The United Nations expressed “grave concern” on Thursday (May 21, 2026) about a new law issued by Afghanistan’s Taliban government on separation in marriage which includes provisions on child marriage, saying the code further entrenches discrimination against women and girls.

The government rejected the accusations, saying the decree follows Islamic law and insisting the country has already banned the forced marriage of girls.

Afghanistan’s Justice Ministry published Decree No. 18 “on judicial separation of spouses” last week, which sets out rules for separation of a married couple.

Among its most controversial provisions, it says that the silence of a girl reaching puberty can be interpreted as consent to marriage. It also includes a section on the separation of girls who reach puberty and are married, which “implies that child marriage is permitted,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement.

“This undermines the principle of free and full consent and failing to safeguard the best interests of the child,” it said.

The decree stipulates that a marriage can be ruled invalid “if a father or grandfather has given a minor girl or boy without any dowry, not enough dowry or obscene embezzlement.” It also says that a girl given away in marriage by her father or grandfather to a man who “has not treated her with kindness or is well-known for his bad choices…has the right to approach the court to cancel the marriage contract upon reaching puberty.”

However, if a girl asks her husband for a divorce and he denies it, “then in this case, there are no witnesses with the girl, the husband’s word is valid,” the new law says. She does not need witnesses if she makes the request before a judge.

Women and girls already face widespread discrimination in Afghanistan, with laws dictating how they must dress and behave. They are banned from secondary school and universities and from most jobs, as well as from nearly all leisure activities, including gyms, beauty salons and even from public parks.

“Decree No. 18 is part of a broader and deeply concerning trajectory in which the rights of Afghan women and girls are being eroded,” said Georgette Gagnon, the U.N.’s Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and officer in charge of UNAMA.

While the law allows for women to separate from their husbands, it makes it much harder for them to do so than it does for men.

The decree “operates in a deeply unequal framework: while men retain the unilateral right to divorce, women must pursue complex and restrictive judicial avenues to separate from a spouse,” UNAMA said. “This situation reinforces structural discrimination and limits women’s autonomy in matters fundamental to their dignity, safety, and well-being.” After seizing power in Afghanistan following the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-backed forces in 2021, the Taliban announced certain limited rights for women, issuing a decree that included the right for women to an inheritance and to refuse marriage. However, “successive decrees have undermined these protections,” UNAMA said.

The myriad restrictions imposed by the government “have deprived millions of Afghan women and girls of their right to education, weakened economic participation, and deepened poverty, with long-term consequences for Afghanistan’s development,” it added.

The objections from “those who contradict the religion of Islam are not new and we should not pay attention to them,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan government, told the RTA state broadcaster in an interview.

Mujahid noted that Afghanistan’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has already issued a previous decree that bans the forced marriage of girls. Afghan courts and the country’s ministry of vice and virtue have investigated thousands of such cases in the past year alone, he said, “which shows the Islamic Emirate’s concern for women’s rights.”

International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Mr. Arsenio Dominguez has called on States to uphold the principle of freedom of navigation and reject any imposition of tolls, fees or discriminatory transit measures for passage through straits used for international navigation.

Addressing the UN Security Council on the topic of ‘The safety and protection of waterways in the maritime domain, he emphasised: “The principle of freedom of navigation is not negotiable. Ships must be allowed to trade worldwide unhindered and in accordance with international law.”

The United States has paid about $160 million of the nearly $4 billion it owes the United Nations, the U.N. said Thursday (February 19, 2026), and President Donald Trump promised more money to the financially strapped world organization.

The Trump administration’s payment last week is earmarked for the U.N.’s regular operating budget, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told The Associated Press.

The U.N. has said the United States owes $2.19 billion to its regular budget, including $767 million for this year, as well as $1.8 billion to a separate budget for the far-flung U.N. peacekeeping operations.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned late last month that the world body faces “imminent financial collapse” unless its financial rules are overhauled or all 193 member nations pay their dues, a message clearly directed at the United States.

He said in a letter to all member nations that cash for the regular budget could run out by July, which could dramatically affect U.N. operations. U.N. officials have said 95% of the overdue payments to the U.N.’s regular budget is from the United States.

The disclosure of the U.S. payment came as Mr. Trump convened the first meeting of the Board of Peace, a new initiative initially meant to oversee the Gaza ceasefire but whose wider ambitions under Mr. Trump many see as an attempt to rival the U.N. Security Council’s role in preventing and ending conflict around the world.

Also Read | UN is waiting to see how much US intends to pay of the nearly $4 billion it owes

Mr. Trump has said the United Nations has not lived up to its potential and has withdrawn the U.S. from U.N. organizations, including the World Health Organization and the cultural agency UNESCO, while pulling funding from dozens of others.

At the Board of Peace meeting Thursday (February 19) in Washington, Mr. Trump was much more positive than he has been in the past about the future of the United Nations, which was established on the ashes of World War II.

He said his administration was going to be working “very closely” with the U.N., adding, “Someday, I won’t be here — the United Nations will be.” Mr. Trump said the Board of Peace “is going to almost be looking over the United Nations,” strengthening it and making sure its facilities are good and it runs properly.

“They need help, and they need help moneywise,” the President said, never mentioning that the U.S. failure to pay its dues is a key reason for the U.N.’s financial crisis.

“We’re going to help them moneywise, and we’re going to make sure the United Nations is viable,” Mr. Trump said. “And I think it’s going to eventually live up to its potential. That will be a big day.” He did not say when any future payments would be made.

Mr. Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said last week that Mr. Guterres has been in touch with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz “for quite some time” and that the U.N.’s controller also has been in touch with U.S. officials about the arrears. The U.N. said 55 countries paid their annual dues for 2026 by the February 8 due date.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday (February 14, 2026) the United Nations had played “virtually no role” in resolving conflicts and called for global institutions to be reformed.

“The United Nations still has tremendous potential to be a tool for good in the world,” he told the Munich Security Conference.

“But we cannot ignore that, today, on the most pressing matters before us, it has no answers and has played virtually no role. It could not solve the war in Gaza.”

U.S. doesn’t know if Russia is ‘serious’ about Ukraine peace: Rubio

The U.S. Secretary of State said that he did not know if Russia was serious about ending its war against Ukraine, as Washington pushes for a swift peace deal.

“We don’t know if the Russians are serious about ending the war,” he told the Conference, with the conflict soon set to enter its fifth year.

U.S. doesn’t want to separate from Europe ‘but revitalise’ alliance: Rubio

Mr. Rubio added that the United States does not want to separate from Europe but to “revitalise” its alliance with the continent.

“We do not seek to separate, but to revitalise an old friendship and renew the greatest civilisation in human history,” he said.

“What we want is a reinvigorated alliance.”

U.S. and Europe ‘belong together’: Rubio

In a keynote speech at the Munich Security Conference, the U.S. Secretary of State said Washington and Europe “belong together”.

“We want Europe to be strong. We believe that Europe must survive,” Mr. Rubio said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday (February 4, 2026) urged the United States and Russia to quickly sign a new nuclear deal, as the existing treaty was set to expire in a “grave moment for international peace and security.”

The New START agreement will end Thursday (February 5, 2026), formally releasing both Moscow and Washington from a raft of restrictions on their nuclear arsenals.

“For the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals of the Russian Federation and the United States of America,” Mr. Guterres said in a statement.

The UN secretary-general added that New START and other arms control treaties had “drastically improved the security of all peoples.”

“This dissolution of decades of achievement could not come at a worse time — the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is the highest in decades,” he said, without giving more details.

Mr. Guterres urged Washington and Moscow “to return to the negotiating table without delay and to agree upon a successor framework.”

Russia and the United States together control more than 80% of the world’s nuclear warheads, but arms agreements have been withering away.

New START, first signed in 2010, limited each side’s nuclear arsenal to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads — a reduction of nearly 30% from the previous limit set in 2002.

It also allowed each side to conduct on-site inspections of the other’s nuclear arsenal, although these were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic and have not resumed since.

Beijing dismissed on Friday (January 23, 2026) concerns from United Nations experts over the scale and severity of allegations of forced labour affecting minority groups in China, calling them “fundamentally groundless”.

UN special rapporteurs and other experts said on Thursday (January 23, 2026) there were “persistent” allegations of State-imposed forced labour affecting ethnic minorities within the far-western Xinjiang region and other parts of China.

When asked about the comments, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said that “slander cannot be tolerated”.

“The so-called concerns of certain experts are entirely fabricated and fundamentally groundless,” spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters at a regular press briefing.

“We urge the experts… [to] perform their duties impartially and objectively and not be reduced to serve as tools and accomplices of anti-China forces,” Guo added.

The UN experts said in a joint statement that forced labour was being enabled through a State-mandated “poverty alleviation through labour transfer” programme, which they said coerces Uyghurs and members of other minority groups into jobs in Xinjiang and other regions.

They also said Tibetans were subject to forced labour through similar schemes, estimating around 650,000 people were affected by labour transfers in 2024.

Beijing has repeatedly and vehemently denied accusations of human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, saying that these initiatives reduce poverty by providing well-paying jobs for low-income rural residents.

UN special rapporteurs are independent experts mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to report their findings. They do not, therefore, speak on the UN’s behalf.

Guo said on Friday (January 23, 2026) that the development and progress in Xinjiang and Tibet are “evident to all”.

Myanmar insisted on Friday (January 16, 2026) that its deadly military campaign against the Rohingya ethnic minority was a legitimate counter-terrorism operation and did not amount to genocide, as it defended itself at the top United Nations court against an allegation of breaching the genocide convention.

Myanmar launched the campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. Security forces were accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of homes as more than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighbouring Bangladesh.

“Myanmar was not obliged to remain idle and allow terrorists to have free reign of northern Rakhine state,” the country’s representative Ko Ko Hlaing told black-robed judges at the International Court of Justice.

Gambia filed genocide case in 2019

African nation Gambia brought a case at the court in 2019 alleging that Myanmar’s military actions amount to a breach of the Genocide Convention that was drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.

Some 1.2 million members of the Rohingya minority are still languishing in chaotic, overcrowded camps in Bangladesh, where armed groups recruit children and girls as young as 12 are forced into prostitution. The sudden and severe foreign aid cuts imposed last year by U.S. President Donald Trump shuttered thousands of the camps’ schools and have caused children to starve to death.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered the Rohingya Muslim minority to be “Bengalis” from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982.

Myanmar denies Gambia claims of genocidal intent’

As hearings opened Monday, Gambian Justice Minister Dawda Jallow said his nation filed the case after the Rohingya “endured decades of appalling persecution, and years of dehumanizing propaganda. This culminated in the savage, genocidal clearance operations’ of 2016 and 2017, which were followed by continued genocidal policies meant to erase their existence in Myanmar.”

Mr. Hlaing disputed the evidence Gambia cited in its case, including the findings of an international fact-finding mission set up by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council.

“Myanmar’s position is that the Gambia has failed to meet its burden of proof,” he said. “This case will be decided on the basis of proven facts, not unsubstantiated allegations. Emotional anguish and blurry factual pictures are not a substitute for rigorous presentation of facts.”

Aung San Suu Kyi represented Myanmar at court in 2019. Now she’s imprisoned

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi represented her country at jurisdiction hearings in the case in 2019, denying that Myanmar armed forces committed genocide and instead casting the mass exodus of Rohingya people from the country she led as an unfortunate result of a battle with insurgents.

The pro-democracy icon is now in prison after being convicted of what her supporters call trumped-up charges after a military takeover of power.

Myanmar contested the court’s jurisdiction, saying Gambia was not directly involved in the conflict and therefore could not initiate a case. Both countries are signatories to the genocide convention, and in 2022, judges rejected the argument, allowing the case to move forward.

Gambia rejects Myanmar’s claims that it was combating terrorism, with Jallow telling judges on Monday that “genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from Myanmar’s pattern of conduct.”

In late 2024, prosecutors at another Hague-based tribunal, the International Criminal Court, requested an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power from Suu Kyi in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the persecution of the Rohingya. The request is still pending.

President Donald Trump has withdrawn the US from over 60 international organisations, including UN bodies and the India-France-led International Solar Alliance, calling the institutions “redundant” and “contrary” to America’s interests.

Trump signed the memorandum on Wednesday titled ‘Withdrawing the United States from International Organisations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States’.

This includes 31 United Nations entities, as well as 35 non-UN organisations “that operate contrary to US national interests, security, economic prosperity, or sovereignty,” according to a White House fact sheet issued Wednesday (January 7, 2026).

Here is a list of all the agencies that the U.S. is exiting, according to the White House:

The United States has become the “real” United Nations and the world body has been of very little help in resolving conflicts around the world, President Donald Trump said as he announced that the fighting between Thailand and Cambodia will stop momentarily.

“I am pleased to announce that the breakout fighting between Thailand and Cambodia will stop momentarily, and they will go back to living in peace, as per our recently agreed to original Treaty,” Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday (December 28, 2025).

Mr. Trump congratulated both the “great leaders on their brilliance in coming to this rapid and very fair conclusion,” saying that it was “fast & decisive” as all of these situations should be.

He said the U.S., as always, was proud to help in bringing the hostilities to an end, as he criticised the UN for its failure in resolving conflicts around the world. He also again claimed credit for ending eight wars in the first eight months of his second term in the White House. 

“With all of the wars and conflicts I have settled and stopped over the last eleven months, eight, perhaps the United States has become the real United Nations, which has been of very little assistance or help in any of them, including the disaster currently going on between Russia and Ukraine,” Mr. Trump said. 

The United Nations must start getting active and involved in world peace, he added.

Mr. Trump is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Palm Beach, Florida, residence on Sunday for talks on a peace plan to end the conflict with Russia.

Mr. Trump has been critical of the UN and its failure to maintain international peace and security, slamming the world organisation as he addressed global leaders during the UN General Assembly high-level session in September this year.

“It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them. And sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them,” Mr. Trump had said from the UNGA podium.

The fighting between Cambodia and Thailand is among the eight wars that Trump has claimed he settled, along with the conflicts between India and Pakistan, Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia and Armenia and Azerbaijan.   

Fighting resumed between Cambodia and Thailand on December 7, with the UN noting that “strikes have increasingly been reported further from the border and into each other’s territories.”

The U.S. on Saturday welcomed the announcement from Cambodia and Thailand on reaching a ceasefire that halts hostilities along their border following the General Border Committee meeting.

Washington urged the two nations to immediately honour this commitment and fully implement the terms of the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords.

The G20 nations hold enormous potential to ease suffering and set the world on a more peaceful course, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said, urging the bloc to lead the action required.

Mr. Guterres made the remarks at a media briefing shortly after arriving in Johannesburg on Friday (November 21, 2025) to participate in the G20 Leaders’ Summit for the next two days.

G20 Summit: Follow LIVE updates on November 21, 2025

“My message to G20 leaders over the next two days is simple. Now is the time for leadership and vision,” Mr. Guterres said as he cited conflicts, climate chaos, economic uncertainty, inequality and a collapse in global aid as causes of inflicting massive suffering around the world.

He added that rising military spending is drawing resources away from development.

“As the world’s largest economies, the G20 nations can hold enormous influence to ease suffering, ensure that economic growth is widely shared, and set our world on a better, more peaceful course for the future,” he said.

Mr. Guterres said that during the Summit, he would call on G20 members to use their leverage to lead the required action needed.

“Developing countries – in particular in Africa – are suffering from a perfect storm of shrinking fiscal space, crushing debt burdens, and a global financial architecture that is failing to support – or even represent – them adequately.

“Today, Africa remains woefully under-represented across global institutions. This must change,” the U.N. chief said.

Mr. Guterres said many decisions at global financial institutions are disproportionately in the hands of some G20 members across the governance bodies of these institutions.

“Africa must have a fair seat in every forum where decisions are made – from the boards of international financial institutions to permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council, and to other global bodies,” he said.

“The G20 can help repair this historic injustice and drive reforms that give developing countries – and Africa in particular – a real voice in shaping global policies, and make global economic governance more inclusive, representative, equitable and effective in the years ahead,” Mr. Guterres proposed.

He urged G20 members to live up to the commitments made in June in the Financing for Development Conference in Sevilla to unlock more finance for developing countries, triple the lending power of multilateral development banks, and increase their role in leveraging more private finance.

Mr. Guterres also made a plea for G20 members to ease debt burdens with new instruments to reduce borrowing costs and risks, and expedite support for countries facing debt distress, drawing on recommendations from the U.N.’s debt expert group.

“Too many developing countries – especially in Africa – find themselves at the bottom of value chains, or locked out of trade opportunities. G20 members can lead the way by dismantling trade barriers and ensuring trade-free access to their markets for the poorest countries,” he said.

Other issues that the Secretary-General said he would raise with the G20 members included inequality that concentrated power and eroded trust in democracy; urgent attention to climate change; and the just transition to renewable energy.

“Corporations are pocketing record profits from climate devastation. And lobbyists continue to greenwash the truth, while developing countries are locked out of a greener future,” he said.

Mr. Guterres said he would also ask G20 members to use their influence and voices to end the conflicts causing death, destruction and destabilisation around the world, including in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sahel, Mali, Ukraine, Gaza, Haiti, Yemen and Myanmar.