“All of us at the United Nations are suffering from a reinforcement of the ban on females working with us…We are simply unable to operate without females,” said Arafat Jamal, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Representative to Afghanistan, a day after agencies warned that the de facto authorities’ measures have impacted...
Attacks against health facilities doubled between 2023 and 2024, and more than 900 health workers were killed last year, the agency reported. Humanitarian aid workers were also killed in record numbers in 2024. Yet, 2025 is outpacing even these dark statistics at a time when funding for humanitarian work is...
The new joint report, Climate change and workplace heat stress, underscores the mounting risks as climate change fuels longer, more extreme, and more frequent heatwaves. Stressing that workers in agriculture, construction, and fisheries are already suffering the impacts of dangerous temperatures, the report points out that vulnerable groups in developing countries...
The first eight months of 2025 show no sign of a reversal of this disturbing trend, with 265 humanitarian workers killed as of 14 August, according to figures released on World Humanitarian Day. Attacks on humanitarian workers, assets and operations violate international law and undermine the lifelines that sustain millions...
Speaking to UN News from the wartorn enclave to mark World Humanitarian Day, Olga Cherevko from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said that exhausted aid workers continue to show up for work “day in and day out”. Approaching two years since the start of the war in Gaza, Ms....
Ahead of a memorial service at Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General António Guterres told journalists that the men and women being honoured “were not just names on a list” but “extraordinary individuals – each one a story of courage, compassion, and service.” “They were driven by the pursuit of peace....
Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General with UN aid coordination office OCHA, and Gilles Michaud, head of the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) were speaking during a meeting on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. Debate focused on Council Resolution 2730 (2024) which calls for upholding the safety of UN...
The Second WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health co-hosted by the World Health Organization and Colombia, in the city of Cartagena, brought together over 700 participants from 100 countries – including heads of state, ministers, scientists, and civil society groups — to accelerate action to curb what’s increasingly...
A new book on their work underlines the chaos of the time, and the difficult decisions they had to make, knowing that for every person they saved, many more would be killed. Saints and Liars, by Debórah Dwork, the Director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide,...
Some 167.7 million migrants were part of the labour force in their destination countries in 2022 – an increase of more than 30 million since 2013, according to the ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers. Of this number, 102.7 million were men and 64.9 million were women. Regional distribution...
The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reported that ambulances and relief centres had been “targeted or hit in Lebanon, causing further casualties”, adding that the UN health agency WHO and health partners have continued to deliver life-saving surgical supplies to frontline health workers. International humanitarian law provides special protection for...
Responders including ambulance drivers, health workers and forensic teams who identified many of the dead, all witnessed “carnage and horror” which resulted in lasting trauma. An organization named Mashiv Ha’Ruach, which means “Bringing back the spirit”, provided mental health and psychosocial support through workshop retreats supported by WHO/Europe. These sessions...