Gender equality is a critical goal at a time when the demand for rights faces a global backlash, top UN officials told thousands of diplomats, business and civil society delegates gathered at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday for the world’s largest annual conference focused on women’s issues.

Children are feared to be among more than 1,000 people reportedly killed in fierce fighting over the weekend in Syria’s coastal northwest, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said.

Ever since former US First Lady and human rights champion Eleanor Roosevelt inspired the first UN sub-commission on the status of women in the 1940s, thousands of women around the world meet at UN Headquarters in New York every March to take the pulse of the planet and make their voices heard.

Attacks across Ukraine on Friday reportedly left 21 civilians dead and scores injured, making it one of the deadliest days this year, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country said in a statement issued on Saturday night. 

The killing of civilians in coastal areas in northwest Syria must cease immediately, the UN rights chief said on Sunday following a series of coordinated attacks reportedly launched by elements of the former government and other local armed men.

Humanitarian agencies warned on Friday that ongoing Israeli military operations in the northern West Bank are exacerbating an already dire situation for displaced Palestinians.