16 January 2014 – The United Nations today launched the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, with senior officials urging that the observance be used to redouble efforts to achieve a durable peace between Israel and Palestine. “The coming year will be crucial to achieving the two-State solution,” Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said in his remarks to the UN General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. Mr. Eliasson said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are working hard towards a peaceful, comprehensive settlement of all permanent status issues. That means a settlement that…
Author: UN News
17 January 2014 – United Nations personnel may be among at least 14 civilians killed in a suicide bombing of a restaurant in Kabul, the Afghan capital, tonight for which the Taliban claimed responsibility. Deploring the attack, which killed both Afghans and foreigners, in the “strongest terms,” the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it is seeking to verify the status of all UN personnel and reiterated its condemnation of attacks that deliberately target civilians as gross violations of international humanitarian law. “This violence is unacceptable and must stop immediately,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative and UNAMA head Ján…
17 January 2014 – A United Nations independent human rights expert today urged Government and opposition parties in Cambodia to immediately negotiate an end to the ongoing impasse, saying political reconciliation is the “only way forward” for the country. Wrapping up week-long visit to Cambodia, Surya P. Subedi, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the country, stressed that the ongoing political and social tensions have a direct impact on the enjoyment of human rights by all Cambodians. In statement issued by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), he said that “flexibility on both sides to reach…
17 January 2014 – More than 6,000 child soldiers may now be involved in the conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR), with their numbers growing as fighting pits community against community in clashes that have taken on increasingly sectarian overtones, the United Nations reported today. Recruitment is happening on all sides, with reasons including poverty, despair, desire for revenge, and the general lack of options for children, and there have been many reports of girls being used as sex slaves, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Marixie Mercado told a news briefing in Geneva, stressing her agency’s efforts to free…
17 January 2014 – A United Nations human rights expert today called on the Myanmar Government to investigate reports of fatal clashes between security forces and Muslims in a village in Rakhine state, where over 110,000 people have been uprooted in Buddhist-Muslim violence in the past 18 month. “If deaths and injuries have occurred, the Myanmar Government must, under international law, conduct a prompt, effective and impartial investigation and hold the perpetrators of any human rights violations to account,” UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Tomás Ojea Quintana said in a statement. “Quick and transparent action…
17 January 2014 – With more and more people fleeing the ongoing conflict in South Sudan, the United Nations refugee agency said today it is setting up new camps and expand existing ones in neighbouring Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya to cope with the influx of refugees. Since conflict erupted in the world’s youngest nation in mid-December, more than 86,000 South Sudanese have crossed into neighbouring countries, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “With people still arriving at a rate of around 1,000 a day, we are looking at the prospect of refugee numbers exceeding 100,000 by the…
16 January 2014 – The recovery process in the Philippines has been steady but uneven, the United Nations top relief official said today, urging donors to increase support for the $788 million response plan for Filipinos, who continue to depend on humanitarian support, particularly to rebuild their homes. “Two months after the storm, the scale and spread of humanitarian needs is still daunting,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said in a statement from the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “I am particularly concerned that just 20 per cent of funding has been…
17 January 2014 – Fighting in South Sudan has turned into a horrifying humanitarian and human rights disaster with mass atrocities committed by both sides, a senior United Nations official said today, wrapping up a four-day visit to the strife-torn nation. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonovic told reporters that the month-long conflict has now reached the threshold of an internal armed conflict, causing “untold suffering” for thousands of civilians. “Mass atrocities have been committed by both sides. During my visit, I have received reports of mass killings, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, the widespread destruction…
16 January 2014 – Donors have provided only 6 per cent of the $247 million that the United Nations needs over the next 100 days to ease the “mega-tragedy” in strife-torn Central African Republic (CAR), where nearly 900,000 people have been driven from their homes and now lack the very basics of food, water, medical care and shelter. “We cannot deliver in any way, shape or form, to meet the needs of this population, without the mobilization of the resources that we require,” John Ging, Director of the Operational Division at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs…
16 January 2014 – Mali is at a crossroads, the top United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today, as he urged the international community to continue to actively support ongoing national efforts to steer the West African nation in the right direction and prevent it from relapsing into crisis. “With the progress achieved over the last six months, the window to proceed to the next level is wide open,” the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bert Koenders, told journalists after meeting with the 15-member Council. “The Government and key stakeholders must seize this opportunity to advance…