The landmark year in the life of the UN has prompted introspection and a fresh impetus for change. How can the organization remains relevant in a world that is almost unrecognizable from the post-World War Two consensus into which it was born?

The US pause in foreign assistance funding has created “confusion” in the vital work of community HIV prevention, despite a waiver issued for HIV/AIDS programmes, the UN agency to combat the still deadly disease said on Friday.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Friday expressed profound concerns at the ongoing violent escalation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) caused by the ongoing Rwanda-backed M23 offensive. “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders,” he told a Special Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

WASHINGTON DC, Feb 06 (IPS) - For centuries, innumerable countries were ruled by an entrenched, typically inherited, political class: the “aristocracy.” The term comes from the Ancient Greek words “aristos”, meaning best, and “kratia,” meaning power. As a result of long and hard-fought democratic struggles, these aristocracies have largely dwindled worldwide (albeit, not everywhere).

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 06 (IPS) - February 6 is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). A practice deemed a gross violation of human rights, tragically the practice persists across multiple countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Over 230 million women and girls alive today have been subjected to this gruesome practice, and experts warn that at least 27 million more could endure this by 2030.

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Feb 06 (IPS) - Two weeks after Goma was captured by the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, many families who lost their loved ones are begging for peace. Some of them have had no news of their loved ones, while others have already identified their relatives, civilians and soldiers, who died during the fighting in the city.Zawadi Delphine is a soldier's wife and mother of three. She and her family live in Camp Katindo, east of the city of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu.

NAIROBI / BANGKOK, Feb 06 (IPS) - Why can’t there be education for every child? Why can’t there be healthcare for everyone who needs it? Why can’t everyone be freed from hunger and deprivation? Though these are promised to all as rights, people are repeatedly told that there is no money.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 06 (IPS) - A new executive order from the United States White House calls for withdrawing support from major UN entities and a review of all international intergovernmental organizations which the United States is a member of. The U.S.’s orders against the UN Palestine Refugee Agency also do not bode well for ongoing ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.

Terrorist fighters with ISIL/Da’esh invaded Iraq’s second city of Mosul in 2014, destroying centuries-old landmarks in a bid to erase its history and impose a bleak and repressive future on the nearly two million people who lived there.

Some 230 million girls in more than 90 countries – predominantly in Africa and Asia – have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) and can suffer lifelong physical, emotional and psychological scars, an issue that the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency has been tackling with the support of the international community including the United States.