29 October 2014 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today deplored the planned holding by armed rebel groups in eastern Ukraine of their own “elections” on 2 November, calling the potential polls a “breach of the constitution and national law.” “These ‘elections’ will seriously undermine the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum, which need to be urgently implemented in full,” Mr. Ban said in a statement issued by his spokesperson in New York. Reiterating the importance of restoring stability and safeguarding Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Secretary-General through the statement urged all sides to uphold all parts of the Protocol, an…
Author: UN News
8 November 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has applauded the measures adopted by the group of African states working to end the simmering tensions in South sudan and voiced hope that peace could quickly return to the young country, according to a United Nations spokesperson. “The Secretary-General commends the strong stance adopted by the [Intergovernmental Authority on Development] (IGAD) Heads of States on the conflict in South sudan which is in the interest of the people of South Sudan,” read a statement issued by UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric. South Sudan has experienced several bouts of violence over the past few…
7 November 2014 – The United Nations human rights office today voiced deep concern about a recent Dominican Constitutional Court’s ruling that the country’s recognition of the competence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is unconstitutional. “This ruling may jeopardize the capacity of Dominican people to protect their rights, and deny them a system of protection designed to complement the Dominican legal framework and institutions,” said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in a press briefing in Geneva today. Two weeks ago, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the…
7 November 2014 – Two United Nations human rights experts were forced to suspend an integral part of their visit to The Gambia this week when they were denied access to parts of a prison and prevented from completing a torture and killing investigation during the first trip ever to the country by such an independent fact-finding team, according to a press release from the UN rights office. Upon arriving in the West African country under the mandate of the Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteurs Christof Heyns and Juan Méndez were offered a guided tour to parts of the prison,…
6 November 2014 – The United Nations health agency warned today that as the world population aged 60 or older will jump from some 800 million to 2 billion in the next four decades, soaring levels of chronic illness and diminished wellbeing are poised to become a major global public health challenge. “By 2020, for the first time in history, the number of people aged 60 years and older will outnumber children younger than 5 years,” the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said reporting its findings in a series on health and ageing in the medical journal The Lancet. And…
4 November 2014 – Political action on the part of the international community is urgently required to tackle the fundamental issues that would determine the fate and plight of more than 5.1 million Palestinian refugees, the head of the United Nations relief agency tasked with their assistance said today. Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), emphasized that as the 65th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution establishing his agency neared, Palestinian refugees – which amounted to just under one third of the world’s total…
5 November 2014 – The United Nations Security Council this evening voiced alarm and outrage at the eruption of hostilities in South sudan over the past week which left numerous civilians dead and injured and placed increasing pressure on the country’s already overwhelming humanitarian crisis. In a statement to the press issued in New York, the Council “condemned in the strongest terms” a series of clashes between the sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and Opposition forces in South Sudan’s Unity and Upper Nile states between 26 October and 2 November, adding that the deadly fighting had violated cessation of hostilities…
5 November 2014 – The African Union-United Nations hybrid mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has expressed its “deep concern” about allegations circulating in local media over the mass rape of 200 women and girls in a town in the region’s North, declaring that it is conducting a thorough investigation into the veracity of the claims. In a press statement today, the Mission cited reports of the alleged mass rape in the town of Tabit, located 45 kilometres south-west of El Fasher, in North Darfur. A UNAMID verification patrol was immediately dispatched to conduct an investigation but upon reaching the outskirts of…
4 November 2014 – Following a spate of deadly violence at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) today voiced concern about the security situation in the overcrowded settlement, urging a return to calm for all the communities sheltered there. At a press briefing in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson, Adrian Edwards, told reporters that a series of “sporadic disturbances” at Kakuma had already claimed the lives of eight refugees from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South sudan over the past week. According to the agency, the violence began last Tuesday when reports of…
31 October 2014 – The Security Council this evening strongly condemned the kidnapping and murder by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists of “scores” of Sunni tribesmen whose bodies were found in mass graves in Anbar province, and once again urged the world to unite in a “common effort” to defeat the group and “stamp out” the violence and hatred it espouses.In a statement to the press issued in New York, the Council deplored the incident and noted that many of these tribesmen had been combating terrorism alongside the Government of Iraq. News reports suggest that the…