Category: UN Affairs

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”. 

The humanitarian role is what gets a lot of public attention as agreements are secured to arrange for aid to get through to civilians and to protect them, including trying to ensure that international humanitarian law (often called the laws governing war and broadly covered by the Geneva Conventions) are upheld.

© UNOCHA

The Gaza Strip prior to the current escalation.

What we hear less about is the political role as it is often played out away from the public eye. The UN Charter has several provisions that create a framework for mediation and conflict resolution and gives the Secretary-General the option to use his good offices to broker agreements in order to hopefully diminish tensions and lead to the steps that could help avoid war.

The Secretary-General’s role is covered in very broad terms by articles 98 and 99 of the UN Charter while peaceful settlement of disputes are outlined in Chapters VI and VII.

Much of this behind-the-scenes diplomacy never comes to light but it is a critical element to try and defuse crises and often gives rise to speculation about how and whether these powers have been exercised.

Clearly, the UN stands in a unique global position to broker peace. Since its inception in 1945, it has negotiated ceasefires, peace deals, and the establishment humanitarian corridors or other arrangements amid violence, including the Black Sea Initiative to allow for commercial food and fertilizer exports from key Ukrainian ports.

The announcement of the UN Secretary-General’s trip to Egypt on Thursday to meet with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi is the latest of the UN’s intense around-the clock efforts to address the ongoing Gaza-Israel conflict, its rippling violence in neighbouring Lebanon and Syria, and obstacles to delivering lifesaving aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The visit comes on the heels of multiple back-to-back night-time phone calls between the UN chief and key actors, a meeting in the pipeline with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and possible contact with the de facto authorities in Gaza.

Here’s what’s been happening behind the scenes since the conflict erupted on 7 October:

Egypt MFA Spokesperson

Tor Wennesland (centre), UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East, and Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), meet with Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry Selim (right) to discuss the conflict.

Hamas attacks: UN calls for de-escalation

In the hours after armed Hamas militants crossed into Israel, top UN officials reached out to key actors and called on both sides to de-escalate the crisis, show restraint, and protect civilians.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the Jerusalem-based Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, strongly condemned the violence, raising grave concerns about targeting civilians, including the kidnapping of Israelis and airstrikes on Gaza. Other top UN officials and agency heads have been echoing those positions, adding their on-the-ground perspectives.

“Contacts with the Palestinian Authority are also going on on the ground,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York last week. “Contacts with the de facto authorities have to happen because they are the de facto authorities in Gaza. For us, this is not an issue of conditionality. All these things need to happen.”

UN Photo/Evan Schneider

The Middle East Quartet comprises the UN, European Union, Russia, and the United States. (file)

Engaging all sides

Reaching out directly to the parties and key players, Mr. Wennesland was in close contact with some members of the Middle East Quartet. Comprising the European Union, Russia, United States, and the UN, the group was set up in 2002 to drive forward the peace process, with a view to realizing a two-State solution that would see Israel and Palestine existing side by side in peace.

The “priority now is to avoid further loss of civilian life and deliver much needed humanitarian aid to the [Gaza] Strip,” Mr. Wennesland said in a social media post. The “UN remains actively engaged to advance these efforts”.

The Special Coordinator had been engaging parties in the region and key players long before the current situation erupted and provides monthly updates to the UN Security Council. On 27 September, he warned the Council of escalating violence amid Israeli settlement expansion and rising tensions.

Shortly after the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October, he reached out again to the parties as well as neighbouring Egypt and Lebanon.

UN Photo/Loey Felipe

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland (on screen), briefs the UN Security Council meeting in August. (file)

Brokering humanitarian corridors

In addition to the UN chief’s visit to Egypt, various avenues are being pursued in a bid to open a humanitarian corridor, or a safe space, to get life-saving aid into Gaza.

Last week, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) met with the President of Egypt.

In addition, Mr. Wennesland and the Commissioner-General of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, sat down with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry Selim in a “productive meeting”, the UN Special Coordinator said.

With a view to de-escalating the violence, Mr. Wennesland has also been “in close contact” with officials in the European Union (EU), Qatar, and the United States.

© UNDOF

UNDOF units patrol Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights in the Israel-Syria border area year-round.

10,000 UN peacekeepers at work

The UN maintains no peacekeeping troops in Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but its more than 10,000 peacekeepers along Israel’s border regions intensified their work when rocket and artillery fire was reported in the vicinity this week.

Like all UN peacekeeping missions, the operations in Lebanon, UNIFIL, and Syria, UNDOF, are UN Security Council-mandated. Both missions are tasked with monitoring the respective ceasefire agreements among Israel and its two neighbours, from patrolling along the so-called Blue Line to monitoring such areas as Mount Hermon in the disputed Golan Heights.

As violence escalates along the Israel-Lebanon border, UNIFIL has been in constant contact with both nations.

Mandated to ensure stability in its area of operations and to protect civilians, UNIFIL personnel have the right to self-defence and may resort to the proportionate and gradual use of force under certain circumstances.

That includes ensuring its area of operations is not used for hostile activities; to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent UNIFIL from discharging its mandated duties; to protect UN personnel, facilities, installations, and equipment; to ensure the security and freedom of movement of UN personnel and humanitarian workers; and to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

The UN Security Council meets on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

UN Member States’ efforts

Meanwhile, UN Member States have taken collective steps to address the escalating situation. Following the UN Security Council’s 8 October closed-door emergency meeting, the 15-member organ considered a draft resolution this week and continues to discuss the urgent matter.

The Council has the power to call on countries to negotiate peace, and can even authorize the use of force, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, in certain perilous situations.

Should the Council fail to act in its mandated role of maintaining international peace and security, the UN General Assembly, representing all 193 Member States, can call an emergency special session, as it did in 2022, six days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN Secretary-General António Guterres briefs reporters on 11 October 2023 on recent developments in Israel and Gaza.

Peace broker: UN Secretary-General

Playing a key role in rallying the global community to resolve conflicts, the UN Secretary-General, the world’s top diplomat, and his envoys engage in shuttle diplomacy, meeting with parties to conflict, or bringing them together, to negotiate immediate or longer-term solutions, including ceasefires and access to vulnerable populations.

During crises, the UN chief with the support of the Political and Peacebuilding Affairs department, provides leadership and direction to UN agencies operating on the ground with a view to ensuring a swift, effective response.

He and his envoys also regularly inform the public about the latest developments in live press briefings or statements issued online.

“The Secretary-General will speak to whoever he needs to speak to,” the UN Spokesperson said, noting that the UN chief had, over the last week, a plethora of conversations, including with the ambassadors of Israel and of the five permanent Security Council members (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States), and officials in Qatar.

That also included issuing an emergency appeal to Israel to halt its order for 1.1 million Gazans to evacuate south.

“The Secretary-General has not stopped working on this,” the UN Spokesperson said. “We urge all parties and those with influence over them to put an end to this tragedy.”

Marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Mr. Guterres pointed out that nearly 700 million people are living on less than $2.15 per day and over a billion don’t have access to basic needs like food, water, health care and education.

Billions more lack sanitation and access to energy, jobs, housing and social safety nets, he added. 

Distress is being deepened by conflicts, the climate crisis, discrimination and exclusion – particularly against women and girls, the UN chief said. 

According to Mr. Guterres, an outdated and unfair global financial system will lead to almost 500 million people living in extreme poverty in 2030, which he stressed was simply unacceptable.

”Ending poverty is the challenge of our time. But it is a challenge we can win,” he said.

‘Situation dire’ in Afghanistan’s West after earthquake terror

The UN humanitarian aid coordination office OCHA, has launched a multi-sectoral Earthquake Response Plan in response to the series of powerful earthquakes that have rocked Afghanistan’s Herat Province since 7 October.

In an update, OCHA reported that at least 1,480 people have been killed and 1,950 wounded.

Satellite imagery indicates that 289 villages have been severely impacted with many destroyed. The most recent earthquake on Sunday affected an estimated 30 new villages, forcing families to live in makeshift shelters or informal settlements. with more, here’s Katherine Carey, deputy head for OCHA in Kabul.

“In reality, people clearly reside in tents for several weeks before they do require some more sustainable form of shelter or transitional shelter to give them better protection so really right now obviously the priority is to ensure people aren’t living out in the open and they have some form of protection and even if it is minimal.”

To date, nearly 66,000 people across six districts have been directly affected by the quakes. 

Health services

World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said that the immediate focus now is to save the lives of the injured and to ensure survivors have access to humanitarian relief, including essential health services.

“Women, children and vulnerable populations are gravely affected by the disaster,” he said, adding that female health workers in the country continue to attend to patients, with no discrimination. 

Mr. Jasarevic confirmed that the UN health agency has provided enough supplies to treat 650 injured patients at Herat Regional Hospital.

An additional 25 metric tonnes of medicines and medical supplies have also been sent to Herat, while 54 mobile health teams, including three by WHO, have been deployed in the affected areas.

He warned that displacement caused by the disaster poses a significant health risk, including increasing the transmission of infectious diseases, such as measles, acute respiratory infections and acute watery diarrhoea.

Nearly 4,000 killed and civilian property destroyed during raging Darfur conflict

Conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region has had a devastating toll on civilians, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday.

An alert from UN refugee agency UNHCR, reported that almost 4,000 lives have been lost and 8,400 individuals injured since fighting erupted six months ago.

Testimonies have also been gathered on severe human rights violations against innocent civilians, including refugees and internally displaced people since the conflict began in mid-April.

Speaking in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson Eujin Byun said they believed that many of the casualties were targeted primarily because of their ethnicity, particularly in West Darfur.

Displaced children have also found themselves caught in the crossfire, with schools damaged or destroyed by shelling, Ms. Byun added, before warning that those who have managed to reach safety are grappling with acute psychological distress.

Indiscriminate shootings

According to the UNHCR spokesperson, civilian property has also suffered greatly, with at least 29 cities, towns and villages in Darfur being looted, burned, or destroyed.

Indiscriminate shootings and heavy shelling in camps and gathering sites have also resulted in hundreds of casualties.

Children are also without access to education and safe spaces, increasing their vulnerability to various dangers, including sexual violence, psychological trauma, and family separation.

Ms. Byun called on all parties involved in the conflict to prioritize the protection of civilians, including refugees and internally displaced people, and to facilitate the safe delivery of humanitarian aid. 

That’s according to Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown, who led a convoy at the weekend carrying aid for around 1,000 civilians to Chasiv Yar, just six kilometres from the frontline in the Donetsk region.

The UN aid coordination office OCHA warned on Monday that civilians are facing “daily attacks” along frontline areas in the east and south.

“In recent days, homes, schools, healthcare facilities, port infrastructure and aid distribution points have all been hit”, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, briefing reporters in New York.

No water for a year

Civilians told Ms. Brown they had been cut off from water, electricity and gas for more than a year. Most homes and civilian buildings and roads have been damaged. Around 90 per cent of the population has fled.

“This year, we have organized more than 90 inter-agency convoys to frontline communities in northern, eastern and southern Ukraine, with one-third delivering aid to the Donetsk region”, said Mr. Dujarric.

The UN and partners have reached more than 8.3 million people in Ukraine with humanitarian assistance so far this year alone. 

Peacekeepers in Mali begin withdrawing from restive Kidal region

UN peacekeepers from the Mali mission MINUSMA announced on Monday that they have begun withdrawing from the northern camps in the Kidal region, as security conditions worsen.

More than 300 ‘blue helmets’ have lost their lives during the decade-long civilian protection mission, which is due to fully drawdown by the end of this year, at the request of Mali’s military authorities.

Extremist violence and rampant insecurity have been constant, made worse by major political unrest which has seen several coups in the past three years. Violence has only increased in the past few weeks across the centre and north of the country.

Exit ‘as soon as possible’ 

The UN Spokesperson said that MINUSMA was “doing everything it can” to complete the withdrawal process “as soon as possible, in the midst of the rapidly deteriorating security situation and also increased risk to the lives of hundreds of peacekeepers.”

Mr. Dujarric acknowledged that “this is becoming increasingly difficult” and said personnel from the Mission were forced to seek shelter in bunkers due to an exchange of fire in Tessalit earlier on Monday.  

“All parties, including the Government and including the signatory armed movements, have an obligation to ensure the secure, safe, and unimpeded withdrawal of the Mission personnel and equipment.”

He reminded reporters of a statement at the weekend outlining the increasing likelihood that the MINUSMA will be forced to leave “without being able to repatriate equipment belonging to Troop-Contributing Countries and the UN.”  

The Mission is now intensifying engagement with the Malian authorities to convey its concerns and underscore their responsibilities as the host nation for the safety and security of peacekeepers. 

Top humanitarian official in Chad calls for urgent support

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, Violette Kakyomya, warned on Monday that the country is facing multiples humanitarian crises, issuing an urgent call for support.  

The conflict in Sudan between rival militaries which has now raged for six months, has had a strong impact on Chad, with nearly 490,000 Sudanese refugees – mostly women and children – having crossed the border into the eastern part of the country to seek safety.

In total, there are one million refugees are living in Chad. 

The conflict in Sudan is also affecting Chad’s food supply chain, with prices of basic commodities more than doubling since the outbreak of the conflict, the UN Spokesperson told correspondents in New York. 

Chad is also vulnerable to climate change. Last year, the heaviest rains since the 1960s triggered a major crisis, impacting 1.4 million people and destroying 350,000 hectares of valuable farmland.

Ms. Kakyoma underlined the extreme generosity of the people in Chad who continue to welcome refugees and call for support to ensure seven million Chadians – out of a population of 18 million – receive humanitarian assistance this year.