Mr. Gianni Infantino, President, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), 14 September 2020. ©UNIS Vienna/Nikoleta Haffar (CC BY 2.0) United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Gianni Infantino

Sport Can Help the World Come Back Stronger

As it has done before, football, the most popular sport in the world, will play a central role in bringing communities together.

United States Youth Poet Laureate Meera Dasgupta.
Meera Dasgupta

"Remembrance": A Poem by the United States Youth Poet Laureate

Poetry is slow and requires patience. It is not a luxury; it is meant for all. Claim poetry for yourself and know that if you choose to wield it, you may well change the world.

Rainforest view, 23 July 2019. Kanenori from Pixabay
Mette L. Wilkie

Forest Restoration: A Path to Recovery and Well-Being

The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration provides an opportunity to galvanize support for the restoration of degraded forest landscapes on a massive scale, thereby increasing ecological resilience and productivity, and contributing to many of the SDGs.

Boys playing in a stream, 6 March 2016. Photo by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay.
Kelly Ann Naylor, Michela Miletto and Richard Connor

The Value of Water and Its Essential Role in Supporting Sustainable Development

Recognizing, measuring and expressing water’s worth, and incorporating it into decision-making, are fundamental to achieving sustainable and equitable water resources management and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Zebra grazing in a field in Tanzania, 11 July 2018. Hendrik Cornelissen/Pexels
David O'Connor

Protecting Wildlife Can Help Advance the 2030 Agenda and Sustain Life on Earth, Including Humanity

Building back better must bring nature, biodiversity and climate fully into the picture, and address the entrenched social inequalities laid bare by the pandemic.

A communications tower. Photo by Republica from Pixabay
Mario Maniewicz

New World, New Radio: Celebrating the Resilience of the World’s Most Widely Used Medium

As the fight against the pandemic continues, radio has been a close companion for many around the world, with broadcasters curating trustworthy information, countering misinformation and providing much-needed entertainment during lockdowns. 

Facial masks and new vaccines are critical tools for ending the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Nataliya Vaitkevich/Pexels
Anuradha Gupta

Protecting Lower-Income Countries with COVID-19 Vaccines Requires Global Solidarity

The medical and moral imperative for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines is why COVAX was created. Co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, together with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), COVAX is a truly global solution.

Bourke Street, Melbourne, Australia, empty on a Friday morning during the COVID-19 pandemic. 27 March 2020. Photo by Philip Mallis from Melbourne, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Michael Mintrom

COVID-19, Sustainable Development and the Melbourne Experiment

The multidisciplinary approach of the Melbourne Experiment holds relevance beyond its namesake city. Its form and function could be replicated globally to strategically map and pull apart the complex web of repercussions and opportunities born from this pandemic and future crises. 

Rabbi Arthur Schneier

International Holocaust Remembrance Day: A Survivor’s Plea

There is no doubt that we need to broadcast a warning and act now to purvey the truths of history and call out hate groups whose poisonous beliefs could unleash future plagues against humanity.

Primary school math students in the MatiTec program in Santa Fe, Mexico City, 20 March 2012. Talento Tec. Wikimedia Commons
Sylvia Schmelkes

Recognizing and Overcoming Inequity in Education

Education has proven to affect general well-being, productivity, social capital, responsible citizenship and sustainable behaviour.

Participants in the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Network Rivers Hub during a community service exercise at Eleme in Rivers State, Nigeria. 29 August 2020. yalirivershub Photo/Instagram
Anthony Oyakhilome Justice

Increasing Youth Participation in Climate Action

Young people, who constitute the majority of the population in many countries, are becoming a driving force in pursuing a low-carbon and climate-resilient future.

Masses of ice on Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, in southeast Iceland. 28 June 2013. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Patricia Espinosa Cantellano

2020, COVID-19 and the Climate Agenda

This most difficult and even overwhelming year has served to remind us of our ultimate dependence on the physical environment. It has confirmed the value of science as our most reliable instrument to understand and to overcome natural threats. It has proved that cooperation is the only way to address challenges that transcend borders.

A group of men from Asia stranded in Bosnia and Herzegovina wait for assistance from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). © IOM 2020
Renate Held

Reimagining Human Mobility in a Post-COVID-19 World

No phenomenon has been as affected by humanity’s reaction to COVID-19 as migration. Simply put, humans are the main vector for the transmission of the virus, so the mobility aspects of our response had to be factored in from day one.

Under-Secretary-General Fabrizio Hochschild speaking to participants of the Children and Youth Roundtable at the World Urban Forum (WUF10) held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on 12 February 2020. ©Natalia Mroz
Fabrizio Hochschild

Do People Still Care About Human Rights?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on 10 December 1948, inspired peoples across the world and laid the foundation for governance and institutional reforms, for progressive, people centred legislation and education that reverberates from generation to generation.

A Congolese filmmaker edits a film on her laptop near her home in Kakuma refugee camp, northern Kenya. ©UNHCR/Tobin Jones
Anne-Marie Grey

The Case for Connectivity, the New Human Right

This year’s Human Rights Day theme focuses on the need and opportunity to build back better in the wake of the pandemic by ensuring that human rights are central to recovery efforts. And make no mistake about it, digital connectivity should be a human right.