Celebrities join push for action on UN-backed development targets

Athletes, singers, actors and other celebrities are lending their voices to push for accelerated progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline, the United Nations announced today.

Dozens of celebrities join push for action on UN-backed development targets

Athletes, singers, actors and other celebrities are lending their voices to push for accelerated progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline, the United Nations announced today.

Secretary-General to visit Austria and Liechtenstein

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon heads tomorrow to Austria and Liechtenstein for a week-long official visit that will focus on global governance, European issues and United Nations affairs.

Top UN official urges young people to use their voices to promote understanding

The second annual Global Model United Nations conference, bringing together hundreds of students from more than 60 countries, wrapped up in the Malaysian capital today with a call by a senior official from the world body for greater dialogue and understanding.

Kenyan diplomat chosen to lead UN office to the African Union

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today appointed an experienced Kenyan diplomat as the first Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union (AU), established earlier this year to strengthen links between the two organizations.

Ban lauds ratification enabling pact on legal protections for UN staff to enter into force

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the recent ratification by the United Kingdom of a protocol that expands an international treaty aimed at protecting United Nations staff members and other humanitarian workers, thus enabling the pact to enter into force next week.

On the wings of paper cranes, UN staffers aim to spread message of peace

In 1955, 12-year-old Sadako Sasaki began folding a thousand paper cranes to try to heal her leukaemia, in accordance with a Japanese tradition. Despite surviving the bombing of Hiroshima a decade earlier, she had developed the “atom bomb disease.” Over half a century later, United Nations staff members hope to harness that same spirit to remind the world of the horrors wrought by nuclear weapons.

Ban welcomes approval of new chief for UN’s in-house watchdog

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the General Assembly’s approval of Carman Lapointe-Young of Canada as the new head of the United Nations internal watchdog office.

Ban says constructive criticism welcome as he reviews accusations in leaked UN memo

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed the value of constructive criticism in the wake of a leaked report by a former senior staff member that attacks his leadership of the United Nations, while pledging to set the record straight on a number of inaccuracies in the document.

Extension to treaty protecting UN personnel to enter into force after latest ratification

A protocol that expands an international treaty aimed at protecting United Nations staff members and other humanitarian workers will enter into force within a month after the United Kingdom became the latest country to ratify it.