Full Coverage: United Nations

20.11.2009 The annual number of deaths of children under five has fallen from around 12.5 million in 1990 to an estimated 8.8 million in 2008, says a new UN Children's Fund report.

13.11.2009 The UN World Food Summit in Rome (16-18 November) could be a waste of time and money unless world leaders intervene now to salvage it, says an international development group.

06.11.2009 Campaigners have appealed to the UN to intervene to halt the evictions of thousands of families from their ancestral home in a Kenyan forest.

05.10.2009 A documentary about “the only top official in the UN known by his first name” sounds dull. But don’t be put off - Sergio is engrossing.

27.09.2009 William Easterly is critical of the UN basis of calculating that the economic crisis will add 100 million to the numbers experiencing extreme poverty in 2009. Fair enough, but is he suggesting that poverty is falling? Aid Watch

20.09.2009 There are too many UN agencies campaigning for gender equality. The General Assembly has approved a resolution to merge them. UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service

16.09.2009 Interview with Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN Independent Expert on human rights, water and sanitation, including her views on the legal status of the right to safe sanitation. IPS News

02.09.2009 The UN has told Peru’s government it should not allow oil and gas drilling on indigenous peoples’ land without their "informed consent".

23.08.2009 Jeffery Sachs, supposed UN champion of the poor, has no time for the Copenhagen process as a means to fight climate change. InfoChange

27.07.2009 Over the last year the Sri Lankan government has upset UN agencies, outraged human rights groups and insulted European ministers. Why has the IMF agreed to a $2.6 billion loan facility?

13.07.2009 The outcome of the G8 summit was disappointing for poverty reduction and climate change. Perhaps we are to blame for not drawing more attention to the annual progress report on the Millennium Development Goals published in advance of the summit.

19.06.2009 New world hunger figures out today are a "shameful blot" on G8 countries, whose inaction is causing hunger to spiral out of control, says a development group.
+ World hunger hits historic high, says UN

25.05.2009 Economic troubles have dominated 2009. The Trento Festival of Economics therefore enjoys pole position in the European festival season. Its imaginative programme Identity and Global Crisis addresses questions affecting us all.

05.05.2009 Brad Adams draws out the two key issues. The UN system has failed whilst the Sri Lankan government appears to believe that military victory is the end rather than the beginning. Guardian

05.03.2009 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to Sudan to urgently reconsider its decision, taken after an international court’s indictment of the country’s president, to expel 13 groups aiding some 4.7 million people in Darfur.
+ MSF Protests Expulsions
+ Oxfam GB pulls back international staff to Khartoum
+ Save the Children UK's statement
+ International Criminal Court 'working to protect African victims'

02.03.2009 Aquaculture - said today by a UN report to be the basis of all future growth in global seafood production - desparately needs to be put on a more sustainable basis, according to a global environment organisation.

07.02.2009 Protecting civilians must be a top priority of the joint Congolese and Rwandan military operation in eastern Congo, a coalition of 100 humanitarian and human rights organisations said as a top UN official arrived in Goma, the North Kivu capital.

06.10.2008 Forced displacement is on the increase around the world, with the number of refugees now topping 11.4 million and internally displaced people at 26 million, says the head of the UN refugee agency.

23.09.2008 The UN Children's Fund has welcomed the British government's decision to grant children seeking asylum, migrant children and those who have been trafficked into the UK the same rights as British children, including their right to education, health care and social services.

28.08.2008 As the latest round of UN climate talks closes, Greenpeace has urged governments to pick up the pace of the negotiations which, in just over a year, must deliver a global deal to save the climate.