News headlines in March 2023, page 10

On the morning of the 2023 UN Water Conferenceultra-marathon runner Mina Guli has completed a year-long, campaign to run 200 marathons, raising awareness of the world’s water crisis. She completed her last run at UN Headquarters, the location of the major event, the first of its kind in almost half a century.

Water starts wars, puts out fires, and is key to human survival, but ensuring access for all hinges largely on improving cooperation, according to a new flagship UN report published on Tuesday.

A global initiative launched by the UN Secretary-General to ensure that all countries are protected by early warning systems, by 2027, is being fast-tracked into action on the ground, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

With xenophobia, prejudice, and hate speech on the rise, the UN community gathered in the General Assembly Hall on Wednesday to call for action to root out racism and discrimination across the world. 

Six months after catastrophic floods struck Pakistan, more than 10 million people, including children, still lack access to safe drinking water, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

A specialized force must be deployed to urgently help Haitian authorities tackle a tsunami of gang violence, as rapes, sniper killings, and kidnappings become daily threats, the spokesperson for the UN rights chief said on Tuesday.

Nearly 420 million children across the globe receive school meals – that’s 30 million more than in 2020 - the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a new report published on Tuesday.

“Across identities and differences…  over countries and continents… it is not hard to choose peace.” These lines are from a new poem created to mark the 75th anniversary of UN peacekeeping operations. 

Forests are often called the lungs of the planet, because they absorb harmful carbon dioxide and produce life-giving oxygen so it’s no exaggeration to equate healthy forests with healthy people, the theme of this year’s International Day of Forests.

ROME / LONDON, Mar 20 (IPS) - On March 4 2023, the 193 members of the United Nations reached a major milestone. They agreed on a treaty to manage and protect the high seas – the marine areas that lie outside the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of coastal states. The high seas are an essential part of the global ecosystem. They cover 50 percent of the Earth’s surface, produce half the oxygen we breathe, provide a home to 95 percent of the planet’s biosphere, are a critical sink for carbon dioxide, and help regulate the Earth’s temperature.