Un Report

United Nations Day 2024: History, significance, theme, celebrations, more

The United Nations has become a symbol of hope, inspiring dreams of a better future and a united world for the last 70 years and hence UN Day is observed every year on Oct 24

India has only 38 years before its population starts shrinking: UN Report

By 2100, the top three most populous countries in the world will be India, China and Pakistan

India nears population stability: 31 of 36 states/ UTs at replacement level

More than 65% of India's population is within the reproductive age group, highlighting the importance of offering them choices to avoid the burden of unplanned family growth

Hookahs, haircuts, and human rights: UN report details Taliban's crackdown

A UN report revealed that the Taliban's morality police have severely restricted human rights, creating a pervasive 'climate of fear and intimidation', particularly among women and girls

Arabs put to vote UN resolution demanding immediate Gaza cease-fire

Arab nations are putting to a vote a UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, knowing it will be vetoed by the United States but hoping to show broad global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war. The Security Council scheduled the vote on the resolution at 10 am EST (1530 GMT) Tuesday. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield says the Biden administration will veto the Arab-backed resolution because it may interfere with ongoing US efforts to arrange a deal between the warring parties that would bring at least a six-week halt to hostilities and release all hostages taken during Hamas' surprise Oct 7 attack in southern Israel. In a surprise move ahead of the vote, the United States circulated a rival UN Security Council resolution that would support a temporary cease-fire in Gaza linked to the release of all hostages, and call for the lifting of all restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid. Both of these actions would help to create the conditions

Nearly half of world's migratory species declining, shows UN report

Nearly half of the world's migratory species are in decline, according to a new United Nations report released Monday. Many songbirds, sea turtles, whales, sharks and other migratory animals move to different environments with changing seasons and are imperiled by habitat loss, illegal hunting and fishing, pollution and climate change. About 44% of migratory species worldwide are declining in population, the report found. More than a fifth of the nearly 1,200 species monitored by the U.N. are threatened with extinction. These are species that move around the globe. They move to feed and breed and also need stopover sites along the way, said Kelly Malsch, lead author of the report released at a U.N. wildlife conference in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Habitat loss or other threats at any point in their journey can lead to dwindling populations. Migration is essential for some species. If you cut the migration, you're going to kill the species, said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, w

UNDP report indicates worsening economic insecurity in Afghanistan

According to the UNDP report, currently, seven out of 10 people in Afghanistan are not able to meet their basic life requirements and face economic insecurity

India gave strong investment performance in 2023; headwinds in China: UN

India registered strong investment performance in 2023, driven by government infrastructure projects and multinational investments, the United Nations has said while noting that investment prospects in China face "headwinds" from a struggling property sector. The UN World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2024 report, launched here on Thursday, said that investment has been more resilient in developing economies than in developed economies. Investment in South Asia, particularly in India, remained strong in 2023. Investment prospects in China face headwinds from a struggling property sector, though government-led infrastructure investments are partially offsetting the shortfall in private investments. In contrast, India registered strong investment performance in 2023, driven by government infrastructure projects and multinational investments, the report said. Among the developing regions, Africa, Western Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean continue to struggle with high

Taliban sending Afghan women to prison for protection, says UN report

Taliban officials are sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, according to a UN report published Thursday. Before the Taliban seized power in 2021, there were 23 state-sponsored women protection centers in Afghanistan where survivors of gender-based violence could seek refuge. Now there are none, the UN report said. Officials from the Taliban-led administration told the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan that there was no need for such shelters or that they were a Western concept. The Taliban sends women to prison if they have no male relatives to stay with or if the male relatives are considered unsafe, the report said. Authorities have also asked male relatives for commitments or sworn statements that they will not harm a female relative, inviting local elders to witness the guarantee, it added. Women are sent to prison for their protection akin to how prisons have been used to accommodate drug addicts and homeless people in Kabul, the repor

Over 26,000 people displaced amid renewed fighting in Myanmar, says UN

It added that there have been reports of MAF shelling in AA-controlled areas and that the military had conducted at least one operation backed by air and naval support

Global emissions predicted to drop just 2% by 2030, shows UN report

Global emissions are predicted to drop just 2 per cent below the 2019 levels by 2030, as compared to a 43 per cent reduction needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, according to a new report by the United Nations. The report comes ahead of the 28th UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, where countries are expected to push for stronger climate action to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. According to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body of top climate scientists, greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by 43 per cent by 2030, compared to the 2019 levels. This is critical to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century and avoid the worst impacts of climate change, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) analysed the Nationally Determined Contributions of 195 parties to the Paris Agreement, including 20 new or updated NDCs submitted up .

UN report paints picture of devastation of collapsing Palestinian economy

A new U.N. report paints a stark picture of the devastation of the collapsing Palestinian economy following a month of war and Israel's near total siege of Gaza. The gross domestic product shrank 4% in the West Bank and Gaza in the war's first month, sending over 400,000 people into poverty -- an economic impact unseen in the conflicts Syria and Ukraine, or any previous Israel-Hamas war, the U.N. said. Gaza's Hamas rulers launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 killing over 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and kidnapping about 240 others. More than two-thirds of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since Israel launched weeks of intense airstrikes followed by an ongoing ground operation, vowing to obliterate Hamas. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said Thursday that 10,818 Palestinians, including more than 4,400 children, have been killed so far. The rapid assessment of economic consequences of the Gaza war released Thursday by the U.N. Development Prog

Call for fossil fuel phase-out on global stocktake agenda: UN report

Calls to phase out unabated fossil fuels, reform subsidies on it and triple global renewable energy capacity may find their way into the outcome of the first-ever global stocktake, a periodic assessment of collective efforts to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. Initiated in Glasgow in 2021, the first-ever global stocktake will conclude at the annual climate talks (COP28) in Dubai in December. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recently released a report summarising submissions made by countries and non-party stakeholders regarding the political response to the global stocktake. "They will inform negotiations but there's no guarantee any particular element will make it into the final text. With that said, fossil fuel phase-out is prominently featured in this long list of possible decision elements," Natalie Jones, a policy advisor at climate policy think tank International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), said. According to the UNFCCC ..

India may have more elderly persons than children by 2050: UN report

UNFPA report said that most southern states and select northern states such as HP and Punjab reported a higher share of elderly population than national average in 2021; the gap is likely to widen

Afghanistan responsible for 80% of illicit opium production: UN Report

Whereas, in a separate report, UNODC said that Afghanistan is home to an estimated 3.5 million drug users, which account for nearly 10 per cent of the total population

Taliban back to exclusionary, Pashtun-centred policies of late 90s: Report

An annual report by the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team for the UNSC Committee has criticized what it considers the return of Taliban to exclusionary policies

Taliban slam 'baseless and biased' UN report suggesting rifts within ranks

The Taliban condemned on Sunday a baseless and biased report from the UN Security Council highlighting rifts within the group's ranks. The last seven months have seen a greater shift of power from the capital Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, a Taliban heartland and the base of the group's supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. A report issued earlier in June by the UN Security Council's Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said that the Taliban governance structures remain highly exclusionary, Pashtun-centred and repressive toward all forms of opposition. It also said Kandahar's return as the seat of power like it was during the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s circumvents senior Taliban ministers in Kabul, the centre of the current government, because of the way decisions are made. Key figures, such as the Taliban's main spokesman, have set up offices in the south of Kandahar. Monumental decrees such as those excluding women and girls from education

India remains a bright spot, likely to grow 6.7% in 2024: UNDESA report

UN retains CY23 forecast at 5.8%; investment, exports to remain weak

Shift in global governance is needed to tackle climate crisis: UN report

There needs to be a major shift in global governance to better tackle such current and looming challenges as the climate crisis and rising security threats, according to a new UN report

India's population growth still below replacement level, says UN expert

While India's population at 1.4 billion has surpassed that of China's, the "latest big news" is that the population growth is below the replacement fertility rate in India