Full Coverage: United Nations

30.10.2005 SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 28 (OneWorld) - Echoing recent comments by White House officials, a U.S. government report submitted to the United Nations last Friday bears a message that the brutal treatment of people held in U.S. military custody abroad is and should be legal.

28.10.2005 Some of the world's richest nations have come under fire from a leading corruption watchdog group for failing to take action against the companies that illegally profited from a United Nations-sponsored humanitarian programme in Iraq.

27.10.2005 It's payback time for Pakistan, in return for the country's generosity in hosting more than six million Afghan refugees for over 25 years, the UN refugee organisation said, as the Red Cross and Red Crescent warned that thousands of earthquake survivors may die unless they get help through the winter and the United Nations raised its appeal for donations to almost US$550 million.
Meanwhile, with the UN appeal seriously underfunded, Oxfam named rich countries that have given nothing - Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, Portugal and Spain - and governments that have given less than one-fifth of their fair share: Italy, Japan, Germany and the US.

27.10.2005 It is a disgrace that fewer than 5 per cent of HIV-positive children receive treatment and that millions of children who have lost parents to the disease go without support, says a new global campaign.

27.10.2005 U.S. Ambassador John Bolton recently called for U.N. to take action, not merely talk about the deteriorating situation in Darfur, but the arms embargo he's suggesting would be ineffective and insufficient, say Africa advocates, urging Bolton to do more.

25.10.2005 The U.N. Security Council has endorsed Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
decision to begin talks on the sensitive issue of the future of Kosovo.
Mr. Annan will name former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari to lead the
negotiations.

21.10.2005 As violence and lawlessness escalate, African Union (AU) soldiers struggle to protect refugees displaced by the continued fighting in Sudan's western region of Darfur. Refugees International accompanied the AU mission as it monitored the humanitarian ceasefire in effect since 2004.

21.10.2005 Despite being integral to the grassroots peace building process, women are all but excluded from formal negotiations and political decision making. There is no peace, security, or justice unless both genders are fully involved in all stages of the peace process, says researcher Elisabeth Porter.

21.10.2005 The United Nations is facing its worst logistical nightmare ever as it scrambles to save the lives of tens of thousands of earthquake survivors in inaccessible areas of Pakistan in an unprecedented race against time that dwarfs efforts after last year’s Indian Ocean tsunami, warned the world body's emergency relief coordinator.

20.10.2005 The Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace Netherlands organized a lunch meeting on the 19th of October 2005 to evaluate the results of the 2005 UN World Summit outcome and to determine follow up activities.

20.10.2005 There is a danger of a second wave of deaths in earthquake-affected parts of Pakistan with tens of thousands of children in peril because of deteriorating weather, injury, and illness.

19.10.2005 SAN FRANCISCO, October 18 (OneWorld) - In an unprecedented move, a UN committee has asked human and civil rights groups to submit reports and testify on U.S. breaches of international law, filling a gap left by the U.S. government's failure to submit its own report.

18.10.2005 Kosovo is often held up as a test case for the concept of “humanitarian” intervention. But as Iraq spirals into chaos, diplomats and leaders everywhere are again asking themselves if it is ever appropriate for alliances of nations or the international community as a whole to intervene when a sovereign country appears unable or unwilling to defend its citizens from genocide, war crimes, or ethnic cleansing.

14.10.2005 The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, today called on authorities in both Belgrade and Pristina to be ready for compromise in the imminent negotiations on the future status of Kosovo.

14.10.2005 Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, said yesterday that the Special Mediator Matthew Nimitz, doesn’t plan to come forward with yet another idea to solve the dispute over the name of the Republic of Macedonia between Macedonia and Greece.

14.10.2005 As Pakistan announced the earthquake death toll had reached 38,000, the UN Children's Fund emphasised that keeping alive child survivors must be a priority of the international relief effort.
* Pledges top £5 million as Asia Quake Appeal goes live on TV
* 'The quake that killed the children'
* Desperate need to reach survivors in remote areas
* Family News Network
* ActionAid searches for forgotten quake villages

14.10.2005 Britain should stop dithering and come out in support of proposed discussions on Burma at the UN Security Council, a leading campaign group said yesterday.

12.10.2005 A United Nations food convoy reached the Pakistani city of Abbottabad today at the start of an emergency effort to feed 400,000 earthquake survivors, many of whom have been without food or shelter since the disaster struck on Saturday.
* OneWorld South Asia coverage
* Injured children flood into hospitals

12.10.2005 Discrimination against women is hindering the global anti-poverty drive, the UN Population Fund says in a report out today.

12.10.2005 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in BiH today officially started the activities of destruction of additional 26.960 pieces of small arms by the end of 2005. This represents the first contingent of an estimated 190.000 small arms that will, as of January 1, 2006 require disposal as a result of the landmark defense reforms this country has undertaken over the past period. With these achievements BiH is making important steps towards successful implementation of the defense reform and Euro-Atlantic integrations.