
Fresh threats loom over 720,000 Rohingya children 'cast adrift, trapped in limbo' – UNICEF
23 February 2018 - Some 720,000 Rohingya children are essentially trapped – either hemmed in by violence and forced displacement inside Myanmar or stranded in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh because they can't return home, Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes said Friday.
UNICEF's report, LIVES IN LIMBO: No End in Sight to the threats facing Rohingya children, marks six months since the start of the latest exodus of Rohingya refugees into southern Bangladesh.

Ahead of Social Justice Day, UN agency calls for fair labour migration governance
19 February 2018 - Many migrant workers end up trapped in low-pay, unsafe and unhealthy jobs, the head of the United Nations labour agency warned Monday, calling for the adoption of fair labour migration governance frameworks at the global, regional and national levels. Most migration today is linked, directly or indirectly, to the search for decent work opportunities, said UN International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General Guy Ryder in his message for World Day of Social Justice, which is annually observed on 20 February.

International Day of Sport for Development and Peace
Real Madrid FC is one of the most famous soccer teams in the world and one of the most successful, having won thirteen European Cups. However, the team's influence goes beyond tournaments. Through it's Real Madrid Foundation the club provides programs that promote sport as an educational tool, a tool for character-building and personal development, and as a means of social integration, particularly for people from marginalized groups.
UNAI reached out to soccer legend Emilio Butragueño, who explains how the Foundation's work helps to promote, both in Spain as well as abroad, the values inherent in sport to contribute to a better world:
The Real Madrid Foundation is the entity that develops the social action of Real Madrid F.C. within the framework of the Club's Corporate Social Responsibility policy.

New guidelines on global care standards during childbirth issued by UN health agency
16 February 2018 - We want women to give birth in a safe environment with skilled birth attendants in well-equipped facilities. However, the increasing medicalization of normal childbirth processes are undermining a woman's own capability to give birth and negatively impacting her birth experience, said Princess Nothemba Simelela, the Assistant Director-General at the UN World Health Organization (WHO) for Family, Women, Children and Adolescents.
Worldwide, an estimated 140 million births take place every year and most of these occur without complications for women and their babies.

Civilians in war-torn Yemen 'under fire on all sides' – UN rights chief
The situation in Taizz governorate—located in south-west Yemen—is of particular concern.
Civilians are under fire on all sides, as Houthi and affiliated forces carry out sniper attacks and indiscriminate shelling, and the Saudi-led Coalition continues to conduct airstrikes, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said in a news release Monday.
For the civilians in the city of Taizz, the conflict is not just escalating but is inescapable.
Between 1 and 8 February, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified that 27 people were killed and 76 injured in Yemen – more than double the number of civilian casualties confirmed during the previous week.
The actual number could be higher.

In Seoul, UN chief says Global Goals must be a blueprint for fair globalization
8 February 2018 – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday highlighted the importance of engagement and empowerment to transform the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into benefits for all people worldwide and called on all sectors of the society to actively involve themselves in this endeavour.
Speaking at the inaugural Global Engagement & Empowerment Forum on Sustainable Development, held at Yonsei University in Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea, the Secretary-General stressed that efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development need to go beyond diplomatic efforts and Government programmes.

Proof of chemical weapons use in Syria should be met with 'meaningful response,' UN disarmament chief
5 February 2018 – Evidence of the use, or likely use, of banned chemical weapons in Syria should be met with a meaningful response by the Security Council, the United Nations disarmament affairs chief said on Monday.
UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu briefed the Council on the work being undertaken by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Fact Finding Mission (FFM) to look into all allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
New reports by the FFM are pending. Should they conclude that there has been the use, or likely use, of chemical weapons in any of these alleged incidents, our obligation to enact a meaningful response will be further intensified.

World Cancer Day: UN agency chief urges greater access to diagnosis, prevention and treatment services
2 February 2018 – Millions of people suffering from cancer in developing countries still lack access to effective prevention, screening, early diagnosis and treatment, the head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday, urging continued efforts to ensure greater access to these vital services.

The UNtold story of the United Nations
1 February 2018 – Members of the United Nations Academic Impact network may be interested to know that a new edition of UNtold: The real story of the United Nations in peace and war is now available. Meant to entertain as well as inform, the book offers a journalistic take on the United Nations, highlighting particular moments in the history and growth of the institution. In part anecdotal, in part behind-the-scenes, UNtold shows the many layers of political, social and personal concerns that colour the work of the United Nations. The text is interwoven with humorous illustrations drawn by the cartoonist Krishna.

PyeongChang Forum for the Earth and its Citizens: sports and global citizenship highlighted in launch
31 January 2018 - The launch of the PyeongChang Forum for the Earth and its Citizens took place at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 13 December 2017. The event was organized by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations in collaboration with the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the Korean Gangwon Province government—where the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be held 9–25 February 2018.

Ensuring decent work for all through art and design
Sustainable Development Goal 8 aims to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. How can art and design contribute to promoting decent work for all? The author of this contribution: Prof. Francisco Oncina Carratalá, is a Professor of Industrial Organization and Legislation at United Nations Academic Impact member institution School of Art and Design Superior of Alicante in Spain.
30 January 2018 - Francisco Oncina Carratalá and Isabel Alemany García, professors at the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) member institution School of Art and Superior Design of Alicante in Spain, are carrying out a collaborative project in Nepal. The project—entitled The Art of Protection—deals with intellectual property as a stimulus for the creation of companies in developing countries.

UN health agency finds high levels of antibiotic resistance to world's most common infections
29 January 2018 – Antimicrobials have been a driver of unprecedented medical and societal advances, but their overuse has resulted in antibiotic resistant bacteria, with the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting new surveillance data on Monday which reveals widespread resistance to some of the world's most common infections, including E. coli and pneumonia. The report confirms the serious situation of antibiotic resistance worldwide, Dr. Marc Sprenger, director of WHO's Antimicrobial Resistance Secretariat, said at the launch of the agency's new Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System ( GLASS)

Bapu: The Craftsperson's Vision
On the seventieth anniversary of the tragic death of Mahatma Gandhi, United Nations Academic Impact presents a look at the textile handicrafts of India set forth in the exhibition Bapu: The Craftsperson's Vision, inasmuch as the exhibition helped share the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi's ideals. The author, Sunaina Suneja, is a New Delhi designer who focuses on the textile handicrafts of India, in particular the handspun, handwoven fabric Khadi.
30 January 2018 – My extensive work with the textile artisans of India led to the exhibition, launched in 2016, Bapu: The Craftsperson's Vision, which, in turn, proved to be an innovative way to revisit traditional crafts, indeed, towards persuading craftspersons to use their art as a medium to depict Mahatma Gandhi and facets of his life and vision.

'We are all at risk' when humanity's values are abandoned; UN honours memory of Holocaust victims
26 January 2018 – Calling on the world to stand together against the normalization of hate, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has stressed, in his message for the International Day dedicated to honouring Holocaust victims, that everyone has a responsibility to quickly and decisively resist racism and violence.
Mr. Guterres recalled that the International Day, marked annually on 27 January, was created to honour the memory of six million Jewish men, women and children that perished in the Holocaust and countless others lost their lives as cruelty convulsed the world.
Yet, decades since the Second World War, there is still the persistence of anti Semitism and an increase in other forms of prejudice.

The Sustainable Development Scholarship Challenge
26 January 2018 — Seton Hall University's School of Diplomacy and International Relations is currently accepting applications for its third annual UN Sustainable Development Challenge (UN SDC).
The School is sponsoring two Challenge programs: one for high school students, and a second graduate challenge for college seniors and recent bachelor's degree graduates. The Challenge is the same for each group: propose solutions to any of the UN Global Goals for the chance to win cash prizes and scholarships to attend Seton Hall University.
2018 Challenge entries will be accepted until Sunday, March 11. To learn more about the competition and how to apply, click here.