The International Year of Light and Light-based technologies 2015 (IYL2015) is a global initiative designed to highlight the key role light and optical technologies play in our daily lives and their importance for our future and for the sustainable development of the society we live in.

20 December 2014 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked Human Solidarity Day today by calling for joint action to craft and take forward a new, inlcusive development agenda that eradicates poverty, protects the planet and ensures dignity for all.

Migrants’ remittances are expected to reach US$ 436 billion in 2014 and US$ 540 billion by 2016. Financial education can not only provide useful support to migrants’ families back home but also help migrants in destination countries manage their own budgets.

At its meeting on Friday in Paris, the Committee on Culture expressed concerns about the systematic destruction of cultural heritage during conflicts, particularly those that are ethnically driven. The report by Ismeta Dervoz (Bosnia and Herzegovina, EPP/CD), adopted by the committee, underlines that the destruction of monuments is often an assault on the cultural identity of a population, which aims to prevent communities from returning to places after a conflict and recognising them.

21 November 2014 – Key steps have been taken recently to deliver food vouchers to some 10,000 internally displaced people in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reported today, while underscoring that ensuring access to food in the country’s crisis-gripped eastern region remains a “priority concern.”

4 November 2014 – The United Nations refugee agency today launched a global campaign aimed at ending within a decade the problem of statelessness – a legal limbo for the more than 10 million people worldwide who lack a nationality and the human rights protections that go with it.

VIENNA, 4 November 2014 – The OSCE plays a pivotal role in easing divisions, healing wounds and managing change, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna today, and emphasized the close UN-OSCE partnership in enhancing conflict prevention and resolution.

UN study calls on governments and the social partners to put in place efficient job placement services and training opportunities, and to strengthen linkages between education and training systems and the world of work.

Strasbourg, 27/10/2014 - “All cases of serious human rights violations that have occurred in Crimea since February 2014, including the recent cases of abductions, must be effectively investigated and those responsible held accountable.

VIENNA 7 October 2014. OSCE participating States are responding to threats from extremists by creating laws that include provisions which might seriously limit free expression and free media online and offline.