(UN News)* — UN rights chief Volker Türk on Monday [] condemned what he called a worldwide “glorification of violence” which is underway, as well as “coordinated efforts” to undermine fundamental birthrights. “It is time for States to wake up and to act,” he insisted.
Millions of women and girls worldwide still cannot afford menstrual products or access water and sanitation facilities to manage their menstrual health and hygiene.
Periods make them miss school, work, and negatively impact their health, but it does not have to be that way.
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In Sitamarhi State, Bihar, India, in 2022, women hold sanitary pads during an awareness campaign as part of a menstrual hygiene management program organized by UNICEF. Photo: UNICEF/Priyanka Parashar
Frosty morning in Pingjum Friesland, The Netherlands.
PHOTO:WMO Photostream/Anna Zuidema
Air pollution is the biggest environmental health risk of our time. It also exacerbates climate change, causes economic losses, and reduces agricultural productivity.
It knows no borders – everyone has a responsibility to protect our atmosphere and ensure healthy air for all.
By collaborating across borders, sectors, and silos, we can reduce air pollution through collective investments of time, resources and efforts.
PORTLAND, USA, Sep 4 2025 (IPS)** ––It is becoming increasingly apparent that planet Earth is evolving into the planet of the aged. In nearly every country around the world, the numbers and percentages of the aged, commonly defined as individuals aged 65 years or older, haveincreased rapidly.
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Despite living longer lives, the aged are opposed to raising official retirement ages, reducing retirement benefits, or raising taxes on the elderly. They are increasingly protesting, resisting, and demanding that retirement ages stay the same and benefits remain intact. Credit: Shutterstock
(UN News)* — Governments, academia and other stakeholders must “double down on delivering reparatory justice” for people from the African diaspora, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said in a report published on Wednesday [].
2 September 2025 —More than 1 billion people are living with mental health disorders, according to new data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), with conditions such as anxiety and depression inflicting immense human and economic tolls.
WHO / Christopher Black | Community mental health teams are one way of providing mental health care, Ukraine, 2023.
While many countries have bolstered their mental health policies and programmes, greater investment and action are needed globally to scale up services to protect and promote people’s mental health.
Mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression are highly prevalent in all countries and communities, affecting people of all ages and income levels.
4 September 2025 — In this Q&A, Human Rights Watch examines the application of the right to reparation to redress past and present harms stemming from colonial atrocities, including enslavement,[1]systemic racial inequalities, and other related human rights violations.
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 4 2025 (IPS)* –– 2025 has been marked by a significant escalation of the climate crisis and its effects on vulnerable populations, as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warns that average global temperatures could exceed the 1.5°C threshold within the next five years.
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A family prepares a banner to protest the effects of climate change on children outside their house in the village of Patzité, Quiché, Guatemala. Credit: UNICEF/Patricia Willocq
In Latin America and the Caribbean, rising temperatures and emissions continue to strain access to essential services and deepen poverty, particularly among children.
(UN News)* — Global education funding is facing sharp reductions that could leave an extra six million children out of school by 2026, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Wednesday [3 September 2025].
Official Development Assistance (ODA) for education is projected to fall by $3.2 billion – a 24 per cent drop from 2023 – with just three donor governments accounting for nearly 80 per cent of the cuts.
Such a decline would push the number of out-of-school children worldwide from 272 million to 278 million, UNICEF said – the equivalent of shutting every primary school in Germany and Italy combined.
“Every dollar cut from education is not just a budgetary decision, it’s a child’s future hanging in the balance,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 3 2025 (IPS)* –– Over the past decade, major strides have been made in expanding global access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, with billions of people around the world seeing improvements in overall health and well-being.
A woman pulls a floating toilet into the lake in Kaylar village in Shan State, Myanmar, on June 25, 2025. After the earthquake, the onset of the rainy season made access to safe sanitation challenging for displaced communities. Credit: UNICEF/Maung Nyan
Despite these gains, people largely from low-income countries and marginalized groups still lack access to clean water, leaving them vulnerable to disease and hindering social development and inclusion.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 