缅北禁地

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鈥檚 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.

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 J枚kuls谩rl贸n glacial lagoon, in southeast Iceland. 28 June 2013. 缅北禁地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). 漏 IOM 2020
Renate Held

Reimagining Human Mobility in a Post-COVID-19 World

No phenomenon has been as affected by humanity鈥檚 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. 漏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. 漏UNHCR/Tobin Jones
Anne-Marie Grey

The Case for Connectivity, the New Human Right

This year鈥檚 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.

Volunteers in the Sudan have held briefings on COVID-19 and distributed masks, gloves and sanitizing products. 漏 UNDP
Balghis Badri

The Impact of COVID-19 on Women

Among other measures to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, the United Nations could develop gender-sensitive monitoring and impact checklists to assist countries with follow-up and assessment of their achievements in all sectors during the crisis.

Aviation is crucial to the undertaking of the World Food Programme鈥檚 humanitarian mission. Source: WFP/Deborah Nguyen
Fang Liu

Connecting the World in Its Time of Need: International Aviation's Pandemic Response

By severing our international connections by air in this manner, COVID-19 has cut off businesses from clients and tourists from destinations and posed disproportionate threats to the poor and vulnerable.

A smartphone using a contract tracing app. Markus Winkler/Pixabay
E. Courtenay Rattray

Media and Information Literacy in an Age of Uncertainty

In order to protect democracy, the transition to a digital society and economy must be accompanied by a media and information literacy revolution.

A worker checks readings on an energy management system, South Africa. Photo credit: National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa
聽Helen Hai

Making Industrialization in Africa Sustainable

Industrial development in Africa needs to be inclusive and sustainable: inclusive so that all sectors of society can participate and benefit from industrialization, and sustainable so that the environment does not suffer.

A participant at the official commemoration of the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 鈥淥range the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape鈥. New York, 25 November 2019. 缅北禁地Photo/Evan Schneider
Mar铆a-Noel Vaeza

Addressing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Violence Against Women and Girls

Violence against women and girls was a pandemic long before the outbreak of COVID-19. The underlying causes are not the virus itself or the resulting economic crisis, but rather an imbalance of power and control.

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay. 1 April 2020
Lamiaa Mohsen

COVID-19 and the Need for Action on Mental Health

Not only would failing to address the mental health impact of the pandemic potentially undo years of work and effort to improve access to and the quality of mental health services, it also creates the possibility of a mental health epidemic that could impact generations to come.

Panellists at one of the national forums organized by the United Nations and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia to collect the views of civil society in Colombia on the various items on the peace agenda. February 2016. Photo by Federico Rios/UNDP
Fabrizio Hochschild and Juan Pablo Caicedo

No Persistence鈥擭o Peace: A Reflection on the United Nations Contribution to Peace in Colombia

Thanks to its large field presence and decades of work on the ground, the United Nations country team in Colombia knew that for local communities, peace meant much more than the absence of war. Addressing some of their expectations and concerns was critical for peace to be sustainable.

Happy students in the rural village of Dacope, Khulna, Bangladesh. 漏 Md. Nafiul Hasan Nasim
Jane Goodall

We All Must Take Action

As the United Nations celebrates its 75th Anniversary this year, which has been marked by a global pandemic and global fear, we are all called to renew our sense of solidarity and hope.