Libyan government urged to find alternatives to "horrific" detention centres The Libyan government needs to establish alternatives to detention centres in the country, where human rights abuses of migrants and others have become "endemic". That's one of the recommendations from UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein after visiting the country on Tuesday to [...]

Designing robots which feel real emotions could benefit humanity in the years ahead. That's the view of Dr David Hanson, a robotics designer and creator of Sophia, an incredibly expressive and human-like robot. Both were panelists at a UN meeting on the future and technological change held in New York on Wednesday. The engineer and [...]

Back when Astronaut Scott Kelly was a military pilot in the navy, seeing a woman in his class would have been almost as common as "seeing a unicorn." At the UN to discuss the so-called "Space for Women" project, the retired United States astronaut, and official UN Champion for Space, shared his views on how [...]

Attacks that forced more than half a million people to flee Myanmar's Rakhine state for Bangladesh were "well-organised" by security forces and designed to make returning home next to impossible, a UN probe said on Wednesday. Compiled by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, the report also indicates that the Myanmar military began "clearance operations" [...]

States which practice the death penalty often fail to release basic details of executions, even concealing them from prisoners' family members. That was one of the details discussed at the event, Transparency and the Death Penalty, held at UN Headquarters this week to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty. James Connell is a lawyer [...]

UN genocide prevention expert concludes visit to CAR Those responsible for atrocities and inciting ethnic and religious hatred in the Central African Republic (CAR) will have to face justice, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide said on Wednesday. Adama Dieng was speaking to reporters in the capital, Bangui, following a visit to [...]

Listen to our daily bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, presented by Matt Wells and Dianne Penn. In today's programme: Risk reduction efforts are crucial to reaching the ambitious 2030 goals, and dealing with future deadly hurricanes the UN's disaster risk chief tells us;  and from Norway, we'll hear why generous parental [...]

It will be impossible to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unless the world does more to curb the damaging effects of natural and other disasters. That's the firm view of the man leading the UN Disaster Risk Reduction effort, UNISDR, Robert Glasser. The UNISDR chief is adamant that there's a connection also between climate [...]

An absence of laws is an "obstacle to advancing gender equality" because it doesn't give women the support they need to report cases of gender based violence. That was the reality confronting Assistant Inspector of Police Annah Chota when she got to Abyei, Sudan, to take up her post. In response, she helped to start [...]

Aid agencies back on "full alert" amid new Myanmar refugee exodus Aid workers in Bangladesh are on "full alert", preparing for a potential new mass influx of refugees from Myanmar, after more than 11,000 people arrived in the south-east of the country in a single day. New arrivals said they had fled killings and the [...]