Making charcoal manufacturing more efficient can help address climate change and improve rural livelihoods. That's the message from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for the International Day of Forests, observed this Tuesday, 21 March. FAO says about half the wood taken from forests is used to produce energy for cooking and heating, of [...]

  "Political solution" is only solution to South Sudan crisis A "political solution" is the only solution to the conflict and humanitarian crisis that has befallen the world's youngest nation, South Sudan. That's according to the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, at the end of a fact-finding mission to the country, where nearly two [...]

Governments around the world are being urged to take action to stop the fear and misinformation about minorities and migrants that is inciting racial hatred and profiling. The call was made by UN human rights experts on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, observed annually on 21March. A debate was held on [...]

The women who feed the African continent are "thirsty for change" and "aspiring for a better future," according to a senior gender officer with the UN Food and Agriculture Programme (FAO). Thacko Ndiaye says her agency is helping to empower Africa's women agricultural workers, for example by providing them with labour-saving technologies, climate-smart farming techniques, [...]

The dignity and hopes of Syrian women and girls are disintegrating after six years of brutal civil war, along with the whole fabric of family life. That's according to Henia Dakkak, technical adviser with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) who has worked with refugees and internally-displaced Syrian women across the Middle East. She spoke at [...]

All people experience the "same feelings", no matter which country they're from, and art can help "open the heart", a Tunisian artist has said. Zeineb Tlili Ghali is a painter who specialises in images of women and landscapes in her North African homeland. Her work is currently on display at UN Headquarters as part of [...]

"Fundamentally not appropriate" that disabilities committee has lone woman The fact that only one woman has been elected by Member States to serve on the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is "fundamentally not appropriate." That's the clear message delivered on the opening day of the 17th Session of the committee, in Geneva, [...]

Indigenous women in the Philippines have "many problems," including a lack of recognition of their ancestral land rights, so they need to be empowered in order to stand up for those rights, a human rights advocate has urged. Angelina Baltazar – Ortiz, an Indigenous Mansaka woman from the Compostela Valley in the Philippines, was at [...]

Listen to a bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, with Jocelyne Sambira and Matthew Wells. In today's programme: indigenous women in the Philippines need to “assert their rights”, a human rights defender has urged; And musicians from the Middle East and North Africa join the UN to warn asylum seekers against embarking [...]

By working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN can play an "important role" in promoting global happiness, the official Minister for Happiness from the United Arab Emirates said on Monday. H.E. Ohood Al Roumi was at UN Headquarters on the International Day of Happiness, marked each 20 March, to launch the Global [...]