release of a man who was convicted of committing genocide in Srebrenica. Milorad Trbic, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2009 by the Bosnian State Court after being found guilty of taking part in the genocide in the town. [...]

Violence across Libya has led to what's been described as a "deteriorating displacement crisis" by the UN Support Mission in the country (UNSMIL). At least 100,000 people have fled their homes in the past month alone due to intense fighting in the eastern towns of Benghazi and Derna, as well as in the Libya's southeast [...]

The West African nation of Mali has reported five deaths from the Ebola disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). More than 5,000 people have died in the outbreak this year mainly in three countries in the region, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. WHO said it is working closely with the Government of Mali [...]

A strong legal framework is needed to improve food systems, according to the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In an address to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on Tuesday, José Graziano da Silva urged ministers and senators to transform their commitments on healthier diets into positive results. More than 90 ministers and [...]

News and features from United Nations Radio.

Leaders of the Islamist militant groups known as ISIS, ISIL or Da'ish are "undeniably" guilty of war crimes in Iraq, according to the UN human rights chief. Briefing the Security Council on Tuesday, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein added the groups could possibly be guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Iraq has experienced increasing instability [...]

Easy-to-use ebola testing kits are in the pipeline which will be used to hunt down the very last cases of the disease, according to UN doctors. The announcement is the next step in the World Health Organization (WHO) effort to eliminate the deadly disease in west Africa. So far, efforts to contain outbreaks of the [...]

Looting, torture and rape in Democratic Republic of Congo's so-called "triangle of death" has pushed up the numbers of internally displaced to nearly 600,000 people in one province alone. That's the latest information from the UN refugee agency, which says that more than 71,000 people fled their homes in resource-rich Katanga province in the last [...]