28 February 2017 – With ‘no’ votes from permanent members Russia and China, the United Nations Security Council today failed to adopt a resolution that would, according to press reports, have imposed sanctions against parties using chemical weapons in war-torn Syria.
28 February 2017 – A senior United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) official is calling the routes from sub-Saharan Africa into Libya and across the sea to Europe one of the “world’s deadliest and most dangerous for children and women,” as the agency reported that nearly half of the women and children interviewed after making the voyage were raped.
28 February 2017 – With hundreds of thousands in need of assistance in famine-struck parts of South Sudan and rising insecurity hampering relief work, a senior United Nations relief official in the country has called on all parties to ensure that humanitarians have immediate, safe and unhindered access across the nation.
27 February 2017 – Disregard for human rights is a “disease,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today told the opening session of the UN Human Rights Council, urging Member States to uphold the rights of all people in the face of rising populism and extremism.
27 February 2017 – The United Nations food relief agency today said it is extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation facing more than 750,000 people living in dire conditions in the western sections of Iraq's Mosul city, where fighting is taking place between the Government forces and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) terrorists.
27 February 2017 – The United Nations health agency today published its first-ever catalogue of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.
24 February 2017 – Giving voice to people affected by conflict and complex crises in Africa’s Lake Chad region, a United Nations-supported conference in Oslo today generated more than $670 million in pledges that will sustain critical relief operations over the next two years and beyond.
Top stories from UN News, during the week of 20 - 24 February 2017, featuring: help for more than 20 million people going hungry in four nations; UN-supported Intra-Syrian negotiations and in Colombia, last FARC-EP rebels turn in arms.
See the stories of the week in photos.
World Wildlife Day is an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that conservation provides to people. At the same time, the Day reminds us of the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime, which has wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts.
Internationally acclaimed British writer Neil Gaiman has been appointed as a global Goodwill Ambassador in February 2017. The announcement comes after three years of close cooperation between Gaiman and UNHCR to raise awareness about the plight of forcibly displaced people and to generate much needed funds. He has championed UNHCR’s work through media interviews and via his social media channels. As well as travelling to Jordan to meet Syrian refugees, he has supported several fundraising initiatives and UNHCR campaigns and events, including #WithRefugees, the #IBelong campaign to end statelessness, World Refugee Day and the Nansen Refugee Award.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched an unprecedented global campaign to eliminate major sources of marine litter: microplastics in cosmetics and the excessive, wasteful usage of single-use plastic by the year 2022. The #CleanSeas campaign is urging governments to pass plastic reduction policies; targeting industry to minimize plastic packaging and redesign products; and calling on consumers to change their throwaway habits – before irreversible damage is done to our seas. These initiatives could not come sooner as up to 80 per cent of all litter in the oceans are made of plastic.
