UN News Centre
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Life and death for Yemen’s women and girls, as funding evaporates
2020-05-31In mid-May, just as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Yemen, funding for UNFPA’s life-saving reproductive health services dried up. The agency has been forced to suspend the provision of reproductive healthcare in 140 out of the 180 health facilities, it supports, meaning only 40 now remain.
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Yemen: Amid spike in COVID-19 cases, UNICEF airlifts in badly needed health supplies
2020-05-30A plane chartered by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) landed at Sana’a airport on Saturday with lifesaving supplies to help curb the spread of COVID-19 in conflict-torn Yemen.
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From fighting with guns to fighting the pandemic
2020-05-30In countries suffering from conflict, readjusting to life in a peaceful society is a challenge, both for former fighters and the wider community. Since the spread of the COVID-19 crisis, the UN is having to refocus many of its programmes, aimed at reducing violence in communities, and rehabilitating combatants.
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Peacekeepers exemplify ‘service, sacrifice and selflessness’, in face of pandemic
2020-05-29To honour the more than 3,900 women and men who have lost their lives under the UN flag since 1948, Secretary-General António Guterres laid a wreath at the Peacekeepers’ memorial on Friday, International Day of UN Peacekeepers.
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COVID-19: Countries support ‘one-stop shop’ to share science and research
2020-05-29Thirty countries and numerous international partners have underlined the need to make tests, treatments and other technologies to fight COVID-19, available to people everywhere.
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UN human rights office welcomes moves to curtail spread of hatred and violence online
2020-05-29The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has welcomed steps taken by social media companies to prevent their platforms from being used to promote hatred, violence and misinformation, Spokesperson Rupert Colville said on Friday.
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More ‘can and must be done’ to eradicate caste-based discrimination in Nepal
2020-05-29Shocked over the killing last weekend of five men in Nepal, who had planned to escort home one of their girlfriends from a higher caste, the UN human rights chief on Friday stressed that ending caste-based discrimination is “fundamental” to the overall sustainable development vision of leaving no one behind.
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Nine in 10 smokers start before they are 18 years old, warns WHO
2020-05-29Tobacco products continue to kill eight million people a year who get hooked via a $9 billion a year marketing strategy. That’s the warning from the UN World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday, which has said that even during a global pandemic, the tobacco and nicotine industry has continued to promote products that limit people’s ability to fight new coronavirus and recover from the disease.
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US must take ‘serious action’ to halt police killings of unarmed African Americans
2020-05-28The UN human rights chief on Thursday condemned the killing of 46-year-old George Floyd while in police custody in the city of Minneapolis, calling it the latest in “a long line of killings of unarmed African Americans by US police officers and members of the public”.
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Latin America and Caribbean: Millions more could miss meals due to COVID-19 pandemic
2020-05-28Some 14 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean could experience severe food insecurity this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to projections released on Thursday by the World Food Programme (WFP).