8 August 2013, Mbabane, Swaziland - Under the framework of the project “Developing an Integrated National Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals and SAICM Implementation in Swaziland”,the final national project workshop was held from 6 to 8 August 2013.

19 August 2013, Geneva, Switzerland - Each year on 19 August the international community celebrates the World Humanitarian Day in commemoration of the day in 2003 when 22 aid workers were killed in a bombing at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. This is also a day to commemorate all those who have lost their lives in humanitarian service and to underline and spread the example of people helping people.

16 August 2013, Khartoum, Sudan - After initial flooding that killed more than 50 people in the first week of August, Sudan’s weather authorities have announced that heavy rain falling in Ethiopia is likely to cause additional flooding in Sudan. So far the floods affected 200,000 Sudanese, according to the Minister of Interior, and have prompted aid from Qatar, Egypt and Ethiopia.

15 August, Geneva, Switzerland - UNOSAT and the European Commission Emergency Response Centre (ERC) are discussing how to take to the next level their collaboration and exchange of information, building on almost 10 years of positive history.

31 July 2013, Geneva, Switzerland – The UN Decade of Action for Road Safety- 2011-2020 aims to reduce the number of deaths from road accidents down to 50% by 2020. Based on information on road safety from 182 countries, accounting for almost 99% of the world’s population, 1.24 million of road traffic deaths occur every year.

26 July 2013, Geneva, Switzerland - Member states of the UN Economic and Social Council adopted today a resolution that recognises “the pursuit by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research of innovation in the field of training and capacity development, its continued effort to improve the high-quality and effectiveness of its output”.

23 July 2013, Geneva, Switzerland - The 2013 session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is being held in Geneva, where ECOSOC meets every other year.  UNITAR took part in the Innovation Fair of the Annual Ministerial Review, which this year put a spotlight on the role of science, technology and innovation, and the potential of culture in promoting sustainable development and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

16 July 2013, United Nations, New York - The High Commissioner for Refugees was among the UN high level speakers who briefed the UN Security Council on the degradation of the humanitarian situation in Syria. The Chief of UNHCR said: “We have not seen a refugee flow escalate at such an alarming rate since the Rwandan genocide.”  Lebanon and Jordan bear the heaviest burden, while the impact on Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey is also very high.

16-18 July 2013, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso – Burkina Faso held its National SAICM Planning and Inception Workshop from 16 to 18 July 2013 with the participation of UNITAR and UNEP.