Category Archives: News

A UN-backed boost for women-run businesses in the developing world

Many women running small businesses in emerging markets in developing countries have to juggle their business objectives with family obligations and personal savings goals. By supporting a women-focused bond providing loans to micro-finance institutions and impact enterprises, the UN is helping women entrepreneurs facing similar challenges, to succeed in their professional and private lives. More

Coronavirus containment is the key, as infections tick up: Tedros

After earlier describing cases of infection in people with no travel history to China as possibly the “tip of the iceberg”, the World Health Organization Director-General warned in Geneva that while the spread of coronavirus appeared to be slow, it could accelerate and that Governments should continue to treat containment of the respiratory disease as a priority. More

AU Summit: Guterres calls for ‘collective, comprehensive, coordinated’ response to challenges facing Africa

The challenges facing African nations are “complex, multi-faceted and far-reaching” but a “collective, comprehensive and coordinated” response by the global community will build on the momentum that already exists to help the continent thrive, Secretary-General António Guterres told the African Union Summit on Sunday. More

Child rights in the Pacific: UN committee to meet in Samoa 2 – 6 March

GENEVA (5 February 2020) – The UN Child Rights Committee is due to hold an extraordinary session in Samoa from 2 to 6 March to focus on the situation of children’s rights in the Pacific region.

It will be the first time any of the UN human rights treaty bodies, as the Committees are officially known, will hold a session outside Geneva and New York.

During the meetings, the Committee will review three countries – Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Tuvalu. It will also hold a preparatory session for a future review of Kiribati.

The countries are among the 196 States parties to the Child Rights Convention. States are required to undergo regular reviews by the Committee of 18 independent international experts on how they are implementing the Convention, its Optional Protocols, as well as the Committee’s previous recommendations.

For more information and for contacts in the Pacific and for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva please view the media release

For initial media inquiries please contact:

Elizabeth Throssell: ethrossell@ohchr.org

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva.

2020-02-05 CRC Pacific session

The Politics of Oil and Peacemaking

The Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and the Department of Peace Operations (DPO) are looking at ways the oil industry is relevant to international peace and security, just one of a series of innovative initiatives aimed at improving the UN’s analysis capacity and its ability to detect and defuse potential tensions.  More