Week in Review

The UN’s 193 Member States adopted a landmark legally binding marine biodiversity agreement on Monday following nearly two decades of fierce negotiations over forging a common wave of conservation and sustainability in the high seas beyond national boundaries – covering two thirds of the planet’s oceans. Here are five key points on why it is important for the world.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the war “has weakened the international collective security system we have all pledged to uphold”, the top UN political affairs official told the Security Council on Friday, briefing ambassdors on the current situation on the ground.

A particularly deadly week of violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’s West Bank risks spiralling out of control, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday, after a “major intensification” involving Israeli airstrikes and drone attacks.

The right to keep personal health data private is increasingly under threat in our digital world, with potentially devastating consequences for already vulnerable people, a UN-appointed independent rights expert told the Human Rights Council on Thursday.

A Thai man has been talking about how he is able to reduce the harm caused by using the drug crystal meth thanks to a programme supported by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Thailand.

Developing countries are buckling under high debt and exorbitant borrowing costs, that prevent them from reviving their economies, UN chief António Guterres said on Thursday.

Zeinabou Maata, a Muslim from Mauritania, is one of 50 women serving on the frontlines of preventing the spread of violent extremism in her country, with UN support.

Celebrating the union of body, mind and soul, hundreds of yoga enthusiasts – including UN officials and staffers – filled the green expanse of the North Lawn at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday to mark the ninth celebration of the International Day of Yoga, observed each 21 June.

With hate spreading lightning fast on social media and “mega spreaders” using divisive rhetoric to inspire thousands, the United Nations is calling for concerted global efforts to combat hate speech.

The multiple restrictions placed on women and girls by Afghanistan’s de facto rulers are costing the Taliban “both domestic and international legitimacy” and are highly unpopular across the country, said the top UN official based there on Wednesday.

Radwa Sharaf is a UN refugee agency, UNHCR, staff member tasked with working with celebrities, content creators, and influencers to promote the work of the organization to a broader audience in Egypt, home to more than 293,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers. On World Refugee Day, she shared her story with UN News.

The cross-border impact of the crisis in Sudan is unfurling along multiple fronts, and action is urgently needed to ease rising tensions that has already resulted in deadly clashes, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for South Sudan told the Security Council on Tuesday.

Just before noon in Satara, a remote village in Niger’s southwestern Tillaberi region, the thermometer is already hovering near 40°C.

At a home in the British countryside, two retired UN staff members have hosted a Ukrainian mother and son for more than a year. Ahead of World Refugee Day, the housemates shared their stories and the impact the experience has had on their lives.

From institutionalized racism to genocide, the roots are the same, according to people on the frontlines of change who shared their stories with UN News ahead of the International Day for Countering Hate Speech, observed on Sunday.

Call a friend with a connection, get a passport in 24 hours, and hand over some cash. That is what it takes to flee the fragile Sahel region of Africa, where smuggling networks exploit the desperation of people, leading in some cases to such deadly disasters as the recent shipwreck off the coast of Greece.