“Corruption breeds disillusion with government and governance… Corruption can be a trigger for conflict,” notes António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General.
UN Photo/Leonora Baumann | Port au Prince.
“As conflict rages, corruption prospers. And even if conflict ebbs, corruption can impede recovery.”
Below, find out how corruption can exacerbate conflicts and impede sustainable peace plans – and how the United Nations is working to strengthen integrity, the rule of law and anti-corruption measures in peacekeeping and peacebuilding contexts.
Last year,one in five people who dealt with a public official were asked to pay a bribe, according to a UN report.
The world is doing something about it.
Rabik Upadhayay | Young Nepalis protesting against endemic corruption in the capital Kathmandu earlier this year. Security forces responded with a violent crackdown, leaving more than 50 people dead in the ensuing crisis.
Heads of State, civil society and private sector leaders will be discussing the most pressing issues surrounding corruption and how to tackle the scourge, at a a UN anti-corruption conference (COSP11) this week in Doha, Qatar.
(Beirut) – Qatari government clients and other major businesses are failing to pay contractors on time for projects, leaving migrant workers unpaid, Human Rights Watch on 14 December 2025 said.
More than half the world’s population still lacks access to essential health services.
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And a quarter of them face financial hardship when paying for health care out of their own pockets, often at the expense of food, education or housing.
On 12 December 2012, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a resolution urging countries to accelerate progress toward universal health coverage (UHC) – the idea that everyone, everywhere should have access to quality, affordable health care.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2025 (IPS)* –When there was widespread speculation that a UN Under-Secretary-General (USG), a product of two prestigious universities—Oxford and Cambridge—was planning to run for the post of Secretary-General back in the 1980s, I pointedly asked him to confirm or deny the rumor during an interview in the UN delegate’s lounge.
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The Security Council in session. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider
“I don’t think”, he declared, “anyone in his right mind will ever want that job”.
Fast forward to 2026.
As a financially stricken UN is looking for a new Secretary-General, who will take office beginning January 2027, the USG’s remark in a bygone era was a reflection of a disaster waiting to happen.
Statement by Maureen Magee, Global Director of Field Operations, at the Norwegian Refugee Council, commenting on the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) for 2026:
Halima Omar, a displaced mother of seven lives in a camp in Baidoa, Somalia. Halima has been directly impacted by aid cuts: “We had access to water and latrines, but those services are no longer available. The organisations that used to support us have stopped their programmes.” Photo: Abdulkadir Mohamed/NRC
“2026 is set to stretch humanitarian responses to their limit as they seek to support people with the most severe needs around the world.
“Next year, 239 million people will be in need of humanitarian assistance and protection. Humanitarians are aiming to reach just over half of them.
By Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights*
10 December 2025 (OHCHR)* — Human rights are underfunded, undermined and under attack. And yet. Powerful. Undeterred. Mobilizing.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an interview with UN News.
This year no doubt has been a difficult one. And one full of dangerous contradictions. Funding for human rights has been slashed, while anti-rights movements are increasingly well-funded.
Profits for the arms industry are soaring, while funding for humanitarian aid and grassroots civil society plummets.
Those defending rights and justice are attacked, sanctioned and hauled before courts, even as those ordering the commission of atrocity crimes continue to enjoy impunity.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2025 (IPS)*– Over the course of 2025, global civic space conditions have deteriorated sharply, with most countries experiencing some degree of obstructed civil liberties.
The panelists at the CIVICUS press briefing on the 2025 People Power Under Attack Report. Credit: Oritro Karim/IPS
As authoritarian governments strengthen their hold and have even escalated the use of military force to suppress public dissent, civilians report facing increasing limitations of freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, petition and religion, as well as notable crackdowns on press freedoms.
NAIROBI, Dec 10 2025 (IPS)* –– A new study and interactive dashboard released today in Nairobi at the seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) finds that current international financial flows remain billions of dollars short of what is required to achieve the global biodiversity target of protecting and conserving at least 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030 (30×30).
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New report finds that current international financial flows remain billions of dollars short of what is required to protect and conserve at least 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. Photo: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 