Full Coverage: United Nations

12/31/2007 UNITED NATIONS, Dec 31 (OneWorld) - Benazir Bhutto's supporters are wondering if the UN Security Council is helping cover up a conspiracy behind her killing.

12/31/2007 United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, set up last year to help countries ravaged by conflicts, will now be available to Nepal. There is an urgent need to consolidate the country’s peaceful gains after the government and Maoists formally ended the decade-long civil war, which left thousands dead and many more displaced.

12/31/2007 Recruitment of child soldiers in Sri Lanka by rebel forces has long been seen as a serious violation of human rights. A new report by the United Nations says that both factions of LTTE continue to abduct and recruit children to fight their wars.

12/28/2007 UNDP’s latest Human Development Report 2007-08 titled: Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world, talks of how people across the globe have already started facing the adverse effects of climate change. It makes a passionate call to act now before this ecological catastrophe becomes unavoidable.

12/27/2007 The United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking invites UN agencies, international organisations and other stakeholders to create an active online community to exchange and share knowledge on ways to combat this global crime. UN.GIFT encourages participants to engage in e-discussions, showcase positive projects, practices, and stories of courage, and draw on its various resources.

12/27/2007 Intense diplomatic efforts are continuing in Afghanistan to prevent the expulsion of a senior UN official accused of engaging in talks with leaders of the Taliban.

12/20/2007 The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in South Asia has teamed up with Indian film producers to sensitize movie-goers to the crime of human trafficking. A two-minute spot ‘One Life, No Price’ will be shown ahead of ‘Welcome’, a comedy expected to hit the theatres on December 21.

12/20/2007 As UN member states voted overwhelmingly for a moratorium on the death penalty, an influential rights watchdog has challenged Nigeria's claim that no one has been executed in its prisons for several years.

12/19/2007 Con 104 voti favorevoli, 54 contrari e 29 astenuti, l'Assemblea Generale dell'Onu ha approvato ieri la risoluzione di moratoria universale contro la pena di morte: contrario un fronte composito tra cui Stati Uniti, Cina, India e Giappone, Iran e Sudan. "Un passaggio storico" - commentano le associazioni da anni impegnate nella 'Coalizione mondiale contro la pena di morte' (WCADP). "E' una pietra miliare che segna un nuovo standard morale largamente condiviso" - afferma la Comunità di Sant'Egidio. "Da domani, Amnesty International chiederà a tutti i governi di rispettare la moratoria" - afferma l'associazione. La risoluzione non obbliga gli Stati a sospendere le esecuzioni capitali o ad abrogare le leggi nazionali che prevedono la pena capitale, ma "non ha solo un alto valore simbolico" commenta Antonio Cassese che in un articolo per 'La Repubblica' spiega "gli importanti effetti pratici, il cui significato si potrà forse percepire soprattutto nel lungo termine".

12/19/2007 YK:n yleiskokous teki tiistaina historiallisen päätöksen, kun se hyväksyi päätöslauselman kuolemanrangaistuksen kieltämiseksi. Päätös ei kuitenkaan sido jäsenmaita.

12/19/2007 On December 18, the UN General Assembly adopted a historic non-binding resolution in support of a moratorium on death penalty. It is for the first time that the UN has acknowledged capital punishment as a human rights issue.

12/18/2007 "Dobbiamo modificare i pregiudizi dominanti nei confronti dei migranti e sensibilizzare l’opinione pubblica circa la loro importanza sotto il profilo economico, culturale e sociale sia per il paese di provenienza sia per quello di destinazione": lo afferma il Segretario Generale dell'Onu, Ban Ki Moon, nel messaggio diramato oggi in occasione dell'ottava 'Giornata Internazionale dei Migranti'. Sono 200 milioni i migranti nel mondo con storie individuali ben diverse ma che "si trovano spesso a fare i conti con gli abusi e le discriminazioni che vanno dalla mancanza di meccanismi di protezione alla discriminazione da parte della legislazione nazionale. Numerosi anche in Italia convegni sul tema: a Trento, MIGRA (l'Osservatorio sulla discriminazione degli immigrati nel lavoro) presenta i risultati di una ricerca biennale che ha coraggiosamente affrontato il tema della discriminazione nel lavoro in Trentino.

12/18/2007 UNESCO’s recent report presents quite a bleak scenario of the state of education in Pakistan, where six million children are not attending schools. With the country spending less than 3% of its GDP on education, the organisations like Children’s Resource International are playing a crucial role in spreading literacy.

12/18/2007 Planin itäisen ja eteläisen Afrikan aluejohtajan Deepali Khannan mukaan kaikkein köyhimmät, eritoten maaseudulla ja epävakaissa maissa asuvat lapset ovat toistaiseksi jääneet vaille kehitystä.

12/17/2007 Renewed fighting between army troops and rebel forces in the eastern province of North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, is worsening displacement among civilians in the area and leading to forced recruitment of displaced people, including children, as fighters.

12/17/2007 OneClimate, a website by the OneWorld network, has helped people travel light to the UN climate conference at Bali through the online virtual world of Second Life.

12/15/2007 So the US joins in the global consensus at the last moment - but is the world better or worse off as a result? Anuradha starts the reactions to the Bali climate change conference.

12/14/2007 World Food Programme has drawn attention towards seven countries in the world, which are vulnerable to hunger. Two of them are in South Asia – Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

12/14/2007 Yet again the US has chosen to go against the UN framework on climate change and instead has put forward a proposal without any binding international commitment. Greenpeace International says it’s a made-in-the-USA plan for a climate catastrophe.

12/12/2007 To remind the Indian government of its own promises that it had made by ratifying the UN Child Rights Convention fifteen years ago on this day (December 11), Child Rights and You (CRY) held a press conference in New Delhi.