It's going to be a "battle" to have an equal number of men and women serving in governments, legislatures, public services and other areas of the economy and society, the UN Secretary-General warned on Friday. António Guterres met with women's civil society groups on the margins of the 61st session of the Commission on the Status [...]

Accessing health care is a challenge for most people in Syria, where six years of conflict have left more than half of all public hospitals and primary health centres closed or only partially functioning. That information comes from the World Health Organization (WHO) which adds that nearly two-thirds of health workers have fled the country. [...]

Hospital treats children affected by drought in Somalia Hunger-related illnesses have killed 47 children over the past two months at just one government-run hospital in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. The UN has been warning the world of the dire consequences of drought in the Horn of Africa country, where nearly three million are at [...]

Families fleeing West Mosul in Iraq get frontline emergency aid from UN In an effort to assist Iraqi families fleeing western Mosul, the UN is providing frontline emergency interventions in the camps for internally displaced persons. Iraqi forces and their allies are fighting to liberate the area from the extremist group ISIL, also known as [...]

#CSW61 focuses on women in the changing world of work Gender inequality in the workplace could cost the world an estimated US$12 trillion in global growth over the next decade, according to a 2015 study. UN Secretary-General António Guterres quoted the staggering figure in his first address to the Commission on the Status of Women [...]

Listen to a bulletin of news and features from the United Nations, with Dianne Penn and Jocelyne Sambira. In today's programme: Torture, rape and unlawful killings "have become the norm" in South Sudan, a UN human rights body reports And … How health care has also become a casualty of the Syrian conflict

Abrupt funding cuts undermine impact of longer-term reform efforts: UN Abrupt funding cuts can force the adoption of ad hoc measures that will undermine the impact of longer-term reform efforts, a Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General has said. Stephane Dujarric made the remarks following the release of a blueprint of the 2018 US budget by [...]

Torture, rape, unlawful killings, arrests and detentions "have become the norm" in South Sudan, as the human rights situation continues to deteriorate. That's the stark conclusion of a report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday. The world's youngest country has been [...]

Women whose jobs are insecure or "precarious" face a higher rate of sexual abuse in the workplace, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has said. Manuela Tomei is the Director of the ILO's Conditions of Work and Equality Department. She was at UN Headquarters for the 61st Commission on the Status of Women and took part [...]

More than half of Syria's hospitals closed or "partially functioning" After six years of brutal civil war less than half of Syria's hospitals are still working normally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday. The majority have been forced to close or are only partially functioning, said  WHO, and two-thirds of all healthcare [...]