UN Gazeti
Wednesday 14 March 2007
Issue No. 212
UN Observances
UN IN KENYA
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY - NAIROBI
The UN Country Team in Kenya held a successful commemoration of International Women's Day at the Norfolk Hotel on 7th March 2007. The Programme, entitled UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict attracted over 130 people. The initiative involved 10 UN agencies: DPKO, OCHA, OHCHR, UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNIFEM, WFP, and WHO. In Nairobi, UNIC was responsible for the press and preparing and organizing the event's Programme.
The event was opened by Ms. Elisabeth Lwanga, the UN Resident Coordinator who read the SG's Message. UNICEF's Regional Goodwill Ambassador, Zola (an actor and musician from South Africa) , Ms. Njoki Ndungu, 2006 UN in Kenya Person of the Year and Member of Parliament and Ms. Kaari Betty Murungi, Director of Urgent Action Fund made brief but riveting remarks from the podium on the issue of sexual violence in conflict.
The speeches were punctuated by a musical performance on violence and assault in camps by a group of refugees called Refugee Voices of Hope. The assembled guests then witnessed the launch of IRIN's photo essay book "The Shame of War" (and an accompanying slide show) by Dennis McNamara, Special Adviser to the UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, and Director of the Inter-Agency Division on Displacement in OCHA.
For more information, email Nasser.Ega-Musa@unon.org
UN IN AFRICA
SECURITY COUNCIL STRESSES NEED FOR DIALOGUE IN SOMALIA
Deploring the recent wave of deadly violence in Somalia, especially in the capital, Mogadishu, Security Council members underlined the need for the political process in the war-torn country to be as representative and inclusive as possible.
In a press statement read out by Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa, which holds this month’s rotating Council presidency, the 15-member panel also voiced concern at the deteriorating humanitarian situation inside Somalia.
They expressed particular concern also at attacks against African Union (AU) stabilization forces inside Somalia and at leaders of the country’s Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN ENVOY ON CHILDREN IN CONFLICT HAILS PROGRESS IN BURUNDI
The Central African State of Burundi has made progress in protecting children from the ravages of armed conflict, but more still needs to be done, especially to improve detention facilities for minors charged with belonging to armed groups, the top United Nations envoy on children and armed conflict said yesterday.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, made her remarks during a press conference in the Burundian capital Bujumbura, at the end of her visit to the impoverished and strife-torn country.
“The general situation of human rights has significantly improved in Burundi. The measures already taken by the Government to address the recommendations of the Security Council are also very encouraging,” she said, referring in particular to Council resolution 1612 that calls on Member States to protect children from armed conflict.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SUDAN SHOULD ASSIST IN DEPLOYMENT OF DARFUR FORCE SAYS UN
Sudan’s Government should fully cooperate with the immediate deployment of a United Nations-African Union (AU) hybrid force for Darfur and end the targeting of civilians, while all armed rebel movements must also strictly observe human rights laws, the UN Human Rights Council’s high-level mission to the region said in its report published on 12th March.
Despite failing to get into Darfur because of visa restrictions, the mission met hundreds of relevant people and reviewed thousands of pages of documents relating to the human rights situation in the troubled region during its month of work from 5 February to 5 March in Geneva, Addis Ababa, N’Djamena, Abeche and the refugee camps of Eastern Chad.
“The situation is characterized by gross and systematic violations of human rights and grave breaches of international humanitarian law. War crimes and crimes against humanity continue across the region,” the mission said in its 35-page report to the Human Rights Council, which begun its fourth session in Geneva on Monday 12th March.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
ZIMBABWE: SG CONDEMNS REPORTED POLICE BEATINGS
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday 12th March urged the Government of Zimbabwe to release opposition leaders being held by police, and condemned the reported beatings they suffered while in custody.
A spokesperson for Mr. Ban issued a statement voicing concern about Sunday’s detention of opposition leaders following the break-up of a public meeting by riot police.
Condemning the reported beating of those leaders in police custody, spokesperson Michele Montas said such “actions violate the basic democratic right of citizens to engage in peaceful assembly.”
She urged the Government of Zimbabwe to release the detainees and guarantee their safety, while calling on the authorities to “allow peaceful assembly and to provide a space for the exercise of legitimate political rights.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UGANDA: SG HAILS POSSIBLE RE-START OF TALKS
Stressing the need to end the suffering in conflict-torn Northern Uganda, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday welcomed the latest pledges by the parties to hold their fire and voiced hope that formal peace negotiations will soon resume.
The Secretary-General’s Envoy for areas affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Joaquim Chissano, chaired a meeting in Ri-Kwangba, Southern Sudan on Sunday 11th March, with the main parties and participants to the “Juba Peace Initiative,” a process named for the southern Sudanese town which has played host to talks on the issue.
Reacting to the latest diplomatic moves, a spokesman for Mr. Ban said he is “is pleased that all parties in attendance, including LRA leader Joseph Kony, reiterated their commitment to peace and stated their readiness to extend the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement to which they are currently bound.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG SEEKS SUPPORT FOR IVORIAN PEACE ACCORD
Following the signing of a peace agreement between the rival leaders in Côte d’Ivoire, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on the international community to be ready to provide key help in such fields as disarmament, security sector reform and preparations for elections in the divided West African country.
“The United Nations stands ready, and continues to prepare and assist Ivorian parties in implementing rapidly and in a comprehensive manner the many key tasks related to those processes,” he adds in his latest report on the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI).
“The support of the international community for the political process should be complemented by commensurate efforts to address the humanitarian situation in the country,” he writes, urging donors to contribute generously to the 2007 UN appeal for Côte d’Ivoire.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
‘TIMELY CONCLUSION’ OF KOSOVO’S FUTURE REQUIRED SAYS UN REPORT
As Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian-led Government and Serbia remain at an impasse on the future of the Albanian-majority Serbian province, a “timely conclusion” to the process to determine its final status is necessary, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Security Council released yesterday.
“After almost eight years of United Nations interim administration, Kosovo and its people need clarity on their future,” Mr. Ban said in his report on the UN Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK), and other developments spanning the period between last November and 19 February.
Finding a “sustainable solution” for Kosovo’s future which is “stable and in which all communities can coexist in peace” is also key, he added, decrying the use of violence by extremist groups.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN MISSION IN GEORGIA ASSISTS FACT-FINDING TEAM
A fact-finding team involving the United Nations has begun looking into reports of a weekend attack on a Georgian Government position in the Upper Kodori valley in the north-west of the country, the region where Government and Abkhaz separatists fought a war 13 years ago that forced nearly 300,000 refugees to flee.
Members of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) are working alongside representatives from the Government and Abkhaz sides, as well as with those from the Commonwealth of Independent States peacekeeping force, a UN spokesperson told reporters yesterday.
Michele Montas said the joint team had already gone to the Upper Kodori Valley, adding that the UN was taking the reports of Sunday’s attack with “utmost seriousness.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN REFUGEE CHIEF URGES MORE INTERNATIONAL AID FOR COLOMBIANS
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres has called for more international cooperation to help hundreds of thousands of Colombian refugees in Ecuador who have fled more than 40 years of fighting between the Colombian Government, leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and criminal gangs.
Mr. Guterres, on a week-long visit to Ecuador and Colombia, the country with the largest population of concern to UNHCR with some 3 million people uprooted by the conflict, met on Monday 12th March with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa in the capital, Quito, and was visiting a refugee shelter and border communities in the north to discuss the challenges they face yesterday.
Thanking the Ecuadorean people for their exceptional generosity, he said the international community had an obligation to help Ecuador, which is home to the largest refugee population in the region, fulfill its international responsibilities
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNDP SUSPENDS OPERATIONS IN KOREA
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has suspended its operations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and will withdraw all but two of its international staff by the end of this week over the failure to implement conditions set up following reports that UN funds improperly went to the Government.
“It became clear in our exchanges with the Korean Government that there was a desire to re-open issues that we considered non-negotiable and in that circumstance we had no choice,” UNDP spokesman David Morrison told a news briefing at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday 12th March of the conditions which included ending all hard currency payments and discontinuing sub-contracting of national staff via government recruitment as of 1 March.
The conditions, adopted by UNDP’s Executive Board in January, also included adjusting the content of current Programmes to support sustainable human development goals.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNICEF WELCOMES MOLDOVAN LAW ON COMBATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
With more than a quarter of Moldova’s women over 15 years of age having experienced domestic violence, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed parliament’s decision to adopt a law aimed at preventing and combating the problem, along with setting up rehabilitation centres and providing other support services for the victims.
“Violence can never be justified. It must be eradicated. Education makes the difference,” said UNICEF Representative Ray V. Torres. Domestic violence has consequences for children and for society as a whole and in Moldova it is one of the root causes of child abandonment, institutionalization, substance abuse and juvenile delinquency.
In Moldova, 27 per cent of women over 15 years of age have experienced violence in the home at least once, according to the 2005 Demographic and Health Survey carried out by the Government with support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), UNICEF and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNHCR URGES GREECE TO LET 16 TURKISH STOWAWAYS DISEMBARK
The United Nations refugee agency yesterday called on the Greek authorities to allow the urgent disembarkation and grant access to the asylum system for 16 stowaways, apparently from Turkey, found nearly a week ago on a cargo ship docked in the port of Piraeus, near Athens.
“This group should have access to the asylum procedure in Greece and not be turned away as this could result in a direct or indirect refoulement – return to a country where they claim to feel threatened,” UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told a news briefing in Geneva. “We are also concerned that there are five minors amongst this group and two people with serious health problems.”
The stowaways apparently boarded the Antigua-flagged ‘RITA’ cargo vessel in Turkey. It arrived in Piraeus on 7 March. UNHCR and the Greek Refugee Council had access to the stowaways on Friday and most expressed their wish to claim asylum. Those claims were delivered on Monday 12th March to the relevant Greek authorities but as yet there has been no response.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN RIGHTS EXPERT URGES IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ITALIAN JOURNALIST
A United Nations human rights expert issued a strong appeal on Monday 12th March for the release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo and his aides, who are reportedly being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“Mr. Mastrogiacomo, who works for the daily ‘La Repubblica,’ is a distinguished journalist known for his reports from different areas torn by fighting, in which he has chronicled the tragedy of war, its root causes and dire consequences with impartiality, compassion and a great sense of professional responsibility,” said Ambeyi Ligabo, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, in a statement.
“I call for the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Mastrogiacomo and his aides, as well as the release of all media professionals unlawfully detained around the world,” he said.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
For more information on the United Nations and its activities, please visit the main U.N website at www.un.org or the U.N Kenya website at www.un-kenya.org
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