The Central African Republic (CAR) is facing a multifaceted array of problems that do not have a single clear solution. That's the view of Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, head of the UN Stabilization Mission there (MINUSCA), who took part in a dialogue in New York this week about continuing violence in CAR. Rebel groups which control large [...]

Ending famine is "completely achievable" and is one of the big challenges that the new UN relief chief is looking forward to tackling during his time in charge of the global body's humanitarian effort. Mark Lowcock took over the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, at the beginning of September, having been the top civil servant [...]

Violence against civilians, aid workers leaves CAR on "brink" of crisis On-going violence against civilians and aid workers trying to protect them, has left the Central African Republic (CAR) "on the brink of a humanitarian crisis". That's the view of Joseph Iganji, who heads the UN Humanitarian Affairs office (OCHA) in the capital, Bangui. Around [...]

Listen to our daily bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, presented by Dianne Penn and Matt Wells. In today's programme: In Syria, more aid is getting in, but people are at greater risk of attack. We hear from a top humanitarian; and governments urged to put more resources towards tackling online child pornography.

UN chief: Saudi Arabian women's right to drive "an important first step" UN officials have welcomed Saudi Arabia's decision to lift a ban prohibiting women from driving. The announcement was made on Tuesday and will come into effect in July 2018. In New York, Saudi Arabia's UN ambassador broke the news to the General Assembly [...]

45% of all abortions are "unsafe": WHO study Approximately 25 million "unsafe" abortions are carried out every year, according to a new study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Guttmacher Institute. That represents 45 per cent of all abortions carried out annually, during the survey period of 2010, to 2014. The vast majority [...]

Governments must allocate more resources towards stamping out online child pornography and child sexual exploitation, issues that affect all countries worldwide. That's the opinion expressed by Camille Cooper of the US-based National Association to Protect Children, which trains wounded war veterans to work with law enforcement to combat these crimes. Ms Cooper is at UN [...]

More aid is getting through to civilians caught up in the Syrian war, but there's been a worrying escalation in the number of attacks against them and humanitarian workers that must stop, a senior UN adviser said on Thursday. Jan Egeland told journalists in Geneva that up to nine million Syrians receive aid every month [...]

The UN has reached an "important moment" where it is shifting from a reactive approach to peacekeeping, towards greater preventative measures. That's according to Charles Jalloh, who is an international law professor and member of the International Law Commission at the UN. He's concerned with strengthening international law in the human rights arena to improve [...]

Listen to our daily bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, presented by Dianne Penn and Matt Wells. In today's programme: a courageous survivor of sexual slavery tells the UN General Assembly that human trafficking victims need a message of hope; and the UN Refugee Agency chief says the stories of suffering from Rohingyas [...]