Category: Development

Watcharapol Mahaprom, who goes by the name Paan, accesses services at a clinic in Bangkok run by the UNODC-supported non-governmental organization, Ozone. The organization promotes harm-reduction services which focus on their clients’ needs with the aim of preventing the health and social impacts of drug use. He spoke to UN News ahead of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and… Read More

This year’s observance organized by the Permanent Mission of India to the UN in collaboration with the Secretariat, took place under the theme, Yoga for Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam (“the world is one family”). In his video message for the event, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres reminded everyone that in a dangerous and divided world, the benefits of this ancient practice are particularly… Read More

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are highlighting the issue ahead of World Food Safety Day, observed annually on 7 June.  This year, focus is on the role of established food safety practices and standards which ensure that what we eat, is safe to consume.  Ending ‘preventable deaths’  Food safety has a direct impact… Read More

“Every year, over 400 million tons of plastic is produced worldwide – one third of which is used just once”, said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. 2,000 truckloads a day “Every day, the equivalent of over 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic is dumped into our oceans, rivers, and lakes.” He noted that microplastics are finding their way into the food we… Read More

Since the start of the year, abortion has been banned in 14 states across the country, and the consequences of the Supreme Court decision has reverberated throughout the entire legal and policy system, the Human Rights Council-appointed experts said. “The regressive position taken by the US Supreme Court…by essentially dismantling 50 years of precedent protecting the right to abortion in… Read More

Pride Month provides an opportunity to celebrate the resilience, diversity, and achievements of LGBTQI individuals, UNAIDS said in a press release, while also reflecting on continuing struggle for full equality, dignity and recognition. This momentous occasion also serves as a reminder of the important collective commitment to human rights, equality, and the urgent need to decriminalize same-sex relationships, the agency… Read More

Volker Türk was issuing a clarion call to protect and expand civic space, arguing that it’s the only way to enable us all “to play a role in political, economic, and social life, at all levels, from local to global.” Hate speech going unchecked He said with more and more decision-making migrating online, “with private companies playing an outsized role,… Read More

“Our shared goal is to give greater priority to the decolonization agenda and spur accelerated action,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Special Committee on Decolonization, or C-24, regional seminar. Established by the General Assembly in 1961, the Committee is mandated to examine the application of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Since the… Read More

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was delivering his report to the 76th World Health Assembly, the UN agency’s decision-making body, which is meeting this week.  Threat still remains  “The end of COVID-19 as a global health emergency is not the end of COVID-19 as a global health threat,” Tedros told Member States.  “The threat of another variant emerging that causes… Read More

The G7, which consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, together with the European Union, is meeting in the city where the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945, a place which Secretary-General António Guterres described, as a “testament to the human spirit”. “Whenever I visit, I am inspired by the courage and resilience of the… Read More