9 May 2014 – The United Nations human rights office today voiced concern at renewed violence in Venezuela, and at the reported excessive use of force by the authorities in response to protests. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Venezuelan troops rounded up more than 200 youth movement protesters who had been camping peacefully outside the UN Development Programme (UNDP) offices in Caracas and other parts of the city on Wednesday night and early Thursday. Rupert Colville, OHCHR spokesperson in Geneva, told reporters that a total of 243 people were arrested, according to official…
Author: UN News
8 May 2014 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has congratulated the people and Government of South Africa on the peaceful holding of parliamentary and provincial elections, amid reports of high voter turnout. “He applauds the determination of South Africans to participate meaningfully in the democratic system the country has fought so hard to establish, starting with the first multi-racial elections 20 years ago,” Mr. Ban said in a statement issued by his spokesperson in New York. Following yesterday’s vote, the statement pledges the continuing commitment of the United Nations to supporting South Africa in its efforts to advance justice…
8 May 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced his deep concern at the fate of the recently kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria during a phone call with the country’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, who has accepted the United Nations chief’s offer to send a high-level envoy to discuss how the world body can support the Government tackle internal challenges. During the call, Mr. Ban expressed his solidarity with the people of Nigeria, and especially the girls’ families, according to information provided by the Secretary-General’s spokesperson. The President briefed the Secretary-General on the current state of the search for the 230 girls,…
7 May 2014 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s top envoy on children and armed conflict expressed deep concern about the fate of the 230 girls violently abducted from their school in in mid-April by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria’s crisis-riven Borno State, and deplored the group’s reported abduction yesterday of several more girls. “I am appalled by these attacks and I am in solidarity with the victims and their families in this tragedy. I strongly condemn the statement by video of the supposed leader of Boko Haram, which claimed that the abducted girls be sold, possibly for forced marriages,…
7 May 2014 – The United Nations independent expert tasked by the Human Rights Council to look into conditions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) today ended his visit to Kenya with a call for a more rigorous and equitable approach to solving the IDP situation in that East African country. “Causes of internal displacement are many and recurrent, and solutions must be pursued more rigorously for all IDPs in an equal manner,” said Chaloka Beyani, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs since November 2010, pointing at post-election violence, inter-communal clashes, evictions or natural disasters as major causes…
7 May 2014 – Having just met with displaced, war-weary South Sudanese sheltering in United Nations compounds, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged immediate help to end hunger and malnutrition around the world, warning that up to a million people could be at risk of famine in a matter of months. “In South Sudan, I saw a country on the brink of a food security calamity,” Mr. Ban told the Rome-based Committee on World Food Security, whose members include the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). “UN…
6 May 2014 – Waves of South Sudanese women and children are fleeing across the Ethiopian border, with more than 11,000 people crossing in the past 72 hours, the United Nations refugee agency today said confirming that UN agencies and humanitarian partners are rushing food and medical supplies to the site. The sharp influx comes after Government forces captured the rebel stronghold of Nasir over the weekend crossing the Raro River, which marks the border between the countries. “Many more people are on their way,” spokesperson Adrian Edwards said quoting what the refugees, all ethnic Nuers, had told staff from…
6 May 2014 – The Government of Eritrea needs to put an immediate end to the widespread practices of arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and persecution, says an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to look into the situation in the country. “I urge the Eritrean authorities to immediately release, or charge and bring before a court of law, all detainees, including the members of the ‘G-15’, the journalists arrested in 2001, as well as those arrested for their opinions or religious beliefs,” said Sheila B. Keetharuth, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea. Ms.…
5 May 2014 – The United Nations Security Council strongly condemned today’s deadly terrorist attack in Sana’a, as well as other recent terrorist attacks in Yemen, and stressed its support for President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi and his Government to combat terrorism. The members of the Security Council expressed their deep sympathy and condolences to the family of the one person killed in today’s attack – a French citizen – and extended their sympathies to those injured, as well as to the Governments of Yemen and France. In today’s statement, the body’s 15 members reaffirmed that terrorism “is criminal and…
5 May 2014 – Gunfire stopped distribution of food today in a besieged Palestinian refugee camp, a United Nations spokesperson confirmed today, reiterating demands that the UN agency assisting Palestinian refugees be allowed to safely and without interruption distribute substantial quantities of food and other humanitarian assistance inside Yarmouk. Spokesman Chris Gunness said the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) distributed food parcels to only 162 civilian families today. “The UNRWA team arrived at the Bateekhah northern entrance to Yarmouk at 10:00 and was permitted to commence distribution inside Yarmouk at 12:00,” Mr.…
2 May 2014 – The suffering of United States inmate Clayton Lockett during his execution in Oklahoma on 29 April could amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment according to international human rights law, the United Nations said today, calling on the US authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty. The prolonged death of Mr. Lockett – who reportedly died of a heart attack after an execution that went wrong – is the second case of apparent extreme suffering caused by malfunctioning lethal injections reported in 2014 in the US, according to the Office…
1 May 2014 – Significant gains in the fight against the cholera epidemic in Haiti have been recorded as the dry season ends and the United Nations continues to support the Government’s comprehensive strategy of monitoring, rapid response and planning for long-term solutions, a top UN official in the impoverished country says. “Since the beginning of the dry season, we have seen registered the lowest number of cases and deaths since the start of the epidemic, with a reduction of 75 per cent of cases in the first trimester of this year against the same period last year,” Peter de…
2 May 2014 – Mayi-Mayi rebels attacked United Nations peacekeepers in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where the Mission is on alert monitoring and the situation, it was announced today. “We can confirm the attack and that Mayi-Mayi Janvier is part of the APCLS [Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo],” a UN spokesperson confirmed to journalists in New York. In addition, the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) confirmed that the ACPLS attacked DRC Government positions at the commercial district of Birere in the city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu.…
2 May 2014 – Senior United Nations officials today reported a drastic deterioration in the human rights situation in South Sudan, marked by increasing ethnic violence and revenge killings, and urged the Security Council not to simply stand by as the world’s youngest nation plunges deeper into crisis. “If the parties do not clearly demonstrate their will and intention to end the violence and attacks against civilians, including incitement to commit violence, I believe the Council should consider taking additional measures against the parties to prevent the situation from deteriorating further,” said Adama Dieng, the Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on the…
2 May 2014 – As the unprecedented crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) continues to deepen, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has accelerated its operations – distributing 60 per cent more food in April than in March. “This is the highest figure so far this year,” WFP spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told reporters in Geneva today She said that as of 29 April, almost 200,000 people had received food assistance – including 24,700 children who were given special nutrients. A targeted supplementary feeding supported 3,000 malnourished children aged six months to five years and 2,500 children hospitalized in…
2 May 2014 – United Nations agencies are calling on the parties to the conflict in South sudan to provide safe access to enable humanitarian assistance to reach vulnerable people, including 125,000 Sudanese refugees in Maban County, in Upper Nile state. “There is still time to deliver stocks of food by road, with massive economies of scale, if safe access is guaranteed,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in a joint news release. “Without access by road, costly air operations will become the only recourse for providing urgently needed humanitarian assistance,”…
2 May 2014 – The United Nations human rights chief today condemned the crackdown on journalists in Ethiopia and the increasing restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression in the Horn of Africa nation. The comments by High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay follow the recent arrest and detention of six members of the blogging collective Zone Nine and three journalists in the capital, Addis Ababa. “I am deeply concerned by this recent wave of arrests and the increasing climate of intimidation against journalists and bloggers prevailing in Ethiopia,” she stated in a news release. The nine people arrested…
1 May 2014 – United Nations peacekeepers in South sudan reported today that opposition forces are occupying Lich University, located in the central part of the country, and that said harassment and detention of UN staff was preventing the Mission from carrying out its activities. The UN Mission in South sudan (UNMISS) “has raised this issue with opposition authorities, reminding them that the use of educational institutions for military purposes is a violation of international humanitarian law,” a UN spokesperson confirmed to journalists in New York. He added that peacekeepers also continued to report violations to the UN status of…
1 May 2014 – With rival Christian and Muslim militias stoking inter-communal violence and spreading fear throughout the Central African Republic (CAR), a senior United Nations relief official today urged the international community to uphold its pledges – and responsibility – to provide the security and resources to ease the crisis and prevent the country from splitting along religious lines.Just back from Boda, a town located in the southern part CAR, John Ging, Operations Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that while the situation in the country is “deteriorating at an alarming rate,”…
1 May 2014 – Recent fighting in parts of South Kordofan and Blue Nile states has displaced or affected an estimated 16,500 people, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which today detailed the aid response being offered to them through the UN and its partners. The figure, confirmed today at UN Headquarters in New York, came from the Sudanese Government and is based on statistics gathered over the past two weeks. In response to the additional needs, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners have already distributed one-month emergency food rations…