Category: UN Affairs

In line with the accelerated withdrawal process of the UN’s stabilization mission, MINUSMA, the convoy initially left by road on Tuesday for Gao, and suffered two attacks from improvised explosives on the way that caused vehicle damage and minor injuries to two peacekeepers which were treated on site.

Thursday’s incident involved another explosive device leading to much more serious injuries. 

“A mission to evacuate the injured peacekeepers by air has been launched from Gao, and the Permanent Mission of the troop-contributing-country in question has been kept informed throughout”, said Stéphane Dujarric, briefing reporters in New York.

“The convoy, the last to depart the Kidal camp, is making its way towards the MINUSMA base in Gao in extremely challenging security conditions.”

The convoy was forced to depart without any air support due to a lack of flight authorization by the Malian military authorities, which have pressed the UN to wind up the mission by the end of next month, which it is on track to do.

The lack of air cover “has increased the threat to the safety of our peacekeepers as they travel hundreds of kilometers in very unsafe territories”, Mr. Dujarric added.

He said with the exception of the liquidation team, including the rear parties of contingents and its guard unit, the UN is determined to meet its 31 December deadline.

“We continue to look forward to Mali’s full cooperation with this process” he added.

MINUSMA has been in Mali since 2013 when it was established by Security Council mandate to protect civilians and stabilize the restive north and central regions following a failed coup, and a continuing insurgency led by Islamist armed groups. 

‘Possible starvation’ looms in ‘hunger hotspots’: WFP, FAO

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) added Palestine on Wednesday to a list of countries and territories “at greatest risk of a serious deterioration in food security and possible starvation”. 

Burkina Faso, Mali, South Sudan and Sudan are also among the countries of highest concern. 

The UN agencies warned that conflict is a key driver of global hunger and that the trend of increased civilian targeting across different conflicts is expected to continue throughout 2023.

Food insecurity is also being compounded by cuts to food assistance in several hunger hotspots because of a lack of funding, WFP and FAO said.

This has been the case in Afghanistan, where “a shocking 10 million people have been cut off from life‑saving assistance due to a massive funding shortfall”. 

If WFP and humanitarian actors do not receive the funding needed to address the crises at hand, “millions of people could be pushed further into hunger and to the brink of starvation”, said WFP’s Director of Emergencies Kyung-nan Park. 

Ms. Park stressed that the cost of inaction is “catastrophic” for the most vulnerable and called for critical investments to boost resilience “so that communities are better prepared for forthcoming climate, conflict, and economic shocks”.

Sport must be inclusive of LGBT and intersex persons: Rights experts

Countries must respect the right of all to participate in sports and enforce equal treatment of all athletes, especially all women and girls, LGBT and intersex persons. 

That’s the message from UN-appointed independent right experts, who said on Wednesday that “deep inequalities” continue to limit the access of these communities and populations to take part in organised sport.

The experts, who include Alexandra Xanthaki, the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, called bans on trans and intersex women in women’s sports a violation of human rights obligations under the principle of non-discrimination and of their right to privacy.

The experts regretted the recent instrumentalisation of this debate, leading to the adoption of restrictive measures in law and public policy by State institutions and sporting bodies. 

According to the experts, States and sports organisations must remain committed to fairness of competition by considering factors “that may impact participation of persons based on categories protected under international human rights law, including sex characteristics, sexual orientation and gender identity”. 

This includes the requirement to adopt human rights-based approaches in the evaluation of bids for countries that seek to hold major sports events, they said. 

The report published on Tuesday and based on site inspections and witness interviews says that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the missile was launched by Russian armed forces”.

It details the devastating impact of what has been one of the deadliest single incidents for Ukrainian civilians since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. 

OHCHR quoted a resident recounting how her daughter’s friend “could only be identified by her manicure when rescue workers discovered her hand” and stressed that for many others, identification relied on DNA tests of bodily remains. 

The report says that the Russian military “either failed to do everything feasible to verify that the target was a military objective, or deliberately targeted civilians or civilian objects”. 

“Either scenario would be in violation of international humanitarian law,” OHCHR insisted.  

Sudan: ‘lethal’ combination of diseases puts millions at risk: WHO

In war-torn Sudan, cholera, measles, dengue and malaria are circulating in several states and a combination of any of these diseases with malnutrition “can be lethal”.

That’s the message from UN health agency WHO, who said on Tuesday that 1,962 suspected cholera cases have been reported as of last week with 72 associated deaths. More than 3.1 million people are estimated to be at risk of the disease by the end of the year, WHO warned. 

At the same time, the country has over 4,300 suspected measles cases, over 4,000 suspected cases of dengue and over 813,000 malaria cases, while some 4.6 million children, pregnant and nursing mothers are malnourished.

The country’s health system is “stretched to breaking point”, WHO said, with up to four in every five health facilities in conflict hotspots not functioning and limited access to healthcare across the country due to violence, mass displacement and shortages of medicines and medical supplies. 

Meanwhile, health workers “who have done their best to keep facilities running despite personal risk” have not been paid for nearly seven months.

The UN health agency has been supporting the health authorities’ response to the crisis by providing supplies, staff and training to cholera treatment centres, enhancing disease surveillance and helping run measles vaccination campaigns.

Taliban must release women human rights defenders: top rights experts 

In Afghanistan, women human rights defenders Neda Parwan and Zholia Parsi detained by the Taliban for over a month, must be released immediately, UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Tuesday.

The experts, who include Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Richard Bennett, said that they were increasingly concerned about the physical and mental well-being of the two women and their family members, also detained while no reason was provided for the arrests.

They have yet to be charged with a crime or brought before a court and have not been granted access to legal representation.

“The Taliban seem to be continuing to intensify their restrictions on civic space, especially through silencing of the voices of women and girls,” the experts said. 

They underscored the importance of upholding the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association and warned that individuals must not be deprived of their liberty “merely for expressing dissenting views and for exercising their legitimate rights”. 

ICC President Piotr Hofmański was presenting the independent court’s annual report to the UN in New York. The ICC was established in July 2002 under a treaty known as the Rome Statute and is based in The Hague, in the Netherlands.

Mr. Hofmański noted that he himself, along with Prosecutor Karim Khan was on the list, which includes six judges of the court.

‘Unprecedented attack’

“This is an unprecedented attack on the judicial independence at the international level”, he said, noting that in investigation allegations of serious crimes and issuing arrest warrants for the Russian President and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights, the court was acting fully within its mandate.

Mr. Hofmański said he was “very appreciative of the strong support we have received” from States Parties to the court, and others.

“Ukraine has made a declaration under article 12 of the Rome Statute, accepting the ICC’s jurisdiction. Therefore, in accordance with the Statute, the ICC has jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in Ukraine regardless of who the alleged perpetrators are, and what their nationality is.”

Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute and the consent of any country facing allegations of serious crimes is not required, he stressed. Neither is there any immunity from prosecution based on political seniority. 

“The Judges and the Prosecutor of the ICC are simply carrying out their mandate as elected officials of an international court with 123 States Parties. I find it unacceptable that my colleagues and I should be subjected to intimidation for that reason”.

He added he was “gravely concerned by a recent cyber-attack” which took place targeting the court’s information systems.

DR Congo displacement nears 7 million, warns UN migration agency

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the number of internally displaced has reached a record 6.9 million amid escalating conflict, with humanitarian needs soaring, the UN migration agency (IOM) said on Monday.

IOM stressed that the DRC is facing “one of the largest” internal displacement and humanitarian crises in the world and that the most recent escalation of the conflict has “uprooted more people in less time, like rarely seen before”.

Four in every five internally displaced persons live in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Tanganyika. In North Kivu alone, up to one million people have been displaced due to the ongoing conflict with the rebel group M23. 

The UN migration agency said that teams have been actively involved in managing 78 displacement sites hosting over 280,000 people, providing residents with essential supplies, water, sanitation and hygiene assistance as well as psychosocial support. 

The agency aims to support an additional 50,000 people in the next three months but its operations in the DRC remain underfunded by more than 50 per cent. 

UNEP announces 2023 Champions of the Earth

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has unveiled this year’s Champions of the Earth. Honourees include a city mayor, a major non-profit, a social enterprise and a research council for innovative solutions produced to beat plastic pollution. 

Since its inception in 2005 the annual Champions of the Earth award has been given to trailblazers at the forefront of efforts to protect both communities and the planet.

It is the UN’s highest environmental honour. UNEP received a record 2,500 nominations this cycle.

“Plastic pollution is a deeply concerning strand of the triple planetary crisis”, said Executive Director Inger Anderson.

“For the sake of our health and planet, we must end plastic pollution. This will take nothing less than a complete transformation to reduce the amount of plastics produced and eliminate single use plastics”.

She added that reuse systems have to be put in place and alternatives “that avoid the negative environmental and social impacts”.

“As negotiations to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution progress”, she added, “this year’s Champions of the Earth demonstrate that innovative solutions are available that can inspire us to rethink our relationship with plastic.”

The series of deadly earthquakes and possibility of massive involuntary returns, all add up to the need for urgent action to avoid further suffering and potential instability, said Richard Bennett. 

“A grave picture has emerged, providing a glimpse of what may lie ahead for the human rights of many Afghans, particularly women and girls, and also for other groups including human rights defenders, journalists, ethnic and linguistic minorities, LGBTI persons, persons with disabilities, former government officials and military and security personnel,” he added. 

‘Perfect storm’ of challenges 

Presenting his report to the General Assembly, Mr. Bennett urged the international community to provide more aid to the beleaguered Herat region, devastated by the recent quakes.

“There is a culture of impunity for torture and inhumane treatment in detention centres, as well as for human rights violations against former government officials and military personnel, despite promises made to the contrary,” he said.

The Special Rapporteur alerted the General Assembly to the ongoing detention of Afghans exercising their rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression, including human rights defenders.

Rapporteurs and other UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts do not receive any salary for their work, serve in their individual capacity and are independent of any government.

The fact women and children accounted for almost 90 per cent of those killed was in large part due to the restrictions placed on them under Taliban rule, confining them to a life indoors, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

UNDP Resident Representative in Afghanistan, Stephen Rodriques, told UN News more in an interview.

Sudan humanitarian crisis deepens; more than 5.6 million displaced 

Over six months since conflict broke out in Sudan, more than 5.6 million people have fled their homes and 25 million need aid to survive, in what has become “one of the world’s fastest-growing humanitarian crises”.

The UN’s top humanitarian official in the country, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, shared the grim update on Tuesday; she stressed that “the longer this fighting continues, the more devastating its impact”.

More than 4.2 million women and girls are at risk of gender-based violence, Ms. Nkweta-Salami said, and one in every three children has no access to school.

The UN official underscored that since the start of the crisis, the UN and its partners have delivered food to three million people in 17 of Sudan’s 18 states, provided safe drinking water to over two million people and health supplies to three million women and children.

They have also “received and recorded reports of human rights violations and abuses”, she said.

In a call to Sudan’s rival militaries to “stop the fighting”, Ms. Nkweta-Salami urged them to commit to “a durable cessation of hostilities, abide by their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law to protect civilians, and enable safe humanitarian access to those in need”.

Australia: ‘No’ vote on Indigenous Peoples’ recognition a ‘missed opportunity’: Türk

In Australia, the failure of a referendum to enshrine recognition of Indigenous Peoples in the constitution is a “missed opportunity”, UN rights chief Volker Türk said on Tuesday.

Mr. Türk was speaking after Australians decided in a 14 October referendum not to officially recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the country’s Constitution.

Over 60 per cent of Australian voters and a majority in all six states voted ‘No’ to the proposals.

While he deplored the “scaremongering, misinformation and disinformation” in the campaign against the vote, the UN rights chief stressed the importance of the debate within the country on the “exclusion and disadvantage suffered by Indigenous Peoples”.

“Realizing rights to equality, to self-determination and to participation of Indigenous Peoples in decisions that affect them, including through their self-governing bodies, remains central to Australia’s future – and is reinforced by Australia’s international human rights obligations,” Mr. Türk said.

He called on the country’s political leaders to “work to unite rather than divide” the population on this issue and intensify efforts to address the continued exclusion and disadvantage of the First Peoples of Australia. 

That’s the message from the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, who said on Monday that perpetrators are mostly, but not exclusively, partners or ex-partners, and often escape accountability “due to a lack of proper investigation”.

A 2022 report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women showed more than five women or girls are killed every hour by an intimate partner or someone in their own family – that’s some 45,000 per year – and the true scale of the problem is believed to be much higher. 

The independent rights expert called on countries to “take every possible step” to investigate and prosecute femicides and provide effective support, remedies and reparations to victims and their families.

He also stressed that local beliefs, customs, traditions or religions “must not be invoked to limit the rights of women and girls or as a defence against a charge of femicide”. 

Rights experts call on Israeli lawyers to block potential war crimes

UN-appointed independent experts on Monday called on all lawyers advising the Israeli military to refuse legal authorisation for acts that could amount to war crimes in retaliation for the Hamas attacks on Israel.

“We unequivocally condemn the massacres of civilians and hostage-taking by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Israel,” the rights experts said. “Those acts, committed against civilians, were atrocities.”

“Israel has launched a barrage of deadly airstrikes into densely populated civilian areas in the Gaza strip, destroying or damaging homes, hospitals, markets, and UN Reliefs and Works Agency (UNRWA) buildings,” the experts said.

Among the over 5,000 dead – according to Gaza health authorities – and more than 12,000 children are reportedly among the injured.

The experts also noted the tightening of the years-long Israeli blockade on Gaza, cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel supplies.

‘Professional duty’ 

“As Israel responds to Hamas and conducts operations in Gaza, all lawyers advising the military must identify and seek to prevent actions that may amount to war crimes. They have a professional duty to deny legal authorisation for criminal acts,” the experts said. 

“Lawyers must refuse to give legal authorisation for actions that violate international law,” they said.

Special Rapporteurs and other Human Rights Council-appointed independent experts are not UN staff, nor do they receive a salary. They are independent of any government or organisation. 

Northeast Syria ‘world’s largest detention site for children’

“Egregious” child rights violations are taking place in camps and prisons across northeast Syria, where the “vast majority” of those detained are children, a UN-appointed independent expert said on Monday.

Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the UN Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said that in the infamous Al-Hol and Al-Roj camps as well as a number of other detention facilities, “no process of law exists to justify detention” and “torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment is rife”. 

Displacement camps in northeast Syria hold tens of thousands of Syrians, Iraqis and nationals of other countries suspected of links to the terror group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The expert’s latest report documents enforced disappearances, torture, ill-treatment and incommunicado detention at the sites.

The findings include mass arbitrary separation of pre-pubescent and adolescent boys from their mothers in the camps, which the expert considered “particularly harmful”, as well as “rampant starvation and tuberculosis” occurring in Panorama prison, which holds approximately 5,000 men and 700 boys.

Ms. Ní Aoláin said that the “scale, scope and extent of these practices may reach the threshold for crimes against humanity under international law” and warned that it was “morally and legally unacceptable to use ‘terrorism’ to justify egregious breaches of human rights”.