22 November 2013 – The United Nations-backed International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea today ordered that Russia release the Greenpeace ship and its crew that it seized in September following a protest over oil drilling off its coast, once the Netherlands posts a bond of 3.6 million euros. The Arctic Sunrise – an icebreaker operated by the environmental group and which flies the flag of the Netherlands – was boarded by Russian officials on 19 September, brought to the port of Murmansk Oblast and detained. Last month, the Netherlands instituted arbitral proceedings against Russia under the UN Convention…
Author: UN News
21 November 2013 – Saying they themselves had received threats, United Nations human rights experts today called on the Government of the Netherlands to facilitate the growing national debate on whether the portrayal of a servant in an age-old Christmas parade perpetuates a negative stereotype of Africans and people of African descent. A person representing Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) enters Dutch towns every 6 December accompanied by Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), his servant, in a tradition that goes back hundreds of years. “We have received complaints from individuals and civil society organizations in the Netherlands who consider that…
19 November 2013 – The United Nations pledged full cooperation today with the European Union (EU) in tackling the “critical and broadly more challenging phase” confronting Kosovo after the “essential step forward” achieved through municipal elections earlier this month. The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has been assisting the EU-led political process in implementing the 19 April Agreement on Principles Governing the Normalization of Relations between Pristina and Belgrade, which included the Kosovo-wide poll in both the ethnic Albanian-majority south and the ethnic Serb-majority north. “In particular, the mission is making this support available to the newly elected…
16 December 2013 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has deplored the shooting on Sunday of an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldier by a Lebanese soldier, and called for calm. The shooting occurred in the vicinity of the so-called Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon at Naqoura, according to a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson. “The Israel Defence Forces and the Lebanese Armed Forces are cooperating with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to ascertain the facts,” the spokesperson stated. “The Secretary-General reminds the Lebanese Armed Forces of their responsibilities under Security Council resolution 1701 and strongly urges both…
13 December 2013 – Syrians continue to fall victim to a callous indifference towards human life and disregard for safety, exemplified by the increasing trend of abductions and enforced disappearances, the United Nations human rights chief warned today. “In just the past few months, we have seen a significant and deeply alarming rise in abductions of human rights defenders, activists, journalists, religious figures and others by armed opposition groups, as well as the continuing arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances of individuals by Government forces in Syria,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a news release. “I urge…
13 December 2013 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on the international community to hold accountable those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria, following the findings of a United Nations team that such weapons were used on several occasions at multiple sites against both civilians and military targets. “The international community has a moral and political responsibility to hold accountable those responsible, to deter future incidents and to ensure that chemical weapons can never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare,” he told the General Assembly as he presented to it the final report of the team led…
12 December 2013 – The United Nations and its humanitarian partners are ramping up efforts to assist more than 800,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon who are facing the onslaught of cold weather, rains and snowfall as a massive winter storm named “Alexa” moves across the region. The storm struck Lebanon Tuesday night, bringing snow to higher areas and torrential rain elsewhere, accompanied by high winds. Conditions are similarly grim according to reports from neighbouring Syria and Turkey. With the support of the Lebanese Armed Forces, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and partners were able to speed up the…
12 December 2013 – The United Nations team probing the use of chemical weapons in Syria, which in September found “clear and convincing evidence” of Sarin gas attacks against civilians, including children, in the Damascus area, today reported “credible information” that such weapons were used against soldiers and civilians in other parts of the country. “The United Nations Mission collected credible information that corroborates the allegations that chemical weapons were used in Khan Al Asal on 19 March 2013 against soldiers and civilians,” according to the final report, which team leader Dr. Åke Sellström handed over to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon…
11 December 2013 – A senior United Nations humanitarian official today voiced concern as Israeli demolitions in the Jordan Valley resulted in the displacement of 41 people, including 24 children, some of whom were uprooted for the second time this month. “I am concerned about the destruction of Palestinian structures in the Jordan Valley yesterday, resulting in the forced eviction, displacement and dispossession of vulnerable Palestinians. Such actions cause human suffering. They also run counter to international law,” said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, James W. Rawley. Both refugee and non-refugee families were affected by the…
10 December 2013 – As the Syrian crisis passes the tragic 1,000-day mark, the United Nations refugee agency is working hard to meet the “immense needs” of desperate communities there, including across lines in conflict zones and in neighbouring countries, while also bracing for what meteorologists predict could be the region’s harshest winter in a century. “This winter is forecast to be one of the harshest in 100 years, meteorologists are saying, and so UNHCR had started its winter programme earlier this year,” Amin Awad, the Syria Refugee Response Coordinator for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a…