NEW YORK - The United Nations has overwhelmingly approved (154-3 with 23 abstentions) a landmark treaty regulating trade in conventional arms.
 The legally binding treaty sets international standards to regulate the import, export and transfer of conventional weapons - from battle tanks, warships and attack helicopters to small arms and light weapons. Major arms exporters, such […]

NEW YORK - North Korea has written to the U.N. Security Council accusing it of committing “a crime” by adopting new sanctions against it for its February nuclear test.
 In a letter dated March 9 and released by the United Nations Friday March 15, Pyongyang’s foreign ministry informed the president of the U.N. Security Council that […]

NEW YORK - United Nations peacekeepers have been detained by armed men in Syria, near the disengagement zone with Israel.
 A U.N. spokesman said a group of about 20 peacekeepers was seized in the Golan Heights. He said the peacekeepers had been taking supplies to a U.N. observation post when they were stopped by a group […]

GENEVA - The U.N.’s top human rights official is calling for an international inquiry into what she calls the “deplorable human rights situation” in North Korea.  The high commissioner says the elaborate network of political prison camps, forced labor and torture in the country cannot be allowed to continue.
 U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi […]

NEW YORK - International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi began talks in Geneva on Friday with senior U.S. and Russian officials on the Syrian crisis, just hours after rebels reportedly seized the country’s main military air base.
 The United Nations-Arab League special envoy is meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Ministry Mikhail Bogdanov and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State […]

BRUSSELS - International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says the deadly conflict in Syria is getting worse and poses a threat to the entire region and the world.
 
He made the comment Saturday in the Syrian capital, Damascus, after meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.  The meeting was Brahimi’s first since taking over the duties as peace […]

BEIRUT - The joint United Nations-Arab League envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, announced Thursday that he will leave his post on August 31, saying that increased militarization in Syria and disunity in the international community have hampered his ability to carry out his work.
Annan told reporters in Geneva that without serious and united international pressure, […]

GENEVA – The United States, Russia and other world leaders have agreed on a plan for a transitional government of national unity in Syria that they hope will pave the way for an end to the violence that has killed more than 15,000 people during the 16-month uprising. 
The plan, drafted by International Envoy Kofi Annan, […]

NEW YORK - Escalating violence in Syria forced some 300 unarmed United Nations observers to suspend their mission Saturday.
The head of the mission, Major General Robert Mood, said observers will not leave the country but “will remain in place.” 
 
“In this high-risk situation, UNSMIS is suspending its operations. U.N. observers will not be conducting patrols and […]

NEW YORK - The United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution sending 300 unarmed observers to Syria, boosting the strength of a previously approved force of 30. The move comes as a ten-day-old cease-fire agreement has failed, so far, to bring an end to violence in many parts of the country. 
A mostly young crowd […]

NEW YORK - An advance team of six United Nations observers will begin monitoring a shaky cease-fire in Syria, as activists said government troops continue to shell rebel neighborhoods in the opposition stronghold, Homs, and clashes persisted elsewhere.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Monday that security forces shot dead two people in the […]

GENEVA - The United Nations Human Rights Office says video shown on British television Monday night of people being tortured in Syrian hospitals is in line with evidence gathered by U.N. fact-finding missions. The agency says systematic torture has been going on in Syria for the past four decades.    
Two United Nations investigations have documented human […]

NEW YORK - The United Nations Human Rights Council has condemned what it calls “widespread and systematic violations of human rights” by the Syrian government, and reiterated the “urgent” need address the humanitarian situation in the country.
At a session Thursday in Geneva, the council adopted a resolution calling on President Bashar al-Assad’s government to immediately […]

NEW YORK - Argentina’s government lodged a formal protest at the United Nations Friday over what it says is Britain’s “militarization” of the disputed Falkland Islands - known in Argentina as the Malvinas Islands.
Argentinian Foreign Minister Héctor Marcos Timerman met separately with the U.N. secretary-general, the president of the Security Council and the president of […]

NEW YORK - The United Nations has announced the famine in southern Somalia is officially over, but warns that millions of people are still in crisis. The head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told reporters in Nairobi Friday the next 100 days will be crucial.
FAO’s new Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva delivered […]

NEW YORK - Vetoes by Russia and China of a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria condemning President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on his people and calling for him to step down have drawn outrage from around the world.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the failure to pass the resolution, saying the Security Council “lost an opportunity […]

NEW YORK - U.N. Security Council diplomats on Wednesday sounded cautiously optimistic for the first time that they might reach agreement on a resolution supporting an Arab League plan to end the violence in Syria.  But they acknowledged that key differences remain, as they left the negotiations.
The Security Council is considering a resolution sponsored by […]

NEW YORK - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to urge the U.N. Security Council to support an Arab League peace plan for Syria, after Washington strongly condemned escalating violence by President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Clinton will join the foreign ministers of France and Britain at Tuesday’s Security Council session.  Western powers have been […]

GENEVA - The U.N. Human Rights Council has strongly condemned “the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights” in Syria where the government is entering its ninth month of a bloody crackdown on dissenters.
During an emergency session convened Friday in Geneva, the U.N. rights body overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that will establish a […]

NEW YORK - The United Nations says the world’s population has reached the 7 billion mark.
 
A number of “seven billionth” babies are being honored around the world. The Philippines was chosen as the first country to celebrate the symbolic birth – feting a baby girl born late Sunday in Manila.
The U. N. looks at the […]

NEW YORK - The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to end the authorization of the NATO no-fly zone over Libya, which was established in March to protect civilians from forces loyal to then-dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The vote was held despite a request from Libya’s interim government to delay the action.
The new resolution terminates as […]

GENEVA - A U.N. commission is hoping Syrian authorities will grant permission to enter the country to investigate reports of human rights violations during anti-government protests that erupted five months ago. The U.N. Human Rights Council established the three-member Commission Of Inquiry in August to investigate serious allegations of crimes against humanity. 
The Independent Commission of […]

NEW YORK - The U.N. Security Council is set to discuss the Palestinian bid for statehood Monday, as Israeli leaders continue to call for a return to peace talks.
 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas submitted an application for full recognition of a Palestinian state Friday, and received a hero’s welcome Sunday as he returned to the West […]

NEW YORK - The long-awaited and controversial move by the Palestinians culminated in a 10-minute meeting at the United Nations, at which Abbas formally submitted the written statehood application to U.N. Secretary General Ban ki-moon.
A half-hour later the Palestinian Authority chief, addressing the U.N. General Assembly and greeted by loud ovations, appealed for international support […]