After six years of intensive discussions, some 500 delegates have gathered at a United Nations meeting in Cali, Colombia, to hammer out an international agreement on access to the Earth's genetic resources and the fair and equitable share in benefits from their use.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today described appalling living conditions in slums as a violation of human rights, saying that helping the urban poor reclaim their rights strengthened societies and stemmed environmental degradation.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the massacre of protesters taking a peaceful stand against apartheid in South Africa, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that there is “no room for racist and xenophobic acts” at this summer's soccer World Cup in the country, the first time the event…
The United Nations human rights office in Nepal today welcomed a key judgment handed down in a case involving discrimination on the basis of caste, hailing it as an important step forward in the fight against discrimination in the Asian nation.
As of 14 March 2010, worldwide more than 213 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 16813 deaths.
Lives can be saved and the destruction of property minimized when natural disasters strike if governments invest adequate resources in disaster risk reduction measures, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said today.
United Nations experts have recommended that two pesticides be added to a trade "watch list" under a UN-backed treaty aimed at helping poorer countries more effectively manage potentially harmful imported substances.
Even the world's most homogeneous country faces the challenge of constructively managing diversity, the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide said today, calling on States to recognize the need to end discrimination and inequalities between different ethnic, racial and…
The progress made over the past decade in lifting the world's most vulnerable nations out of poverty has been undermined since the global recession began, according to a senior United Nations official, who urged rich countries not to renege on their commitments to support the poorest of the…
In a move designed to improve water quality, the Department of Environmental Protection today announced an agreement with Exide Technologies that will significantly reduce the amount of lead being washed ...
While more than 200 million slum dwellers worldwide have escaped their conditions in the past decade, the overall population of slums has swelled by nearly 60 million in the same period, a new United Nations report finds.
Countries in the Asia-Pacific region must step up their cooperation to tackle the threat of highly infectious diseases - including H1N1 - crossing borders, a senior United Nations official said today.