MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, December 27 (IPS) - Hours before world leaders gathered in Johannesburg for the 2025 G20 summit in November, hundreds of South African women wearing black lay down in a city park for 15 minutes — one for each woman who loses her life every day to gender-based violence in the country. The striking visual protest was organised by a civil society organisation, Women for Change, which also gathered over a million signatures demanding the government declare gender-based violence (GBV) a national disaster. Hours later, the government acquiesced.

One United Nations peacekeeper was injured on Friday after heavy machine gunfire from Israel Defense Forces (IDF) positions south of the Blue Line, following a nearby grenade explosion, impacted close to a UN patrol in southern Lebanon.

The UN has urged Sudan’s warring parties to pursue compromise and an immediate ceasefire, even as drone attacks, displacement and the killing of peacekeepers underscore the growing risks to civilians and humanitarians.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres “unequivocally condemns” the deadly terrorist attack on a mosque in Homs, Syria during Friday prayers, his spokesperson said in a statement

With rising effects of climate change across the globe, the world has started recognising that climate change is not just an ecological collapse, but also a human rights crisis.

Better access to education, the protection of the environment and good governance are some of the areas in which the United Nations helps countries improve.

Nearly a month after Cyclone Ditwah tore across Sri Lanka, more than a million people – including over half a million children – remain in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, as floods, landslides and renewed rainfall continue to compound one of the country’s worst disasters in decades.

The war in Sudan has been tearing the country apart for almost 1,000 days, putting the country’s health system under intolerable pressure. The World Health Organization (WHO) is reporting widespread disease outbreaks, severe shortages, malnutrition and rising deaths.

New polling shows 65% of registered US voters believe global heating is affecting cost of living

CIVICUS discusses Generation Z-led protests in Bulgaria with Zahari Iankov, senior legal expert at the Bulgarian Centre for Not-for-Profit Law, a civil society organisation that advocates for participation and human rights.

A paediatrician by training, Felipe Paullier has long been an advocate for youth. Formerly Director of the Uruguayan Government's Youth Institute, a role which involved several joint actions with various UN agencies, he was appointed to run the UN Youth Office in 2023, the youngest senior appointment in United Nations history.

Since the 19th century, industrialisation has had a transformative effect on the world, both positive and negative. It has created jobs and lifted millions out of poverty. But it has also had devastating consequences; destroying ecosystems, polluting the air, and driving the climate crisis that threatens to make large parts of the planet uninhabitable.

Although “significant restrictions and impediments” continue to hamper humanitarian operations in Gaza, teams are still responding to the population’s needs, the UN aid coordination office OCHA said on Wednesday.

Zack Polanski issued a Christmas message yesterday that demanded the country solve the problem of small boats crossing the English Channel. As he pointed out, quite fairly, France is not a safe place ...

From wood-based panels used in construction, to charcoal for cooking food, forest products are valued and traded all around the world.

With Central Africans set to vote in presidential, legislative, regional and long-delayed municipal elections this weekend, the United Nations has appealed for calm and restraint, warning that the credibility of the process will be critical to consolidating peace after years of conflict and instability.

NEW YORK, December 24 (IPS) - 2025 has been a terrible year for democracy. Just over 7 per cent of the world’s population now live in places where the rights to organise, protest and speak out are generally respected, according to the CIVICUS Monitor, a civil society research partnership that measures civic freedoms around the world. This is a sharp drop from over 14 per cent this time last year.

BELÉM, Brazil, December 24 (IPS) - Izete dos Santos Costa, also known as Dona Nena among locals in Combu Island, welcomed hundreds of people from around the world during the recent climate conference in Belém.

GITHUNGURI, Kenya, December 24 (IPS) - For the past two years, Samuel Ndungu, a smallholder farmer, has been growing organic food and supplying it to the local market in Githunguri, just outside Nairobi.

The UN has long been at the forefront of efforts to involve young people in decision-making, and the last decade has seen significant progress, thanks to the adoption of a Security Council Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security which led to widespread changes in the ways that the voices of young people are not just heard, but also incorporated in peace plans and policies.

A new wave of overnight strikes and front-line hostilities in Ukraine have caused further civilian casualties and damage to critical energy infrastructure, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday.

The UN and partners continue to provide assistance to people in Gaza, where recent winter storms have worsened conditions for thousands across the enclave.