5 February 2014 – Calling the role of women in decision-making vital for Afghanistan’s future, the top United Nations official there said today the level of their participation in Presidential and Provincial Council elections on 5 April will be “a key measure of success” of the polls. “Participation as candidates, electoral workers, observers, and voters is a key democratic right of all women,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Ján Kubiš told a national conference on women and elections in Kabul, the capital. “For Afghanistan, your participation in the civic life and decision-making of the nation strengthens its representative institutions and…
Author: UN News
6 February 2014 – United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson and former South African President Thabo Mbeki today stressed the need for global efforts to address the problem of illicit financial flows from Africa, which have crippled the continent’s development over the last few decades. It is estimated that Africa loses over $50 billion a year in illicit financial flows, far exceeding the amount of official development assistance the continent receives. Addressing the opening session of the High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, held at UN Headquarters, Mr. Eliasson said the $50 billion in losses is a “staggering”…
6 February 2014 – The United Nations and the African Union (AU) affirmed their common commitment “to put an end to history’s oldest and least condemned crime” by signing landmark agreement on the prevention of and response to conflict-related sexual violence in Africa, a senior UN official today said. “All good forces must work together to combat the horrible scourge of sexual violence in war and conflict,” said the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Bangura, who co-signed the document with Ambassador Smaïl Chergui, of Algeria, Commissioner for Peace and Security of the African Union. The agreement focuses…
5 February 2014 – Up to 7 million people in strife-torn South Sudan, nearly two thirds of the total population, are at risk of some level of food insecurity, with 3.7 million already facing acute or emergency levels, the United Nations warned today, painting a much grimmer picture of a major nutrition crisis than just three weeks ago. “Markets have collapsed, infrastructure is damaged, foreign traders have fled, commodity supply corridors have been disrupted by violence, and rural populations are unable to bring their crops, livestock and fish to market for sale,” UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative Sue…
5 February 2014 – Senior United Nations officials today welcomed parliamentary approval of an amnesty law covering acts of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) dating back to mid-2000 as “the next step in bringing sustainable peace.” Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to the Great Lakes, Mary Robinson and the team of Envoys dealing with the region – referred to as the “E-Team” – comprised of Martin Kobler, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the DRC, as well as United States Special Envoy Russ Feingold, African Union Special Representative, Boubacar Diarra and the European Union Senior Coordinator Koen Vervaeke, welcomed…
6 February 2014 – The United Nations today welcomed a long-sought accord to let in convoys with life-saving supplies for 500 Syrian families trapped by war in the Old City of Homs without any aid for two years, but voiced growing concern at the slow pace in ridding the country of chemical weapons, calling for swifter action. But even with deadlines being pushed back several times in carrying out the agreement brokered by russia and the United States under which Syria renounced its chemical weapons material and joined the 1992 Convention banning them, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced hope that the…
6 February 2014 – Government and opposition forces in Syria are committing war crimes by using civilian suffering, such as blocking access to food, water and health services, as a method of war, United Nations experts said today, highlighting the “most critical” situation of a quarter of a million people under siege. “As reports are piling up of indiscriminate shelling of civilians, enforced disappearances and executions, another horror of the war in Syria is becoming apparent: the deprivation of basic necessities of life and the denial of humanitarian relief as a method of war,” they warned, calling on all sides…
5 February 2014 – The number of people displaced by the civil war inside Syria is expected to nearly double from some 3.5 million today to 6.5 million by the end of the year, a senior United Nations official said today. Nearly 2.5 million others have already sought refuge in neighbouring countries, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Regional Coordinator for Syria, Amin Awad, told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York, noting that the total funding sought for both refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) for 2014 totals $6.5 billion, $2.4 billion for the former and $4.2 billion…
5 February 2014 – The Syrian Government moved the majority of content from its 34 national museums into safe havens, a senior United Nations official today said, warning that the nearly three-year conflict has nevertheless dealt a major blow to the country’s vast and varied cultural heritage. “The damages to museums is less important than it would have been otherwise because of this preventive action, which of course we praise and consider very, very important,” said Francesco Bandarin, Assistant Director-General for Culture at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Briefing journalists in New York, Mr. Bandarin said the…
5 February 2014 – The United Nations envoy to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, strongly condemned the attack on the country’s foreign ministry today which killed and injured a number of people. “Baghdad today regretfully suffered a series of terrorist attacks. Those who orchestrate such attacks should be condemned by all political, religious and civic leaders in this country,” Mr. Mladenov, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), said in a news release. Mr. Mladenov extended his deepest condolences to the families of those killed, to the Government of Iraq, to Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar…