Week in Review

The UN deputy chief and head of UN Women have conveyed a direct message to Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership calling on them to put the good of the country first and end recent policies towards women and girls that have confined them in their own homes, and violated their basic human rights.

The first UN aid convoy to reach the vicinity of the battered eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar, since the Russian invasion began nearly a year ago, arrived on Friday morning, providing support for more than 800 civilians in need.

China is “making enormous progress and effort” to get every older adult vaccinated against COVID-19, the UN health agency said on Friday, while also cautioning that it will take time to protect everyone.

The Moroccan city of Fez, which recently hosted the Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, has long been a melting pot of religions and cultures. Its 200-year-old Jewish cemetery symbolizes the centuries-long coexistence of diverse communities in the city.

People who do not have a legal identity, and cannot prove who they are, are likely to end up without opportunities, and very vulnerable in society. The UN’s Legal Identity Agenda Task Force aims to help more than 300 million people acquire a legal identity in their country by 2025.

So maybe you’ve realized that you’re a moth rather than a butterfly? LIA LIA is her to let you know that’s ok. With her song “I’m a moth”. The singer embraced the feeling of not fitting in, either in her father’s China, or her mother’s Germany.

In the ninth episode of amplifyHER, LIA LIA tells us about her struggle to feel comfortable with who she is, her love of punk, and losing her fear of failing.

Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, to ensure you don’t miss an episode!

_{Original music that appears in amplifyHER is included with the kind permission of the artists. All rights reserved.}

An innovative project seeking to develop climate resilience, self-sufficiency and the empowerment of vulnerable rural communities in southern Madagascar, could offer a game-changing template for future humanitarian work, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.

The UN Secretary-General said on Wednesday that he did not believe that there was an opportunity yet, to organise “a serious peace negotiation” between the warring parties in Ukraine, nearly a year on from Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Addressing the Security Council on Tuesday, Ilze Brands Kehris, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, expressed concern about restrictions to freedom of religion in Ukraine, including territory under Russian control.

Barring girls and young women from classrooms in Afghanistan could wipe out huge gains made in education and create “a lost generation”, the UN’s educational and cultural organization, UNESCO, has warned.  

The United Kingdom’s plans to offer limited immunity from prosecution to those accused of crimes during Northern Ireland’s “Troubles” have been called into question by UN rights chief Volker Türk. 

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are among countries that have the highest prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health risks in the world. Now, UN health agency WHO, is pledging to work more closely with them, to help save and improve lives. 

The world’s collective priority for the Occupied Palestinian Territory must be reversing the negative trajectory that marked 2022 as one of the deadliest years in recent memory, the senior UN official in the region told the Security Council on Wednesday.

More than a year after the military coup in Sudan, political parties began talks this month aimed at restoring a civilian-led transition, which the UN has hailed as an important step towards peace and democracy. 

The number of journalists killed worldwide significantly increased in 2022, following a decline over the previous three years, according to the United Nations’ culture agency (UNESCO).

Warring parties in Yemen should take advantage of the current absence of major fighting and use it to advance their talks towards peace, the top UN official in the country said on Monday in his latest briefing to the Security Council. 

Finding a decent and well-paid job is likely to be harder this year, thanks to the continuing global economic downturn, the UN labour agency said on Monday.