Activist, actor and talk show host Nick Herd will be leading the UN News team as its first ever guest editor on Tuesday, when people from around the world gather at UN Headquarters to take part in the largest global meeting on issues that affect people with disabilities.
Imagine daily life without your sight, hearing or a limb or living with the challenges of neurodiversity or paralysis. That’s a reality for some. One in six of us – or 16 per cent – of the global population had a disability in 2023, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and many depend on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to help guard their fundamental freedoms and dignity.
As communities across the planet celebrated World Environment Day on 5 June, we are taking you back to the 1950s when broadcaster extraordinaire Sir David Attenborough went from zoologist to climate activist, winning the UN’s highest environmental award.
Every month, nearly two billion women and girls menstruate, but during times of war and climate disasters, from the conflict in Gaza to the devastation caused by Cyclone Remal in Asia, UN humanitarian teams rush to serve affected communities, providing critical aid, which includes dignity kits.
This month will see more global observances than there are days in June, commemorating everything from bicycles to oceans. But, how did the UN start marking global dates?
UN Member States have been deploying “Blue Helmets” (or peacekeepers) since 1948, so on the occasion of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, marked annually on 29 May, we’re spotlighting operations over the decades, from monitoring buffer zones in Asia to escorting aid trucks into Israeli exclaves in the Middle East.
Climate action taken so far to help fund efforts in cash-strapped small island developing States (SIDS) “does not measure up to what has been said” in the wake of COP28 in Dubai last year.
In 1948, the United Nations took a pivotal step by deploying peacekeepers to support countries in their journey toward peace. Since then, more than two million people – military, police and civilians – have served in over 70 peacekeeping missions around the world, offering assistance amidst ongoing conflicts or their aftermath.
International financing is the fuel for sustainable development, but small island States are “running on empty”, drowning in debt and rising sea levels due to climate change and through no fault of their own.
Leaders from small island developing States worldwide will converge on the shores of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean this weekend to deliver a bold new plan of action to build resilience on the road to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
