The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly demanded civilian protection and humanitarian access in Ukraine on Thursday, while also criticizing Russia for creating a “dire” humanitarian situation resulting from its invasion exactly one month ago.

Data analysis on unintended pregnancy and abortion from 150 countries has revealed major disparities in accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare, the UN health agency, WHO, said on Thursday.

The UN chief on Thursday strongly condemned the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, more commonly known as North Korea, its first such long-range test, since 2017. 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been the “main contributing factor” to the potentially devastating one per cent drop in projected global economic growth this year, UN development economists UNCTAD said on Thursday, in the body’s latest global economic update.

What independent UN human rights experts are describing as an ongoing smear campaign against a prominent Northern Irish academic and human rights lawyer, “has the potential to spark physical violence” they said on Thursday, amidst increasing polarization once more between nationalists and unionists, following the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote, and the resulting Northern Ireland protocol.

A month since Russia invaded Ukraine, 4.3 million children – more than half of the country’s estimated 7.5 million child population – have been displaced, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.

World TB Day is marked on 24 March, and this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for urgent investment in the fight against tuberculosis, “to save millions more lives”.

The UN General Assembly met on Wednesday for its second emergency session on the Ukraine crisis since Russia invaded the country on 24 February, with two similar but different resolutions placed before delegates, addressing the unfolding humanitarian crisis. 

The war in Ukraine is not only a “horror unfolding before our eyes”, but also an “assault on some of the most vulnerable people and countries” across the world, said the UN chief on Wednesday, convening the first meeting of the steering committee which will guide the creation of a new UN crisis response group to help mitigate the worldwide impact of Russia’s invasion.

Following a U-turn over re-opening girls’ secondary schools in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the UN human rights chief shared her “profound frustration and disappointment” that six months after the Taliban seized power, high school girls have yet to return to the classroom.

In Kenya, a trailblazing sustainable agriculture project has helped hundreds of farmers move away from the harmful practice of growing tobacco, in favour of a healthier alternative, the UN said on Wednesday.

Women across the world face unacceptable mistreatment during childbirth, according to a new study from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Human Reproduction Programme (HRP) launched on Wednesday.

Jarno Habicht has worked with WHO for the last 19 years and served as WHO Representative in Ukraine since 2018. He explains how WHO prepared for armed conflict in the country, and how it has responded to health-related issues since the Russian invasion.

The UN set an ambitious five year deadline on Wednesday for countries to ensure that citizens worldwide are protected by early warning systems against extreme weather and climate change, the UN chief announced, marking World Meteorological Day.

Jarno Habicht has worked with WHO for the last 19 years and served as WHO Representative in Ukraine since 2018. He explains how WHO prepared for armed conflict in the country, and how it has responded to health-related issues since the Russian invasion.

Speakers in the Security Council on Tuesday denounced evictions and demolitions by Israeli authorities of Palestinian-owned properties, as the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, expressed regret that “little progress” has made by the sides in upholding obligations under the Council’s landmark resolution 2334.

Violence against women and girls may be the world’s “longest, deadliest pandemic,” the UN chief said on Tuesday, during an event focused on the role boys and men need to play, to help eliminate gender-based violence.

While humanitarian assistance has been successful in averting a catastrophe, Haiti is experiencing a persistent rise in hunger levels, with many citizens suffering acutely, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.

It’s time for a diplomatic solution to be found to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, amidst signs of hope that progress can be made to end an “unwinnable” and “indefensible” war, said the UN chief on Tuesday.

One year after brutal attacks by suspected Al Shabab militants began in northern Mozambique, thousands continue to flee ongoing violence in Cabo Delgado province, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.

The UN’s top rights official said on Monday that amidst a “profound crisis” facing access to basic human rights in Myanmar following the coup in February last year, hundreds of localized armed resistance groups have now formed across the country, triggering “widespread violence in areas that were previously stable”.

The UN has helped tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees to cross into Poland and other neighbouring countries. Chris Melzer, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Germany, told UN News that he has witnessed many traumatic scenes, of families ripped apart by the crisis.

As the total forced to flee their homes in Ukraine rises above 10 million, attacks on healthcare facilities there due to Russia’s continuing bombardment are averaging more than two per day, the UN warned on Monday.

While groundwater accounts for 99 per cent of all running freshwater on Earth, it is often undervalued, mismanaged, and overexploited, according to a report published on Monday by the UN scientific organization, UNESCO. 

In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), more commonly known as North Korea, human rights violations remain systematic, and the authorities’ grip on the population has “tightened”, the Human Rights Council heard on Monday.

Widespread sexual violence against women and girls in conflict is being fueled by systemic impunity, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said on Monday.

The goal to limit future warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, highlighted in the Paris Agreement on climate change, and driven home in last November’s COP26, gathering in Glasgow, is now on “life support” and “in intensive care,” the UN chief told the Economist Sustainability Summit on Monday.   

Healthy forests are “essential” for people and the planet, the UN chief said in his message marking the International Day of Forests.

Loay Elbasyouni is a Palestinian electrical engineer on the NASA team that designed Ingenuity, an innovative robotic helicopter that landed on Mars in 2021. He talks to UN News about his journey, from a UN-run school in the Gaza strip, to the US space agency.

Foreign combatants with armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) can find it hard to return home once they decide to stop fighting. The UN Mission in the country (MONUSCO) is helping them to demobilize, and adjust to a new life.

After a missile attack near the airport in Lviv in western Ukraine early on Friday, UN humanitarians warned that the situation across the country remains dire, as Russia’s military invasion continues.

Racism continues to poison institutions, social structures, and everyday life across all societies, the UN chief said on Friday at a dedicated meeting against what he referred to as a catalyst that “normalizes hate, denies dignity, and spurs violence”.

The UN is not aware of any biological weapons programme being conducted in Ukraine, the Organization’s disarmament chief told the Security Council once more on Friday, responding to fresh allegations by the Russian Federation, that it had evidence to the contrary.

The solutions to restore the health of the ocean -which provides us with oxygen, food and livelihoods- are out there, and in 100 days they will be in the spotlight in Lisbon, Portugal, at the second ever UN Oceans Conference. 

Over the past two weeks, at least 70 migrants have gone missing at sea and are presumed dead off the coast of Libya, the UN migration agency said on Thursday.