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Month: August 2019

FROM THE FIELD: Malawi farmers diversify to fight climate change

Around 80 per cent of Malawi’s and indeed the world’s agriculture depends on rain, however rainfall is becoming more erratic forcing farmers to change traditional practices.  

A UN Development Programme-supported  (UNDP) project in the southern African country is helping to mitigate variable rainfall patterns through the introduction of new crops and practices, such as tomatoes and beekeeping, and the installation of a solar-powered irrigation system. 

Read more here about how farmers in Malawi are fighting climate change. 

…and here for more information about how UNDP is supporting climate adaptation. 

UN chief appeals to G7 leaders for ‘strong commitment’ and political will to tackle climate emergency

This was the urgent message delivered on Twitter from Biarritz, France, where the UN chief has been meeting for the past two days with G7 leaders to mobilize action ahead of his Climate Action Summit next month in New York.   

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Guterres said the UN Summit – and the need for concrete action – come against the backdrop of a “dramatic climate emergency,” with the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reporting the 2015 to 2019 are on track to be the five hottest years ever recorded, and historically high concentrations of C02 in the atmosphere. 

And with Greenland’s ice melting, and record-setting fires blazing from the Arctic to Alaska and the Amazon, the Secretary-General said, “we are much worse than what we were during Paris,” referring to the 2015 conference in the French capital that give birth to the landmark climate accord aimed at easing global warming and curbing greenhouse gas emissions. 

He said that recent scientific evidence provided by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made clear that “we absolutely need to keep the rise of temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius to the end of the century and to be carbon neutral in 2050 and to have a 45 per cent reduction of emissions by 2030.”   

“And so, it’s absolutely essential that countries commit themselves to increase what was promised in Paris because what was promised [there] is not enough,” said Mr. Guterres, calling for more ambition and more commitment to that end. 

The UN chief said society is mobilizing, as well as the world’s youth, “and we want to have countries coming to New York and being able to commit to be carbon neutral in 2050, being able to increase substantially their ambition in the Nationally Determined Contributions to climate action that have to be reviewed in 2020.”  

Mr. Guterres also stressed the need to make sure that counties are “shifting of taxes from people to carbon,” ending subsidies to fossil fuels, and that more coal power plants are not built after 2020. 

“All this requires a lot of political will, and the G7 was an excellent opportunity to appeal for the very strong engagement of the international community,” said the Secretary-General, adding that: “The youth have been leading the way, and we’ll start the Summit with a youth climate summit in the UN, but we need, especially those countries that belong to the G7, to give a positive example.” 

Sri Lankan authorities must work ‘vigorously’ to ease simmering ethno-religious tensions, urges UN rights expert

“There is a serious deficit of trust among ethno-religious communities in Sri Lanka following the deadly Easter Sunday bomb blasts and subsequent mob violence this year, and these tensions must not be ignored,” Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, said while presenting a report following his 12-day mission to the country.  

Noting that the Government has taken some significant initiatives to strengthen its democracy and rule of law, the expert said that many religious communities remained very concerned about their security because of incitement to hatred and violence by some religious extremists. 

According to Mr. Shaheed, the main challenges to the right to freedom of religion or belief are religious and political violence, lack of accountability, distrust of institutions and resentment against perceived majoritarian privilege. 

“Failure by the State to take action to address incitement to hatred and violence will allow extremism to escalate and pose serious challenges to peacebuilding,” he said, adding that “the ethno-religious tension must not be treated as mere sporadic incidents.”  

He further underscored that women’s experiences of ethno-religious hostility including violence, displacement and stereotyping must also be effectively addressed. 

“I call on the Government and all others to create an enabling environment for the exercise of fundamental freedoms, in the lead-up to elections and not to use ethno-religious tensions for electoral gain,” said Mr. Shaheed.  

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honourary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

Friday’s Daily Brief: Education in Africa, Sudan flash-floods, WHO on Ebola, spike in South Sudan violence, Rwanda, Uganda move to normalize relations

School closures triple in Central and Western Africa as education comes under fire

A surge in “deliberate” attacks against students, teachers and schools in West and Central Africa has led to a tripling in school closures in the last year and left almost two million youngsters “robbed of an education”, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

In a new report detailing threats of violence against schools across the region and issues as a ‘Child Alert’, the UN agency warned that a generation of children risks being denied the right to learn. 

Former Syrian refugee and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Muzoon Almellehan sounded the alarm in Geneva: “Nearly two million children are out of school due to conflict”.

Here’s our full coverage.

Sudan flash-floods leave 54 dead, nearly 200,000 affected

Fifty-four people have died in Sudan because of flash-flooding since last month, and nearly 194,000 people have been affected across the country, humanitarians have said.

Citing an alert from the Sudanese authorities, the UN’s humanitarian coordinating arm, OCHA, reported that 15 out of 18 states have been hit, and more than 37,000 homes destroyed or damaged.

Here’s spokesperson Jens Laerke: “The affected people are in need of emergency shelter, food, health services and clean water and sanitation. There’s also an urgent need for vector control to limit the spread of waterborne diseases by insects, and drainage of stagnant water.”

With the rainy season expected to last until October, and more rainfall forecast, humanitarians are concerned by the high likelihood of more flash-floods.

Of the $1.1 billion required to respond to all aid needs in Sudan this year, only 30 per cent has been provided by donors.

Ebola outbreak spreading but intensity of transmission has fallen: WHO

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) the Ebola virus outbreak continues to prove hard to pin down, but UN health experts remain positive that they can eradicate it.

Speaking in Geneva, Michael Ryan from the World Health Organization (WHO) explained that two of the biggest challenges were daily security risks in the north-east, along with the massive movement of people – all potential carriers of the virus.

“At the peak of this outbreak we were tracking 22,000 contacts every day; tracking 22,000 different people every day in an area where people, hundreds of thousands of people move in the province every day, has been a huge challenge”, said Dr. Ryan.

While the disease has spread in the last two weeks, to Mwenga in South Kivu, he insisted that one of the biggest steps forward was the development of vaccines and therapeutic medicines.

Latest data shows that the outbreak has led to total of 2927 cases of infection and 1961 deaths.

South Sudan: UN rights experts see little headway on peace deal amid spike in local-level violence

A United Nations expert group looking at human rights in South Sudan said on Friday that it is “deeply concerned” that, although the overall armed conflict has waned, there has been little progress in adhering to the peace agreement that guided the country thus far.

“Civilians with whom we spoke still raised numerous concerns that they feel are barriers to sustainable peace,” said Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, reporting from Juba on the panel’s seventh field mission, currently under way through 29 August and which includes South Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

Here’s our story.

UN chief welcomes Memorandum of Understanding between Rwanda and Uganda

Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed on Friday, the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, to normalize bilateral relations between the two countries.

According to a statement, his spokesperson said that Mr. Guterres “encourages the parties to implement the agreement in good faith, with a view to restoring friendly relations and cooperation between the two neighbouring States, in the interest of peace, stability and sustainable development in the region”.

The UN chief also recognized the important role of the Angolan and Democratic Republic of the Congo Presidents João Lourenço and Felix Tshisekedi, respectively, in facilitating the MoU signing.  

“The Secretary-General stands ready to support the momentum generated through this and other initiatives to advance peace, cooperation and integration in the region”, the statement concluded.

Listen to or download our audio News in Brief for 23 August on Soundcloud:

 

South Sudan: UN rights experts see little headway on peace deal amid spike in local-level violence

“Civilians with whom we spoke still raised numerous concerns that they feel are barriers to sustainable peace,” said Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, reporting from Juba on the panel’s seventh field mission, currently under way through 29 August and which includes South Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

The UN Commission on Human Rights in Sudan (from left) Yasmin Sooka, Chair, Andrew Clapham and Barney Afako (2018), by UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan /Twitter screen grab

During their visit, the three Commissioners listened to South Sudanese women, men and children express numerous concerns, including the localization of conflict linked to land, resources, and cattle; and inefficiencies in implementing the Revitalized Peace Agreement, which, signed by the warring parties in September 2018, has been commended as a significant development toward the dawn of peace.

They are also worried about deteriorating living conditions for the internally displaced, security and the continued shrinking space for civic engagement, among many other concerns.

“Despite the numerous challenges we heard, we were encouraged by the fact that committees composed of military and civil actors have been formed to improve civil-military relations and support local justice and reconciliation in Yei River state, where civilians could raise dispute resolutions,” said Commissioner Andrew Clapham.

“Such mechanisms that facilitate communication between armed actors and civilians could be replicated in other locations where violent conflict and violations have been witnessed in the country,” he added.

Little redress for sexual violence

Apprehension over continued impunity for sexual and gender-based violence, which is still at an all-time high, was another major concern – as survivors of sexual violence remained with only limited access for redress.

In Bentiu, the Commission heard testimonies of sexual violence from women who are waiting to share their stories with an accountability mechanism.

“The lack of progress in establishing transitional justice mechanisms, including the Hybrid Court, the commission for truth, reconciliation, and healing and the compensation and reparation authority, which are to be complemented by customary and other community-centred mechanisms, is delaying accountability and reparation for these and other crimes,” said Commission member Barney Afako.

He continued, underscoring that “so long as the voices of victims and survivors are not empowered, and these mechanisms not put in place, it is highly unlikely that South Sudanese women, men, girls, and boys will be able to witness a lasting peace”.

Overcome delays

The lack of progress in establishing transitional justice mechanisms…is delaying accountability and reparation – Commission member Barney Afako

In closing, the Commission stressed the importance of overcoming delays regarding the Revitalized Peace Agreement, and encouraged the positive work being carried out by the National Constitutional Amendment Committee.

The current mission will continue until Monday, after which the Commissioners will separately visit Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya until 29 August.

The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan is an independent body mandated by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to, among other things, determine and report the facts of and clarify responsibility for alleged gross violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes, including sexual and gender-based violence, with a view to ending impunity and providing accountability.

The Commission will present an oral update on the human rights situation in South Sudan to the Council on 16 September and a comprehensive written report in March 2020.

With security improving in DR Congo’s Kasai, thousands of refugees head home from Angola

“More than a thousand refugees have already crossed into DRC and many others are moving towards the border with DRC’s Kasai region,” Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told journalists in Geneva on Friday.

The deadly clashes in the Kasai region between armed groups and DRC forces in 2017 had left some 1.4 million people displaced from their homes, with 37,000 refugees having crossed the border into Angola.

The recovering security situation in Kasai Provinces, together with presidential elections, recent discussions between the visiting DRC officials and refugees, and the upcoming academic year, sparked this week’s spontaneous returns.

“We have placed staff along the return routes to monitor, interview and to intervene with help where necessary,” said Mr. Mahecic, adding that “UNHCR staff are also providing information to refugees.”     

Meanwhile in DRC, the UN refugee agency is working with local authorities to conduct monitoring at the border to evaluate these returns and get first-hand information to meet the humanitarian needs of those arrive back home.

The agency is also participating in tripartite discussions with Angola and DRC to launch a mechanism for voluntary, dignified and sustainable returns.

While noting refugees’ eagerness to return home, UNHCR appealed to both Governments to avoid putting refugees at risk due to an absence of proper planning, transportation and assistance.

School closures triple in Central and Western Africa as education comes under fire

In a new report detailing threats of violence against schools across the region and issues as a ‘Child Alert’, the UN agency warned that a generation of children risks being denied the right to learn. 

“Nearly two million children are out of school due to conflict, so it is not an easy number,” UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Muzoon Almellehan, told journalists in Geneva. “It is important to highlight those challenges, to highlight the struggle of those people. They need us, they need our attention.” 

From Burkina Faso to Nigeria, more than 9,200 schools shut  

Data gathered by UNICEF to June indicates that 9,272 schools have been closed in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Niger and Nigeria as a result of insecurity – three times the number at the end of 2017. 

“Schools are being shut down,” according to UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Charlotte Petri Gornitzka. “Over the past two years, the number of schools that have been shut down has tripled; over 9,000 schools due to the insecurity have been attacked.”  

The UNICEF report notes how spreading insecurity across north-west and south-west Cameroon has left more than 4,400 schools forcibly closed.  

In Burkina Faso, more than 2,000 schools are closed, along with more than 900 in Mali, owing to increasing violence in both countries. 

In the central Sahel region, moreover, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have witnessed a six-fold increase in school closures owing to attacks and threats of violence in just over two years, from 512 in April 2017, to more than 3,000 by June this year.  

School closures in the four countries affected by crisis in the Lake Chad Basin – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria – remained at around 1,000 between the end of 2017 and June 2019. 

Education is crucial when you’ve fled violence – UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador  

Just back from visiting a camp for people displaced by violence in central Mali, Ms. Almellehan insisted in Geneva that for many people, herself included, education was vitally important in giving children hope for a better future. 

“I had to flee my homeland in Syria in 2013 and I also had to live in refugee camps,” she explained. “It wasn’t easy for me and also I can feel like those children who can’t go to school, because education is something really, really important to me, myself.” 

One direct result of children not getting an education is that they are more vulnerable to recruitment by extremists or abuse at their hands such as forced marriage, the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador insisted. 

“When a child is not at a school, especially if the child suffers from a very bad economic situation, when they are in poverty, when they don’t have enough awareness, all of that can affect that child and can lead that child to being exploited easily,” she said. 

On a wider level, the lack of schooling “is casting a foreboding shadow upon children”, their families, their communities and society at large,” UNICEF said in a statement, noting that more than 40 million six to 14-year-olds are already missing out on school in Central and West Africa. 

The agency is working with education authorities and communities to support alternative learning opportunities including community learning centres, radio school programmes, technology for teaching and learning, and faith-based learning initiatives.  

It is also providing tools for teachers who work in dangerous locations, and psychosocial support and care for schoolchildren emotionally scarred by violence. 

$221 million appeal across seven countries only 28 per cent funded 

“Now more than ever, governments must reaffirm their commitment to education and protect spending on education for their youngest citizens,” the UNICEF report insists. “Now is the time for renewed efforts to make sure the potential of a generation of young people is not wasted,” it emphasized, highlighting a funding gap of 72 per cent of the $221 million required for educational programmes across seven countries in the region. 

Myanmar military committed ‘routine, systematic’ sexual violence against ethnic minorities, UN experts find

“Extreme physical violence, the openness in which it is conducted … reflects a widespread culture of tolerance towards humiliation and the deliberate infliction of severe physical and mental pain or suffering on civilians,” the report said.

The Mission painted a picture of the brutal tactic being employed in Kachin and Shan states. It underscored that during the 2017 “clearance operations”, which led to more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, the severity in Rakhine state became an indicating factor of Myanmar military’s genocidal intent to destroy the Rohingya population.

UN independent experts on a fact-finding mission in Myanmar from left: Christopher Sidoti, Radhika Coomaraswamy and Marzuki Darusman, chair. (July 2018), by UNIC Yangon

The Mission concluded that soldiers routinely and systematically employed rape, gang rape and other violent and forced sexual acts against women, girls, boys, men and transgender people in blatant violation of international human rights law.

“The international community must hold the Myanmar military to account for the tremendous pain and suffering it has inflicted on persons of all genders across the country”, said Marzuki Darusman, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission.

The Mission conducted interviews with hundreds of survivors and witnesses of sexual violence in Kachin and Shan states in the north, and in Rakhine state in the west.

Mission expert Radhika Coomaraswamy said the findings also “address a gap that usually surrounds sexual and gender-based reports – cases of sexual violence against men and boys and transgender people.”

“The silence must be broken,” she declared.

On the second anniversary of the beginning of the operations, this report is an important reminder of the continuing need for accountability.

Most assaults reported were directed at women and girls who were beaten, burned with cigarettes, slashed with knives, raped and held as sexual slaves on military bases. The report also documents cases of rape, forced nudity and the sexual torture of men and boys.

“For the first time in such a UN report, we are clearly highlighting violence against transgender people,” said expert Christopher Sidoti. “We spoke to transgender Rohingya women, and found they are victimized twice, because they are Rohingya and because they are transgender.”

The Mission said only one conclusion could be drawn from the accounts it had obtained: sexual violence perpetrated by the military was “part of a deliberate, well-planned strategy to intimidate, terrorize and punish a civilian population.”

The silence must be broken — UN expert Coomaraswamy

The Fact-Finding Mission will present its final report to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2019.

Mr. Darusman was the former Attorney-General of Indonesia, Ms. Coomaraswamy held the UN post of Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict and was also the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Mr. Sidoti served as the former Australian Human Rights Commissioner.

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honourary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

A recap of Thursday’s top stories: International Day honours victims of religious-based violence, UN experts on Kashmir, environmental disasters in Asia-Pacific, animal protections, and UN chief on Burkina Faso

Honouring victims of religious-based violence

In his message for the first-ever International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday recalled that world religions “espouse tolerance and peaceful coexistence in a spirit of shared humanity”.

And yet, over the past few months, there have been an increasing number of religious-based attacks.

“On this Day, we reaffirm our unwavering support for the victims of violence based on religion and belief,” stated the UN chief.

Read more here.

Kashmir communications shutdown must be reversed, say UN experts

End the crackdown on freedom of expression, was the strong call to the Government of India from five United Nations independent rights expert on Thursday.

Since the Indian Government’s 5 August announcement revoking Kashmir’s special status, tighter central Government control has resulted with access to information and peaceful protests quashed.

Here’s our full coverage.

Relentless sequence of disasters in Asia-Pacific

Changing patterns and worsening impacts of natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific, coupled with environmental degradation and climate change, are not only making efforts to predict such catastrophes more difficult, but are also a “sign of things to come”, the United Nations development arm in the region has warned.

Issued on Thursday by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2019 revealed that the annual economic losses due to disasters cost the region nearly $675 billion, about 2.4 per cent its gross domestic product.

Read our story here.

Elephant ivory trade proposal rejected, but better protection for at-risk giraffes

Attempts to overturn a ban on trade in elephant ivory by a handful of African countries have been firmly rejected at an international wildlife meeting of conservationists and Governments in Geneva.

In a vote on Thursday afternoon, Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species – known as CITES – decided against the proposals put forward by Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, by a ratio of about four to one.

More than 50 other proposals are up for discussion, covering 36,000 species of animal and plant life, with 183 signatories to the Convention taking part.

In another vote on Thursday, States accepted greater controls on trade in giraffes, whose dwindling population is at even greater risk than elephants, conservationists warned.

According to CITES experts, there are only “a couple of tens of thousands” of giraffes left, compared with “a couple of hundred thousand” elephants.

Under Convention rules, committee votes can be overturned in next week’s plenary session, although this is unlikely, a CITES spokesperson said, especially when the results are so “lop-sided”.

UN chief condemns Burkina Faso violence

And to Africa now, Secretary-General António Guterres condemned a 19 August attack on the military camp of Koutougou, in Burkina Faso, which official reports say was one of the country’s deadliest attacks this year.

He expressed “deep condolences” to the victims’ families, the people and the Government.

The UN chief further condemned the “ongoing indiscriminate attacks against civilian populations” and called for the authorities to swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice.

Mr. Guterres stated that military actions must be “conducted in accordance with international human rights and international humanitarian law”.

 

Listen to or download our audio News in Brief for 22 August on Soundcloud:

 

Kashmir communications shutdown a ‘collective punishment’ that must be reversed, say UN experts

India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir as its sovereign territory.

Since the Indian Government’s 5 August announcement revoking Kashmir’s special status, tighter central Government control has resulted with access to information and peaceful protests quashed.

Reports have described a near total communications blackout in Jammu and Kashmir since the evening of 4 August, with internet access, mobile phone networks, and cable and Kashmiri television channels cut off.

The experts expressed concern that the measures, imposed after the Indian Parliament revoked the Constitutionally-mandated status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, would exacerbate tensions in the region.

“The shutdown of the internet and telecommunication networks, without justification from the Government, are inconsistent with the fundamental norms of necessity and proportionality,” the experts said in a statement.

“The blackout is a form of collective punishment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, without even a pretext of a precipitating offence.”

The Government has also imposed a curfew across Jammu and Kashmir, with massive numbers of troops brought in to enforce movement and peaceful assembly restrictions, particularly in the Kashmir Valley.

“We remind the Indian authorities that the restrictions imposed by the Indian Government are intrinsically disproportionate, because they preclude considerations of the specific circumstances of each proposed assembly,” the experts stated.

At the same time, information received suggests an increase in the arrest of political figures, journalists, human rights defenders, protesters and others.

The experts expressed deep concern over reports that security forces were conducting night raids on private homes leading to the arrests of young people.

“Such detentions could constitute serious human rights violations,” the experts spelled out. “The allegations must be thoroughly investigated by the authorities, and, if confirmed, those responsible must be held accountable”.

Moreover, they are “gravely concerned” over allegations that “the whereabouts of some of those detained is not known”, heightening the risk of enforced disappearances, “which may proliferate against the backdrop of mass arrests and restricted access to the internet and other communications networks”.

The independent experts also raised the alarm over excessive force against protesters, including the use of live ammunition, which could amount to violations of the right to life.

“India has the responsibility to use the minimum force necessary when policing protests,” the experts concluded. “This means that the use of deadly force is a measure permissible only as last resort and to protect life.”

The UN experts are David Kaye Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression;  Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Bernard Duhaime, Chair-Rapporteur, Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the right to peaceful assembly and association; and Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. 

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honourary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

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