The protection of civilians is "imperative" in every military action to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from the ISIL terrorist group, also known as Daesh, the UN Special Envoy for Iraq, Ján Kubiš, has urged.     Tens of thousands of people living in and around Mosul are reportedly being used as human shields by [...]

A new political will by countries across the world to include oceans in initiatives to fight climate change has emerged in the last year; that's according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The UN agency says oceans are fundamental to sustaining life on earth as they act as a major carbon sink, absorbing heat, [...]

The UN Secretary-General has welcomed President-elect Donald Trump's calls for unity following a "hard-fought" election. On Friday, Ban Ki-moon called to congratulate Mr Trump on his election as the next President of the United States. Jocelyne Sambira reports. During the telephone conversation, the UN chief expressed confidence that the United States and the United Nations [...]

Indigenous people in Canada have been marginalized when it comes to city life "for many decades" with women and girls suffering a "disproportionate level of violence." That's according to Christine O'Fallon, a member of Canada's Women Transforming Cities group, speaking at the UN's recent Habitat III conference on the future of urbanization, in Ecuador. She [...]

Listen to a bulletin of news and features from United Nations Radio, with Dianne Penn and Jocelyne Sambira. In today's programme: Chilling reports from Mosul, where the terrorist group ISIL has been using children as suicide bombers and executioners And why Sustainable Energy for All could be a reality by 2030  

Humanitarians were barred from delivering much-needed medicines to the town of Yei in South Sudan on Friday, a senior official with the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, has reported. OCHA Operations Director John Ging said even though political leaders had granted permission to the convoy, it was barred from entering the town. Yei had previously [...]

The goal to provide more than a billion of the world's poorest people with clean energy could be achieved in our lifetime. That's the belief expressed by the head of the UN Secretary-General's Sustainable Energy for All initiative, Rachel Kyte. Ensuring that all people have access to affordable, reliable and sustainable modern energy is one [...]

Fresh fears of terrible crimes by ISIL militants surfaced on Friday in which children, so-called "sons of the caliphate", have been deployed as suicide bombers to defend Mosul against Iraqi forces. Other reports from the besieged Iraqi city released by the UN indicate that teenagers have been forced to carry out executions and that women [...]

Challenges facing the Haitian government and UN teams, working to vaccinate 800,000 people from cholera, can be overcome to reach the most vulnerable. That's according to Jean-Luc Poncelet, who heads the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO) teams in the Caribbean country. There has been an uptick in cholera cases since [...]

Terrorism, violent extremism require more nimble peacekeeping response A deadly ambush of UN peacekeepers in Mali just a few days ago has highlighted the dangerous landscape in which many blue helmets have to operate. The UN Security Council has been looking at ways to strengthen support to field missions so that they can better respond [...]