News (Consolidated) - UNSOM

NEWYORK - This first International Widows’ Day is an occasion to call attention to the many “firsts” that women must face when their husbands die. In addition to coping with grief, they may find themselves for the first time since marriage without any social safety net. Far too often, widows lack…

KABUL - Sima, a widow for more than a year, is learning to sew at a centre in Kabul in hopes of making enough money to pay her rent and buy pencils and books for her four children. “Widows are very poor,” she told UNAMA. “We don’t have anything.” Due to the extended conflict, of the approximately…

Afghanistan is likely to face a significant food shortage in the coming months, following poor rains which have affected this season’s wheat crop. Wheat is the primary food staple for most families. IRIN News “There have been problems with rainfall, so there will be a significant shortfall in the…

NEW YORK - Global opium poppy cultivation reached some 195,700 hectares (ha) in 2010, a small increase over 2009, shows the flagship report launched today at United Nations Headquarters by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime…

NEWYORK - The Secretary-General welcomes President Obama’s announcement to start the drawdown of American forces in Afghanistan as of July 2011. The United Nations views this decision as the beginning of a transition to greater responsibilities of the Afghan Government and ultimately to full Afghan…

LOGAR - The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemns in the strongest terms the attack at a public hospital in the Azra district in Logar province that took place today resulting in a large number of civilian casualties, including many killed. Print English - Dari - Pashto…

Statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay for the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Starting in 1976, during Argentina’s period of military dictatorship, prison director Abel Dupuy ordered the systematic torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading…

NEW YORK - Torture is a brutal attempt to destroy a person’s sense of dignity and sense of human worth. It acts also as a weapon of war, spreading terror beyond its direct victims to communities and societies. On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, we honour the men and women who…

NEWYORK - Drug trafficking, once viewed largely as a social and criminal problem, has transformed in recent years into a major threat to the health and security of people and regions. The $61 billion annual market for Afghan opiates is funding insurgency, international terrorism and wider…

Members of the Wolesi Jirga today presented Staffan de Mistura, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Afghanistan, with a letter addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. In the letter the Parliamentarians appealed for the international community to…

GARDIZ - In rural areas where cultural constraints and poor security prevent girls from enrolling in schools, the Ministry of Education is working with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), community elders and religious scholars to create grassroots alternatives. In community-based schools…

KABUL - Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy was appalled to learn today of the use of a young girl as an unwitting suicide bomber in the Char China District of Afghanistan. Equally disturbing was a brutal attack on Akbar Khail hospital…