News stories by Roshni Majumdar

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 (IPS) - The UN peacekeeping mission ended its operations in the Caribbean nation of Haiti after 13 years on October 15.

The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which aimed to bring stability to a politically chaotic Haiti of 2004, will transfer power to the UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH), a much smaller successor mission that is going to assist the government on security issues.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 25 (IPS) - Six out of ten children in the world are not achieving basic proficiency in reading and mathematics, a new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) shows.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 25 (IPS) - A Manual for Investigative Interviewing to abolish torture among detainees suspected of crime is in the pipeline, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said today.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 (IPS) - French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a sombre speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 19, denouncing Myanmar's "ethnic cleansing," and calling for better protection of refugees around the world.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 15 (IPS) - On 23rd August, just days before thousands of Rohingyas began fleeing their homes from Rakhine State, Aung San Suu Kyi's recently appointed Rakhine Advisory Commission, established in 2016, submitted its final report. The engaging of an independent Commission, tasked with recommending newer ways of improving the lives of Rohingya Muslims, Myanmar's most deeply persecuted minority group, carried some weight of diplomacy.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 08 (IPS) - In February, when the government of Somalia sounded an alarm to the UN about risks of a famine in the country, the UN's Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), besides quickly shuffling a response team, was acting from a steep sense of history. The Office, instead of sending out massive aid packages, distributed cash vouchers to families who could spend it to buy goods according to their needs.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 30 (IPS) - After sending a team to investigate the human rights conditions in Venezuela amid growing political and economic crisis, the UN Human Rights Office has reported that the crushing of anti-government protests point to the "the existence of a policy to repress political dissent and instil fear in the population to curb demonstrations."

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 28 (IPS) - The battle to reclaim Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL/Da'esh), has raised concerns among top UN officials as at least 20,000 civilians remain trapped under heavy fire in the city. Last week Monday, 42 civilians, including 12 women and 19 children, were killed in an air attack, according to the AP.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 23 (IPS) - United For Iran, a non profit group based in Berkeley, recently rolled out its latest mobile app Michka to open discussions about child sexual abuse in Iran, where treading into the topic is deemed as taboo.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 17 (IPS) - The UN's refugee agency is relocating more than 33,000 Congolese refugees from overcrowded temporary shelters in northern Angola to a more permanent establishment in Lóvua.