16 December 2013 – The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has sent attack helicopters and manned foot patrols into the country’s strife-torn North Kivu province after discovering the bodies of 21 civilians brutally slaughtered, including babies, children and women, some mutilated, others raped. Troops from the UN Mission of Stabilization in the DRC (MONUSCO) made the gruesome discovery on Friday and Saturday in Musuku village in the Rwenzori area of Beni sector. The killers have yet to be identified, but unconfirmed reports and villagers interrogated in the area strongly suspect that this could have been…
Author: UN News
16 December 2013 – The Central African Republic (CAR), wracked by conflict that has killed thousands of people and driven more than half a million from their homes over the past year, is now facing a looming food crisis, the United Nations warned today, calling for urgent action to provide crop seeds to farmers. Crop production has decreased sharply after the civil conflict that broke out in the north-east last December spread through the rest of the country and seeds are now in short supply due to looting and because people have had to eat them instead of saving them…
16 December 2013 – Voicing concern over the lack of a national action plan by the Bahamas to address trafficking in persons, an independent United Nations human rights expert called on the Government to ramp up its efforts to fight the ongoing problem. “The Government of the Bahamas has demonstrated willingness to combat trafficking in persons,” said Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, Special Rapporteur on trafficking, at the end of her three-day official visit to the country. She also noted the country’s ratification of some key international conventions and the adoption of a comprehensive law on trafficking in persons in 2008, which…
16 December 2013 – Just over a month since Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines, the United Nations and its partners today agreed on the need to act quickly to help the affected communities rebuild their lives, as well as learn lessons from the international community’s response to the disaster. “While our thoughts and prayers are with the people impacted by this deadly and violent typhoon, words are not enough,” Nestor Osorio, President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), said at the opening of the special meeting held at UN Headquarters. “This is the time to show our solidarity with…
13 December 2013 – Humanitarian and early recovery needs remain great in typhoon-hit Philippines, a senior United Nations official said following a joint international mission to the areas of Guiuan, Ormoc and Tacloban. “We saw the enormity of the destruction that communities in the path of the storm endured. We also saw the great progress that has been made in providing people with food, shelter, and other critical assistance,” said Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Luiza Carvalho. “But the needs remain enormous.” Nearly five weeks after Typhoon Haiyan struck on 8 November, donors got a first-hand look at the response and…
12 December 2013 – The United Nations human rights chief today voiced her disappointment at the re-criminalization of consensual same-sex relationships in India, calling it “a significant step backwards” for the country. In a decision announced yesterday, the Supreme Court upheld a colonial-era law, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which provides for the punishment of those found guilty of “unnatural offences.” “Criminalising private, consensual same-sex sexual conduct violates the rights to privacy and to non-discrimination enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which India has ratified,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.…
11 December 2013 – An independent United Nations human rights expert today welcomed the release of 44 prisoners of conscience in Myanmar, hailing it as an important step towards fulfilling President Thein Sein’s pledge of freedom for all political prisoners by the end of this year. “When I look back to the start of my mandate in 2008, I was referring to figures of over 1,900 persons detained on political grounds. It is important to acknowledge the significance of the progress that has been made: today we are referring to figures of less than 50,” said Tomás Ojea Quintana, the…
11 December 2013 – Voicing strong concern over widespread violence in Bangladesh that has left dozens of people dead since last month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resolve differences over upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for January through dialogue. He spoke with Sheikh Hasina and President Abdul Hamid by phone as a senior UN political official wrapped up a five-day visit to the South Asian country with a warning that the current political crisis is exacting a heavy, human, social and economic toll, seriously threatening the hard-earned economic and social progress that Bangladesh has achieved.…
10 December 2013 – United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today called for an eleventh-hour stay of execution for Abdul Quader Mollah, a Bangladeshi politician convicted of war crimes in a trial that did not meet international standards for imposition of the death penalty. The Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) has written to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh in a last-minute appeal to halt the execution, which was scheduled to take place later today, but has reportedly been postponed until at least Wednesday. Mr. Mollah was condemned to life imprisonment by the Bangladesh International Crimes…
10 December 2013 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed seasoned economist Shamshad Akhtar of Pakistan as the new head of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Ms. Akhtar will succeed Noeleen Heyzer of Singapore, who will continue to serve as Special Adviser of the Secretary General for Timor-Leste. Since 2012, Ms. Akhtar has served as the Secretary-General’s Senior Advisor on Economic Development and Finance and as Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). She has over 30 years of broad experience as an economist with “an impressive track record…