To highlight the achievements of the United Nations in the past 70 years would fill many volumes, and I’m afraid that writing about my wishes for the United Nations in the next seven decades would fill even more books.

An ILO/MasterCard Foundation study sheds new light on the challenges facing young women’s participation in the world of work.

By Azita Berar Awad, Director, ILO Employment Policy Department and Ann Miles, Director, Youth Livelihoods and Financial Inclusion, The MasterCard Foundation 

            In times of crisis and emergency, radio can be a lifeline.

            For people in shattered societies, or caught in catastrophe, or desperately seeking news, radio brings lifesaving information.

            Radio can help in emergency response operations – and it can assist with rebuilding.

"I think the Secretary‑General [...] is against any bombings that are hurtful to civilians and has asked for a halt to all bombings. As for the interview you refer to, the Secretary‑General, I think, was… his words were misinterpreted, and we have told The Financial Times that", - said Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric.

The statement was made during Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on 10 February.

            World Cancer Day, always an opportunity to rally the world, has special impetus this year thanks to the recent adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to usher in a life of dignity for all people.

During the Second World War, six million Jews were systematically rounded up and exterminated.  The Nazis also murdered Sinti and Roma, political prisoners, homosexuals, persons with disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Soviet prisoners of war.

The Holocaust was a colossal crime.  No-one can deny the evidence that it happened.  By remembering the victims and honouring the courage of the survivors and those who assisted and liberated them, we annually renew our resolve to prevent such atrocities and reject the hateful mentality that allows them.

30 December 2015 – As 2015 comes to an end, and with it the 15-year cycle of the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the United Nations officially will usher in – on 1 January 2016 – an even more ambitious set of goals to banish a whole host of social ills by 2030.

            By adopting the historic 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, world leaders expressed their resolve to seek shared progress and prosperity based on a spirit of global solidarity. The Paris Agreement on climate change marks another important milestone for our planet and all people.

            2015 will be remembered as a year of human suffering and migrant tragedies.  Over the past 12 months, more than 5,000 women, men and children lost their lives in search of protection and a better life.  Tens of thousands more have been exploited and abused by human traffickers.  And millions have been made into scapegoats and become the targets of xenophobic policies and alarmist rhetoric.