UN News Today 05 March 2026 |

UN rights chief warns global inequality is deepening

The UN human rights chief has warned that the world’s economic system is failing billions of people and putting development goals at risk.

Speaking on Thursday, Volker Türk said more than half of the world’s workers earn a living in the informal economy, often without basic protections like paid sick leave or maternity leave. 

This includes nearly 60 per cent of working women.

He said deep inequality is worsening the situation. Over the past two decades, the richest one per cent captured 41 per cent of all new wealth, while the poorest half of humanity received just one per cent.

“The consequences are devastating,” he warned, linking poverty and lack of social protection to exploitation and human trafficking.

With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development slipping off track, Mr.  Türk urged major reforms – from restructuring global debt and expanding social protection, to measuring progress by people’s wellbeing, not just economic growth.

Obesity is ‘one of the greatest health problems of our time,’ says Tedros

Meanwhile, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, said that today more than ever there are tools to address obesity, including GLP-1 therapies.

GLP-1’s work by boosting insulin, slowing digestion, and reducing appetite, leading to significant blood sugar control and weight loss.

As GLP-1s continue to attract interest from countries to integrate them into obesity care, the WHO is committed to supporting them and providing guidelines

Medication alone will not reverse obesity; it must be part of a comprehensive approach that includes healthy diets, regular physical activity, and support from health professionals.

Many countries are taking action, from taxing sugary drinks to integrating obesity care into primary health care systems.

The WHO calls on countries to scale up the use of all tools to prevent and treat obesity at all ages.

Through the WHO Acceleration Plan to Stop Obesity, they are supporting 34 countries, representing 1.3 billion people, to reduce obesity prevalence across all age groups by 5 per cent by 2030.

Domicide on the increase as conflicts proliferate, warns top rights expert

The mass destruction of homes because of conflict around the world has continued to cause massive destitution – and AI has made it far worse. 

That’s the worrying message from the Special Rapporteur on housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, who’s been speaking at the Human Rights Council at UN Geneva.

On the unfolding war in the Middle East, the UN Human Rights Council-appointed independent expert highlighted reports indicating that AI had been used to hit more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 to 48 hours in Iran:

“I really think that I hope that the Iran crisis stops gathering momentum, that steps are taken to bring it to a full stop as soon as possible, and that parties return to the negotiating table to sort out whatever differences that they have instead of trying to bomb each other and destroy everything that they’ve taken decades to build.”

In his last report to the Council in Geneva, Mr. Rajagopal describes the widespread or systematic destruction of housing in Gaza, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere as “domicide”.

Following his country visit to Guatemala in July 2025, the Special Rapporteur also highlighted the “widespread practice of forced evictions and the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples and peasant communities” there.

He maintained that many evictions were driven by judicial orders following criminal complaints filed by private developers, with little protection from the authorities for those losing their homes or land. 

Edouard De Bray, UN News